Girlfriends

Here are her buds...well, at least two of them. Little Grace and Aliyah are teaching Millie to clap, go under the water at the pool, wave good-bye and generally giggle through life. Their moms are giving me strength, encouragement, advice, babysitting, and wonderful friendship. I am so thankful for this great little group we've found.

We're off on vacation this week...lots of summer-fun photos when we return!

Friends, Trains, Horses

This weekend Millie visted an awesome park with her friends. She's finally able to start making use of playgrounds -- still eating a lot of dirt and sticks, but now also pulling up on toys and swinging in toddler swings. Here Millie and two of her friends are waiting for and watching a mini-train go thru the park. She's trying hard to be a big kid like Miles and Aliyah and stay standing for the excitement.



And in a few moments of insanity, it seemed like a good idea to let Millie go for a ride on "Shorty" at the Arlington County Fair. We don't think she really knew what hit her, unless she thought she finally found a dog big enough to ride.

Yeah Phillies!

Millie has learned to clap her hands. She also usually will say "yaaayyy" while she's clapping, which is just hilarious. She put it all to good use last night at the very hot Nats / Phillies game. As you can tell, she's a bit of a sweaty mess, but we had a great time for the five innings that we were there.

Road Trip!

This weekend we had some Grandma and Grandpa fun with the Greers in Delware. It was a good little catch-up visit and Millie had a great time exploring and charming and showing off her eating, crawling and standing skills. It will be so nice to see them again in just a few weeks when we head back up for a triathlon in the area.

On Sunday we were able to spend some time with our dear friends Nat and Libbey and their two kids Madeleine and Skyler. Christopher and Nat are best friends since childhood and Libbey and I have found a very sweet friendship as well. It was a wonderful afternoon watching our babies and marveling at the paths our lives have taken. Those men were boys together...playing soccer, jumping on beds, chasing girls, dreaming dreams. And to see the blessings God has brought both of them, including their enduring friendship, usually brings tears to my eyes.

Anyway, here's a cute photo of Madeleine helping feed Millie her bottle. She is a gentle, adoring big sister, even to Millie. And little Skye doesn't yet know that we have already chosen his bride...

Playing Ball

My brothers will love this...Millie playing ball with Cede and Kotah (my parents' dogs).

Rocknoceros

Yes, it might seem like I have lost my mind. Millie and I joined four sets of our mom and baby friends for a fun little concert-thing yesterday. It was set back at a theater in the woods at Wolf Trap (a life-saver since it hit 102 degrees yesterday), and it was just a cool, different thing to do. As the group (Rocknoceros) played their hit song "Wee, wee, wee, we go potty", I thought about how much my life has changed since the days of catching a great, late show at the 9:30 Club with Christopher. I didn't know this much happiness was possible.

Busy Bee

Millie's been doing lots of exploring the past couple of weeks: crawling all around the living room, tasting Casey's nasty chew toys (UGH), learning to give big, wet, open-mouth kisses, floating in her boat in the Chesapeake Bay, and enjoying lots of playtime with her friends from our weekly bible study/mom's group. Her current favorite activity is pulling up on any furniture, body or dog that she can find! We are looking forward to visiting Grandparents Greer on Saturday and the Wades (Christopher's best friend and his family) on Sunday.

A few photos from our beach outing this past Sunday.