screechie monster

Someone has stolen my baby and put a screechie monster in her place. These days Renee's favorite things are screeching and sucking her thumb. The sucking her thumb part is endearing and sweet, the screeching thing is...hopefully, a quickly passing phase. It's difficult for me to understand her as the screeching is usually just her playing although it also sounds very close to a cry, complaint or demand. We took Renee to a barbecue where there were other toddlers running around and she must have learned the screeching there because it started the next day and hasn't stopped. I like to think that it's her way of singing. I still prefer the cute cooing baby noises she used to make but she much prefers the screeching.

cute thumb sucking

scary screeching

bank holiday weekend

We have a long weekend this weekend and we've been lucky enough to have beautiful weather as well. So we have been getting out of the HOUSE!!! Renee has been staying up late. Mind you, late for her is 8pm but it's wild & crazy stuff for us. I have even felt guilty about it ?!? With all this time on our hands we've been able to play a bit more so here are a couple of videos of the poor, tortured baby.

Oh, and now that she's found her fingers she can't keep them out of her mouth : )

Oh, and the baby didn't wake me up last night but Charles did crying out "BEGONIAS" really loudly in his sleep. Then he said, "begonias, begonias, begonias, begonias" quietly a few times, rolled over and was quiet. I don't think he even knows what a begonia is.

little mohican

any relation?

No. We do not style her hair. It just does this on its own. People comment on her hair whenever we go out which isn't often because her perfectionist mommy doesn't want to mess up little Renee's routine. This little mohican has started rolling over again. She stopped for a long time. It must be hard to keep up your strength when you keep putting on weight. She rolled over this morning from her tummy to her back. If you don't have babies, and even if you do, this may seem boring but this is big, exciting stuff for us. Remember, we don't get out much, this is what we do: wake baby, feed baby, baby talk, change baby, play with baby, put baby to sleep: repeat. repeat. repeat. I never knew it could be so much fun. Must be the hormones messing with my head but...me want more babies.

Charles informed me that when he was a boy he thought that women became pregnant as they matured; like an apple grows on an apple tree. He thought that when a woman started to 'ripen' she then found a husband since she would need some help with a baby. Fortunately, that's not the way it works. Can you imagine? Its amazing the stories kids will concoct to to help themselves understand the mysteries of the world.

He also told me that when he was a boy they had a woman that helped out with the cooking in their house. But, she had a swollen belly, said she was ill or something and so Charles refused to eat anything she cooked. Apparently his mom would try to pretend that she cooked the food so he would eat it but she wasn't fooling him--oh no. He wasn't taking any chances. I guess his thought process went something like this: food goes in your belly, that lady's belly is freakishly swollen, if I eat the food she makes my belly will end up like that too, so no way. At the time, it didn't occur to anyone that the lady cook might be pregnant. It wasn't until years later he worked this out for himself. Maybe this is why he's so weird, I mean cute.

The Joys of Opposable Thumbs

august 17, 2007

Renee has found her hands. I am not sure what she's doing with her legs though. She sometimes does that when she's trying to go to sleep as well. She's growing up so fast. Soon she'll be eating food, wow! That should make for some good videos. I read somewhere that if an adult person weighing 150lbs gained as much weight as a baby does at the end of one year that adult would be 450lbs! Bring on the mac n cheese baby.

Mommy-shan is thinking about getting back to work so blogging and knitting will probably slow down a bit unless Daddy picks it up, kinda doubt it.

big time bath

I asked Renee to perform something special for all of you but I am afraid this is all she's up to these days which is just fine with me. A bit of cute jabbering in the bath. Enjoy!

too cool for school

need i say more?

running for president

A sling, a train, two taxis, another train, a bus, some oaths and $300 later Renee is a documented US citizen. I wanted to take a picture of her on her journey to becoming documented but the rules about visiting the embassy are very, very strict as you can imagine. You are not allowed to bring mobile phones so we thought we might be risking it bring a camera. During this process, we had to state Renee's eye color, hair color and 'height'. This is so funny to me as these 'facts' about Renee will change so quickly. Hopefully, they don't hold her to having blue eyes, brown hair and being 22 inches tall.

Apparently, Renee's citizenship was transferred to her by us, by being born to Charles and I, and we just had to register her birth. We did learn, however, that there is some debate as to whether children born on foreign soil are eligible to run for president. So, dear Renee, I hope you dream about other things then being President of the United States since your parents may have goofed that up for you. I, personally, would not wish for her to become President as it doesn't seem like a very nice life and I don't think I want to be the mommy of the President, it would be too hard and, well, yucky. That's my professional opinion on that: being president = yucky life. Its not necessarily anything specific about being president that makes it yucky. Any job that brings fame, notoriety and such intense scrutiny would be yucky, to say the least. Putting it that way then, dear Renee, your parents may have spared you the path to supreme yuckiness. Happy U.S. citizen day! By the way, she is now nearly 14lbs! What a big girl!

We love you,

mom & dad

Renee--looking Presidential and giving her first speech: "blah, blah, blah, blah blah."
Sounds presidential enough to me. She has my vote.

baby Charles and baby Shannon