What are words for?

Poop, top and laellee (really) all words that we need to get ahead in life.

Climbing to the Top!

Renee now insists on taking the stairs.

She does this with no assistance from me. Well, I do lift the gate for her. Notice that our lower gate is an ironing board. Nice.

Brighton and Eating

For Shannon's Birthday we went to Brighton,

we enjoyed a walk on the pier,

and a visit to the Pavilion.


















Renee loved the beach.

Now for the eating.

Isn't she the best eater? I just set the broccoli and fish sticks in front of her and she does the rest.

Ahhh the life of Mr Mom with Renee as my charge.

Happy Birthday (re-cap)

We had beautiful warm weather for Renee's first birthday, and we had a great day. We had a little party with most of our guests attending via webcam. Renee enjoyed her presents and cake and the attention. After I put her to bed that night I unexpectedly burst into tears, probably for all sorts of reasons: memories of what was happening last year at this time, struggles with breastfeeding and lack of sleep, generally being scared and also overjoyed, and being lovingly tended and cared for by my mom (she took care of all of us for 6 weeks!! cooking, shopping, making my birthday cake. By the time she left Renee was only getting up one time in the night rather than two or more and I had been getting more sleep than most new moms). One year feels like such a milestone and its exciting, and also a little bitter-sweet, to think about how much and how quickly this little baby has grown.

waking up on the morning of her first birthday.

her first birthday present just after waking up.



later, we had cake and more presents.

ooo, fire

she got the hang of present opening very quickly : )

a sweet, soft bunny. i want one for myself

this cuddle made it all worth it 1000 x over (the clothespin keeps her dress up so she can crawl)

amazing! a photo where we are all smiling at the same time.

end of a yera

somebody is turning 1 year old tomorrow.
i can't believe it.
Happy Birthday Renee.
We love you.

and the duck goes QUACK!

fun in the sun

Renée LOOOOOVES to be outside, loves loves loves it. Thank goodness we finally got some sunshine!

a hitch

a modern long distance relationship
not so flattering a photo but cute anyway.

So the photo a day exercise went a bit wonky while I was in Boston, mostly because I FORGOT MY CAMERA all the time! I could have gotten photos of ghouls and gravestones in Boston (really cool photos) but NO, I forgot the camera. I could have gotten a photo of my mom and I going out at a super fancy restaurant, BUT NO, I forgot the camera. I did take a couple of not very good photos while there and I am trying to be more disciplined about taking the camera with me places. It has a belt loop on the camera case but I can't bring myself to be quite so dorky as to wear the camera on my belt, although that may be my punishment if I keep forgetting to bring the camera places. So, here are a few photos, not as many photos as days, but some interesting ones nonetheless.

BIG BABY little baby