Man – there’s just been this hysterical jump in movement and communication with this baby girl. Lou can clap, reach her arms up when you say ‘Uppie!’, do ‘please’ and ‘all done’ in sign language, understand when you say ‘Night-night’ (in sign), and put her toy phone to the side of her head when you say “hello?” The last one is the funniest – since 1/2 the time the phone ends up backwards or in the middle of her forehead. She’s crawling with a sort of gallop or trot – like a horse – when she’s excited. We’re having a really fun time. 🙂

I grossly underestimated the number of people that attended Max’s pre-school’s campout. There were nearly 200 people there. Everything went along very smoothly. The baby was content, Max was well-behaved and Toby slept better than expected.

Friday night, I put up the tent that was borrowed from the JMB family. I didn’t want to look like an idiot putting up the tent for the first time. (I needn’t have worried. Nearly every person that I saw putting up their tent was referencing the instructions. Some were even rotating the instructions and scratching their heads.) That tent was HUGE! It even had a divider to make it into 2 rooms.

We got to the camp ground at about 11a. There were about 10 families already there, so we had our choice of tent locations. The tent went up with the greatest of ease.

The school has a giant slip & slide for the kids to use, and it was a hit. Even Max, who hates getting wet, had a good time on it. There were kids on it for nearly 6 hours.

I will post some pictures, and a small AVI, so you can witness some aspects of our adventure.

Thanks again to the JMB family for the use of the tent. It worked great!

As most of you know, I am not a big fan of camping. I prefer my vacations in a hotel, preferably near some great scuba diving. So it is with some trepidation that I embark on a camping trip this weekend with my family. And not only my family, but with the families of Max’s pre-schoolmates. Yes, my camping experience will be with a group of 40 or so five year-olds.

Stay tuned…

Holy cow – I can’t even believe that my little baby is one. We had a great party for her and cousin Nathan (3 days older than she) last Saturday. She really enjoyed the tissue paper included in her presents, and meticulously ate her cupcake for about 15 minutes. Max had great fun at the party as well – and the picture below captures his very silly nature as an almost 5-year-old.

Lou is pulling herself to standing at just about every occasion possible, and on every table, chair, pet and human she can find. When you approach with a camera, she automatically begins to squint, as she anticipates for the flash!

Today Lou pulled herself up to standing twice in about 10 minutes. Once she gets there, she’s a little unsure what to do next.

Also – I firmly believe (Matt has doubts) that she has 2 words – ‘daah-daah’ for her Dolly, and ‘baa-baa’ for bottle. Maybe Matt is hurt that neither he nor I made the cut as the first words, though occasionally she pats me and says (again – I think so) ‘Maaaaaaaa.’