Erika's words: "rainer"

We were playing make-believe yesterday with her miniature toy horses, and they were all hiding under a table (their stable), when she said "Rainer has to go outside and check to see if it's still raining."

I thought that was the horse's name.

No, a "rainer" is a noun for someone who is in charge of determining whether it's raining or not.

Amelia is two months old

Amelia turned two months old on May 22, 2014.
She tracks objects very well from right to left, and left to right, across her peripheral vision.
She spontaneously smiles, as well as smiles in response to a smile.
She coos and makes a lot of verbal noises like "ah-oo" and "mmm".
She has a beautiful laugh.
She can hold her head steady in an upright position, and as you can see from photo below, she's got great neck control and can lift her head up 90 degrees.
She has not figured out rolling over yet.



Her two-month appointment is set late, this upcoming Friday, so I don't have official stats yet, but by our rough home estimates, she is about 24 inches and 15 lbs, which puts her above the 99th percentile. We'll see on Friday how big they say she is. In the meantime, check out Amelia's amazing shrinking horse! :)

May Photo A Day 2014 - Day 23, 25, and 26

Ah, I had a good momentum going, but then on Day 22 I missed "Free", and on Day 24 I missed "Sunrise". Okay, technically I'm up every morning at sunrise, but it's because a little 2-month old needs to nurse, so I'm not going to grab a camera, go outside, and snap a photo of the sunrise. Not when I need to nurse her while she's still sleepy so she falls back asleep. (If I wait too long, she wakes fully and then it'll be an hour before she sleeps! That's not so fun at 5 AM)

Day 23 - Black and White

This is my grand piano, a gift from my mother-in-law when I was 25 years old.  As I was driving home and listening to a particularly exciting NY Yankees game, I came rushing in the door to tell Brian the news, I think I burst through the front door, shouting "you wont believe the home run that----" and then the words left me, because there in the living room, was a grand piano. What a surprise!!

I started formal piano lessons when I was four years old. I had nine years of formal lessons until I was 15 years old, and during my final year of formal lessons, I had three separate classes (a "regular" piano class, a music theory, and a music composition class) and I think as a 15-year old, spent close to 10 hours a week at the piano. I can't say I loved it at the time, but I look back appreciatively at how my mother pushed me to keep up my classes. She said I could quit when I reached high school, and I did, and it's a big regret of mine.

Day 25 - Neighbourhood

This is the street that we live on. Again, see the beautiful old mature trees? Love, love, love!
So much shade, so quiet, so peaceful.

Day 26 - Pet

Taking a photo of Kade, our 10-year old Border Collie, would've been too easy. He follows me (or really, Erika) everywhere, and so I thought I'd showcase another pet we have. This is Erika's 6-inch green anole lizard named Shrek. She purchased him November 2012 and he lives on a diet of live crickets. He lost his tank partner, a long-tailed lizard named Flip-Flop in August 2013, which made Erika incredibly sad. Erika has also requested a turtle, a tarantula, and a snake as pets, but I've said "not right now" (but really mean NO).