Firsts

First words (in sign language)

She also knows "milk", "all done", and "eat". And yes I did put the camera down to give her more food. I realize she was beginning to look distressed toward the end of that clip!

First steps

(Sorry for the large leg in the corner of the shot. I'm not Hollywood, you know!)

As you can see, 'N' won't take more than 3 or 4 steps at a time. She loves to walk along the furniture and holding your hand, as seen with 'R' in the next clip.

First Build-A-Bear

'R' and 'B' were invited by a friend to go to Build-A-Bear for the friend's birthday. (They were also invited by this same friend to their first sleep-over, but I forgot to take their picture before they left and when they returned the next day after only getting 6 hours of sleep pictures would have been scary!) Both of the girls were ecstatic to go and talked about it all week. We even bought sound clips to put inside each of their animals with Len's voice recorded on them. I'm sure it will be a great comfort to them when he's deployed (although right now I have to admit its a bit creepy and annoying to hear "Daddy loves you" 100 times a day, especially coming out of a pink bear and monkey!)

First House We've* Built

Birthday season is coming up in our house, and the girls asked for a playhouse. (They originally wanted a playhouse for Christmas, 2 weeks after we'd moved in. Santa had to decline on that one!) After much searching and shopping I realized that we could either spend $200 and get a small plastic playhouse that only 'N' would fit in or we could spend $1,000 and get a nice wooden playhouse. Neither of these options were feasible. That meant plan C - build one ourselves! I told Len basically what I wanted size wise, and he did the rest. So far he has spent 3 long, hard days working on this the past 2 weekends. It's not finished, but structurally it is built! We still have some sanding, painting, and decorating to do.

*As far as the "we" goes in this statement, let me just make it very clear - I was only assisting and helping. I was basically that extra pair of hands and Len would tell me where to stand, what to hold, and how to swing the hammer. I, in no way, am capable of building much of anything, nor can I make a straight corner or make anything level! (Len doesn't like it when I even hang pictures on the wall. My method: That spots looks good, slap up a nail, and you're done. Len's method: measure, level, measure, level, measure again, nail, then remeasure and relevel!) It is a great accomplishment for me to actually hit the nail correctly without hitting the wood all around it, without bruising myself in the process, without making the nail crooked, and in a decent amount of time. Usually I got one nail for every three of Len's! 99% Len, 1% me!

Day One - The frame

Day Two - The Walls

Day Three - The Roof
(Len went all out and even put down tar paper and shingles!)

(Isn't he a good man!) More pictures to come as the playhouse is finished!