Some Videos from August

From an August trip to Lighthouse Point, Iris enjoys the waves:


While on the Cape, we spent an afternoon on the tidal flats. As the tide came in, we played in the shallow water. Great fun was had pouring water on each other. This video features Iris pouring a cup of water on Uncle Brian:


Grandpa Bill (recently dubbed "Dee-Dad") teaches Iris to play the piano:


She got the hang of it pretty quickly:

(She loved all the buttons as much as the keys and quickly found the 'demo' button. The rest of us pretty quickly got sick of the demo music . . .

While in Maine, we rediscovered the childrens' music records from our youth. Iris loved the Sesame Street songs, as you can see:

In related news, we just started attending a Music for Toddlers class on Wednesday afternoons. Iris absolutely loves it! She claps and dances and twirls - it is fun to see her so into the music.

Is it the end of September already???

I honestly don't know where this month has gone! So, news with Iris:
- new words include "bubble", "pop" (as in what bubbles do), "purple" (her first and most favorite color word), "blue", and "cheese."
- she's currently going through another cheese-obsessed phase. She would eat two slices of muenster at every meal if we let her.
- A recent quote from her journal at day-care: "she is strong-willed and can't be fooled, coaxed or persuaded to try what she doesn't want. In some areas of life that will work well." (this in regards to the fact that she won't eat vegetables. We send them with her every lunch, and they always come back un-eaten. They tell us not to give up, but . . . .
- She does love fruit. I do wonder if a diet of fruit and cheese is really sustainable . . .

This weekend was full of fun activities: first time on a trampoline, second time on a carousel (although the first time at 6 months is surely not remembered), climbed up a lighthouse and more!

Sadly, our camera is still broken, so some Maine photos are stuck on it. However, Gwyneth's blackberry at work died and she had to get a new one. The new phone has a semi-decent camera, at least allowing us to document a few recent events. More photos on flickr, as always. Here are some highlights:


Iris swinging with JJ, Grandaddy and Daddy


Blowing bubbles with JJ in the back-yard


On the trampoline with Mama


On the carousel with Daddy

Two videos from Maine

Iris helps pick cherry tomatoes in the garden:

(now if only she would get the red ones!)

Iris "helps" pick blueberries

First Batch of Maine Photos Up

Photos from our trip to visit Gwyneth's parents, Judith and Bill, are up on flickr here. There are more, but our camera is malfunctioning, so I can't download them.

After a beautiful week in Wellfleet with the Eckelman-Brouhards, we drove up to Hope, Maine for a week with the Joneses. A few days in, Alison, Matt and Petra joined us. We went on a few short hikes, went swimming in the pond, had lobser rolls, went to the Union Fair, harvested veggies from the garden, and generally ran around the yard.

So, what is new with Iris, developmentally. While on vacation, she perfected her use of the word "no." Oh, boy. She is fond of saying "no, no, no, no, no." I'm sure other parents love this phase as much as we do! Of course, she only really means "no" about half the time she says it.

Iris has picked up speed. No longer the clumsy walker, she now practically runs. We saw friends Jacy, Victoria and their 2+ son Milo on the way north. Milo, being older, is a confident runner. The day after we visited with them, we noticed Iris had picked up his style and lifted her feet as she ran (mostly away from us).

She's got a few new words: bubbles, apple, berry, up please, shoes, JJ (what we call Judith), and Iris! All used rather inconsistently . . . except for JJ, which she picked up quickly.