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Here are some pictures from our trip to Michigan.

I should mention that Kaylee likes to make friends wherever we take her now. She's really into waving! I think she tried to say hello to everyone in Chicago during our brief stay there. We stayed overnight near the airport because we had to fly out early in the morning. Kaylee waved to everyone at the hotel, crossing the intersections, everyone at Target and Chili's, and then lots and lots of folks at the airport. It's so cute. I love the way she seems to be able to make everyone smile!

(Kaylee took over Daddy's seat when he went to stretch his legs!)

Hello from Michigan!

We're out here in MI visiting family and I wanted to write down a few things before I forgot. Kaylee's got some new tricks - some cute, some not so cute. She makes the cutest little smacking noise. All of a sudden, she's got to do that all the time. She also decided to start her experiments on the law of gravity. It's seems really fun to drop every toy you give her. Then she's gotta watch it to see if it comes back up and gets frustrated when it doesn't.

Today we drove to Silver Lake which is very close to Lake Michigan. We hiked about an hour over the sand dunes to Lake MI. I'll post some pictures when we get back. It was such a beautiful day. We also went to the family's cabin on Upper Silver Lake and stopped at Jeff's old house in Grand Rapids on the way home.

Kaylee had a great time playing in the sand. She loved digging her hands and little toes in it. Thankfully she never tried to eat it, but a couple times she went to rub her hands on her eyes and got pretty upset with the sand getting in there.

Everyone's Gotta Have One of These Pictures...

Right?

Well, here's Kaylee's!

Picnic by the Bay

We headed out to Boulevard Park after Jeff got off of work. It was a lovely evening by the water!

You Got that Swing!

We've been out swinging all week so far, it's been such nice weather. Kaylee never tires of it. When we get to the park, Kaylee knows just where she wants to go. She finger walks right up to the swings!

Swing Away!

I wish I had our camera today. This morning we went to story time at the library and being such a beautiful day - sunny and a warm 65 (and NO RAIN TOM!), we went to check out a city park I haven't been to yet. I had no clue that the park was so huge. There are trails all over and a couple bridges over the creek that runs through it. There is also a free water park right next to the playground. The water wasn't running yet. I can't wait until it is and I can bring Kaylee there to sit and splash in the water.

Anyway, I thought I'd see if Kaylee would like to try the swing. Since it was about naptime and she had been kinda cranky, I was sure she'd start crying the second I tried to put her in there. But she was game. In fact, she LOVED it! She was laughing so hard I had to remind her to breathe! What fun. I wish I had the camera to take some video of her first swing ride. Next time.

It was hard to leave. I brought Kaylee home to nap, but I'm tempted to go back again to enjoy the nice day. The grass is nice and there are lots of shady places to sit and watch the big kids play...always entertaining for Kaylee.

I picked up a detailed booklet about all the city parks that includes facilities, events, trails, etc... I'm thinking of starting up a mother's group to get together once a week and go to these different places. I already get together with one mom every Friday. Maybe we can expand that and do different things like hiking, swimming, the Children's Museum, picnics, etc...

Well that's all for today. Gotta get some stuff done before Kaylee gets up again.

Fish and Flowers

Lots going on here this weekend. First of all, poor Jeff got whatever Kaylee had last week. He's been running a fever and feels pretty crappy. He's got Sunday off, but then has to work 8 days straight! What a terrible time to get sick.

Yesterday Kaylee and I went and got some new fish for her tank. Kaylee's tank is all live-bearer fish. We got a couple male and a couple female guppies, and three female platys to go with our male. It would be neat if they bred, but I just like them because they're so colorful. When we were checking out, we found a little hitchiker in the bag. A baby guppy was in the platy bag! So far he's doing good and is able to eat the micropellets we feed them. It looks like he's going to turn out to be blue. I'm just assuming it's a "he", but I suppose it could always be a "she". Also when we were there, a man came in with a tiger barb in a baggie. He told the clerk that he could flush him or do whatever, but he didn't want him. I found out that he was perfectly healthy, just that he was too aggressive to be in his tank. I told him I would gladly take him, since we have a whole tank just for barbs! I felt great getting two free fish!

I also picked up a gorgeous "bog log" for our new bedroom tank. These are cut from dead swamp trees somewhere in South America. The density of the wood is greater than 1, so it doesn't float. It's also full of twists, knots, and round little holes. It's just lovely. It looks like a masterful sculpture.

We went and loaded up on flowers to plant. This year I'm planting all perennials... and things that don't need a lot of maintenance. I got some white phlox and a striking blue-flowered type of ground cover for the tree planter out front. I also got some bunches of snap dragons for the sunny side of the front flower bed. They came in bunches of different colors. I can't wait to cut some for the house! We also got some purple double impatiens in hanging baskets for the porch and another basket for the back full of red, white, and blue flowers. I only know that the red is a begonia. I'm not sure what the others are called. But I got the same one last year and it did really well.

There's still so much I want to do. Hostas for the sides of our house... herb garden... some bright bushy dasies in colorful pots. Then there's the pond. It's about time to load up on water hyacinths again! I think our lillies got eaten over the winter. I can never seem to keep water lillies.

One more thing - Kaylee got her first (and hopefully last) taste of dirt today. She was helping me plant the phlox. I turned my head to ask Jeff to get the camera and when I looked back she had a mouthful of dirt and an unhappy expression on her face. Well, after that, she just stuck to playing with her gardening toys and left the dirt alone. We'll see if she's learned her lesson next time we go out there, I guess.

Other Things to Remember

I don't want to take for granted the little everyday things that Kaylee does that I think are so adorable. Anytime she gets something paper-like in her hands - paper, magazines, plastic baggies, curtains, even leaves and petals - she has this need to try to tear it apart! It's so cute to watch.

People have commented on how interactive she is. When shown something new, she grabs it and digs right in. She's gotta pull at it, "bam" it, wave it around, and finally taste it before she is satisfied. But even then sometimes you got to try to tear it again and maybe bam it a few more times, just to be sure.


Yesterday I introduced Kaylee to bubbles and she really liked it. She had a big smile and clapped her hands. She seemed quite mystified when she'd try to grab one that maybe fell to the floor, and it would suddenly disappear. It's a good thing Mom can make more to distract her from this disappointment, or else the whole bubble thing could get really frustrating!



Well today Kaylee and I are going to go hiking with my friend Jill and her little one, Matthew. Then tomorrow we'll get to see my friend Rochelle and her little one, Johnathon. Rochelle and I get together every Friday and it's always really fun to see our babies interact with each other.

Pictures

Here are a few pictures I took today to go along with the last post: