Spring in February

The weather this winter here in Atlanta has been a bit crazy and for the most part felt more like spring. Even the cherry trees are starting to bloom. Last week we decided to take advantage of this awesomeness that Mother Nature was providing and headed to a local park.

EJ's favorite new game is tag, which basically consists of her giving you "the look" and then putting on the jets while you chase her or she chases you. Whittier Mill Park offers a nice big field for her to practice running in, with daddy and Miss Beyla as willing participants.

Swinging also appeals to her sense of adventure and she loves it when daddy pushes her as high as possible before letting go.

And of course, what could be more fun than zooming down slides? Even Miss Beyla enjoys that one.

Just another day in the life of the world's busiest 15-month-old.

Trouble with a Capital T

This kid is what we like to call "busy". Us and everyone who has had the pleasure of watching her for any length of time. In addition to being busy, she is also very curious, brave, and clever. Which leads to a lot of gasps of terror on our part. Here are just a few examples of the ways in which she likes to test our resilience, when we actually had time to grab our camera.

She really loves to climb on things. She started walking early at 10.5 months, and that quickly lead to piling things on top of each other so she could climb up onto even higher vantage points.

She also likes to squirm her way into small spaces, which sometimes results in her getting stuck.

Then of course, she also likes to climb IN to things. Like boxes. And wagons. And storage bins and cabinets and pretty much anything.

All those adventures are exhausting.

Putting it all in Perspective: "Carry on, warrior. Six hours till bedtime"

I ran across a wonderful article today that sums up the meaning behind the name of our blog much better than my post about it does, so I thought I would share. Enjoy reading while I go try to find some Kairos time with my munchkin.

Don't Carpe Diem (Huffington Post)

best friends

Everett's love affair with Miss Beyla began right from the beginning. Beyla seemed to understand immediately that this was a baby, something small and fragile and precious that needed to be handled with care.

As EJ has gotten more mobile, she has become even more interested in "her" dog and follows Beyla everywhere trying to play with her. Sometimes (like when EJ is carrying around her snack trap and dumping cheerios everywhere) Miss Beyla returns the favor and follows her around. EJ thinks they are playing some version of hide & seek/tag, but I think Miss B is just there for the snacks.

Of course, they both seem to love the open-mouth kisses, much to the disgust of Omar.

Miss Beyla makes a pretty good First Mate for Captain Everett. They are a good team. =)

It's hard to beat the love of a girl and her dog.

EJ's second best friend is Beyla's cousin Frankie, so we will give her a shout-out too. Even though Miss B doesn't like her very much.

An Ode to Fat Rolls (hers, not mine)

Omar is afraid EJ is losing her delicious fat rolls, so I decided to create an homage to them so he can always refer back and enjoy their awesomeness. I am sure she will be thrilled to discover this when she is 16.

3 months old

4 months old

6 months old .......................................7 months old

8 months old .........................................9 months old

10 months old

(and you can see 11 months old in the Falcons picture in the post below)

How many people can say they have an entire post in their blog devoted to fat rolls? That's just the kind of greatness I bring to the table.

Football's #1 Fan

First, let me say that the Falcons have experienced a disappointing end to their last 2 seasons, despite their #1 fan EJ. Our girl has inherited a love of football - it's in her genes, afterall.

Then & Now:

Here she is watching the Falcons with daddy. What a difference a year makes! She seemed a bit more into it this season.

We are confident that our Dirty Birds will go further next year, with EJ cheering them on.

(we won't mention our Jackets)

V-Day photoshoot

Amy brought her boys over for their Valentine's Day photos so I decided to get some pictures of EJ while we had the decorations up.

Everett & Elliott

Trying out the huge sunglasses trend

Balloons!

You can see she got my sweet dance moves.