simian marley

she really is a monkey...here she is picking nits out of daddy's hair...all while ben was the dummy during bridge last night. she has started to roll everywhere too! so close to crawling, you can see her trying her hardest. until then she will roll everywhere she wants to go.

chihuly and mohawks

for my birthday grandma barb took me, marley, and gg (grandma gretchen) to see the new chihuly instillation at the franklin park conservatory. it was beautiful. my pictures don't do it justice. but here they are. also, marley is now sporting a mohawk. she doesn't have much hair, but what she does have sticks straight up like her daddy's. it is hard to photograph, but if you look closely you can see it. other than that, all is well here. still no new tooth, but she is trying hard. bridge is tonight. so far ben and i have managed to master trash talk, but not much else. it's fun though.

five months old today

here are some photos from today and one after dad was finished feeding her...she is trying hard to sit up and can almost do the tripod. she's finally found her thumb and sucks on it. we expect a lower tooth any day now. you can even see it.

farm living

it's been an eventful week here. especially last night. the raccoons have left my grandma's house and come right on over to out back porch. piggy's house, to be specific. an entire family, which includes four babies! not good. i had a hell of a time trying to scare them away with a broom. luckily ben came home not too long after louie heard them and took over. we are on de-raccooning duty today. i don't have the heart to kill them, which is what grandma barb says to do. maybe we can scare them over to her porch and she can kill them. =) the babies are pretty small and they were not scared of me at all. not good.
we had our friends sara and tom and their two kids, maggie and levon, over for a cook out the other day. it was fun. the kids had a great time, as any kid would on the farm. we had a left over burger, which got a tad too caramelized, and we gave it to louie. he carried it around in his mouth for a good twenty minutes, so proud of his burger. he even posed for a picture with it, as you can see.
we took marley to banjo night with ben's grandparents. we got there and marley freaked out. she is usually good with people, but she wasn't having all those people staring at her. i think she got overwhelmed. she calmed down eventually. this is when it hit me that i have brought a four month old to a banjo concert. a four month old at a concert. what part of this seems like a good idea? well, as it turns out it was a great idea. marley loves banjo music. she danced along for a little bit and then settled down and took a nap, which she really doesn't ever do while things are going on around her. so, overall it was a great success and we will have to do it again. plus it was a great opportunity for mary ann and elmer to show off their great granddaughter to all their friends.
mom and i have been sewing up a storm. we finished one wedding quilt and have the other on the design wall. we make a great team. we have also started walking two miles every day. marley loves to be pushed around in her carriage. she has discovered a new vocal noise. we call it her t-rex noise. it's kind of a growl, kind of a pirate noise. very dainty and very cute. not really. but it is very funny to hear these weird noises coming from this cute little girl. i'll try to capture it and post the video. she is also pretty seriously working on her upper teeth. i expect them to come in any day now...

lions and tigers and bears...

we went to the zoo this week. it was great fun for all...the columbus zoo is really amazing. marley enjoyed it, though half of the time she was sleeping in her carriage. she liked the part she was awake for. she is teething like crazy, but i still don't feel anything up top. i have had further success with the rice cereal. after smelling it i really can't balme her for not wanting to eat it. i think yesterday was the first time i actually got some from her mouth to her stomache. she is definently developing her own personailty these days, but thank goodness it is still a very sweet one. she is more and more aware of what is going on around her every day. unfortaunaltely that means she is not so interested in taking a nap anymore. only when she just can't keep her eyes open a second longer...and then for 20 minutes. not that we need anything for marley, but if you're thinking of getting anything for her, do NOT by anything smaller than a 6-9 months. she is filling those out quite nicely. i think she is going to get the jones height. who knows, maybe her growth will slow down a bit...well, we are off to grandma gretchen's to sew and jump around....