At the lake ...

On Saturday we picked up Grammie and headed to the lake by Jessica and Yancey's (for you Montana folks, this lake is like lake elmo only clean). We brought a few beverages and enjoyed hanging out on the beach.

Grammie was happy to hold Elsie and have a


Emma in her pink suit


Sophie checks out the water ...


Next is the beans turn ... its too cold for miniature toes!


Elsie prefers being carried in the water


Grammie and Dad with the bean

Play mat ...

Elsie is finally interested in her play gym ... I think she wonders if these guys got dressed in the dark with their different colored boots (at least I think that's what she is saying)


Fortunately she has a guard dog in case the jungle animals try anything funny ...

Death to pink hippo

Lola is really struggling to leave Elsie's toys alone - how can a squeakie toy not be for her. I decided to buy her a new pink hippo squeak toy ...

7 minutes later ...



Lets be honest, Hippos are scary and dangerous even if they are dressed in pink.
She's a very proud hunter.

Tiny Dancer

Tiny Dancer, originally uploaded by markandmandy.

We put on some ballerina shoes today and had a little dance off - Elsie won! She loves the Beatles just like her grammie (the early stuff, not the druggie phase).

Birthday Wishes

Today is heather's birthday so we wanted to send some birthday cheer!

First get all dressed up in your birthday pinks ...



Have dad put a sign on you since you haven't mastered the art of Sign Spinning ...



and SMILE!! (at dad, not the big thing that always flashes you - this is our next skill to learn)



Happy Birthday Heather!

Grass is ticklish

We have been having some hot, hot, hot weather lately - it hit 100 degrees yesterday. We thought a walk through some cool grass might be fun for the bean. First she enjoyed the hot concrete ...



Curled up little feet aren't quite ready to touch the grass ...



Ok feet down ... still a bit skeptical



Hmm - maybe warm concrete is a better fit than tickly grass ...

BUMBO!!

Who says babies can't sit up! This cool bumbo chair is holds the little bean up in the perfect sitting position. She is still skeptical but when I told her all the big kids were doing it - she was in!

Father's Day

For Fathers day we had the Richau crew over for Brunch. We made crepes - when I say we I mean mostly my dad and mark (and my mom too).

Elsie got mark a new shirt (she's already able to use a credit card) and here he is looking so cute (and clearly too busy watching the US Open to look at the camera).



We got to meet Ben's daughter Bella who is 9 months old





After brunch we headed over to the house my dad is currently building to check on the progress - its a pretty small house decked out with every feature you could imagine (laundry rooms on all three floors, elevator, 3 dishwashers ... )



This is the guest room that looks out to their backyard pool - that's some crazy drywall:



Outside dryvit:


I give it two thumbs up:



They project makes me want to build my own home ... some day.

Elsie meets the billings crew...

Shelley, Heather and Lisa threw a meet and greet for Elsie while we were in Billings.

Here are a few shots of the fun:

the four generations - Ruby, Pam, Mandy and Elsie



Carol, Karen, Shelley and Me:



Heather and Robb:



(more photos here)

We also learned a new game called Cornhole! the object of the game, you guessed it, is to toss a bag filled with corn into the hole. 1 point if the bag lands on the platform, 3 for the hole - first team to 21 wins. Lisa and I challenged my dad and mark - we lost, but just barely. Mark and I are going to make a cornhole game this weekend - its the perfect backyard fun!

Riley-palooza

This weekend we traveled up Montana for fathers day, an Elsie meet and greet and Riley's 4th birthday. Heather is the ultimate entertainer so this event is known as Riley-palooza throughout Billings.

This years theme was Pirates and there were 25 kids and lots of parents (heather has lots of adult drinks including a keg that needs to be finished before the party is over). Here is Grammie with the bean who wasn't quite ready for all of the kids.



My mom is the official cake maker for riley-palooza so we spent saturday morning decorating. Here is the cake:


Heather sent the kids on a treasure hunt and they found booty - pirate patches and doo-rags.


The best part of the day was that heather and robb had an envelope that contained the sex of their baby (to be born mid october) and they let riley open it for the crew. Last Monday Heather had her big ultrasound and the doctor put a colored piece of paper in an envelope to open ... and it was PINK!!


We were all secretly hoping for pink - hooray! Heather and Robb were ecstatic! Riley had a blast (I can't believe he is 4).

Shots are yucky!

Today was elsie's 8 week doctor visit (she will be 9 weeks tomorrow) and it was the dreaded vaccination day. Mark conveniently went to California to avoid any association to the shots.

As usual Elsie loved having her clothes off and kicking on the table - you may remember her past visit poses:



She is still in the 25th percentile for weight and the 50th percentile for height and head circumference. The nurse gave elsie some tylenol to preemptively stop any leg soreness - she definitely enjoyed the grape flavor.



they then brought in another nurse to help administer the shots - 4 of them, 2 in each leg. When the first stick went in Elsie's eyes opened really wide and then the screaming started. Big giant crocodile tears with a big giant wail - it was horrible, but fast (if there were some sort of speed shot contest, these ladies would definitely be contenders). I scooped up the bean and did the mom cuddle, but the tears were still flowing - so I gave her the boob. No tears can beat the boob!

She settled down and is now taking a long nap - it takes a lot of energy to cry like that!

Working hard with dad

Working hard with dad, originally uploaded by markandmandy.

who says you need a nanny?

Google Me

We went to the google picnic on friday and Elsie wanted to fit in ...





We only stayed a bit, enough time for some pulled pork sandwiches and a beer - and time to introduce Elsie to the googlers.



Lola wearing the google swag...

Summertime!

elsie is skeptical of hats and dresses ...



but she is excited about summer!

New Rocker

Elsie and I decided we really needed a rocker in her nursery - we looked at gliders, but felt that the sleek design of the Sleepy Time Rocker was right up our alley. Just sitting in it makes elsie very schleepy ...

Dinner

Daniel with Elsie, originally uploaded by markandmandy.

Last week Mark hosted dinner for his co-workers. I was out with Amy so Mark (with the help of uncle josh) had baby duty as well as cooking duty. The boys did great - I came home to a sleeping baby, a yummy dinner and a glass of wine!

Daniel (Mark's boss) is a natural with Elsie!

Norah Jones at Red Rocks

We took our first outing without Elsie this past Friday ... We asked our neighbors the Jost's (Jost like toast) to watch the bean. Cheryl is a NICU nurse so we figured if anything went wrong she would know more than we would - here is elsie with Cheryl and Shaylin (our up and coming babysitter)



We went to the concert with Josh, Amy, Jessica and Yancey - it was a mellow concert (sit and drink wine, not stand and chug beer) and I snuck the camera in just to get this horrible shot. :)


Mark also snapped this one - I think he was going for photo journalistic style, rather than posed, but Josh fooled him.

Red rocks is filled with stairs - we have figured out that you need to sneak past the parking directors to try to park at the top of the ampitheater - then you get to go down 200 stairs instead of walking up 10,000. Amy was a champ!


And to cap the night of bad shots, here is a photo Josh took of Mark and I with the beautiful red rocks behind us - beautiful huh? If I didn't have a baby I would have photoshopped the rocks back in (stupid fill flash!)


The night was very fun - Elsie did great with the Jost's, she slept most of the time, which made our night full of awake Elsie. Definitely worth it!