Riaan's pool

Amy and I went to Riaan's pool a few weeks ago before he jetsetted back to Brazil. We had a wonderful time, although it took Amy a little while to warm up to her uncle.  He even blew up her little water raft.
Suspicious, very suspicious of this uncle that is almost always on some other continent.
Still a little skeptical of this strange man.  Maybe I'll let him come near me without screaming soon.
Ahhh, much safer with mom.
A little milk goatee will always do me some good.
I trust him now.  I guess he's a good uncle.
Making lots of fun noises together.
This picture is so funny... usually Riaan is the one who looks high in pictures.  Amy must have adopted his look.

Now that was a fun day in the pool.

Lake Gaston

Amy and I went to Lake Gaston for a weekend after I had been working hard for a while and I didn't see her much.  She had a blast on the boathouse but didn't enjoy the boat ride very much.  These are just a few pictures from our trip.  

Here she is showing off her bikini while looking at her favorite page in her dog book.  
Chilling with Grandpa Mike.  It got rather hot so we took off her bikini top and she seemed to be much less cranky after that.
The next day she was in a one-piece but still super cute.  Her bathing suit is about as colorful as her Maggie Monkey.
Amy didn't enjoy her boat rides very much because the smalles life jacket I could find is size "up to 30 lbs" while Amy is maybe pushing 15lbs.  Needless to say it is rather large on her and she cannot move her head.
Back from the boat ride and much happier since she can actually move around.  She was playing a game with GG (granny gail)'s feet.  

Crawling

This is a video from July 17- the day Amy learned to crawl. She stopped moving backwards and actually made forward progress. This video also illustrates our daily lives... I'm still in my work clothes while Amy is moving about, Kosmo starts making retching noises in the background while I'm running around with a towel trying to "catch" his vomit with a towel. Amy is still going nonstop and later also pukes, this time onto the carpet. No one was around to catch her spit up because I had to run downstairs and answer the phone and Bobby was still taping. Kosmo decides he'll help us and cleans that mess himself. How nice of him...


Untitled from Bobby Thekkekandam on Vimeo.

We know this is a long video, but we promise it has been significantly condensed from it's original 15 minutes.  

Amy's concert

Amy has a cute little crocodile xylophone/piano and this is a video of her playing with it in the beginning of July.  Please ignore the awful noises Kosmo is making in the background.  He was chewing on a rawhide bone.

Mitch's graduation

Mitch graduated from Leesville Road High School on June 11th 2008.  We are very proud of him.  It was held in Reynold's Colliseum with no airconditioning on a very hot day.  We were all drenched when we left, but it was worth it.  

The four siblings in the USA.  All the boys tower over me.
Amy checking Riaan out.  She was just over 6 months old here.

Congratulations Mitch!
Amy chomping down on a carrot (closely supervised) at the reception at the high school.

Finally

Sorry the blog has not been updated in a long time. Things have been rather busy in our household after moving, residency starting etc. I am currently working in the pediatric emergency room which I'm not really fond of. The only thing I like is having random days off during the week. Unpacking and settling into the new house is going very slowly, but we'll get there soon. The guy did come to start installing our patio today so we should have somewhere to sit outside very soon. Amy was very interested in the bobcat he is using today. We are still waiting for the HOA to approve our fence before we can install that.

Otherwise, we are all doing well. Amy is doing exceptionally well- crawling and pulling herself up on anyone and anything she can find, including her poor classmates at daycare. She actually stood without holding onto something for approx. 5 seconds today before plonking down on her butt. The pictures in this post are just random pictures taken of Amy around the house in the last month or so. Enjoy!

This was taken before Amy could sit.  She was having a blast playing with random plastic containers, but Kosmo obviously had to supervise. 
But mom, the cardboard tastes way better than my food.
Some more play with Kosmo on the alphabet mat.  This foam mat came in very handy when she was learning to sit on her own and was frequently taking a tumble.  It was much softer than the wooden floors would have been.  Too bad it doesn't match with the furniture.
Some more fun on the mat.

  Amy is on the move.

Look, my rattle makes noise when I shake it really fast!

Yummy biscuit... it looks kind of gross though.

Satisfied look while eating some puffs!  She doesn't have the pincer grasp down yet so she'll grab the puffs with her fist and then cannot figure out how to put them in her mouth.