Laundry Lessons

This was the pile of laundry I had to fold the night before we left for Jubilee.
I've learned a few things about laundry since we've been here...

• I want 3 washer and dryers for the rest of my life!
• Guys don't really know how to do laundry.
• Guys aren't willing to read directions (clearly posted on the walls) about how to do laundry.
• If there are holes from the drum of the dryer directly to the outside, it's no big deal. It just makes the hallway and apartments really humid.
• If you leave your clothes in a washer or dryer too long and someone wants to use them, they'll continue your laundry for you. :)
• Guys don't check their pockets for gum before putting their clothes in the washer or dryer.
• Don't over think the red hair you find in the lint collector, especially because you don't think there's a red-head who lives on your floor.
  
• Sharing 3 washer and 3 dryers with a hallway of undergraduate men is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

-H

Christmas Re-lived

I finally found some time to go through my family's Christmas pictures and found some favorites.
This was her reaction to her singing stocking (she was waving her hands and "singing" with it)...
She was starting to get the concept of "unwrapping." Now if we could only get her to understand that the wrapping paper isn't food...
This was at Great Grandmom's house. She was good as gold and happy as a lark playing on the floor...
We're already looking forward to Christmas this year!
-H

Raspberries anyone?

A couple nights ago, Ilana was blowing raspberries and babbling like crazy. It was hilarious. I love this girl so much!!!

She had blown raspberries for so long that her lips were covered with spit. We had spit everywhere!
-H

Standing...definitely

This girl loves to "sing." I laugh all day long!
-H

She's moving...backwards

On Tuesday Ilana officially started moving. It's not forward yet. She can easily get from a seated position to her belly, then this is what happens...

It's slow, but it's a start!
-H

Catching up

Ok, so obviously my blogging resolutions didn't stick, but my camera kept clicking! So, here's the past few weeks in a nutshell...
A few weeks ago, Ilana was in and out of fevers and runny noses. Poor thing, it was either this...
or this...
or this for a whole week.
(And poor thing, she was just trying to stay sane and there I was snapping pictures.) Don't worry, she was much happier after a dose of infant Tylenol.

Moses turned 3 years old!! For his birthday I took him on a "birthday walk." I gave him no time limit, tugged his leash as few times as possible, and let him sniff as much as he wanted. He had such a blast. I think we were gone for about an hour and this was his face when we got back...
He was a HAPPY doggy!!

Over Valentine's Day weekend we flew up to Pittsburgh for the annual Jubilee conference. By the end of the trip Ilana's new nickname was "Super Trooper." She did amazing, despite throwing her schedule completely out of whack. Oh and yes, she now drinks from a sippy cup, all by herself, just like a big girl. This is us at the airport, drinking as much of our fluids as we could right before we went through security...

We gave Ilana her Valentine's cards to read, until she started eating them. Then she screamed when we took them away (she's become quite a drama queen lately).

I think that's it! You're officially caught up...again. We're falling more and more in love with Ilana every day now. She's all baby these days, babbling like crazy, almost crawling forward, pulling up on everything (she can only get to her knees, but she still practices every day), eating really well and sleeping all the way through the night. We're LOVING it!!
-H

We play! ...or is it Wii play!!

Ilana is really beginning to move. She can scoot herself around in a circle on the ground and even scooch closer to something. She is closer to crawling than EVER before, it's wild. In the meantime, though, she loves to "read" books...
After she goes to bed, this has become Paul's new "thing" - the Wii.
Here he's talking to it...yes, talking to it...
And here he is in all out ACTION...
He's very serious. We've concluded that Paul needs actual unstructured time in his day. He has to schedule himself to strictly to fit everything else in - studying, classes, work, time with Ilana (yes, this even has to be scheduled in) - that on his one night off during the week, or in his 15 minutes before he has to be somewhere, or when his brain just absolutely needs something different to do, the Wii is perfect!
Ilana and I went to Houston for a long weekend, just got back last night. I forgot the camera, so I don't have any pictures. :( We had a blast celebrating Tass's 2nd birthday with everyone down there. I got my photos from the pregnancy shoot Joe did with us last February when we were down checking out Baylor. I'll post some soon. It's crazy to think that was a year ago!!! Where has the time gone?
-H