Aunt (soon-to-be official) Carolyn's Bridal Shower

I'm on a roll, so I figured I might as well go ahead and post a couple of pictures of Ripley at her Aunt Carolyn's bridal shower lunch this afternoon. Much fun was had by all; it was a nice preview of the wedding, but without the boys.

First Tooth/Teeth

I've been meaning to put this up for over a week, but am just catching up with some posts. So, baby girl finally has a couple of teeth (at the ripe old age of 10.5 months). The second just cut through earlier this week (from what I can tell). I noticed the first right before Easter, but I can't tell you exactly when. This probably makes me a bad mom for not knowing when she really got her first tooth, but she's been so good about them - hardly cranky at all, so it passed without much fanfare. If you look very closely, you can see a small white smudge on the photo to the left. Don't let anyone tell you taking photos of baby mouths is easy.

Things I Can Do - Play with My Toys

Ripley got a cool toy from her Grandma Janet for Christmas, but just this week discovered how she can use it herself. She's growing up way too fast...I know, I know. It's just a toy, but she's starting to understand cause and effect - a pretty important concept as concepts go.

Things I Can Do - Wreak Havoc

Another video that really does speak for itself, but a bit of background. Ripley discovered this past week that she can open the cabinets in our kitchen, despite the fact that they have no hardware. She knows she can weasel her hand in the upper corner and yank. So I let her pull out some of the plastic-ware from that particular cabinet. Which I thought was harmless, and which actually made me organize the whole cabinet a bit more. The second time I let her do this, I was making her lunch for daycare, and when I turned around, she was nowhere to be seen. And then I looked more closely. Yup - she decided it wasn't enough to pull out the items within reach - she needed to access the items in the back as well. Thus her position in the video.

Visit to Texas - April 2009

Time seems to be passing more and more quickly for us. I think I need to commit to updating the blog once a week at the same time. Maybe Sunday night? Otherwise, things seem to be slipping away. I am going to go back and try to recreate a few things, but didn't want that to stop me from posting some photos of our trip to Texas last week.

We started out in Pearland for one night where we got to see Grandma Janet, Aunt Judy and Uncle Benny. Ripley absolutely loved the pond in the backyard. I wish we had gotten some video of her splashing, but I think you can get the gist of how much she enjoyed leaning over and splashing.

Galveston was our next stop. Chad and I decided it might have been over 5 years since we had been there, so we booked a room at the Casa Del Mar for Thursday night. We got to the city fairly early and Ripley fell asleep right as we were pulling into town, so we drove around visiting my old houses (1818 Ave. O; 2525 O 1/2 ; 3615 O 1/2) I had forgotten how close the first house was to the beach. It was very run down, but the other two (especially 3615) looked great.

Overall Galveston was on the mend, but there was still so much damage from Hurricane Ike evident. The Down on the Strand, there was a line on the buildings showing where the water had been.

We had lunch at a wonderful Mexican place called Gorditas (where Chad had a spicy beer thing called a Michelada, and then headed to the Bolivar Ferry where we saw a ton of seagulls and dolphins!

For dinner, Chad had crawfish etouffee from Benno's on the Beach and I got a falafel from a Mediterranean Chef on the Strand, both of which we took back to the room so we could put the little girl to sleep. It was a bit cold so we didn't actually get into our suits to go to the pool or the beach, but we did walk along the beach for a bit.

On Friday morning, we had an amazing breakfast at The Sunflower Cafe and took some pastries to go (including a slice of pecan pie that they somehow dipped in chocolate!) to share with Mom and Dean. We tried to go on a Galveston Duck Tour, but the PA system wasn't working, so the tour guide thought we wouldn't be able to hear and didn't want to go ahead with the tour. We'll have to try again on our next visit. On our way out of town, we stopped off at Katie's Seafood Market (1902 Wharf - right off the Strand) to pick up some shrimp for dinner. We swung by Pearland again, picked up Mom/Grandma Janet and headed up to Hilltop.

It is always so relaxing to be at Hilltop. We went into Jewett on Saturday to the Flea Market. The only purchase was some kettle corn because Chad can't ever pass this up. We went to the cantata service at the Hilltop Chapel for Easter Sunday. Ripley did well for about half of the time, but she got tired fast so she and I sat out in the lobby for the second half. And finally on Monday before we left, we got to see the cousins and Aunt Emily and Uncle Freddie before we headed back to Hobby Airport to fly home. All in all a most wonderful visit. We can't wait to get back so we can swim in the Texas pool!

Things I Can Do - Climb Stairs (!!!)

We've had a string of illness here in the House of Ripley, but are on the mend. I'll do some catching up next week when we are on Spring Break, but I had to post this video I shot this morning. It speaks for itself. She is getting so darn big!