July

I really don't have a lot to say about July, except that Genni grew like a weed and that the heat was nearly unbearable.  Luckily we joined a gym...it's a magical place, with swimming pools and childcare.  When we left North Carolina at the end of June, Genevieve was taking a step or two on her own.  After about a week, she increased that to 5-7 steps and there she stayed for about another month.

I really didn't mind her waiting to take the plunge though.  Almost every time I pick her up from the child care at the gym, one of the workers comments on how cute (they're smart enough to mention that first) and exhausting she is.  I hear the term "too big for her britches" at least once a week.  Which makes me feel a lot better about the condition that Brandon regularly finds the house (and his wife for that matter) when he gets home.  That being said, I love that we have such an independent, full of energy, determined little girl.  She is scared of very little and is constantly trying to accomplish something.  One day she decided it was time to stand up from the middle of the floor instead of using furniture.  I am not exaggerating when I say that she spent 20 minutes working on it until she figured it out.  She can be very focused when she wants to be.

And that's July.  On to more exciting things, like August (which was equally as sweltering) and hurricanes!

June

June was amazing.  Mostly because we got to go on vacation!  We went to North Carolina for about 10 days, spending a couple of days in the mountains and about a week at the beach.  I really love this aspect of North Carolina.  The mountains aren't exactly the Rockies, but they are very pretty in their own way and the beaches are next to perfect.  This was a much anticipated vacation that was everything we were hoping it would be.  Brandon and I hadn't ever really celebrated our anniversary before.  So this year we treated ourselves to a couple of days at a B&B in the mountains.  We had wanted to "escape", but I was surprised at how much of an escape we were talking about.  The place we stayed at had no TV, no phones, no cell phone service, no internet.  It was just us and nature and we loved it.  We spent one day riding bikes on the Virginia Creeper Trail and the rest of the time reading books and hanging out in the perfect weather (it was 70 degrees most of the time we were there...a big change coming from New Orleans).  Warning: There are a  LOT of pictures of this trip.

I stole Brandon's shirt when I went in from the beach...which really left him with no other option than to wear my cover-up.

Brandon's Grandma Davis with all of her great-granddaughters.   Look at all of those girls!  Marcy and the twins were born about one week apart and Genevieve came about 2 months later.  She had a lot of fun playing with them!

She loved the water...wasn't too crazy about the sand though.

Aquarium!!!  Genni was SO cute.  She kept trying to grab the fish.  When she realized she couldn't, she would follow them on the outside with her finger.

Maybe they look better sideways?

We discovered that the floaties could double as walkers in the baby pool, and life became a lot easier for this mom.

Learning to share.

Her first (and last) attempt at eating sand...like I said, she wasn't a fan.

But look at how happy she is to be getting in the water!

Farewell North Carolina...back to sweltering New Orleans. 

Thank you Lisa and Grandma for the new doll!  It has barely left her side all day...she loves it!

Videos for Grandma "M"

While my mom is in New York for the month of July, she has no access to Skype and is missing little Genevieve terribly.  So I'm posting several videos of Genni to get her through until we can chat on the computer again.  Love you Mom :)

Growing, growing, growing...

Sometimes Brandon comes home at the end of the day and asks what I did.  I get ready to tell him and then can't think of a single thing and my response becomes "I have no idea, but I'm exhausted and our baby is alive."  Genni started crawling at about 5 1/2 months, started eating solid foods at about 6 1/2 months and moved on to eat toilet paper at about 8 1/2 months (I'm not a neglectful mother, I promise).

Genevieve is very quick (and quiet) at getting into things now, which is exhausting.  However, along with the added mischievousness has come a lot more personality and a lot of fun.  She has started to really notice things around her, especially birds and ducks.  Our morning run is on the levee which makes it fairly easy to spot some of both, which is very exciting for her.  She'll point and "yell" (which is just how she talks now) at them and they immediately fly away...which is probably what she wants to see anyway.  She has fallen in love with books, which has motivated me to expand our board book collection so that I can read to her for longer periods of time without losing my mind.  I'll often find her sitting by the bookshelf in her room, all of her books cleared from the shelves and on the floor around her, with one in her lap (she is her father's daughter).  She is a very picky eater, but I guess that only applies to actual food (see photo above).  She is growing like a weed, a very cute weed.  I feel like I'm sorting her clothes and pulling out the next size all too often and it breaks my heart.  She isn't walking, but is getting really good at walking around the furniture and can crawl extremely fast when she's after something she wants and knows that you're going to try to stop her.  When Brandon works from home, she'll find the room he's in and yell and bang on the door until he comes to pay attention to her.  Yeah, she loves her dad.  She now has a total of four teeth...two on top and two on the bottom.  Each one represents hours of lost sleep which I will never see again, but they are making eating things like toilet paper and bugs much easier and make that smile even cuter than before.  She is SO happy MOST of the time.  Cashiers at stores often ask if my baby is "always this happy" because as soon as they make eye contact with her she gives them a big grin and starts jabbering at them.  I love it.  It makes my life as a full-time, stay-at-home mom a lot of fun and worth the challenging times.

She's a very social baby.  This is her friend Owen who was born hours after her, and in the same hospital.  He is one of the cutest little boys ever!  This was at the Children's Museum and it was a lot of fun.  A lot of taking objects away right before or after they went into their mouths, but still a lot of fun.  

Owen got a little sneaky with his hand while I was taking the picture, but can you blame him?!

Genevieve frequently loses her toys under the couch...

Already loves books!

My first Mother's Day!  Brandon and Genni treated me well.  They gave me a grain mill for my kitchenaid! 

Saying goodbye to Owen before his big move to Texas...we miss them already!

Swamp Tour!

Adrianne came to visit!!!  It was so great to see my Boston friend and for her to meet Genni.  We had a lot of fun catching up and the swamp tour was really neat (and apparently the only time we pulled out the camera).

I believe the words coming out of my mouth during this photo were, "Eeew!  Take it, take it, take it!"  Which referred to both the picture and the alligator.  I thought it was going to be cool to hold it, but as soon as I felt how squishy it was, it was all I could do not to toss it into the swamp.