Bed Head Strikes Again

Brought to you buy a two hour nap and a bucket of sweat.

Swing

When I was registering for items for Fetus Fix (aka Rock), I wanted to get him a swing, but I didn't want a huge monstrosity taking up half of our living room. So, when I found this puppy, I fell in love. It's made by Graco and you just plop your car seat into it. When you aren't using it, it folds up flat. Brilliant! Too bad Rock HATED his car seat and thus he never wanted to swing. Fast forward to Louisa. She only hates her car seat when it's not moving. And she LOVES her car seat when it's swinging.

What a cute little bundle of joy!
Yeah, I didn't have enough time (or patience) to figure out how to take a non-blurry shot while it was in action so I just stopped the swing with my hand. Thankfully this did not cause any "uh-oh-the-swing-has-stopped-moving" tears.

Focusing

Louisa has always been good looking. And now she's getting really good at looking. It feels like she's really focusing for the first time and she's taking it all in!

The Greatest Woman Alive

Louisa really loves Carrie.

But not as much as her parents love Carrie. She came over last week and spent the night and got up with Louisa (I had pumped a bottle of milk) in the middle of the night so that Fix and I could sleep through the entire night. That's right folks, we both slept for over 8 hours straight! How AWESOME is that?!

And did I mention that she made coffee?! Nothing but love for you Miss Carrie... and a thousand thank yous!

Eyelashes

As you can see in this picture we took at IKEA last week, Rock has ridiculously long and thick eyelashes. I've always thought it was unfair that such lovely volume has been 'wasted' on a boy! And I always figured if Rock had a sister, she would miss out on this blessing and spend her life jealous (as I am!) of her brother's lashes. But check out these two pictures...

Here's Louisa at 5.5 weeks old!

Here's Rock at 9 weeks old! It may be too early to call, but I think that maybe she got the same beautiful lashes! Of course now I'm worried that if we have another baby someday and if she happens to be a girl that she will be the one who won't get the lashes and she will spend her whole life being jealous of her two older siblings...

New Watch

Someone got a new watch from Juju. It has race cars all over it.
And here's his first attempt at telling time... while talking on his cell phone of course.

(Lack of) Cherry Blossoms

When Bethany and Kelly and Addy were in town, they went to see the Cherry Blossoms. We thought that sounded like a good idea so two weeks later we stopped by on our way to see Thomas Jefferson.

Uh... I think we missed the peak.But at least there was a flowering tree back by our parking spot.So we robbed it of a few blossoms to show Rock how to make it snow.
Wait for it... wait for it...

SNOW!!!Happiness.Beautiful.

Model

After he got over the initial trauma of going to a monument...

We got a bunch of cute shots of Rock.

This one is my favorite.

Jefferson

Last Monday, we went down to the city to introduce our children to Thomas Jefferson. But, unfortunately, they weren't really in the mood to meet someone new.While Louisa was crying downstairs with me...Rock was crying upstairs with Fix.

It's just so hard to pose for a picture with one of your country's forefathers.

Once we regrouped everyone calmed down a bit.

Rock pushed his stroller around.

While Fix showed Louisa the sites.

Sorry Mr. Jefferson. Next time we'll bring them before naptime.

Moral Support

I'm not one to tattle, but Louisa is quite a crier. She is especially sad when she's in her carseat and the car is not moving.

But lucky for her, she's got a helpful brother sitting next to her. He finds her pacifier for her when she spits it out. Or, if that can't be found, he'll offer her a hand.

Lisa and Nate

We were so excited that Lisa and Nate decided to stop by and visit when they were in town. Once again, Lisa was the first person from our Summer Fellowship Gathering to meet our new baby. We are looking forward to Lisa and Nate's wedding this coming Labor Day weekend.

Cuddling

Nothing like cuddling with two sweet kids!

For the record, Louisa's head is not about to break off because she's laying at an awkward angle. The rest of her body is laying across me underneath the blanket.

T-ball

Someone is very into T-ball these days. And his mother and father are very glad that it's finally warm enough to help him burn off energy outdoors.Last year he did not grasp the T-ball concept whatsoever. But this was only his second day out this Spring and already he's hitting like a pro.

Here's the video to prove it.

Pizza Pizza Daddy-O

Louisa's first trip to Cetrone's Pizza Place; also known as Pizza Pizza Daddy-O. Okay so it's only our family that calls it that, but whatever. Thanks to Paul and Deb for taking us out for a yummy meal.

And please appreciate that Louisa is (MUCH) smaller than the pizza!

Cousins

First picture of all three cousins together. And one of them is even smiling.

More of Cousin Addy

I just downloaded some pictures from our other camera so these are a bit out of order... taken before Bethany and Kelly left for London.Fix and Addy reading a book.

Addy likes to be read to, but she'll only sit still for about 3 pages.
Then she moves on to a different lap.

Sometimes she just took the book and went off to play by herself.

Beglins

Thank you to the Beglins for having us for dinner. And thanks to Megan for thinking to take this fabulous picture! Left to right, they are Louisa, Rock, Elsie and Benton!

Monday Night Dinner

Back in October of 2007, Rock attended his first Monday Night Dinner (click on that link to read all about this Brockman/Rabenhorst family tradition). He and Clip were so little that they could share the bassinet.After the White House Egg Roll, we took Louisa to her first Monday Night Dinner. She wore the same “Going to Grandmas” outfit that Rock wore back then. Since Annie’s baby isn’t born yet, Louisa got the bassinet all to herself.Hard to believe that these little babies…Are now the big boys.We all enjoyed a yummy meal eaten outside on a yummy day.And Marty finally got to meet Louisa. All the kiddies. And Fix.

White House Easter Egg Roll

We have friends who has a friend who knows someone who got tickets to the White House Egg Roll. They were planning to go to the Egg Roll themselves, but they got sick. And because our friends couldn’t use these tickets, we got to go!We loaded our baby toddler into the stroller and stood in line in the hot sun to enter the White House gates.Check out the fabulous shirt we got Rock on sale at the end of last Summer. At this point we were all smiles.Once inside we got our free goody bag and took in the lay of the land. I saw Michelle and Sasha and Malia Obama walk by but I didn’t have my camera ready. You will just have to believe that that is the truth.Other attractions were the stage where Justin Bieber and Sara Bareilles (pictured above) and others performed for the crowd...AND there was very healthy (FREE) food to eat...AND there was J.K. ROWLING AUTHOR OF HARRY POTTER!!! If only we had known she would be there, we would have brought a book for her to sign!But it was SUPER hot in the sun and it was naptime and the smiles from the 2.5 year old boy quickly faded.Louisa beat the heat by sleeping in her stroller. For the record, I kept her covered up for most of the day. Next year we recommend that they get better people to man the Easter Egg Roll photo-op sign. When you are trying to get a picture in front of the White House, you should at least get the White House in the picture!We had a lot of fun, but we didn’t actually roll an egg because we all burnt out quickly.Some of us more quickly than others.Are we sweaty or what?! Thanks again to the Colemans for getting sick so we could give our kids and ourselves a (most likely) once-in-a-lifetime-experience!