Flying Home

Here are a few pictures of Brenna flying home yesterday from Nashville. She did well on the ride back to the airport from Chattanooga (other than going postal about the prospect of getting french fries at Wendys only to be turned away when they weren't taking plastic).

Emily bought Brenna the Diego and Dora beanie collection to keep her occupied on the plane, and that more than did the trick (plus our portable DVD player, which was a lifesaver all the way around).

Here Brenna is holding Diego and baby jaguar while standing at Emily's feet. We were thankful to have a free row to ourselves coming and going (flying mid week each direction probably helped).

There's a trend you'll see in these pictures, Diego is firmly in our daughters hand at every turn.

Here she is being a big girl, strapped into her own seat, and watching who else, but Diego on the DVD player.

And here she is finally at home, showing off her floral headdress thingy that she got at the Ren Fair in Atlanta.

To date, in her 18 months here, our little girl has:

- Flown to Nashville from Phoenix two times

- Flown to Pennsylvania from Phoenix (via Chicago)

- Ridden from Nashville to Chattanooga to Atlanta twice

- Ridden from Phoenix to Las Vegas

- Ridden from Phoenix to Colorado Springs

Quite a number of miles under the old belt! Next year we'll be trying Hawaii in the Fall (and we'll be buying a second battery for our DVD player for that six hour flight!).

Children's Discovery Museum

Wrapping up our trip to Chattanooga, Emily, myself, Grandma H and Brenna went to the Discovery Museum this afternoon. It wasn't crowded in the slightest, and in some instances we were the only people playing with certain exhibits, so that made our visit very pleasant. Like our other activities, I have a slew of other pictures not posted here, and will upload some bonus shots once we get home later this week.

Below, Brenna is playing with some duckies in a water exhibit that she found most enjoyable, playing here for at least twenty minutes before we were allowed to move on. It's here that I got a small bucket of water splashed on me after I told our daughter to stop dumping water out of the pool. Ah, that crafty Brenna.



Here we are thrilled to be having our picture taken for the hundredth time today.



In the same area we found some cool tables to color on, as well as on paper. Chalk and crayons were involved. I'll post some more of these over on the Brenna Art Gallery blog when time permits.



Mambo! Here Brenna is enjoying the music room, getting down to the guitar and drums that played on command here.



In another area of the music exhibit, Brenna and Emily explore the studio space with a cowbell.



Musical inspiration turned into a wrestling free-for-all, with Brenna beating me senseless (not really) with a recently found drumstick.



This next beauty of a picture is for Grandma Becky, who claims I'm always singling her out for not so flattering pictures of her that get posted here. I don't think it can get much worse than this.



Ah, some magic from Brenna, playing the The Entertainer on the piano like a pro.



Outside the museum, Grandma H pulled Brenna up in a swing via a pulley system. Emily and I later did the same with ourselves, much to our satisfaction.



More pictures to follow, stay tuned!

Brenna On The Road (Part Deux)

If you're going to blog at all, you have to come out of the gate with the best picture you've got. Well, this first one may not be the best, but it's the most entertaining one out of the lot from the latest leg of our trip to Georgia.

Brenna is enjoying eating Oreo cookies with Emily in the hotel in Conyers in this first shot. I'll post a few more from this evening once I've had a chance to truly review what I've got on our camera. I can't find a good image editor on my parents computer, which also explains why when you click on these to enlarge them, they're huge (not cropped to fit your screen).

While in Conyers we visited with my cousins Bill and Audrey, who unfortunately didn't get to spend any time with Brenna, who was over travelling and not in the mood to visit with anyone she wasn't that familiar with. I was able to visit with everyone out by the hotel pool while Brenna took in a monster (and much needed) three hour nap.

Mmmm, Oreos.



While in the area, we spent a few hours at the Georgia Ren Fair (cut short by rain). Here is Brenna on a swing that almost dumped her on her head (we excitedly tried to exit said swing on our own, and flipped over the "safety" rope).



We ran into Grandma Sheila and my half-brother Ryan while at the fair, which was a nice treat. We spent a little bit of time visiting and wrestling in the grass. How lucky our little girl is to have seen two grandmas this trip, AND she has a third waiting anxiously for her return back to Arizona in the next few days!



Moving along to the following day, before Grandpa Ron left for a golf trip, Brenna is seen here punishing him for leaving early by pummeling him in the head with a soccer ball. Below is the aftermath of the ball bouncing off his head.



To make sure the job was done properly, Brenna then proceeded to lull Grandpa Ron into a sense of complacency by handing him her beloved Diego action figure, only to pop him in the head with another ball when he wasn't looking. You can see from her expression that her mission was accomplished.



Exhausted from beating up on Grandpa, Brenna is seen here spending some quiet time with her new best friend, a monstrous Winnie The Pooh.



We proceeded to take Winnie the Pooh out to the back porch to watch it rain this afternoon. There are better pictures of us while out there, and I'll post more when I have a better chance to see what we've got on the camera.



Tomorrow we're going to the Children's Discovery Museum in downtown Chattanooga and I'll try to post some pictures from that before we leave for home on Tuesday. ALSO, I've taken pictures of Grandma's yard in bloom and will post some of those on the Hoes blog very soon.

Brenna On The Road

Here are some pictures of Brenna's third airplane trip away from home. After an uneventful journey here (slight fussing on the plane and an easy car ride from Nashville - THANK YOU portable DVD player!), Brenna spent some time catching up with Grandma and Grandpa H





After that we enjoyed some recreational time, including flipping over Daddy.



Today we went to a park in Chattanooga and played in the ginormous fountain pictured here. Brenna got thoroughly soaked but dried out quickly. Fun was had by all.





Oh yes, and Mama got soaked as well. Here they are standing in the "inner circle" of the fountain.



Here we are practicing our wrestling moves, this time in the great outdoors.



Tonight we played peek-a-boo with our washcloth (here is the peeka part).



And perhaps the highlight of the day, enjoying a lolli.

Over The Weekend Brenna

Here are a few pictures of Brenna at a baby shower that she and Emily went to this past weekend.

We'll be heading to Georgia on Wednesday, so posts will be sketchy at best over the coming week.

Sing Along

Earlier tonight whilst sitting in the sandbox with Brenna, she began singing some random song she had made up, and invited me to sing along with her. This went on for at least ten minutes and I was briefly hating life for not having the camcorder there with me to capture her crooning.

A few hours later while in the tub, she broke into this song again, and this time I captured it. You'll also see on this video where she can recognize her name, as well as ours, in print. She also makes reference to baby burrito, which is a song Emily sings her when she's wrapped up in her towel after bath time.

Funny little monkey.

Flock Of Seagulls

Brenna had her first official haircut today, by a trained professional.

Below are a few pictures of her getting loaded into the car for the drive. Diego is quickly becoming her primary travelling companion.

Here we are at the hair cutting place, which was well equipped with lots of distractions. Diego was on the TV in the waiting area, which Brenna enjoyed thoroughly, and being a big fan of choo-choos, she had fun with this train setup also.

Here we are sitting in our cool seat waiting for Dora The Explorer to come on the TV. A random child gave Brenna a lolli in the waiting area, and that's what she's sucking on here.

There were some belligerent moments, but I captured some pleasant shots of the hair cutting. Here are a few of them. All in all Brenna did very well through the entire process.

Nummy Nummy

Here are a few pictures that Emily took of Brenna eating her dinner tonight. As you can see, Diego was invited to the festivities and can be seen here covered in yogurt and applesauce. Fun was had by all. Brenna is very fond of toast these days, and asks for it by name on a regular basis.

In other random news, I organized the garage to the point where Emily can now park her car, which will be nice for the summer months as they approach. We were pondering having the windows tinted, as Brenna hates the sun still with a passion, but have opted to spend that money on a portable DVD player for our upcoming trip to see Grandparents H next week. We're hoping the player will keep our little one entertained for part of the flight to Nashville (dare to dream).

I have also discovered the world of Luchador (sp?) cinema. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Mexican wrestlers attempting to act in very poorly plotted movies. For four dollars I bought a double feature from 1977. The first movie, which I've struggled through the majority of, involves three wrestlers fighting zombies and defending the honor of their lady friends, whom they've befriended at a match. There are no subtitles, a mediocre score, bad acting, and absolutely hysterical fainting from the actresses being "attacked" by said zombies. The other movie, which I've yet to view, is called "The Mystery In The Bermudas", that's my loose translation, and I'm sure it will be as action packed as the first.

Enjoy your evening, don't do anything we wouldn't.

New Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure

There's also a new Art Gallery video and a huge Hoes blog, enjoy!

Weekend Musings

Well, not much in the way of musing, but here are some pictures of Emily reading Brenna a story this afternoon. There wasn't quite enough light to go without the flash on the camera, but I tried it anyway, so they're a tad blurry, but I like how they turned out, especially the last close up. Brenna was a big fan of her new Dora dress.

We're crossing our fingers that she goes down at a decent hour tonight, she was up until around 1am this morning with some coughing issues, slept until almost 10 and hasn't napped at all. Odd day for our little girl.

Animated Brenna

A few more pictures of Grandma Sheila's visit, Brenna is showing off some of her assorted talents, including:

- Putting buckets on our head

- Placing pegs in our bucket

- Holding out squished Plah Doh, and saying "fwat"