The Rest of August

Kristi Rondo, expert party thrower, threw Ella an amazing unicorn-themed sixth birthday party. Ever loved it.

For family night, Jim insisted on making rather complicated oatmeal chocolate chip cookie sandwiches from Sunset magazine. The biggers wanted to be highly involved. Tiny, meanwhile, was stationed near the action.

Wren boycotted dinner, so she didn't get to try the finished product. Jim distracted her with a magazine while Ever dug in.

We swam in Nanny and Papa's pool. Tiny floated for a long time in a flamingo. She was thrashed from nap-skipping and would have fallen asleep if people had left her alone.

At Ever's suggestion, we hit the park one Saturday. We picnicked, rode bikes, swung, and played Chutes and Ladders. 

After church one Sunday, Jim's business was a family affair.

I don't take Tiny outside much, mainly because crawling is so dirty. (Can't WAIT until she walks.) She loves the swing, though.

She did some amazing "dada" chatter while she rode.

Creative use of the stool:

Naked babies playing doctor together:

For Jim's birthday, we went to dinner at Island's Restaurant, hit the batting cages at Boomers, and went to a movie.

Tiny is finally starting to communicate, and it's really fun. She seems to have a handle on "mama" and "dada." After that it was "bye," which she generally pronounces more like "bah." A couple of samples:

She does various scrunch-nose faces. Some are cute; some are less so. This one is less so:

I enjoyed these texts from Jim:

He's pretty funny. And considerate. I mentioned once that I had considered making a goal to get in shape before my 40th birthday in October. (Ultimately I did not commit to the goal, and I have not gotten in shape.) Days later he came home from work and asked, "How are you? How are you?" I didn't understand why he was so earnest. He finally continued, "I realized that not everyone is as excited about getting older as I am, and your 40th birthday is coming up in a couple months. Are you OK?" It was very cute.