The Beebee and the Baouulll

Gwennie started talking a few weeks ago but we weren't sure if they were actual words. She's been saying "dog" sort of and "no no no no no" (I wonder where she got that from!) for a while now but she never actually put a word to objects until last week. Here's a video of her saying "baby" and "ball"

Two Peas in a Pod, a Goose Egg and What We Think About Duke!

This weekend Gwennie and I headed up to Rocky Mount to visit with Allison and Harold Pine who is about to deliver twin boys (the peapods or the boys as I like to call them) in a few weeks. Allie's shower was beautiful and those boys will be very well loved not to mention well set up with clothing, toys and gear! Gwennie played all weekend with Allie's nephew Brian. Brian's parents (Bobby and Wendy who all flew in from Florida) unfortunately had a bad case of a stomach bug so they were out of commission all day. Great for Gwennie though because Brian was a wonderful playmate! He loved to follow Gwennie around and they were both very happy to have someone around the same size to hang out with.

Unfortunately Gwennie bumped her head on the patio table so she has a nice goose egg in all of the pictures. She was such a trooper and only cried for a few minutes. I was so proud of her (and felt awful that I could not prevent it).

Corbin stayed back at the ranch and had a full house with our friend Matt and Michele's dogs Tarleeh and McCauley. Ginger and Ruby were a little out of sorts that their house was taken over with new playmates. McCauley is a 115 pound chocolate lab and Tarleeh is a chow/black lab mix. Both love to roam around the house and bark at thunder. Needless to say the storms from this weekend kept everyone (including Corbin and I) awake. We also thought McCauley wasn't took keen on Gwennie - lots of barking and growling so we had to watch him....until he figured out that Gwennie was a constant source of snacks! He now thinks she's the greatest thing ever!!! McCauley enjoyed crackers, cheese, pears and whatever else Gwennie happened to feed him. Overall a great weekend....here's a video of one of our favorite tricks McCauley does.

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Sunday Mountain Afternoon

Sunday we spent the day up at the mountains with the Fisher family. As you can see from the pictures, they dogs were very sad to leave. Ginger and Ruby enjoyed running around and swimming in the river. Unfortunately the fish don't particularly like the pooches so Andrew and Corbin really didn't catch anything.

Here are some pictures from yesterday

Motherhood...

Monday I headed up to Boston for work and had dinner with Addie, Alexis and Parrish. Alexis is such a good baby! She just checked out the mall and all the people cooing at her (yes...this child is really cute!). During dinner she played in her stroller and after Addie and I headed home where Alexis took a bath (kid loves the tubby) and she went right to bed. The next morning Gladys (Addie's mother), Alexis, Addie and I enjoyed coffee and some "playtime" until I had to go to work.

Overall, I can't wait to see Alexis (or Pookey as Grammy calls her) again. She changes/grows so much every month!

Here are some pictures from the weekend with Gwennie being pretty inventive with some blocks and my time with Alexis, Addie, Parrish and Gladys
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Warm Weather

As you can see from the pictures, it is finally starting to get warmer so Gwennie is sporting her new summer attire. We are all ready for summer (but not the bugs!).

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What we learned at the zoo....

We headed over to two different types of zoos while we were in AZ. The Phoenix Zoo and the Wildlife World Zoo were both pretty interesting. The Phoenix Zoo is much more of a natural habitat zoo where the animals are pretty far away and you stroll through a large area. They had a great carousel with all sorts of cool animals and a big pond that people scooted around in paddle boats. Gwennie really got a kick out of the baboons and also seemed to enjoy checking out the the animals on the carousel more than anything else.

Then the next day we went to the Wildlife World Zoo near my parents house which was much more of a close encounter experience. As you can see from the pictures, some of the areas had birds right in frontof you and they weren't scared of anything! This pictures was taken in one of the bird exhibits and after this bird almost landed on the stroller, we decided we were all set with wildlife! My dad and I strolled over to the lion thinking they would be a few yards away....more like a few feet! The animals areas are RIGHT next to people and most of them like to hang out right in front of everyone. A lioness literally was giving us the stare down checking out Gwennie (probably for lunch!). Gwennie really enjoyed this zoo more because the animals were so close and she could almost reach out and touch them. We figure since we got there right when it opened and they were feeding the animals, they were more interested in people. She also loved the small mammals area where all the little monkeys were hanging out. I tried to take a few pictures but the reflection with the flash didn't really work out too well. One of our favorites was the Giraffe feeding area. I have a video of my dad and Gwennie feeding them but as you will see, my dad wasn't too keen on a large blue tongue darting out at him! Gwennie on the other hand thought it was hilarious!

Gwennie also liked the children's petting area...which was basically a bunch of goats, lamas, deer, chickens and turkeys (the turkeys were in a cage...they liked to bite!!!). The goats were like garbage disposals...they tried to eat everything which included cameras, my shorts, Gwennie's fingers, shoes, socks and whatever else they could find. They had some coin operated feeding stations but you couldn't actually get any of the food out because the goats would rush over and stick their heads right in before you could actually get any of the food into your hands (smart animals).

My dad and I thought the best part of the zoo was when a girl decided she wanted to get a close up of a monkey with her cell phone and guess what happened???? The monkey turned the tables on her and grabbed the cell phone right out of her hands! So then she starts to scream at the monkey telling it to give her back her phone (at this point my dad and I can barely stand up we are laughing so hard at her). Finally someone from the zoo came down and basically told her that by the time they get the cell phone from the monkey it will probably be in two pieces but she could wait around and they would get to it sooner or later. Here's a video of the monkey beating the cell phone against a tree branch.

So.....what did we learn at the zoo? The goats and giraffes are very well fed, don't upset the monkeys and watch out for the birds!

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Gymboree & Pumpkin Pie in AZ

This week we were in AZ visiting Grandma V, Grandpa M, Great Aunt Pat and Great Uncle Frank. As you can see from the pictures, it was pretty sunny! Gwennie hung out in the jacuzzi with me and Aunt Pat and then we headed over to a Gymboree class for kids her age. Gwennie thought the tunnel was a riot and would crawl half way through to hang out for a while. Grandma V made a big turkey dinner and I am pretty sure Gwennie's favorite part was the yummy pumpkin pie (it was like Thanksgiving with really warm weather...sort of weird but great food!). Here are some short videos of this week

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