In the Shade(s)

I just found the below picture...which might explain a few things: This is me at 5 months old with my dad at Jones Beach in NY. Hmmm.....hat/bonnet, sunglasses chubby cheeks. Look familiar?

Shady Behavior:

I was wisely advised that if you start putting hats, headbands, bows, sunglasses, etc. on little babies from the very beginning, they'll be less likely to quickly ditch them as they grow older.

I did fairly well in my efforts with the first three, but never did seem to take the effort to try sunglasses except for this one time before I misplaced those glasses.

I figure she'd give me et a bit of resistence with the shades, but now she seems to think they are pretty funny and interesting enough to keep on. (...until she decides to use them as a teething ring.

Happy to be outside.

Daddy's glasses.

Mommy's shades.

Every looks different.... ....especially when your upside down.
Little Stevie Wonder.

With Grandma.

No glasses here....but Uncle Vinnie's hat is pretty funny.

Holy Moly

Holy Moly. She's 11 months old today. Have you ever noticed that babies rarely get to be 11 months old? When people ask how old a baby is, the response is usually, "She/He will be a year old next month." Well, I'm squeezing every ounce out of this baby time that I can. So until midnight on June 30th, my baby's gonna be 11 months old. :)

On a different Holy Moly note, Gianna and I went to my parent's church picnic so they could show off their grandbaby. Their pastor, Father Keith Pellerin is one of my oldest, dearest friends even pre-dating his seminary days. Here are a couple of shots of Fr. K and G.

Gianna showcasing her new "shrug."(Dancing to some good Cajun music.)

Whenever G was a tiny little munchkin, she got to spend some time with a few holy blokes.

Fr. Keith & Gianna

Gianna either had enough of Fr. Keith or picture-taking.

Gianna at her baptism with Fr. Whitney Miller, Fr. Danny Torres and Msgr. Charles Dubois (our pastor in Moss Bluff)Lovin' from Tio Danny (Fr. Danny Torres)

Smiles from Uncle Wayne (Fr. Wayne LeBleu)

(Woo Hoo - Bishop in the House!) Fr. Danny & Bishop Glen John Provost

Bonus: a quick wedding pic of HALF of the priests at our wedding....there were 10 in all. (Interestingly, the clergy was five times as large as our wedding party.)

P.S. I used to be able to click on my pics to enlarge them, and now I can't. Does anyone know how I need to change the settings to fix that?

Me again...

Hi. It's me again.Remember when my mom told you that she was going to babysit Luke for 9 weeks? Well, here was our first day....9 weeks ago.

...and here is our last day. Whew. We made it.

I think Luke's catching up to me.It was hard being couped up inside for so long.
Sometimes I get really loud, when I get excited and I get "shushed."

.....especially when I see my friends. (I've sure been missin' Isabel.)

We even got to play a little while for a super quick visit. And every now and then, we get to go outside. I even got a new pool...just for me.
It's fun and all, but I'm teething some more and it just seems like whatever face I make....my gums still hurt.

Mom keeps saying she's gonna suck the puddin' right out of my cheeks. Oh, and there's just one more thing....
I was happy to share my Mommy with Luke for 9 weeks....but I think I'm ready for some Mommy & Me time.

Can you hook me up, Mommy?

Love,

Gianna

Gianna,

Consider yourself hooked up.

I love you,

Mommy

Facebook for Baby

Facebook has been such a fun little accidental discovery. I joined because a friend was spending the summer in Canada and she wanted to keep in touch, post pics, etc. With a newborn, I really didn't think much about it til last fall when people started finding me - friends from college, from high school, middle school - and even classmates and friends from NY when I just a little bitty kid. It became quite the firestorm with my brother, my parents and even my inlaws joining. What a hoot.

Well, I came up with the idea for doing a little Facebook for my baby - but not what you might be thinking. I wanted to begin a book for her with the photos and names of people in her life so we can start looking at them daily and making those connections. My husband's entire family lives out of town, so pictures are really going to be key for her knowing/recognizing them.

I compiled pictures of family (I'm still working on family friends & children) and put their names as well as their relation to our daughter. I'm just printing them out and sticking them in a little 97 cent photo book from Walgreens. I've made several copies for home, diaper bag, car, etc. for when we have a few minutes to kill here and there.

Here's an example of what I'm including:

It's an idea that Works for Me! Check out We are That Family for other great ideas!

How we got the name....

Click to enlarge: