Niki's Birthday Week

Niki's Birthday Week in Pictures:

Birthday lunch with the girls.



Birthday smooch!



The Stringer girls.




It was Niki's idea. Not mine.



What is wrong with this?

Things are Changing Rapidly

Charlie has figured out how to climb on the couch. Uh-oh.

More glamor shots of Baby Stringer

Yup - apparently we are having a Baby Voldemort from the looks of him/her.

Baby Stringer's small screen debut

Today I had an ultrasound to check for certain birth defects (they didn't find any) and got this nifty little video to take home. Watch Baby Stringer kick kick kick! I'm at 12 weeks as of today, and we should have the ultrasound to determine gender sometime in July.

The girls

Just a typical summer afternoon for BFFs Charlie Jo and Zozo. Despite the looks on their faces, they were having a terrific time.



Where'd that doggie go??

Me and my niece

Sonia is such a sweet little girl! I loved holding her.



Charlie Jo started to act a little jealous each time I did though. Just wait until December, kid.



I liked snoozing with Sosi.



But I think Sosi is happiest sleeping with Mommy!



We had such a terrific time in Illinois with Erin, Andrew, and Sosi. Thank you so much for letting us come visit!

CJ, meet Sonia. Sonia, meet CJ.

I just love these photos my sister took of our daughters meeting. "Our daughters" is such a strange thing to type. We both have DAUGHTERS. I still think of us as the daughters. Anyway, seeing our daughters meet (even though it was in the backseat of a sedan in an airport parking lot) was magical. CJ seemed thrilled with her cousin, until she caught sight of herself in the mirror, that is. After that, Sonia lost a little of her appeal. Sonia did open her eyes a little at first, but them she snoozed through the rest of the introduction. I guess both girls were just acting their ages, right?

The funny thing is, Corey was actually surprised by this.

Corey and Charlotte had a nice evening alone last Monday night while I went to Trivia. He had grand plans to make Charlie gazpacho (a cold soup made from raw vegetables). Good old Charlie Jo is not what you might call a big fan of vegetables. Not even close. So did she like the soup? Watch and find out!



At least it's fun to rub around on the tray of the highchair.

A demonstration

Charlotte would like us all to know the proper technique for exiting the play pool.







Got it??

Unwrapping a present

Charlotte and I flew up to Chicago to meet little Sonia Marie! We are having a terrific time (though CJ does seem more interested in Auntie Ernie's cats than the baby) and have fallen in love with the Great Sosini. One of my favorite things to do with CJ was to unwrap her from her swaddle after she woke up. I had major deja vu watching Erin do the same thing this morning, and I caught most of it on video. She's such a little peanut!!

Charlie Osbourne

Tonight, I was able to get home at about 4:00 from work, so I relieved Niki from Charlie duty so that Niki could go to trivia night. I made Charlie a special dinner of gazpacho (did not go over well), and then we went outside to enjoy the evening.

Charlie busied herself weeding the garden (she did a nice job) by pulling weeds and taking them across the sidewalk and dumping them in the grass. (No matter - our "lawn" is of the typical Tennessee "mowed weeds" variety. We live on a limestone shelf. We're lucky to have anything growing out there.) Then Charlie bit the head off a snail. Great. I pulled the shell out of her mouth, but there was a lot of brown mushy stuff in there, too.

Charlotte the trained monkey

What a little show-off.