Stella's Baby Doll

I brought home a baby doll for Stella yesterday.

It occurred to me as I was packing up my office to move

that Stella didn't have any dolls.

She has some stuffed animals, but not a baby doll.

And I happened to have this

Cabbage Patch Doll sitting in my office.

Perfect for a little girl I know.

A friend gave me this doll about 6 years ago.

I've had it at my office sitting on a file cabinet

collecting dust.

But not anymore.

Today the doll finds a friend.

Stella wasn't sure what to think.

But she sure was chatting the doll up.

She was really interested in it.

Stella and her dolly

You can't really see it in this picture,

but the doll's name on the birth certificate is

Nola Lucy.

Looks like Stella loves her Nola Lucy.

To be honest, I'm not sure who is enjoying this more

Stella or Mommy.

Looks like they will be great friends.

"Oh hi Mom, this is my friend Nola Lucy."

"I like to hold her hair like this, and she doesn't mind."

"We have lots of fun together."

"I really love her red shoes."

"I want to give her hugs."

"And kisses."

"I help her roll over too."

"We're going to be great friends."

Happy Father's Day

What's that you say-

Father's Day was 2 days ago.

Yeah, I know.

But I still mean it.

I meant to post this on Sunday and just didn't get to it

what with all of the Father's Day hoopla going on.

Yes, there's a lot of hoopla involved with a taco picnic

and a couch nap.

We had a nice relaxing Father's Day

and Jim got to spend the day enjoying

lots of Father's Day recognition.

His kind of day!

Hope all of the other Dads got to do the same.

Summertime, and the Living is Easy

Well, the living is easy if you're this girl.

Even on the patio, there are plenty of

"Stella toys" to keep her busy.

Probably because we spend so much time outside.

She really enjoys water day at her daycare.

Last week they even went to the sprayground.

We decided to give water play a shot at our house as well.

Looks like she loves her little splash pool that we got for her.

And the bath buddies double as pool toys.

Let's be honest- they also play the role of teethers.

Just like they always say-

Kids are more interested in the box (or basket, as is the case here)

than the actual toys.

Babies in swim suits sure do look cute!

Phone Photo Dump Day

It's Wednesday

and you know what Wednesdays are good for?

That's right,

Phone Photo Dump

Enjoy!

Fun with Cheerios

Enjoying some breakfast.

No Mom, I'm not tired.

Why would you think that?

Cole and his pal Abe.

Another fun surprise in our flower beds!

(The next day it was gone- apparently the local wildlife is aware of this treat too!)

Stella loves Lucy, and Lucy loves Stella too.

Now we just need for Stella to learn how to pet and not grab.

Flower Power

Maybe one of our favorite things about our new house

is the park-like setting of our backyard.

The old owners obviously put a lot of time

and effort into the flower beds.

Discovering all of the treasures that they planted

has been very fun for us.

We decided to just let things grow this year and see

what we have.

Well, we have peonies!

I was trying to get some cute pics of Stella with the big blooms

but she really just wanted to eat them.

Why Yes, I Am Teething. Why Do You Ask?

You probably can't tell by looking at this face

that Stella has new teeth coming in.

Overall, she's a pretty laid back and happy baby

so even when the teeth are bothering her

we can always get a smile.

But whenever she gets a chance

everything goes into her mouth.

She kind of attacks her toys.

Bath toys are her favorites.

I suppose the hard plastic does the trick.

Poor seahorse

But "ahh, it feels so good."

Nice!

And a starfish

Oh, and a blue whale

Those bath toys never even saw it coming.

Fun Video Friday

Well, we're in the middle of painting our family room

before our new carpet comes on Monday.

So today is a fun video Friday

because that's all the time I've got.

Have a great weekend!

The Park & Swings

One thing that we really miss about our old house is

the proximity to a park.

We used to have a playground right down the street.

It was so nice to head down there for a little swing time.

We hadn't spent a lot of time searching our new 'hood

for a park.

But after mentioning it to Cole this weekend

he knew of a park that he had passed

when he was doing marathon training.

Saturday was a nice day

so off we went to the park.

It was clear that Stella had missed the swings.

She really liked them.

She spent about 30 minutes swinging

with this awesome smile on her face almost the whole time.

The park was about a mile from our house

so it was a nice walk

and Mom got a little exercise too :)

It seemed that she could have spent forever swinging.

Cole enjoyed a little swing action as well.

And a little flying.

I can remember doing that as a kid too.

Now it almost makes my heart stop when he jumps off.

The result of 30 minutes of swinging is a tired girl on the walk home.

Maybe we need to talk Daddy into putting up a swing in our yard.