happy 11 months!

Li-Li, the latest nickname. Lia is crawling, finally!!! She is pulling up on anything and everything and having a hard time wanting to sleep lately because there is more pulling up to be done, including in the crib!! She is creeping along furniture everywhere, pulling up, and you can see her debating if she can branch out without holding on. She also likes to sit and walk her feet so that she spins in a circle- quite funny to watch but almost impossible to catch on camera because as soon as she sees you with the camera, she immediately starts crawling to get it. Lia has her first four teeth breaking through on top plus one on the bottom all this past week- a little rough but nothing a little ibuprofen can't help. Lia likes to imitate sounds like coughing and smacking her lips. And she will beeber on command- hillarious and another one of the most beautiful sounds I know :) She loves playing peek-a-boo with Grace or doing it herself. Grace is so good about entertaining Lia. It is a most beautiful sound to hear both girls giggling in the backseat as Grace does funny antics to make Lia laugh. We went to Cinelli's (yummmm....) for pizza the other night, the kind of place that puts the big pan up on an elevated platform on your table, like extra yummy (so good to be back!). Grace and Lia were playing peek-a-boo under the pizza pan and it was the cutest thing ever. To see the cute look of anticipation and adoration on Lia's face for her hero, big sister Gracie.
Gracie-kins... I guess she is giving us a warm up for what is to come once she turns 3. Everyone says the 3's are worse than 2's... Grace has been talking back and just being a strong-willed little thing. She spent her whole nap time fighting the nap and finally 2 1/2 hrs later she actually napped. Argh!!!! She is so funny though, her creative, pretend play is coming out. Sometimes its so goony but it also makes me remember from way back in the day when Sheri and I used to mimmick what we watched on TV. Grace loves to watch 'Bugs Bunny' with Dan after lunch. She likes the 'Run Roader, S-bester the cat and Wiwey Cyteo'. Cracks me up!! Grace can count to 20 now without skipping numbers and she is fascinated with identifying letters and pretending to read (thanks Super-Why). The other day Grace slipped away and it was all too quiet. I went down the hall to find her with my water spray bottle and a baby washcloth spraying the wall and wiping it. She said,'I'm cleaning' and had a sheepish grin like she thought she might be in trouble. I just started laughing. Apparently I've been cleaning a lot lately (true- trying to get this house up to par). Here, let me get you a rag and how about you start wiping the doors. I will always take a willing helper!!
I have started back to work at UNC, back on my home unit. I was leery about going back to work, but less so since I am heading back to my favorite place to work. And it does feel good to have time away and not just adult conversation but intellectual topics.
Keep the prayers coming for work for Dan.
A very cool thing: Dan was baptized last weekend and I got to help 'dunk' him :) Always knew he wanted to but was just waiting for the right time and that was definitely now.

Sisters

Showing the girls where I went to nursing school and the big hospital where I'll be working. Love UNC!!

The Spaghetti Saga...
When I looked at this face, I did not know what else to do but carry Lia straight-armed to the bath tub. She lost the battle with the spaghetti- AGAIN! I think Lia does it on purpose because she loves to splash in the bathtub. (Note the hand print above the left eye)

Squeaky clean- it can be done!!

Chillin'

Uncle Benny

Happy 4th of July!!!

Doesn't it look like Tyler and Grace could be brother and sister?! They had a blast playing together on the 4th of July. Pool plans were rained out, but they managed to wear each other out!!!

What a little ham!!!

Here we are in the Tarheel state again!!!

10 months old, my little Lia-Bo-Bo

Lia is army crawling, creeping along the furniture, thinking about crawling- getting up on her hands and knees and rocking, taking a crawl and a half and then collapsing down to army crawl. She loves all finger foods. Don't let her see a strawberry unless you're planning to share with her!! We're working on a sippy cup, little girl is growing up!! She is babbling up a storm and does beebers herself with her lips. She loves to clap and smiles so big when you sing to her. Bathtimes are a blast as well and pooltime. Lia hates to be still; its almost impossibly to complete a diaper change before her semi-stillness limit is up.

Funny girl!

Baxter will let Lia pick at his paws and his nose if she'll let him slime her in the face; they've worked out this agreement wordlessly.

watermellon crawler

Yeah for pool time!!!

I'm not exactly sure what's with that face; its really cute yet kind of looks like she is sad.

Durham Life and Science Museum (Sumeum according to Grace)

Keeping a safe distance, Grace and Tyler. When they first got together at the museum, they were in eachother's faces speaking their own language, so excited- it was so cute!

Train ride!!!

The look of determination. Whenever Lia sees something she wants, she get this look on her face and shimmies as fast as she can with quite possibly the ugliest army crawl you've ever seen. Ugly but effective!

Downtown Wilminton, NC

Just finished dining at the Oceanic, life is good

The little water baby. Lia absolutely loves being in the water, splashing, kicking, a little sampling of sand.... I guess that's not so awful when you don't have teeth to experience that gritty crunch of a few granules of sand

Grace had a blast at the beach. Building castles in the sand, floating out in the water, searching for shells.

So many of my favorite things! I took the girls to Duke Gardens one morning. All of this catching up being done while waiting to get in to our new house, a few days at the beach as well, why not?!

We are getting settled in slowly (slower than I'd prefer with the girls) but surely. It feels great to be back in North Carolina! When we crossed over the state line from TN to NC, all of the thoughts and memories that had been sort of bottled up the last 3 years came rushing out. It felt like we were returning home from a vacation; not having moved away for 3 years. Working on making this house a home for however long we are here. It was 'move-in ready' but that was a bit of a lie. There has been a lot of elbow grease required to bring this house up to tolerable. I'd say its about 5 clicks above the foreclosure house that we bought and fixed up in Apex. Kind of a diamond in the rough. If I could paint, it would be so much better, but I do like the kitchen and the master bedroom/bathroom.

I had my interview with my former manager to return to 4 Anderson South at UNC as per diem status. Dan had an interview on Friday that went well. Things are piecing together. Dan got to see a bunch of his former swimmers at one of their summer league meets this weekend; he's life a celebrity to them- its awesome to see the impact he had on those kids come full circle.

Probably the best thing for me has been getting to hang out with my best friend, Windy, again. And without a plane flight involved. There is just something about getting to talk in person that cannot be replaced!

Also, on the note of great things we are returning to, we are back to going to Hope Chapel again. That church is amazing. It just fits us so well and feeds us. Its great to take the girls there and get to show them off to our friends. Run away to Texas for 3 years and come back with 2 girls :)

Hiking in Cherokee National Forest in TN with Mimi and Papa before leaving to head on to North Carolina.

Grace made it the majority of the 3 mile hike- pretty impressive!

three quarters of a year

So cute these days... Lia loves to express her joy by clapping and full body wriggles and she clasps her hands together as if she were saying, 'I am so pleased!'

Lia is thinking pretty hard about crawling, FINALLY. Miss Content hasn't been in a hurry to get going. She's figured out how to roll and pivot on her belly to get to just about anything she wants. She now get up on her hands and knees and rocks like she's trying to work up the guts to go for it. And with this newfound talent, she has discovered that sleeping up on her knees with her bootie up is quite comfortable.

Lia is loving the finger foods for sure. I think (hope) we can do away with the mush. Bananas are her favorite and she recognizes them. You had better not let her see one unless you plan to let her have it!

We took our trip to Indiana just as we had hoped to do in May. Maybe slightly different circumstances than originally planned for but nonetheless we made it there. It was awesome to see family and see the girls with their cousins on both the Parman and the Carrington sides.

Grandma Pat-Pat and the Carrington girls

We visited the zoo in Chattanooga. Lia couldn't hang. Grace took it all in, loved the animals but especially loved the carousel. (look at that big nerd on the polar bear!!)

Apparently Gracie likes giraffes because these are two different carousels and she had to ride the 'graceful giraffe' on each one.

Coolidge Park in Chat-town

Tatum and Grace plotting out their next great adventure!

Parman cousins finally together!

Our newest member of the family, Isaac Robert Parman. What a cutie!!!

Lia, thinking about the crawl

What a cute little nerd!

Lia and the hook. Baxter just sat there and took it as she poked her tiny finger in his nose, eyes, ears, between paw pads. Any questions whether labs are good dogs for children??

Takin' it back retro 80's style: It cracks me up to see Gracie playing with toys that I played with 20-some years ago. Arrrggghhh!!! That makes me sound pretty old!

'til next time...

Looks like we are heading to NC!! In perfect honesty, we were really hoping for Indy to work out but it will be nice returning to our married home and to friends that are like family. Baxter is looking forward to getting back to his roots. We are looking forward to getting back into a home that is our own again.

Its always interesting, following along on the Carrington family adventures. Stay tuned!!