Love.Angel.Music.Baby

So I just read this in an email update I receive weekly from Parents.com

"Now's also a good time to bone up on your best "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." Most babies love listening to music from minute one, but now that he's becoming more interactive, his facial expressions will show you just how much he loves his favorite lullabies. In fact, your baby probably likes when you sing to him more than any pro pipes he hears. Why? Because unlike a standard CD, moms tend to fine-tune their voices to suit baby's mood (even subconsciously), crooning in an upbeat way when he's bubbly or in a comforting way when he's fussy, for example."

Funny thing is that yesterday I was scrolling through the music channels on my TV. I was singing and dancing along with Eva in my arms. We listened to a little bit of everything - but do you know what she liked best?? Elvis singing Jailhouse Rock. She also liked Push It by Salt'n Pepper. Go figure. Eva is going to have some pretty diverse music tastes!

Celebrating Love

This past weekend Gilbert, Eva and I went to Orlando to celebrate my grandparents 65th wedding anniversary. It was so nice to be around family - and we were all there! My grandparents and Uncle George from Pennsylvania, my parents, sister, bro-in-law and niece from Indiana, Suzie from South Palm (she just returned from 2 weeks in Costa Rica!), and Aunt Cheryl, Uncle Ken, cousin Steve and wife Jenn from Orlando. Whew - what a bunch!

The only big plans were having a photographer come to the house to capture some big family photos and celebrate their 65th anniversary with cake. The other big highlight was receiving a "Grandmother Remembers" book that my grandmother and mom put toghether with some amazing stories and photos.

Here are tons of pictures from the weekend with lots of love to go around!

Eva on the plane. She did so well and we lucked out with one of the few empty middle seats on our Southwest flight!

The reason for our trip!

Grammie & Eva

Aunt Amy, (Jackie), Eva

Miss Sophie greeting Eva

The girls are catching up. A lot has happened since their July visit.

Talking and Not Talking

One of the many hugs exchanged

One of the many kisses exchanged!

Holding Baby Eba

Sharing means caring! Sophia is sharing Pinky with Eva.

The Girls

Me, Eva and Grammie

Pardie & Eva

Sophia and Eva are about the same age difference as my sister and I. Mimi is having fun with her girls - remembering the fun times:)

Loving on Eva after game night. Isn't she the sweetest?

Munching on her fingers with Daddy.

My girl

For Aunt Amy

Eva in her hot shorts. Look at those legs!

Exploration

Eva is really into exploring things with her hands. Her favorite thing right now is faces. She loves to touch our faces - which I think is rather sweet:)

She also can grab onto objects. She will hang on to our shirts, my hair and will sometimes grab and pull at my necklace! The other day she hit the buttons on her exersaucer to play the music. Very exciting!

I had retired the Moby wrap for awhile (not too sure why), but at the suggestion of the other moms in playgroup, I got it back out and tried Eva in the front-facing positon. She loves it! I can put her in it when I need to eat lunch or when I am working. I also wore her yesterday as I vacuumed the house. I had thought that we would take her stroller this weekend to Orlando, but think that I just may wear her in the airport instead. I am sure she will love checking everything out!

Gilbert's Pride & Joy

Gilbert has a thing for TVs. He LOVES them. A few weeks ago he sold his TV. It was a little old (by his standards) and he really wanted a new one. He took the proceeds from the sale of his TV and saved his fun money and purchased this:

It is a 50" Samsung Plasma. I must say it is rather nice. The picture is amazing. We called Dish to see how much it would cost to add high definition. Way too much - they really get you will all sorts of small charges that don't seem like a lot until you add them up! So since that is not going to happen, Gilbert is on to saving for a blu-ray player. He says that Eva is going to love watching Nemo on Blu-ray. Sure.....

Blast from the Past

A previous classmate of Gilbert's posted some old pics on her myspace page. See if you can pick out Gilbert from this class picture. So funny!

Gilbert's Birthday

I got Eva all dressed up for Gilbert's birthday.

We had cake after bathtime. I had really wanted to make his cake from scratch, but making anything from scratch is difficult with an infant!

Luckily I have discovered a few things that Eva really seems to like.
Here she is in the crib staring at her mobile on Saturday morning while I eat my cereal.

Here she is in her Bumbo seat while I talk to the vet. Ricco ate my prenatal vitamins and I was a bit concerned. That dog gets into EVERYTHING!