Some people do not consider visiting family to be a vacation. Well, Derek and I do. When we go on vacations just by ourselves, we get bored pretty quickly. But then, I suppose I'm pretty blessed to be able to say that my parents, brothers and sister are my best friends in the whole world, and the fact that my husband loves them as much as I do is a rarity indeed.

Needless to say, our trip to Chicagoland was fantastic. Leiana did pretty well on the airplanes... she gets a little upset about being cooped up and not being able to crawl up and down the aisles and make friends with everyone she can see, but the take-offs and landings don't seem to bother her in the slightest (she must be mine!) I am sorry to say that though I took my camera I did not take many pictures, so you don't get any until I can get copies from my mom and brother who DID take lots of pics this past week! Sorry.

It was a pretty laid-back week in all. We took advantage of our willing and free babysitters a couple of times and all us "kids" went to see "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen" and "Up" - more to come on those later. The weather was perfect all week, summer warm but not too hot to go outside :) at night it got down to the 50s-60s, it was so nice. *sigh*

Of course, it wouldn't be a week in Illinois without adding a new short film to the Walker/Schmidt repertoire. Yes, we made a new movie. Yes, it's awesome. No, I'm not posting it here because you'd only get it if you had our sense of humor. I'll just say two words: Music. Video.


EDIT:
Apparently Evan did decide to post our latest endeavor to youtube... you can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah4hAPb7rSs

:)

I don't think Leiana's feet ever touched the ground... but she doesn't seem to have forgotten how to crawl! :) The past two nights she has slept 12+ hours straight, which is good, because the longest she seemed able to sleep on vacation was 4-8 hours at a time. Poor baby, I think she was confused by her surroundings. She welcomed her crib like a long-lost friend. She is still pulling up on things and sometimes she lets go and balances for a good 5-10 seconds with no hands! At my parents' house she demonstrated that she is "a great proficient" (name that movie!) at climbing stairs (going back down them is another matter entirely).

On July 4th my Mom, Leiana and I drove up to South Bend so Leiana could meet her Great Grandma Porter and her Great Aunt Jeannie. We had blast. Leiana was angel baby and slept almost the whole time we were in the car (2 hours there and back) and was awake and happy the 4 hours we hung out in South Bend!

We played yard-baseball (real bat, but a soft squishy ball so as not to take out any windows or passing cars), spent a night laughing hysterically as we played Calvin-Balderdash, and just in general had fun hanging out.

Now we're home again and on the docket for the next few weeks is "putting the deck back together." :) I would include a picture, but xanga is being slow and I need to go play with my little girl.

Because I'm bored, it's Saturday, Leiana's sleeping, Derek's out helping some friend move, and I'm waiting for my grilled cheese sandwich to cook... some random things about me that people generally find to be weird - or that they didn't know about me:

1. I will only eat a grilled cheese sandwich if I can put strawberry jelly on it (I put the jelly on after the sandwich is cooked). This is even better if it's a grilled ham and cheese sandwich.

2. I will only eat macaroni and cheese if I can pour applesauce on it.

3. I do not like coffee or tea. The odd part about this to most people is I that don't even like the smell of coffee.

4. I don't like crunchy bits in my ice cream... chewy things are ok (e.g. oreos, brownie bits, etc) pieces of candy bar or nuts are completely unacceptable (reeses pb cups are on the edge of being too crunchy, sometimes I can handle it, if they're not too frozen)

5. When eating a sandwich, I always eat the crust all the way around the outside of the sandwich first. I don't know why I do this.

6. I'm an English major, but I generally hate reading "classic" literature.

7. Heights really terrify me, but I love to fly and I love rollercoasters (especially ones with a big drop, I'm not such a fan of going upside down), think skydiving or parasailing would be a blast, and would like to climb a mountain... maybe Everest.

8. Apparently, to people who have only gotten to know me in the past 5 years or so the fact that I would like to climb a mountain, go parasailing, or fly in a fighter jet comes as a major shock... I guess I don't give off that "adventuresome vibe". [shrug]

9. When I was little, I would make "wings" out of cardboard and strap them to my arms and try to fly by jumping off the deck or running really fast down the hills at the park next to our house.

10. I like (and sometimes love) things that other people find to be cheesy or corny. Movies, music, books, stories, toys, whatever it is, if it's a bit cheesy, I'm already inclined to enjoy it.

11. I really like (and am pretty good at) math. I almost got a minor in math but then decided not to simply because I wouldn't have been able to finish college in 4 years. I taught pre-algebra for 2 years and sometimes even enjoyed those classes more than the English classes I taught!

Eleven seems to be a random (and odd) enough number (yes, double meaning intended there), besides, my sandwich is done and I'm gonna take the time I have left of Leiana's nap to go read for a bit. Hope you enjoyed my random list!

I cannot believe that my baby is going to be 8 months old this Saturday! Seriously, I know I say this every month, but I just got used to telling people she's 7 months old. I think I'll like it when we reach a year and her "age" won't change so doggone fast.

Last week my mom was in town. It was lots of fun having her here. I need to get pictures from her because she took over my job of chief paparazzi officer while she was here and I have literally no pictures on my camera of her being here! (that and my camera battery needed to be recharged and I never got around to it)

So what is new as of 7 months?

Shortly after May 20, Leiana started "creeping" along, pulling herself a few inches at a time across the floor "marine" style. This is still her preferred method of moving, although she is getting better at it and starting to get up on her hands and knees more often. She has also figured out how to use creeping/crawling and rolling in conjunction to get pretty much wherever she needs to go. This is still new to me and I am often more surprised than I feel I ought to be at how far she can get and how fast she can get there!

On Thursday of last week, Leiana sat up all by herself (possibly for the first time). Since Thursday, she has gotten quite adept at this new skill and does it often and without thinking about it much.

Over the weekend, she learned to pull herself to a standing position on her excer-saucer. And this morning, after her first nap, I heard some loud "thunking" noises and was greeted by this sight:

Yep, she can get herself into a standing position without too much effort.


She is getting a wide variety of solids now, moving into some stage 2 foods - though we still generally use the stage 1 foods. No, I do not make my own baby food. I am a horrible mother and person, I know. My children will likely be scarred for life because of this...

... or not. She seems pretty happy with her jarred peaches and puffs. Oh yea, she is getting a good pincer grasp and really likes feeding herself puffs!


Another favorite thing lately is books! This is VERY exciting for me. I just love this picture of her "reading" to her Pooh Bear:

"See, Pooh? Here are some of the animals we will meet on our many and varied adventures after lunch."


And riding on Daddy's shoulders is ALWAYS great fun:
"HI MOM!"


Later I may post the video of Leiana's makeshift "walker" :) something for you to wonder about and look forward to.

Over and out.