Mommy's graduation weekend with GiGi, BoomPa, Kary, and Kathryn

Friday night
Dinner at Huey's Poplar!  Leila enjoyed her new giggling squeezable Santa toy but mostly she showed BoomPa what an excellent artist she can be.  We saw letters, dots, Fridas, BoomPas, and more flow from Leila's pen to her napkin.

Saturday morning
University of Memphis winter 2008 commencement at the FedEx Forum!  Chandler looked great in her cap and gown and MFA hood.  Leila was surprisingly quiet - she slept most of the time.  The President was a great MC and the featured speaker was great too.  He is a professor in the athletics department with 42 years of service to the University.  He gave us some great perspective on how Memphis and UM have changed in that time period.

Saturday night
Christmas lights at the Memphis Zoo!  The seven of us walked through some amazing snow (flying up and out from a mysterious rooftop snow source), piled into a horse-drawn carriage and took in the pretty Christmas lights.  Leila bundled up tightly in a giant red coat (a gift from GiGi), Daddy's Harry Potter scarf, and her pink monkey toboggan.  I couldn't see much more than her eyes and cheeks but she was wide-eyed and talkative.  After the carriage ride we rode the train - always Leila's favorite part of the zoo.  Right before the exit we stopped over at the cookie decoration station.  Everyone got a sugar cookie with just the right amount of icing and some sprinkles.  Daddy had a lot of icing.  Leila woke up just enough to eat her entire cookie and grin at everyone.

Sunday morning
The seven of us got together one more time to play with Leila and then enjoy a lunch across town.  Leila was good, enjoyed her lunch, and hugged everyone before they drove home to Mobile.  Thanks for coming, Fultons!

Thanksgiving in Memphis

Thanksgiving in Memphis was great fun for Leila:

Wednesday
Leila met GrandMary's clan at Rendezvous barbecue on Wednesday morning for ribs.  Luckily for Leila there were plenty of HATS! hung around the bar and she pointed them out to us repeatedly.  Before lunch we all piled into the Art Museum of the University of Memphis to see Mommy's MFA thesis show.  Great GrandMargaret, GrandMama, and GrandDaddy arrived Wednesday night.

Thursday was a very busy day filled with cooking, eating, cleaning, and hugs.  Leila had a few more meals than usual and enjoyed having ten grown-up legs to weave in and out of.  We had Mommy's special carrot pudding and pumpkin cake, GrandMama's stuffing, Daddy's turkey, Great GrandMargaret's pecan pie recipe (prepared by GrandMama), and several more yummy dishes.

Friday morning Daddy and GrandDaddy shopped for toys at Sam's Club while the girls shopped at Williams Sonoma and some other places.  We had yummy Thanksgiving leftovers for lunch and then Mommy and Daddy had a great night on the town.  We saw the Memphis College of Art's MFA show and then we went to a movie about vampires in love.

Saturday
All six of us piled into a hotel suite to watch the Iron Bowl on a big TV.  Leila had a great time talking, demanding "ICEshhh", and eating gumbo.  We think she must be growing some new molars because she has been very interested in ice lately.

Sunday
Great-GrandMargaret, GrandMama, and GrandDaddy drove back to Alabama.  Mommy waited patiently while Daddy and Leila installed a chin-up bar in the closet.  Once that was out of the way Daddy brought down the Christmas decorations from the attic and Mommy hung them with care.  Leila went to Target to pick up some more Christmas lights, including a blinking star that hangs in the window.

Monday
Leila woke up, walked into her room, and jabbered excitedly about her pink fiber optical Christmas tree.  This soliloquy ended with "HO HO HO!"

dates we are trying to juggle:

Graduation festivities (in Memphis): December 12-14
Trip to see Tabitha and Daniel Ray (Leila and Mommy): December 17-19

Tentative itinerary for Christmas Trip:
Memphis to Jackson (Dec 22 morning)
Jackson to Mobile (Dec 22 evening)
Mobile to Foley (Dec 26)
Foley to Tallahassee?
Foley to Thomaston? (Jan 3 morning)
Thomaston to Memphis (Jan 3 evening)


We need to know if Grandmary is going to be in Jackson on Monday the 22 or if it would be easier for Jackson folks if we stopped for lunch and afternoon fun on Sunday the 21?

We need to know when the Pritchetts want to go to Tallahassee and when Papa and Becky might be there (and when they're going to be back in Thomaston in case we need to stop and stretch Leila's legs).

We would like to know which of our Mobile relatives would like to hang out and when--especially if any cousins want to plan another Dirty Santa party.

We would like to know what Finch Fulton is planning on doing and what Ashley and Matt Ramsay are doing with Roman.

We would also like to thank Amy and John for keeping it simple this year, even though we will miss getting to play with their beautiful girls!


Oh, and one last thing . . . I would also like to go see Prospect 1 in New Orleans . . . but not all alone. Anyone want to join me for a day trip from Mobile?

Pumpkin Pound Cake

Strap on your rollerskates, it's time to start baking Thanksgiving Cake!

I have 45 minutes to wait until this delicious pumpkin poundcake is ready. You should cook one too! It's great with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. The recipe is from "The Thanksgiving Table" by Diane Morgan.

2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
4 large eggs (room temp)
1 cup butter (room temp)
1 splash Jim Beam
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
Powdered sugar.

Preheat oven to 350 and butter your Bundt pan.
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom. Set aside.
Cream the butter, then pour Jim on the sugar, then add the sugar to the butter and beat until fluffy.
Use a fork to lightly beat the egg yolks, then on low speed, add them to your Jimsugarbutter.
Add the pumpkin puree and beat until smooth.

Using a rubber spatula, stir in one-third of flour mixture and continue stirring until flour disappears. Add more flour, stir, then add the rest of the flour and stir. But don't stir too much, because you don't want to overmix things and plus this is heavy batter and you don't want to pull a muscle.

Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and then, using your electric mixer, beat until they hold soft peaks. Fold the egg whites into the batter.

Spoon batter into Bundt pan and then bake for 45-50 minutes.

As cake is cooling, sprinkle with powdered sugar

Serve with vanilla Ice Cream and a drizzle of ooey gooey caramel sauce on your fancy Thanksgiving china.

Leila welcomes the holiday season

This weekend
Leila watched Santa's helicopter land on the Pink Palace museum's front lawn at exactly 9am on Saturday.  It was pretty scary but soon the other kids mobbed Santa while Leila and Daddy walked up to the helicopter.  We got just close enough to lean in and put a hand on the tail.  Leila said "All right!" because of course she likes touching helicopters.

We went inside to see the unveiling of the newly renovated Clyde Park Circus Parade.  This is a mechanical parade of sorts that Leila watched for a long time.  It's very exciting.  Around the corner were a bunch of Christmas trees decorated by various local organizations.  We walked through an ENCHANTED FOREST! for forty-five minutes and then met Santa Claus.  He was cool I guess.  Did I mention there was a wooden rocking horse and a basket of candy canes?  Hooray for horses!  Hooray for candy!  Everyone had a fun weekend.

Being Eighteen Months Old
This morning Leila pointed out the Apple Computer logo on Mommy's laptop.  We were surprised.  Tonight she pointed out the Apple Computer logo in someone's car window in a parking lot.  We were surprised.  Leila gets to have Thanksgiving at school tomorrow morning.  Leila gets to have barbecue for lunch on Wednesday with the Great Grandmarys.  Leila gets to have Thanksgiving with the Pritchetts and Great Grandmargaret on Thursday.

Mommy and Daddy love Leila and give her hugs every day.  Most mornings Leila gets daddy out of bed around six A.M.  She usually demands fire (with a celebratory All right! when I light the fireplace), juice, colors, and bay-bay (baby doll) to get day started properly.  She'll also throw in requests for kee (cookie) and/or seerul for a bowl of Daddy's breakfast cereal.  Mommy gets to tithe some cereal to Leila once Daddy gets into the shower just before work.

Elizabeth Owen

www.owenstudio.net

We're trying to make this into a Christmas card, but it's not working very well.
It's a gorgeous drawing that Elizabeth Owen made of Leila after she babysat this summer.
It's 50 inches tall. That's more than two Leilas!
Interested? Contact her at elizabethowenartist@hotmail.com.

Rendezvous

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Next Wednesday GreatGrandmary and her posse are coming to Memphis to see my show at the museum. After that, we're going to eat at the Rendezvous.

Anyone who wants to eat at the Rendezvous Restaurant next Wednesday needs to know this information:

They are opening the restaurant "just for us" (they're not normally open on Wednesdays) and giving us a limited menu.
Your choices are a "small" plate for 14.25 and a "large" for 17.50. Each plate comes with ribs, beans, slaw and rolls.
We can't split the check and they'll include the gratuity.

I am looking forward to seeing Leila pass out in her BBQ sauce because I'm pretty sure she's going to skip her nap for this:) Remind me to bring a camera!

After that, we're looking forward to entertaining Grandmama, Granddaddy and GreatGrandMargaret for Turkey Day. Recipes and other high-jinks to come.

Blingee!

Glitter Graphics

It's sort of like Wordle, right?


Personalized Glitter Graphics

Congratulations Chandler!

Congrats to Chandler on a successful thesis defense.  Leila's mommy is getting a terminal degree!

Tonight's thesis show featuring Chandler, Yijun Liao, and Robert McCarroll should be excellent.

Candy candy candy!

Happy Halloween!  Mommy was a Bee Girl for the fifth year in a row.  Leila switched from Bee Baby to Ladybug.  Daddy dressed as Urban Camera Dad.  Our friendly neighbors the Pennels were our first stop.  This is the family who hosted the pumpkin carving party we enjoyed so much a few weeks ago.  Their boy Buck dressed as a very scary dragon.  He's a few months younger than Leila but still quite ferocious.

It took Leila a few tries to really get into the spirit of running across people's lawns and silently commandeering their candy.  She was mostly focused on her rice krispie treat but by the time we made it to the third house she was prepared.  Leila walked right up and took some candy out of a bowl.  Daddy got to hold Leila's pink pumpkin and carry it along with all of the extra candy.  Amber and Justin surprised us at dinner with some excellent cupcakes on their way to see some excellent decorations two blocks over.

Saturday morning we tried and failed to vote early (polls were closed).  After that we went downtown for the River Arts Festival where we saw friends Tim & Jada putting on a live sculpture show.  Mommy picked up several business cards from the most interesting booths.  Leila and Daddy most preferred the images of flowers transferred onto shiny sheets of metal.  We closed out the festival with a dance party and then headed home by way of a yummy Indian buffet.

I am!

Octoberish

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of fun! Last weekend Leila got to decorate her first pumpkin at a party at Buck's (the boy's who lives across the street). Buck is Leila's age, and I can't wait until their old enough to really play together well. Their family grows pumpkins on their farm, so they had more than two dozen pumpkins lined up in their driveway for the kids to pick from. Leila loved getting to play with so many new kids her age. She got to paint her pumpkin and put stickers on it, but she had to be very careful with the paint because she was playing in a pretty dress. We all enjoyed eating pumpkin risotto for the first time and getting to try venison, duck, dove and other game that Buck's daddy cooked.

Leila loves to point at the pumpkins in the neighborhood when we go on our afternoon walk to the park. She also likes to point at and describe some of the other Halloween decorations that she sees, but she hasn't taught us what most of the words that she is using mean. We do know what she was talking about when she went to visit Mommy's show at Biggs Powell Interior Design today--she liked the chairs! She tried to sit in every chair she saw and they were all imported European antiques.

After we went by Bigg's, we got to go downtown and eat delicious fish at The Flying Fish. Mommy remembered reading about the Fish on one of her favorite blogs, but was glad to get the real experience with Leila. There was a whole wall covered with big mouth billy bass trophies! The food could never compare with Wintzell's, but since we're so far from the coast we'll take what we can get. We let Leila have a little taste of mild tobasco sauce on a cracker while we were waiting. She declared it "hot" but seemed interested. Leila thinks it's fun to experiment with flavors.

After lunch we went to the zoo. Everything was decorated for Halloween, but all Leila wanted to do was see the bears and ride the train. We have never seen Leila get so excited about bears before and we were amazed at all of her chatter as she zoomed towards the pandas and squealed around in the polar bear exhibit. We can't wait to see what she'll do the next time she sees Granddaddy's trophy bear!

Trick-or-treating is coming soon . . . Leila is ready!

chandlerpritchett.com

Mommy just launched a new website. Check it out at chandlerpritchett.com

Mac and Cheese Pancakes

This morning, Leila decided it was time for Daddy to get out of bed. After some good snuggles and pointing out Mommy's nose (which is the first thing she likes to do every morning), she said this, "Dad! Up. Juice!"

Then she started handing Daddy things off of the nightstand. "Ears" (hearing aids)
"Glasses, Cheepcheep (Ipod), Hello (phone), Beep Beep (keys)”
“This (random scrap of paper), THERE."

Then she grabbed his hand and dragged him down the hall to the rockrock chair to read some books.

I wonder if she things she's the Mommy and she's got to get us ready to go every morning? I think if she really wants to get Daddy out of bed she needs to learn to cook these:

Macaroni and Cheese Pancakes.

17 Months

Daddy came home Friday afternoon a few hours after GiGi went home to Mobile. Thanks for entertaining Leila so well this week, GiGi! Leila and Mommy spent a few hours in the airport waiting for Daddy - apparently there was some misunderstanding regarding the flight times. This led us all to go home tired and eat some pizza and go to sleep early.

On Saturday Leila went to the Pink Palace Arts and Crafts Festival for the second year in a row. She took a while to warm to the crafts but once she got to ride a train, pet a rabbit, pet a pig, and eat cotton candy while listening to Bob Marley covers she decided she liked the festival after all. Mommy did a good job saving Leila and Daddy from being too tired and cranky - the food and drinks and trains helped tremendously.

Today Leila and Daddy went to the zoo for the afternoon. We rode the train (toot toot, ding ding!) and visited Kofi the month-old giraffe. Supposedly we have a new giraffe due soon and a baby elephant due in a year or so. Elephant gestation lasts 22 months, says super friendly tilt-a-whirl operator at the zoo.

Leila and Daddy have had a great weekend getting reacquainted with one another (and with Nemo and Disney's Robin Hood). Tomorrow everyone's going back to school and work and day care. Except for Frida. She stays home.


Notice that Leila got to play with some baby-sized rocking chairs again this year. She's a huge fan of chairs and has the smile to prove it.

A Visit from GiGi

This week Leila invited one of her favorite people in the United States of America to come visit her in Memphis. Gigi flew in last Friday and went home yesterday. We invited her to come and play while Daddy was in Dallas on a business trip.

In case you don't know, one of GiGi's special talents is giving presents to little girls. Along with a great assortment of books and toys sent by Aunt Jenny, Leila is now the proud owner of a very important pair of shoes. While shopping with GiGi, Leila found shoes that are PINK . . .and SPARKLY . . . AND THEY HAVE BOWS ON THEM!!!! Shoes and bows and pink and sparkly all at the same time--I'm not sure that this can ever be topped! We might as well go ahead and cancel Christmas.

In addition to a little shopping, Leila enjoyed going to storytime with GiGi, watching lots of movies, dancing with scarves which she calls woo-woos because of the noise we make when we're dancing with them, and demonstrating the proper way to put a baby doll down for a nap by spreading all of the couch pillows over the living room floor, plopping all the babies on the pillows, draping a woo-woo over the babies, and then patting the babies on the bottom and saying "THERE." They also picked out a pumpkin and a costume for Halloween! (picture to come)

It was a great week and we're looking forward to seeing GiGi again soon.

habidashery

Leila likes hats. And she likes to make lots of different things into hats. She's pretty good at it too. She'll put pants on her head and say "HAT!" or when she gets out of the tub she'll put her washcloth on her head and declare "HAT! HAT!" The other day when we were walking she was holding her hand over her head and screaming "HAT! HAT! HAT!" so that the whole neighborhood could hear her. I didn't see anything in her hand, but she kept yelling. After about the tenth HAT! I saw what she was wearing. A raisin.

what a weekend.

This weekend we have to say goodbye twice.
Leila's great-grandfather passed away.
We also have to say goodbye to Oscar the dog.

It was also a little rough that Leila got sick yesterday morning and had to throw up a few time before she felt better.

But, we did make it to see Anna Dewdney yesterday morning and today we took a walk through the corn maze at the agricenter.

I hope next week we can post some happier stories.

contact info

Just a quick note: Chandler's phone has been acting up lately. She's going to rely on the home phone and e-mail to keep in touch with everyone until she's finished with her thesis. Since I know that at least one of Leila's uncles has misplaced our home phone number, I want to make sure he can find it here. The home phone is nine oh one seven six six nine nine five five and my email is chandler@pritchetts.us. Facebook pokes work too.

The best times to talk on the phone with Leila are on the weekends or between six and seven every evening. I am really glad that we have this blog to keep in touch with everyone, but I sure wish it was easier to chat on the phone with you too. Leila's really looking forward to visiting with her Gigi in a couple of weeks and to seeing Granddaddy and Grandmama during Thanksgiving. We hope that Grandmary will be able to visit in November as well. The thesis show opens on November 7 and will be up through December.

Cooper-Young

This weekend Leila went to the Cooper-Young festival. The Cooper-Young festival is an arts and crafts festival. It is also a chance for the people of Memphis to get together and compare tattoos and eat corndogs. It's pretty crazy:)

Leila went last year and so we had a hard time impressing her this year. Lots of Mommy's friends have booths at the festival and were very happy to see Leila. Mr. Tim and Mrs. Elizabeth even gave her a very pretty pin with a baby on it! I think that was Leila's favorite part of the whole festival, although the ice cubes in our fresh-squeezed lemonade were pretty appealing too.

Mommy's favorite booth was called Firebrand Furniture and was hosted by a guy who made some really cool furniture from the remnants of the floor of a Memphis skating rink. That family has a baby Leila's age and when I got home I googled the info on their business card and found a blog that's a lot like this one (but that has a baby with awesome red leather cowboy boots on the masthead).

Speaking of babies Leila's age, Leila has made a new friend at the park where she plays ever afternoon. It's really funny to see her playing with this girl. They chase each other up and around the slides then into the field and in front of the swings and they point to and talk about the same things. Leila is really good about complimenting what her friend is wearing. When they first met, Leila pointed at the girl's red bow and said "Bow!" Then she touched the girls pink shoes and said "SHOES!" I think everyone needs a friend like Leila to make them feel stylish.

Speaking of style, Leila has a new favorite color. She has been able to say "blue" for a few weeks, but last week she started to say "PINK." Now whenever we let her pick out a shirt it's the pink shirt and whenever we ask if she likes the pink shirt she starts giggling and showing it off.

Leila's looking forward to wearing her pink dress next weekend when we go to meet Anna Dewdney, the author of one of Leila's favorite books in the whole world, Llama Llama Red Pajama. Leila's read Llama Llama Red Pajama so many times that the pages are starting to fall out. Mommy and Daddy can recite it in our sleep (and sometimes do when changing an after-midnight diaper). Hearing the book read by the author should be a real treat!

Tag cloud for Leila's Blog

From wordle.net

Too much Nemo

Mommy: What sound does a cow make?
Leila: Bmoo
Daddy: What sound does a duck make?
Leila: Quack quack
Mommy: What sound does a turtle make?
Leila: DUDE!

Leila really likes Finding Nemo

in training

Leila is developing a healthy obsession with trains lately.

Today it was rainy outside, so she colored in a train coloring book with Mommy and Daddy. She is a big fan of playing with Thomas the Train sets at bookstores like Davis-Kidd and Barnes and Noble and she found another that she likes at a small independent toy store a few blocks away too. She's also had a great time riding the train around the farm at the zoo and gets very excited when she hears the real trains chug along near the park where she likes to swing. She has a book called The Little Red Caboose and knows a song about little red cabooses too. She also likes to sing a song that goes

"Down by the station
Early in the morning
See the little puffer-bellies
All in a row
See the station master
Turn the little handle
PUFF PUFF TOOT TOOT off we go!"


When it comes to the "puff puff toot toots" she chugs her arms in circles by her side and then pumps her right fist in the air to "toot toot" while nodding her head happily.

So if you're ever at a loss when trying to start a conversation with this little girl, I suggest that you start by asking Leila what goes "chugga chugga chugga chugga CHOO CHOO!" You'll have a new best friend.

Now . . . if only we can find a train set that comes in glittery pink.

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Thanks,
Daniel

Summer's Over in Memphis

Leila and Mommy had a great summer together. Leila went from not crawling very well to walking at high speed and climbing things. They went to Story Time at the Davis-Kidd bookstore many times, started visiting the Farmer's Market every week for fresh fruit and vegetables. They visited the world-class Memphis Zoo each Monday. They read every book in the house fifty times.

Daddy and Leila woke up early together each day and rocked in the recliner, read books, ate cereal, took showers, and chased Frida. Each afternoon we walked a mile to the park for swingset time and visits with other kids. Afterwards we come home, wipe off the sweat, and eat dinner. A quick bath and a read of Llama Llama Red Pajama capped off many great days.

This week Leila's back in day care and Mommy is entering her final semester of graduate school. It was a good summer. Leila is fifteen months old now and she is wonderful.

Happenings for July - 14 months old

Leila walks very fast now, zooming around the house bouncing off of the furniture. She's picked up a chipped front tooth and the bruise on her chin is fading somewhat. She loves loves LOVES to walk though so we all just enjoy it. Leila walks to the local park every afternoon to play on the swing set with Daddy. She reminds Daddy that it's time to get in the stroller the MINUTE he gets home every day. Everyone likes the walk and the swinging, and Mommy likes getting a few minutes to relax after a long hard day of wrangling a one year old.

A few weeks ago the three of us visited Pritchetts (Becky & Papa, Paula & Jim) and Nunnallys (Aunt Amy, cousins Sarah and Rachel) in Thomaston, AL. Mommy even drove down to Mobile for cousin Roman's baptism.

Sunday evening Mommy & Daddy's good friend Mrs. Elizabeth came over and played with Leila for a few hours while Mommy & Daddy went to see the new Batman movie with their friends the McGregors. Daddy liked Batman very much and would probably go see it again if arranging entertainment for Leila was simpler.

Frida the dog enjoys being Leila's best friend, even though she gets her ears and tail pulled a bit more than she'd like. There's always spare baby food to be had at the base of Leila's high chair. Sometimes Leila and Frida conspire to force Daddy to walk the two of them at once. Leila says "Sit! Sit!" and points at Frida's leash. She does this because Mommy & Daddy both order Frida to sit! before we attach her leash to her collar. Once Leila gets going with the sit-sits Frida joins in and starts to jump around until Daddy gives in and we take off pulling back on the leash with one hand and pushing forward on the stroller with the other. It gets complicated when we have to navigate curbs but Leila and Frida enjoy it so much it's worth the bother.

Mommy has finally gotten Leila to see the fun in coloring and so they color each and every day. Leila is very enthusiastic about it, carrying her crayons all around and coloring on any surface she can find: Refrigerator, floor, television, wall at the children's museum, Frida, Leila's clothes, but mostly she just colors on paper. The picture at right shows Leila coloring a page stuck to the refrigerator. Perhaps she is reproducing the ultrasound of herself that is being used as a magnet.

Mommy and Daddy are searching the area for a good in-home day care for Leila to enjoy once school starts up again. The state of Tennessee has good resources for identifying and rating the different options in our area. Hopefully Leila finds someone as much fun as Mrs. Elizabeth.

New Cousin and Summer Fun

First, we are so glad to welcome Leila's new cousin Roman into the world!  Leila was so impressed by meeting him that she learned a new word, "baby!"  After we returned from our visit in Baton Rouge, Leila has been spotting babies everywhere and has started taking special care of her little baby doll.

Some of you probably wonder what Leila has been doing all summer.  Well, this girl likes to go go go!  She's been walking while holding our hands for a while now and just this week she's started chasing dogs while not holding anyone's hand at all.  She has a pretty expansive vocabulary, and mostly likes words that begin with B and P and D and  G.  Ball, book, bear, block, and bmoo (what a cow says) are all great topics for conversation.  She also likes to say Nuh-night and Buh-bye and uh-oh when she hurls her toys out of her reach.

On Monday mornings we go visit her friends at the zoo, where we especially like to hang out in the cool Polar Bear rooms.  We also like to go bmoo at the cows, baa at the sheep, and cluck at the chickens.  We've even spotted two new gorillas in the primate area, girl gorillas from San Diego.

On Tuesdays we go to storytime at Davis-Kidd, where all the boys and girls wear party clothes to go play with a model train set, sing "If You're Happy and You Know It," and read books about five silly monkeys, Corduroy the Bear, or farm animals.

On Wednesdays we go to the Farmer's Market at the Botanical Gardens to get delicious treats like tiny cucumbers and just-picked peaches.  We also like to smell at the herbs that the herb farmers bring like chocolate mint or lemon basil.  Last week we brought home some zucchini bread too. The Farmer's Market is one of Leila's favorite places to practice walking by herself--the grass is nice and soft and there are so many exciting things to see and very few hazards that she might "accidentally" pick up to test her throwing arm with.

On Thursdays we sometimes go to an encore performance of storytime at Davis-Kidd and often find ourselves running other errands (especially before weekends where we have big trips planned).  If we have extra time, we go shopping at the mall or at thrift stores, which Leila really likes because she can find lots of trouble to get into AND sometimes she comes home with a goodie.  This Thursday she came home with a set of butterfly wings to celebrate the fact that she walked all the way from Dillard's to the end of Macy's without asking to be picked up.

On Fridays we like to wish Daddy wasn't at work, because usually Mommy is out of ideas by then.  This Friday we even went to his office so we could take him to lunch!

On most Saturdays we go to the library and on Sundays sometimes we go to the dogpark.

Every day Leila gets to go on a walk with Mommy in the early afternoon and then again with Daddy when he gets home from work.  Leila likes it when Frida comes too, but sometimes that's a lot to handle.  We often walk to the park to play on the swings and down to a neighbors house to play with dogs.

We're looking forward to visiting with our friends Tabitha and Danny, who have been wonderful about coming to Memphis every summer since we moved here.  After their much-anticipated visit, we'll be driving to Thomaston to visit with Sarah and Rachel for July Fourth.  Mommy will be making a side trip to Mobile to be Roman's Godmother.  Then we'll be back to routine!

Leila's Summer Vacation

A lot has happened since our last update in March. Leila is out of day care for the summer and Mommy is entertaining her in the daytime while working in her studio at night.

Leila turned one on the second of May and celebrated several times. She and Mommy went to Thomaston, Tuscaloosa, Mobile, and Foley all in the span of a week and a half. Daddy went along to Thomaston for Mother's Day and Tuscaloosa for Uncle Finch's college graduation.

Grandmama Pritchett came to visit for a few days after Leila's big trip to Alabama and among other fun things we shared Leila's first watermelon of the new year. Mommy installed some of her paintings in downtown Memphis at the Center City Commission and we all went downtown one day to see them. They looked so good one of the directors at the Commission wanted to buy the whole set.

The Memphis Zoo has just reopened their butterfly exhibit after a long winter so we went to visit again. Leila has grown just a bit since the first time we took her to the zoo exactly one year ago.

Leila eats nonstop nowadays. We usually feed her fruit (bananas, watermelon, strawberries), beans, vegetables (she doesn't go for broccoli), cereal, cheese, yogurt, juice, and whole milk. She helps us spread the food all over the tray and the floor. Frida helps pick up the choice bits off of the floor - mostly just the cheese and crackers and cereal.

Leila is trying very hard to learn to walk - she spends a lot of time every day holding on to one or two of her parents' hands, leaning forward, and quickly walking around the house, the yard, the driveway, and any place we happen to visit. Daddy especially likes it when she walks with her sandals on because they make an amusing slapslapslapslapslap sound as she moves.

March

The last month has been pretty busy around our house. First Mom went on a trip to Dalls for the Collegiate Art Association national conference. These were Leila's and Daddy's first nights alone together without Mom. We did surprisingly well; I gave her a few bottles of formula every night and she mostly slept without complaint. The week was much easier thanks to Leila's Granddaddy coming up from Foley to visit us. He telecommuted during the day and played with Leila in the evenings. Thanks Granddaddy!

Two weekends ago we went to the Memphis Zoo. We are members for the third year in a row and we go as often as we can when the weather is nice.


On the way to the zoo we stopped and bought some girl scout cookies. Leila enjoyed them!


Leila and Mom also went to Baton Rouge last weekend to visit the Ramsays and Fultons (save Finch, who was at school and will be graduating soon).

This week Leila is learning how to sleep alone in her crib in her own room at nights. She has not been particularly excited about this but last night she slept very well.

Long Overdue Update

We haven't updated Leila's blog in a while because she has been very very busy lately!

In January Leila started attending La Petite Academy. She loves it when Daddy drops her off at "school" every day and has really bonded with Ms. Gloria (who has been working at LaPetite in the baby room for twenty years!) and Ms. Tasha and all of the other wonderful women who take care of her. When Daddy picks Leila up he always has to thank people who tell him that Leila is their favorite. I'm sure they don't tell that to all of the parents:) A couple of the women have a nickname for Leila: Bubbles. We haven't asked what that's all about, but I hope it has to do more with her happy personality than with her recent runny nose. Mommy's favorite nickname for Leila is Smiley Face.

Daddy likes to tell her that she's his Big Girl. She really is getting bigger and more wonderful every day! On her 9 month birthday she was officially wearing all of her size 12mo clothes and she just had a growth spurt so all of her baby fat is having to stretch out to match! She's been crawling and scooting around and being more physical too. She likes to crawl to explore new territory at home and is particularly interested in playing with the DVD player. We got a special foam alphabet mat for the family room floor that has really encouraged her to roam around and she plays with her musical instruments on it every morning while Mommy and Daddy hunt for her new pink shoes.

Speaking of shoes, Leila has grown through two shoe sizes already! She can't even walk yet! For her 9 month birthday she got a new pair of pink Robeez. We think Robeez are really great because they're like leather moccasins with elastic bands at the top. That means that they fit Leila's oddly-proportioned feet and a flexible enough to help her crawl and balance when she's standing up. The elastic also means that she has trouble pulling them off and that we don't have to mess with shoe laces. We just wish Robeez had a few less gender-specific designs. Everything is either pink hearts, princesses and flowers or bugs, dragons, and snakes. Maybe Mommy should design her own line of baby shoes!

Last week was especially eventful for Leila. Tuesday night she had her first ear infection:( When we gave her baby Tylenol to cut down the fever, it made her throw up all over Mommy a bunch of times. So after a call to an RN and then to our pediatrician, Daniel ran out in the middle of tornado weather to get baby Motrin. That's right, tornado weather . . . while Leila was burning up with fever and throwing up all over every clean sheet in the house, the sirens in Memphis went off twice for almost an hour each time.

When Daddy got home safely, he not only had the baby Motrin, but had also managed to bring home the last king cake in Memphis. Mommy got the piece with the baby in it, which made her a little nervous about next year . . . Daddy set the bar pretty high when he managed to fetch the cake in such a high-stress situation.

Leila spent most of last week home with Daddy, who was sick with an eye infection, but was feeling much better by Friday. It's a good thing too, because Friday night Uncle Finch came to town!!! Leila had SO MUCH FUN with Uncle Finch. He took her to the zoo! And made her PIZZA FROM SCRATCH! That was the first time she got to taste pizza and she LOVED IT!


Hopefully this week won't be quite as eventful for Ms. Leila and we'll be back to weekly posting soon. After all, I'm sure everyone will want to know what Leila is doing for her first Valentine's Day!

Congratulations Ashley and Matt!

One of the highlights of our Christmas vacation was getting to participate in Ashley Fulton's wedding to Matt Ramsay. We had a great time even if Leila didn't quite manage to keep quiet throughout the ceremony.

We really enjoyed getting to see so many of Leila's Fulton relatives. Daddy particularly enjoyed the food. Shrimp and grits! Blackened stuffed mushrooms!

Mommy was the matron of honor and she did a wonderful job too.

It's Relatives! (guest post by Grandmama Paula)

Christmas in Foley on December 27^th.

RachelLEILASarahChandlerDanielAmyJohnDavidLoraanotherAmyGrandmamaGranddadyPeggyBeckyPapaMargaret and other assorted relatives. As you can see, we had many stars to our show. Since this is LEILA’S blog, she deserves capital letters at all times. All three of our granddaughter’s were here for Christmas. For some it was the first time to meet LEILA and Rachel. Rachel is 5 ½ months old and LEILA is almost 8 months. Sarah is 2 ½ so she is old news. She is old enough to need a full price ticket to fly from Denver. That is pretty important for a little girl. The baby girls had lots to learn from each other. They learned to cooperate and work together to open up one of Granddaddy’s presents. It was a lot of pull and tug but finally they made it through the shiny, silver paper. Since LEILA is the more mature baby she was able to teach Rachel the fine art of eating smushed bananas. Rachel and LEILA were also able to share each other’s Christmas toys. Sarah concentrated on the big people because babies are old hat to her. LEILA stayed with her grandparents while her parents ate at Floppers in Loxley. As you know, Daniel and Chandler really, really like seafood. Just to make them feel loved, LEILA was very happy when her parents (especially her mother) returned. Our house has been filled with people and babies, a dog, toys, towels, Christmas presents, food, Becky’s walker, booster chairs, high chairs, an Exersaucer and more excitement than you can imagine. Jim and I went easy on the Christmas presents for each other this year because all we wanted for Christmas were three baby girls. We got our wish and had a very merry Christmas in Foley.