Aw, Nuts!

As you can see, I have added a word to her "first word" list. I wasn't going to comment on every word I add, but this might raise a couple eyebrows. Nut? And she doesn't even eat them yet.

Well, one of Erin's favorite books is an alphabet picture book. She can point to a majority of the pictures when asked. A couple days ago I was teaching her that the pile of almonds were called nuts. Yesterday, I asked her where are the nuts? And she shouted "nut!"

She says it every time now, and can even repeat it when we're not looking at the book. So, nut it is.

I Found a Duck!

Had a wonderful weekend visiting with my parents. We got out around Knoxville a little bit. Saturday morning was a trip to the UT Gardens, then up in the Sunsphere. Saturday evening we set out the baby pool, slide and sprinkler. Great opportunity for tons of great photos.

As usual, the visit was too fast. Spending time with them always reminds me that we live too far away. But only two more years and maybe we can fix that. I would love to have Erin (and her future siblings) be able to see them as much as she wants to.

As I said, we got tons of great photos, here are the highlights.

Erin Rita

Bear Recall

I'm removing bear as Erin's third word. I jumped the gun a little. She was saying it for a day or two, but she has since stopped. And since she still shouts "duck" and "shoe" all day long, I have to revoke bear since she didn't continue to say it.

Eddie K.

Last night's concert was amazing. As I said in the post below, we saw Ed Kowalczyk -lead singer of Live.

I saw Live in concert while I was in college. That was during my peak of loving them, and I built up the anticipation so much before hand, that the concert couldn't live up to my expectations and it was over way too fast. I loved it, but once it was over, it was like, okay now what do I do.

This time, I had only known about it for a couple weeks ahead of time, and it was the lead singer of a band I once loved. I wasn't thinking much about it until the day of. I wasn't even sure what he'd be singing (since he's solo) - Live songs, or maybe his own songs that he has tucked away in his back pocket.

He sang all Live songs, so the familiarity was nice. He is also such a cool cat...too cool for school. I bet he'd be a lot of fun to be friends with. You would become cooler just by hanging out with him (or feel more like a dork).

We got downtown a few minutes early, so we walked up the street and got some gelato (Italian form of ice cream). Oh. My. Goodness. All I have to say is - excellent.

Great night. And Erin didn't even give the babysitter that much trouble.

In No Particular Order

I've been wanting to blog all day, but I haven't been able to figure out what to say. So here's what you get:

- Watched Seven Pounds (Will Smith) a few days ago. Very good movie, I recommend it. It's one of those that you have no idea what's going on for quite a while.

- We're going to a concert tomorrow night. The lead singer of Live is doing a solo acoustic performance. Live was my favorite band for a long time, so I'm looking forward to it.

- Erin can point to many animals when you ask her where they are on the page, including: monkeys, giraffes, lions, zebras, elephants, snails, squirrels, frogs, sheep, cows, pigs, mice, fish, butterflies, and a lot more.

-She also can point to her head, hair, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, shoulders, belly, hands, fingers, knees, feet/foot and toes. Strangely, she can't get the hang of arms and legs.

- You can learn a lot of things about your friends on a "mom's night out." Things you really didn't want to know

DUUUUUUCK!

Erin discovered that our neighbor has a ceramic duck in his front yard. It's actually a swan, but I don't think she cares.

Happy Fourth!

I think we had a pretty successful cookout this afternoon. We had 4 couples and 4 kids over. Everyone seemed to mingle well. And the baby pool and sprinkler were a hit with the two and three-year-olds.

Erin had a very fussy day, but got much better once the party got started. And since she didn't have very long naps today, she was put to bed a little after 6 and was out like a light.

It was a pretty good, yet tiring, day. Happy 4th!

Yesterday's Trip

It was such a beautiful day yesterday that we couldn't resist driving to the Smokies. We found a VERY easy paved trail that was so short, we walked it twice. The second time around we stopped and ate our lunch by the river. It was a good 1/2 day trip. Here are our other photos.

It will be nice when we don't have to take a stroller on our hikes. That makes it so limiting.

Silly Girl

Erin's Readin'

Photos with New Cam

It's 2:45 in the afternoon on July 2nd....and 79 degrees out. Why can't it stay like this all the time?

The past few days I have been snapping away at photos of Erin with the new camera. For some reason she doesn't grab at this one, which I'm glad about. I've been able to get a lot of good ones, here are the highlights.

The Water is Mesmerizing

New Toy

Our new camera came today! I think I mentioned in a previous post that we had ordered one.

The two digital point-and-shoot cameras we had were 3 and 5 megapixels (the new one is 10). Both slow and not good in low lighting. So before Erin's childhood (and her siblings') slipped away, we splurged. And the total price wasn't even that bad.

After a couple days of messing around with it, I'll post a new album of photos.

My Name is Erin and I Have a Drool Problem

It's okay, we can blame it on the teething.