Seattle Aquarium

I found Nemo!

He was here the whole time, at the Seattle Aquarium.

With a gorgeous day set before us, my little family and some close friends went on an adventure! We caught the 12:35 ferry at 12:33...just made it! Otherwise we would have had to wait until three o'clock and then it would have been pointless to try and go.

The ferry ride was uneventful, and I found myself wishing wishing WISHING that I had a telephoto lens for my camera. Ugh, photography is going to be an expensive hobby/career.

You can find more pictures from our day at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/thenavywife21

Pregnant bellies, newborn babies and adorable toddlers beware!

Armed with only my Canon Rebel and Picasa, I've set out to capture this moment. The elusive, beautiful, safe moment when a mother holds her baby before anyone else can for one of the last times.


And this moment. The one where the brand new mama lets her baby's father in on the secret she has shared with her son for nine months.

This is another one of my favorites. This little boy has no idea how much his new sister is going to change things. Although her existence will show him how much his parents loved him when he was born.


And this one, when splashing in the bath tub is second only to mommy and daddy kisses.

I love my camera!

Congratulations have been in order...

Congratulations to my sister, and her wonderful fiance David. They are officially engaged! I'm so happy for them, because they fit each other perfectly.

Along with their enormous brains, they share a home in Boston, MA where they have amassed many friendships, books and one big ol' kitty.

I got the chance to use my new camera (you'll soon be tired of photos, I swear) and took a photograph of her gorgeous ring.

Nicole and I also had the chance to do some wedding talk, which gets me all atwitter and excited about Brides magazine, colors, themes, venues, flowers, dresses, food, music...I could go on forever!

But I won't. For now, this is for Nicole and her amazing engagement ring and for David who is the second luckiest man on earth. He gets to marry one of my parents daughters! (My husband is the luckiest, because he's the father of my daughter!)

My Review of Princess Cozy Coupe® 30th Anniversary Edition

LIttle Tikes

Little girls will beam behind the wheel of this smiling new redesign! This cozy features colors and styling to please every little princess. 

Features include a removable floor for foot-to-floor powering or protected feet while an adult pushes the car with the cut-in handle.&#...

Princess Cozy Coupe® 30th Anniversary Edition

Adorably obnoxious!

seriouslymommy Silverdale, WA 8/11/2009

 

4 5

Pros: Fun, Durable

Cons: Difficult To Assemble

Best Uses: Toddler, Outdoors

Describe Yourself: Stay At Home Parent, First Time Parent

This is an awesome toy, and the fact that it is harder to put together than a scale version of the Eiffel Tower using silly putty and carpet fibers didn't matter once I let my 20 month old daughter loose on it.

The front posts are extremely difficult to put in. Following the advice of another reviewer, we heated the ends of the posts with our hairdryer for about thirty seconds. It worked, and went together quite easily after that.

()

Picture-Palooza!

So, instead of trying to remember all the things that have happened since I posted pictures on this thing, I'm going to pick random pictures from the batch I uploaded today and write about them. This should be good.


Oh yeah! We took a road trip to California, with our friend Kim and her daughter Annabelle. We pit stopped in Rogue River, OR to see Uncle Dave and Aunt Lisa and the kids. We also stopped at every.single.mall.playground from Portland to Chico because while Emersen did handle the drive beautifully, it was taxing on all of us.

While in Napa, we ventured out to PB&J's for some awesome playtime. Emersen LOVES this place so much. I thought it would be intimidating, because every bounce house in there is so enormous, but not so much for her! Even now when she sees an air mattress, she bounces on it for dear life if she is allowed! (Clearly, she's tortured here...)



Here, Emersen is getting ready for the Vallejo farmer's market. She always looks like a tiny celebrity with her sunglasses on. She even wears them in restaurants. When waiters/waitresses comment, I always say "Oh, you didn't know you were serving a celebrity today did you!"


They laugh, and she gets a kick out of it as well. She asks for her sunglasses in the car, at the mall and it's truly hilarious when I'm strolling her around the mall and she's talking to Nana on the phone with her sunglasses on.














Here we are on the fourth of July. This was before the barbeque we were invited too. I love this, because it shows how much she and I look alike! I believe those are my eyebrows, my nose and my cheeks!











In this picture on the right, Ben is riding in his kite buggy, while Emersen pushes him. It's only fair, I mean she gets to ride in it all the time! See!









We drive the twenty minutes it takes to get to Bainbridge Island all the time. They have a super clean park with a huge field for Paul and our friend Ben to fly kites while the kids play!

Eventually the sun hides behind the trees and we must gather the troops and head out, all of us starving because we've played so hard! Everyone sleeps so good on those nights!



Here we have Emersen and Jason, sitting down on the main road in Silverdale. No, they aren't being punished, we are waiting for the Whaling Days Parade to start! Emersen had such a good time watching everyone go by, and grabbing candy when it was thrown. Also, when the marching bands would go by, or anyone with music for that matter she would get up and start dancing! Shaking that cute booty all over the place! Completely, and totally adorable.

Well, that's about it for now. I have some other pictures as well, and they'll be on Picasa (and I'll post the link) if Paul lets me put the program on his laptop. SO much more comfortable to sit on the couch and write while watching Hell's Kitchen or what not.

A pirate says "ARRR"

Patience is a virtue.

Yeah, yeah I know.

"Kaci, it's been so long since you bestowed upon us your wonderous prose!"

"Kaci, when do we get to see pictures of that model-perfect baby of yours?"

"Kaci, WRITE IN YOUR BLOG!"

I hear you, I hear you. I do.

Things have been hectic around here! A visit to California, and a precious (read: precocious) 18 month old don't make for a ton of time to write eloquently for longer than a minute, two minutes tops. What some people don't realize is, these things take time to write!

So, I leave you with this.

Emersen has now entered the potty training phase of life. Even though her doctor promised me it was too early!

Yesterday, she found Paul making his coffee. And this is how the conversation went:

"Daddy."
"Yes Emmie?"
"Toilet!"
"Okay..."

Followed by Paul setting Emersen on the big people potty and nothing happening.

We figured it was time to get her a potty. Her very own pink princess throne. (No, it does not have lame Disney princesses on it, although the seat cushion is so incredibly squishy, I'd like it for my own bum. It's no wonder she begs to sit on it.)

So, yesterday after nap we tried out the potty. She sat down for a good ten minutes, with her juice and the water running. (Hey, I wanted this to be successful!)

I was getting ready to leave for a baby shower, and when I absolutely had to leave she still had not gone. So, I kissed her good bye and left.

Paul says not five minutes later, she peed. ON THE POTTY!!!!!!!! (Excuse the over use of punctuation, I can see the light at the end of my diaper changing future!)

Not only had she gone the first time, but two times after that. AND, this morning when she woke up she asked to go potty and did it! She's amazing, incredible and has the brain capabilities of a genius.

So, I must bid this entry adieu because we have company coming and I still have to get the snacks together.

Please stand by for the next potty filled installment! *wink*

Where have we been? OUTSIDE!

Good morning everyone!

So you can understand why this blog has gone unnoticed for the last couple of weeks, I decided to post a few pictures of my sweet girl outside!

It's been gloriously sunny out these last few days, and we have been taking advantage of it! I even got a twee of sunburn on my face and arms. (Emersen was inside, taking a nap during peak hours so she was spared!)

This is her decidedly adorable wimple style bathing suit. Her Gigi and I thought it would be perfect, since the material has a sun protection factor of 50 and it covers a whole heck of a lot! I decided she would wear this one outside, and her bikini (adorable period) to the indoor pool here on base. I still slather the sunscreen on allover her body, but this gives me the feeling of having "insurance" in case I miss something, which happens to the best of moms. It even covers her ears!

Here she is playing with some buddies in the pool. They all had a blast. The huge bummer about it was the weather changed right after we got everyone swimming ready. It got windy and cold and all the moms had to run in and grab sweatshirts and hats for the kids. It was sweaty hot literally one minute, and the next it was fleece and boots cold. Washington, give us a BREAK!


This is Emersen doing her new favorite activity. She grabs the small boppy, intended for propping newer babies up for tummy time, and her baby. Then she pats the baby, and tries to give it the bink. She'll kiss it, rock it and give it a squeeze (hug, if you aren't familiar).

My heart just swells to a million times its size when I see her do this, completely on her own with no direction from anyone.

She's so sweet!

So, that's what we've been up to. Playing like crazy outside!

The night before I left for Napa, we decided to make our own cheese filled burgers. They were a hit, and this was the result:

Paul's burger had freshly sliced jack cheese in the middle, and my burger had bleu cheese!


They were so tasty, I've already had redo requests!