Mommy Mimicker?

Most of the week was spent with Daddy gone on a business trip to Houston while I stayed around here with Rhianwen. That didn't get us girls down though! We had a fabulous week including a quick visit from Grandmama and Grandaddy who brought Rhianwen her first birthday gifts ever! When they arrived, they were greeted by a very excited Rhianwen who had been wearing mommy's purse around her neck all day. This activity had conjured up images of Rhianwen getting the purse caught on something and hurting her neck...kind of nerve wracking. But I managed to get some funny pics of her anyway. The funny thing about the gifts were that we told Rhianwen she could dig through the bag (an activity she constantly is doing whether it is mommy's purse or her diaper bag), but she just stared at it. When we showed her how to tear the wrapping paper, she took a while to latch onto that too!

Kitty showing Rhianwen how it's done.

Finally, she started opening her gifts. She got a zany hat that finished the tacky tourist look.

"Is this a Twilight Zone episode?"

Birthday gifts hooray!

She also got a "ride-on" car. When she first got on it, she only was moving backwards, and we all said, "Oh, it'll take her a couple of days before she gets the forward motion." Try a couple of minutes. She was zooming up and down the hall before Grandmama and Grandaddy left. Then I said to myself, "Yeah, but it'll be a long while before she can get off and on by herself." Try one day. She can actually straddle the thing all on her own. Getting off is a little trickier, and she's had plenty of noggin bumps, but she can do that too!

She got so fast that she ran over a cat. See it peeking out from under the car?

Thursday night Rhianwen and I ventured out to Carborro where we ate dinner with some college friends. The majority was men whom Rhianwen had never met before, and I think she was a bit overwhelmed. Joey even took her for a speedster stroller ride, hit the curb, a root, and a rock before getting her back to the car.

By the time daddy came home, I had deposited my purses well out of reach, but Rhianwen managed to fish some stuff out of the laundry basket to put around her neck. I will leave it to your imaginations as to what it was! She greeted daddy with this paraphernalia as he walked in the door! Very funny.

On a sadder note, our poor Clemson team got beaten by GT.

Uz, we lost.

During the loss, we ate supper, and Rhianwen refused to eat her cut-up meat and potatoes. Instead she grabbed my food ate some of it, chewed the rest, and deposited it back on my plate. I expressed my sense of gratitude at this juncture...or something like that. And Wally said, "Well, she just wants to imitate you!". No, I don't chew my food and spit it back on my plate or steal it from other people (unless it's chocolate, then I will steal it, so watch out!). But she just wants to wear mommy's purses, mommy's laundry, and eat mommy's food. I guess I should be flattered and store this in my memory bank for when I and she are older and Rhianwen thinks that mommy is totally uncool and would never dream of wearing those so last-season bags!

Imagination and Improvisation

Early in the week the weather was cool, refreshing, and comfortably cozily chilly at night. We pulled out a cute sleeper outfit for Rhianwen that had her name on it and everything! It barely fits her, so we don't know how much use we'll get out of it, and we couldn't resist having a photo session with her in it!



She's just bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (as Grandpa would say)!

I feel like we had an incredibly creative week here with Rhianwen. Somewhere along the past 11+ months she has learned some serious moves! They can't possibly be from me...so, I can only venture to guess that Grandma Nanny Kim snuck in some lessons when I wasn't looking!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video HostingMore and more often, I find myself wondering, "Who needs toys?"! Rhianwen is becoming a wiz at imagination or maybe just plain old creativity. She does play a lot with her toys but always manages to find that common household object with a hidden potential that only she can unlock!



"Forget buying a halloween costume, I can look like an alien for free!" (Rhianwen figured this one out all on her own!).

Daddy had a hat just like this growing up and thought it would be cool to duplicate it!

There are some small benefits to still being in renovation mode. The ladder ended up serving as a nice little cave for Rhianwen to play with on a rainy day. We were so happy for the rain, but Rhianwen loooves playing outside. We normally just have her out from the time after supper until bathtime. It keeps her happy and preoccupied and mostly tantrum free.

"Rainy days don't get us down!"

Rhianwen has also enjoyed crawling into and playing in the newly painted cabinets! She just seems to like seeing the world from under there and throwing toys from there onto the kitchen floor. During the Clemson game we worked on teaching her how to navigate the one step in our house. She mainly just wanted to get as close the edge as possible and then kind so slide off of it. But she did manage to step down 3 or 4 times. When I started thinking about it I was amazed at how much coordination it takes to do that! We take so many things for granted in this life and it either takes personal set-back for us to realize it or a fresh look at everything through a new learner like Rhianwen.

We finally put one of the couches together, and after enjoying the "front porch" view from our picture window, Rhianwen decided an imaginary horsey ride would be just finishing touch needed to incorperate it into the house.



We are trying to get ready for Rhianwen's birthday and went to BarnesnNoble to check out which books Rhi liked the best. We ended up getting a touch/feel book with lots of baby animals that she just loooves. But of course, it was made in China. Oh well! The baby has chosen! Also, we have decided on plastic Gerber bottles, the simplest most basic design ever, cheap, and best of all, that are made right here in the USA and BPA free! Thank you for all of your votes! Rhianwen didn't flinch at the change, and actually loooves playing with the cap on the new ones. She puts it on and off of the bottle and is happy doing that for 15 min at a time! Great for the morning feeding! It gives us just a bit more time lazing around in bed!

Lastly, Rhianwen got to touch a real live toad last night. I'm not sure what she thought of it, but I managed to flip the toad over in my hand so she could touch his belly (otherwise, he just kept jumping out of my hand!). Life is so fun with a baby!

Fraggle Rock

"Look at my Fraggle Rock Hair."

I just looove Rhianwen's hair! It's getting so long, but it's still so fine and light, that it just stands up in the air and waves back and forth at any breeze. It reminds me of the Fraggle Rock muppets.

This week we received some really sad news about Wally's cousin Ferguson. Ferguson died in a car accident on Wednesday morning. The strange thing was that just the day before this happened, I had been thinking about miscarriages and deaths and thinking how sad it was that all people had to die. But then I thought how comforting it is to know that even death is in God's hands and that Job was able to say, "The LORD gives and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD." How amazing! Ferguson was loved by many many people and will be missed! Life is so precious. Each day is precious. What can I do to make each day a day to be treasured? God has entrusted us with our daughter, a little and significant soul. In the end, she is God's daughter; we are her keepers for now. I pray that by our words, actions, love, God's overarching and more perfect love will be impressed on her heart even now and that she will love, trust, and joy in her perfect Father who only gives good gifts to His children.

Wally, Cousin Lee, Rhianwen, and I went to the mountains of NC to see family. We stayed at a hotel in Waynesville on Friday night, and in the morning were able to enjoy the view from our rocking chairs on the balcony.

This picture doesn't do it justice.

Rhianwen enjoying the rocking chair on the balcony.

Who knew shoes could be so functional?

I wish we had pics of family. We were blessed to spend time with a good number of people, young and old and in between. Our camera batteries, however, did not hold out.

If anyone feels so inclined, please vote at the top of the page on what kind of bottles you would get! I am also trying to eliminate buying anything made in China after all of the recalls of the past few months. Besides which, I believe China as a government should not be supported...they have performed such atrocities to their own people. How could we trust that they would want anything better for us?

First Sniff

This week, Rhianwen took her first intentional whiff of a flower. Our gardenias are blooming and smell wonderfully fragrant. So I decided to see if Rhianwen wanted to have a closer smell. I showed her how to do it and she looked a little puzzled as to why I was breathing so strangely but decided to give it a try. After one smell she decided to lean in to smell again, which is when Wally took this picture.


In some exciting developments on getting this house more functional, Wally got his new nailgun! Rhianwen was all into that, and liked the cool shaded work glasses that came with it.

Helping daddy with instructions.

Rhianwen skipped church this Sunday because she is still raspy from a cold. I think we will call the Doc this afternoon and schedule a look-see. She is happy as can be most of the time. We went to a friend's house for supper one evening, and Rhi decided that she was bored with the surroundings and tired to boot so she took it upon herself to attempt to break the sound barrier using her still strong but raspy vocal cords. We left in a hurry especially since it was in an apartment!

"See my pretty necklace?" - Rhianwen put this on herself! As some of my friends from playgroup say about accessorizing/beautifying, "Girls just get it."

It's getting extremely hard getting good pics of this girl on the move. My camera just doesn't take shots fast enough! We have a LOT of pictures of the back of our girl's head! So, if you notice that there seem to be a plethora of pictures of Rhianwen in her booster seat, well...there are!

Who could resist this little honey?

To introduce this next movie on Channel Rhi, we must explain that at the time this movie was taken, Mommy and Rhianwen were perusing a photo album containing pictures of Rhianwen's uncles, grandparents, and great grandparents on her mommy's side. This is what she had to say to them:


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Poor little oo.

This is gonna be short b/c I just can't spend more time at the computer...But Grandma Nanny Kim is stealing my pics and posting them to her blog, so I had better keep up!

Our poor little oo has a cold. She had a fever for a couple of days but seems much better now. She really looooved having Grandmama and Grandaddy over last week.

"This whiffle ball is so fun! Thanks Grandaddy!"

Rhianwen got her FIRST pair of sneakers this past weekend. For you moms out there, Stride Rite shoes can be bought at about half price at http://www.kidsurplus.com/ She's a pro walking around already. She even walked all over gumballs without a flinch.

New snazzy shoes and they even light up!

Playing peekaboo with Daddy.

Don't worry Grandma Nanny Kim, the ball held out!

Getting siked for the Clemson v. Fla. State game. "We're going to take those Seminoles and dangle them for a while and drop them at the very end of the game!" Wow Rhianwen, maybe we should listen to you more often!

Messy mommy and baby having a little fun despite a cold.

2 new things that Rhianwen has been doing that are so cute are, she will take your hand and guide it to where she wants you to do something. For example, if she wants you to shut off the light, she takes your hand and guides it to the switch. It is so so cute! The other thing is that she will bring a book, hold it up to us until we take it, then reach up and look at us with expectation until we put her in our lap to read to her. What an adorable 11 month old!