No No, Nola

As Nola's horizons broaden, with crawling and cruising, she has been increasingly exposed to the words, "No No!" Just writing that makes me sad, as I would love to say that our house is completely baby friendly and 100% baby-proof, but it's not, hence the numerous "No No!"s. And even though, a few months ago, everything was "DaDa," and then everything was briefly "MaMa," everything nowadays is, you guessed it, "No No!"

What's nice is this is the first term that seems to have the actual concept attached... and what's even nicer is that Nola consistently outs herself when she's up to no good. For instance, you could be right in the kitchen, just out of sight, and if you hear a resilient, "No No!" coming from the other room, you know it's Nola up to no good.

We didn't have any specific pics of Nola's ne'er-do-welling, so we thought we'd share some of her silly antics instead. Man, she's so great... even when she's being bad.

Going to the Pool

Rather than enrolling in the summer session of swim classes, we decided to practice our skills at our little community pool (particularly the ones that our swim teacher gave us failing grades for -- which was pretty much everything swim-related other than floating).

Yes, we know that the floaty won't help improve our head-bobbing-underwater-skills, but we're just not sure that mommy's ready for that skill to practiced yet anyway.

Who needs head-bobbing-underwater-skills anyway, when you look so cool in your hat and shades?

Um, mom, I meant that I looked cool in my shades... you just look ridiculous.

Happy Memorial Day

These are some pictures from Nola's calendar shoot. They're not from the month of May, but I was feeling extra patriotic at the time of posting this entry, so I thought we'd jump a few months ahead and show off Nola's pictures from July.

Happy Memorial Day, Everyone!

May Flower

Nola's sweet little photo shoot for the month of May.

Sid, the Most Loyal Cat We Would Ever Know

Sid (pictured above), hanging outside the house, most likely waiting for his next meal.

We've been back from Louisiana for some time now, but life's been slower here without the daily guided tour of a swamp or near-safari, so I haven't found much home-life material to be blog-worthy, that is until our cat, Sid, disappeared.

To be honest, Sid disappeared before we even returned from Louisiana. We had been back for about a week, when Nick came back to the house from taking a walk with Nola one evening and saw the "biggest coyote" he had ever seen.

That night, we mourned Sid's inevitable loss. We knew that he had become part of a food chain that saw him on the winning-end of things most of the time. We got out his kitten pictures. We cried, and ultimately came to the conclusion that he had a great life, and will always be remembered as the most loyal cat we would ever know.

The next day, Rocky was batting at the door and whimpering. Nick checked to see what Rocky was so upset about, and lo and behold, Sid was sitting outside, just staring in at the house.

When he realized he had been spotted by us, he started to bail, so we had to entice him back with a special treat of tuna. He stayed long enough to eat, then left again.

Nick was very seriously convinced for about a week after that we had just encountered Sid's ghost. Turns out, it wasn't his ghost. It was all Sid. He just moved up the street to somebody else's house. His new owner came by just a few days ago and apologetically explained to Nick that they "didn't mean to take Sid, he just chose them."

Oh well. What are we going to do? I've had Sid as a pet for 13 years, and due to his temporary break from 3 cans of Fancy Feast a day, he decided he had to move out and find somebody else. I have yet to meet the new owners, but did stop by their house to bring some catnip toys, a hairbrush, and a box of Fancy Feast, just as a way to say, "No hard feelings." (Well, to say that to the humans, but to make Sid feel really bad about totally ditching us.)

Anyhow, the people weren't home, but I did see (I swear, no creepy voyeuristic peeping required to catch this, as you could see it through an open window right next to the front door), but they had a huge cat calendar on the fridge, and I realized that Sid, while loyal he may not be, is one smart cat.

Here's Sid with Jon Thomas (our other cat) when things were still going well. Apparently, according to our neighbors, he still visits Jon Thomas when we're not at home. Ouch.

It's the Humidity

Check out Nola's glorious curls! My hair gets frizzy down here, while Nola's gets stylish!

Global Wildlife

Another cool attraction near Nonnie and Papa's is Global Wildlife, a preserve with hundreds of various animals who really, really like corn. I'm sure that's not what their website boasts, but it was pretty awesome to head out on our own ATV and feed these fairly friendly beasts straight from our hands.

Allyson, with Rhys, Emma and Declan joined us along with Aunt Jaimee and Nonnie. Here we are in front of our ATV.

Jaimee is feeding Sally, the very stinky camel, while I mentally go to a much safer time and place -- before I ever let my nine month old near a camel.

While most of the animals were seemingly more exotic, there were cattle on the preserve, who liked to lob their ginormous tongues to one side to better allow entry of the corn.

Apparently, Food Inc. had very little impact on Nick, who readily contributed to the corn-fed beef.

Emma's checking out her food stocks, while Nick cozies up with a llama.

The giraffes bypassed the cup feedings and went straight to the bucket at our feet, just because they could.

Nola definitely dug this outing.