Father's Day

The day before Father's Day I asked Mooneyhans to babysit Jessica. As usual, once she saw the water, she didn't look back to even say goodbye to us. (They texted this picture to my cell phone:)

All I had told Dave was to put his running shoes on. (Now you have to understand, I really dislike running. Even though it was only a 1.5 mile "fun" run, this was a concession on my part.) It was at the Downtown shopping district, and turned out to be too easy. Every 1/4 mile there was a boot camp exercise and restaurant food you had to eat. And we joined a friend's team, which had her 6 year old running her first race. Rules said teams run together, and we came in dead last. We ate more calories than we expended, even with all the jumping around & games keeping the little girl going. It was a fun atmosphere.

A dim cell phone picture, post-race:

Sunday there was breakfast in bed, lunch for the men during the 3rd hour of church, and steak & potatoes for dinner. We signed a father's day card for Dave, and sang "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home" with actions.

I am so pleased with how much Dave loves being a father. They play together a lot. He's so anxious to introduce her to all her new experiences. And we thought about Jessica's birthdad, how much he's had to deal with. I stopped blogging to think about him and imagine all the things I'd say in gratitude for his decision. Jessica takes after him a lot.

Official Toddler

I still need to post about our Utah trip, but I couldn't resist writing about this first. At 13 months old, Jessica suddenly started standing without holding on to anything.  We were thrilled, after months of encouragement, to see her wobble around on her feet.

During our Easter trip to Utah, she took more and more steps, loving all the praise and attention it got her. By May (age 14 months), she decided walking is her favored mode of getting around. (Read: She screams and thrashes when we try to strap her into a shopping cart or stroller--she'd rather walk.) Below she is walking at the tulip festival.

Now she's on to the best part of walking: holding things in her chubby hands while she moves around the house. Like shoes...

and cell phones. (Why does she perform such good stunts after we've taken her cute clothes off for a messy dinner?) Note how she needs to stick out her tongue to keep her balance.

We love it and are eating it up. And covering our sharp edges with blankets.

March Stuff We've Been Up To

(I know it's May. This post is my attempt to catch up.)

Jessica charms us everyday, but March 31 almost made me cry I was so pleased. We were sitting at the dinner table, all eating hot buttery carrots out of the same bowl. I told Jessica: "These are carrots. Bunny Foo Foo eats carrots" and in the next second I thought 'I'm wasting my breath--she won't remember that connection.' 

And all of the sudden she hummed 6 perfect notes in a high voice: "huh, hu-huh, hu-huuuh, huuuh" and Dave and I both looked at each other shocked and said "Did she just sing 'Little Bunny Foo Foo'?" It was the first time I heard her sing, without help, a recognizable song, and the happy glow of that memory is going to last me a long time.

She is also learning to climb into the tub and up the furniture,

learned to crawl out the cat door (which she only accomplished once, not being a skinny minnie):

opens the cabinet to her toys, takes the lids off markers just to put them back on, pinches her nose, puts anything on her wrists like bracelets, including my sandals, and puts things on her head. She made Dave laugh really hard one day when she put a kitchen towel over her head, and started crawling blind, smack into our wooden chest.

And about the time she turned one she started eating all her meals with a fork:

 I saw the last launch of the space shuttle Discovery from my front porch, being only a 3-hour drive south of Cape Canaveral. The picture only shows the smoke trail, but I could also see the bright fire of the rockets.

I have about a dozen piano students, and this spring is busy with concerts and progress tests. I'm bribing them with music CDs for extra practice, but made them buy CDs from me if they didn't practice enough. I teach Tuesday and Wednesday nights, thanks to Dave who is glad to have a mac and cheese night.

I also entered a local tennis tournament and enjoyed seeing this second place finish in the next newsletter:

Palm Tennis Singles Winter 2011 Winners

North Palm Beach County Ladies Night 3.5

Champion: Mary Donovan * Lake Park Tennis Center

Finalist: Elizabeth Robertson * Carlin Park

Dave has been woodworking on our porch making storage cubes for our DVDs. He likes his new clerking job, and spent hours with the other clerks cleaning out enough old records to make a good bonfire.

We watched some BYU basketball, impressed by Jimmer Fredette. Smokey has needed a lot of medical attention, but I think he's better now. Dave chose Arsenic and Old Lace to watch thinking I would like the love story, but I have to warn you: I think it's better for Halloween, FYI. I rearranged all the pictures in our front room, and hung our newly framed, first family picture on the wall. I just listened to a fabulous book on tape: The Help, and started another funny book about adoption and family: No Biking in the House Without a Helmet.


That's mostly all. April 20-30, we're flying to Utah for the BYU graduation of Dave's siblings, Easter, and I'm going to attend BYU Women's Conference.

We Wanna See ALL of Arizona

We decided to fly to Arizona to see our newborn nephew Graham "Gramster" Peter Robertson. No Christmas stress in March, and we get the bonus of seeing both sides of the family: little Graham Cracker's parents are my sister Emily, who married Dave's cousin James.

First stop: Phoenix, to see Dave's grandparents (Grandpa was sick):

and pick their oranges.

Quick stop to see my aunt & uncle & a cousin,

then we drove down to Tucson, AZ to see the new baby.

Jessica was not as good a traveler as when she was 4 months old. She loved the airport shuttle bus, but couldn't keep still on the plane, and slept only an hour the whole day. On the drive to Tucson, she decided she would angry scream (not cry) most of the way there. The last hour I hopped in the back seat with her and pulled out every entertainment method I knew to stop the shrieking. After realizing purchasing 2 seats with Continental doesn't mean they will be next to each other (thank heaven for people who will swap), & that Dad doesn't pack what Mom wants for traveling, subsequent debates included "OK, you get to do it next time." and "I love you. I love vacation. But I hate travelling."

Anyways, Jessica was thrilled to play with cousins Henry & Wesley & so many toys, and slept great once she had a pack & play. We all took a hike through Sabine canyon with our families, plus James' brother Jay & his girlfriend Jessica (who braved the Robertson insanity for a weekend.)

Besides being windy, it was a great day to hike. I love saguaro cactus, and Jessica didn't burn.

After, famous Sonoran hot dogs at el Guero Canero: bacon-wrapped, spicy bean-smothered deliciousness. Sadly, it was without my brother Chris, who recommended the joint in the first place, but was 2 hours too late. We got him a double.

Saturday night James' sister Emily & her husband & kids drove down from Utah on their way to Florida. (Yay, we now have family in the state!) We celebrated James' birthday, ate delicious food, and we all slept in the same house. (Good people; too bad we couldn't make ourselves stay up later! We blame Eastern time.) The fifth family was Robertson cousin Sharon & her family, who live in town and joined us for the baby blessing. 

James did a wonderful job, and I got to transcribe. Em went up to the pulpit with the other testifiers and spoke strongly about her love of God and her family. Ahhhh.

My sis & I both deal with infertility. She has several years of waiting before and between her kids. So we are very glad for her.

Sunday afternoon, we drove to Yuma (near the California & Mexico borders) to see Dave's sister & her family, & Dave's brother & wife who were picking up their kids after a company trip to Vegas.

We went from Tucson's "everyone has a lawn of rocks" to Yuma's "everyone has citrus trees in their backyard." Yuma is the lettuce capitol of the U.S., apparently all thanks to the Colorado River. 

The wind thwarted our trip to the camel farm, but we still enjoy lots of talking, Gumbo, fruit, trampoline time, music, and laughs from Danny & Karen's description of the most expensive place to vacation. Jessica loved the dog, new toys, and 7 little cousins.

Melanie took me letterboxing, a hobby she introduced me to. We found 2 new stamps hidden in the old railway/mission part of Yuma. I'm up to 15 finds now, and I can't wait to get to Utah in April & find some more.

We drove back to the Phoenix airport after only a week of vacation, and happily, Jessica was not so crazy on the way home. We love you AZ fam; thanks for the good times.

Taking a Stand

Jessica is steady as a rock with her hand on something. But she sits down immediately if she lets go.  And if we're holding her hands, she wobbles all over.

Yesterday at church I stood her up, made her hold her own hands (like clapping), & she balanced for 2 seconds. We did it again at the adoption picnic yesterday, and she stood for 20 seconds! Dave had time to snap this cell phone pic. Everyone was clapping & cheering & I saw her eyes light up with "Oh, this is a cool trick. And I'm getting attention." She did it a few more times. One day short of her 13 month birthday. Walking here we come!

I also taught her how to lick the window when it was raining, & she "drank" her toast bits out of her breakfast bowl. Mighty progress indeed!