Thank you CaliforniaGrammy!

I appreciate the nudge :-)
Can I just ask: what the heck happened to April? I looked up and it was Cinco de Mayo. Crazy.
We have been to two baby showers and one '1st birthday' party and one going away party within these last three weeks. Lots of kids, lots of fun. And lots of memories during the going away party. I will miss you Kim!
We finally got over our illnesses - it took awhile for David to kick it. And we were healthy for two weeks. And then I went to yoga... Toddler yoga. Sam and I have been going for 7 or 8 weeks and we love it. There is one other little girl Sam's age. And she may be the only other one that doesn't crawl or walk yet. So she and Sam usually sit next to one another so they can play. This last week, they were playing as usual: grabbing at one another's toys, hair and feet, etc. After a couple of downward dog poses I looked at Sam and realized...that's not her binky in her mouth! Later that night when I saw Sam's drippy nose I remembered the constant trail running down the other little girl's nose at yoga. Ick. So she has been drippy and congested and she gave it to David. Germs. They travel quickly, don't they?
Sam has been a little trooper though - still perky and chattering. It's just heartwrenching listening to her stuggling for a breath as she tries to sleep with her binky. Today, however, she woke up from her nap and I realized that she has learned how to hold the binky in the side of her mouth so she can breathe through the other side! Hilarious. Yes, these are the things that fill my life.

Here are some pictures:

Here's Princess Hope at her One Year birthday party.




And here she is showing off her gymnastic abilities to her cousins!

Here are the two cousins sharing a look

The weather lately has been GORGEOUS! 73 one day, 77 the next. And then over the weekend grey and rainy, but we are used to that here! We took advantage of the sunny days to have a BBQ in the backyard:

Sam has her 9 month appt next week so I'll keep you all posted on her "percentiles". She is still taking pity on her parents and hasn't started crawling yet. But her latest new thing has been to feed herself with her bottle. It wasn't until a couple of days ago that she caught on to the 'raise the bottle to keep the milk flowing' concept. Now she looks around happily as she takes the bottle out of her mouth at will.

I think that is about it. We are glad my parents returned home safely from their trip to Chicago. They saw all the highlights of the city: Wrigley field, the Chicago symphony, the Art Institute and the White Sox. Busy whirlwind tour of the windy city.

I hope you are all well!