James Taylor

The first time we took Emily on a road trip, she was two weeks old. We played a lot of music in the car to help keep her calm. (She's always loved being sung to... and you can only sing for so many hours in the car!) She seemed to relax most to simple music, like one male vocal with guitar. Two favorites are James Taylor and Jeremy Ware (a college friend of ours who has recorded a couple CD's). To this day, if she is fussy in the car and we play James Taylor, it quiets her down and helps her fall asleep.

For some reason right now, we don't have any Jeremy CD's in the car, and the only JT we have is a burned greatest hits CD that skips after track 7. We have listened to those 7 songs a lot lately. Here she is on our drive from NH to PA on Friday. Imagine "Sweet Baby James" playing in the background.

Beh Buh

We are on day three of nap-strike (teething molars maybe? she's also drooling like mad.), so I need to remind myself of some cute things about Emily. :)

Her most recent obsession s belly buttons! She is delighted to show your hers, and to find yours. She also likes to rub hers as she falls asleep.

A few beh-buh related events...

* Last week at the at beach, she saw a pregnant woman who was wearing a bikini. From across the swimming area, Emily repeatedly squealed, pointed and yelled "beh buh!" Awkward.

* It was cold the other day (welcome to summer in NH - it was both hot enough to go to the beach, and cold enough to nap in winter pj's), so I put her down for a nap in one-piece pajamas. Twenty minutes later I found her sobbing in her crib, clawing at the belly of her pj's and crying "beh buh". It's hard to dress a small child warmly and still leave access to her belly button.

Things Emily Is Into: Summer 2010

4. Climbing. I recently found her here:

3. Toothbrushing. Especially with Daddy's toothbrush. :)

2. Nana: Her word for "banana'' and "more". She will often point up to the top of the fridge where we keep them to ask for some. Another recent 2nd favorite is blueberries. She has been gobbling them up this week.

1. Rocks! Her #1 favorite toy. She will spend ages picking up and moving around the rocks in our gravel driveway. She especially loves to drop rocks through the holes in our hubcap.

Daniel Kirkland Ware

My sweet nephew was born on August 27. (My parents' anniversary.) The stats: 8lb4oz &21.5" He's named for his grandfathers, and is apparently a good sleeper already. I can't wait to meet him!

Meeting his big sister. (Rosalie, 18mo)

Whale Watch!

We (Grammy & Grampy T, my parents, Nick, Dianna, Angie, and the three of us) celebrated Grampy T's 86th birthday, by going whale-watching. When I realized a couple days before the trip that the boat ride was four hours long, I got a little nervous about how Emily would do on a boat for that long. When we arrived at the boat, we were told that the whales had moved further away, and it would be a 6 hour cruise. We took a deep breath and decided to consider it an adventure. After a long three hours (I've developed a bit of a motion sickness problem in my old age, so I was feeling not-so-great most of the time), we arrived at the spot the captain had promised us. The whales have been uncharacteristically social this summer - staying together in a large group... so we were treated to an amazing display. We saw dozens of whales, often in groups of 3-4 surfacing and diving right alongside the boat. From a bit more of a distance, one whale breached (came completely out of the water to flip) over and over. Another came up right next to the boat to slap his tail down on the water, splashing us as we watched from the railing, and then rolling over on his back & side and waving & slapping his flippers. Incredible, and worth the 7 hours asea! (Unfortunately, we managed not to get a group picture.)

Westport Week

We spent the first week of August at the lake with my parents. Emily enjoyed everything much better without the 103 degree fever she had during the July trip! She played in the kiddie pool and the lake, but her favorite was the Sandy Beach.

Emily and Caitlyn, 2nd cousins once removed

(technically Caitlyn is my generation)

Another highlight of the week was the first Lee Family entry in the Westport Quadrathlon. Lilly & Nayeli paddled (the only all-female canoe!), I swam, we found a friend to run (ok, so not quite all-family), and Alasdair biked. We may not have won (ok we finished 8th out of 8... or we would have if Alasdair's bike hadn't had a flat tire at about mile 22 of 25), but we had a great time!

Settling In

I started this post a long time ago, and just now got around to adding pictures. Since we are moving again in a week and a half, it's time to get this posted. :)

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We have now spent a week straight in one place, and it feels wonderful. We are thankful to have survived (almost) the month of July. In the 1st three weeks we lived in 5 places, and Emily had 2 high viral fevers (in addition to the one she had the week before we moved) and cut four teeth. All of the above made for a lot of mid-night wakings, and a very tired family. Luckily, we were well taken care of. We had Uncle Alden (or Uncle "All-Done" or "Dada" to Emily) with us for the first week or so, lived with my family for awhile, and had a houseful of friends to help while we were in NY for a wedding. Once we got "home" to Newport last week, my cousin Dianna came for a few days to help with Emily (and babysit so we didn't have to bring her to a board meeting, hooray!) and then Mom Groves & Aunt Becky came for the weekend. I'm not sure what we're going to do with ourselves now that we are on our own again!

A few glimpses of life in rural New Hampshire. Our next-door neighbors are

Sunshine Baptist Church (the owner of our house, kindly allowing us to live here!) and

the Fabulous Fifties Car-Hop Drive In.

Across the street is a river. The town is so small that when I asked for directions to the post office, they were "Drive into town and turn right. It's next to the church." Newport is also the home of the Lil Red Baron mexican restaurant... complete with outdoor seating on plastic tables, next to the campfire. We do have high speed internet and much better cell phone reception than we ever did in Philly. (Two things we had none of last time we lived in NH, so times are changing!)

Large sign in front of the Fabulous Fifties. Emily felt very welcome (look close to see her sweet Harley Davidson tshirt), as do many many motorcyle-riders.
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Stay tuned for pictures of our next (and last...for a year or two) house!