Fascination

Lately Courtney has been fascinated with buckles. I have been reluctant to teach her to unbuckle because then she would be able to get out of her high chair, the grocery store cart, etc., etc. She has figured out how to get one buckled, but luckily she must not have the coordination to get it unbuckled. Here she is trying to buckle the high chair buckle. This can keep her occupied for 15 minutes.
She is also fascinated with puppets, including a duck and a tiger and a frog puppet we have here. She also several times a day removes her socks and puts them on her hands, just because she can.

Cut-ney & Silliness

Courtney has started to know when she is acting silly. We get some enjoyment out of watching her put two suckies in her mouth, for example. She has just started saying her own name - she says it "Cut-ney." She is also stringing together some three or four word sentences like "go see Rufus" "Cut-ney eat peas" and "Where frog go?"

Island Party

Tonight here at the convention we had an island-themed party with a steel drum band. Here's a photo above of Todd and me, and below me with my coworkers Eden & Wendy.

Point Clear Spring Break

I am in Point Clear Alabama this weekend at the Grand Hotel for work. I am in charge of a convention here with more than 400 attendees, so this is one of the most intense weeks of my year. I'm here March 17-22 and I'm really not available to be anyone's mother this week. Luckily, this is Spring Break in Mississippi and my schoolteacher mother has the week off, so she is keeping Courtney at her house for us. I asked her to bring Courtney and make the 2 hour trip Wednesday to come down here and spend 24 hours enjoying the Grand Hotel. I was not able to spend much time with the two of them, but getting to see them both was fun. The convention photographer snapped these photos of us for me.

What I Was Doing Ten Years Ago Today

Today is our tenth anniversary - we were married March 13, 1999. Excuse me while I'm mushy for a second: I love you, Toddly, and here's to many more years!
Wow - how young we look! So can you BELIEVE there was no digital photography back in 1999? (I'm sure it existed, but at least my wedding photographer didn't do it and I didn't know anyone else in Jackson who did.) I don't have any of these wedding photos on disk in good quality because they were taken using film. I happen to have these photos you see on this post because a few years ago, I laid the actual photos on my scanner and scanned them in. Since we have instant photos these days, it's just hard to imagine how we lived without a digital camera. Also, in 1999, I did not even own a mobile phone. Ten years ago, Todd and I threw some things in a 'wedding time capsule' and we looked at them the other day, and under "trends for 1999" I had literally written down "E-COMMERCE" as if it was some here-today, gone-tomorrow kind of thing.
Okay so let me ID everyone here. Todd and I are in the middle. In the green dresses: Julie, Beverly, Stacey, Kim, Laura and Diane. In the black tuxedoes, Breck, Ben, Tony, Dan, Bruce, my dad, Mike, Kevin, Scott, Sandon and Allen. Wow, that was before Todd even met Jake!

Obsessed with Clothes at 16 months?

Okay this can't be happening: she's obsessed with clothes at 16 months. Courtney wants to spend interminable minutes struggling with clothing...wearing pants on over her head, stepping into the necks of shirts and struggling to walk. This can keep her occupied for 20 or 30 minutes during which she is whining in frustration....then when she has accomplished dressed status, she stands up and says Yay! Here's pics of her putting on some extra pants tonight. Additionally, she wants to wear my clothes. I take off a shirt or pair of pants in my closet, and she puts them on over her head. Also she wants to 'help' with the laundry, putting on smelly clothes and parading around the house.

ABC Song

We thought this was cute - she ends the song with W, X, TUV!

Easter Pics

This morning we went to our neighbor's house - Lisa Patti Photography - and had some Easter photographs taken of Courtney with baby chicks and baby bunnies. Then we came home and I took a few of her in her cute dress. The temp was 80 degrees today and I wore shorts for the first time this year. Here's some cute ones of Courtney in a cute spring dress. I brought out last year's basket and eggs for her to play with.

Teething

We are teething this week and keeping Mommy up for several hours each night! Show off those pearly whites! These are the 6 that she already has and she is working on 4 more in the back.