Lila was playing quietly on the bed and staring out the window at the trees moving. I realized she'd gotten VERY quiet so I looked and she'd fallen asleep - too cute! 

Here is Olivia receiving her first at-home bath and *not* liking it! Those are Lila's fat little legs reflected in the mirror. 

The two brothers and their two daughters. And all of them still in their pajamas. 

Look - we have eyeballs in this shot! Can you believe Lila was ever this small?!? 

"Please! No more photographs!" - Get used to it, Kid... :) 

The past couple of days have been nice because we haven't had any plans. Lila and I have gotten out and run errands and I've gotten things roughly back in order around here. I've always enjoyed running errands and I still do even though they take 50% longer than they used to (and most of that time is spent just getting out of the house!).

When we were in Houston last weekend, I bought a Valentine dress for Lila. Is it really necessary for her to have a special dress for Valentine's Day? No. But I like an occasional reason to buy her clothes because I've hardly had to buy her anything since she's been born! I'm *not* complaining. I just enjoy fun clothes and I want to dress her in things that I like before she gets old enough to have an opinion!

Since we had this new dress and we were going to be around a bunch of her Grammie's friends at church, she had to wear it (of course)! It's super cute on her, but the sad thing is that on the drive home that day I noticed that the elastic had busted on one of the bloomer legs, which looked ridiculous - besides being a sign of poor quality.

Anyway, the impressive thing is that I took it to the Babies R Us here in Austin on Wednesday - already washed and worn - and they let me exchange it with no hesitation! I got another of the same dress, but I made sure to pull on the elastic several times to test its durability before I left with the it! :o)~

There's a new Peeler in the world! Doug's brother and his wife - Keith and Megan - had their baby girl last night! Her name is Olivia Grace Peeler and she was born at 11:14 p.m. on Tuesday, February 7, 2006. At birth she weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and is 20 3/4 inches long. When I talked to Keith last night he said she's alert and healthy, beautiful and screaming. And he sounded *very* happy. Of course! :)

So, a couple of weeks ago, I planned out all our evening meals for the month of February. I'm loving it! Making the grocery list every week is easier because I know specifically what we'll need. So no making it halfway through the week and thinking, "I could make [fill in the blank], if only I'd bought some..." And there's also no standing around at 6 p.m. trying desperately to receive cooking inspiration from the refrigerator and pantry. They have never been good providers of inspiration!

Our house is now mostly back in order. The noisy fans and dehumidifier are gone and we have new padding under half the carpet in Lila's room. Everything is dry and now we just need to figure out what to do next. The claims adjuster came out on Monday and said he's figuring in the cost of replacing the linoleum in the kitchen because it's curling up along the edge where it got wet. I SO don't mind replacing that stuff because I hate it! We were both very glad to hear that we get to keep our pretty green cabinets! :)

For the record, this is totally not the order I posted these photos in. They actually had a flow and made more sense my way. But apparently Blogger had other ideas. :o)~

Her first trip to the zoo! And she got to go in the fun new stroller that lives at Grammie and Papa Joe's. 

"I love sweet potatoes!" (now we're waiting for the scary orange poop) 

"Stop being so cute! I think that chick's got a camera!" 

A kitty's a kitty, no matter how big. It was naptime for most of the cats at the zoo. 

The people are so much more fun to look at than the animals! We'll have to try again when she's older. 

Here's Lila, entranced by an elephant. Can't you tell? 

Look at Lila the big girl! Sitting up and playing with a toy for the first time! :) 

Yep. The Dog had to come to the zoo with us. 

Eventually, the excitement was too much for Lila to stand. Good thing we had a stroller! 

We did go to Houston this weekend after all. Someone came out and set up two big industrial fans and a giant de-humidifier in the kitchen and Lila's room on Friday afternoon. At first, I was hesitant about leaving the house for the weekend with these things running (what if there's a short and the house burns down? what if the cats go nuts?). However, as soon as the guy got the things set up and turned on, we couldn't get out of here fast enough. They are loud and annoying!

The trip went pretty well both ways. Since Lila's a bit older now, she doesn't just sleep the entire way. She'll sleep for about 45 minutes and then wake up and quickly decide that she doesn't want to be trapped back there in the seat anymore. Part of each leg of the trip was spent with one of us in the back seat, entertaining her. She did okay though!

The sad part about our trip out on Friday was that we got about 15 minutes down the road and then I remembered a prescription that I needed to pick up before we left town. So we had to turn around and come back. That added about half an hour to the trip. Oh well, we got there eventually and had a fun weekend! :)

We are supposed to be going to Houston this weekend, but that plan is now on the line. The reason is that half of Lila's bedroom has wet carpet. :oI~

We had a service guy out yesterday to fix our water softener, including the filtering system under the kitchen sink. Well he fixed it all right! Actually, he did do what he was supposed to in order to fix the filter system, but he failed to tighten something properly. Around 10 p.m. we noticed that there was quite a bit of water leaking under the sink.

So, Doug turned off the valve so that it couldn't leak anymore and cleaned up the water that was under there. Or so we thought. At 1:45 a.m., Lila woke up and needed some help going back to sleep. When Doug went into her room, he discovered that the carpet in there was wet. Apparently there had been so much water leaking that it had soaked into the cabinets and baseboards and made its way over to her bedroom. Ack!

Now we're waiting for someone professional to call and tell us the best way to get it dry. We need to do that as soon as possible because we don't want mold growing under our child's bed! The worst-case scenario is that we'll have to get the cabinets replaced because we don't know how much water they soaked up and how damaged they are. *sigh* I LIKE our green cabinets...

Hey, it's February! For some reason, I always like the first day of a new month. I could not care less about the new year, but I like new months... who knows. :o)~ Lila had a really tough time sleeping on Monday night and last night was a bit better, but still rocky. The result is that I am exhausted. If Lila ain't sleepin', ain't nobody sleepin'! It doesn't help that I have Allergy Head. Oh well.

I'm pleased to report that my house is slowly getting cleaned and decluttered and I'm no longer feeling overwhelmed by the tasks. Yesterday I spent some time dusting the living room. I only had to spend a little time doing it, but it makes a big difference. I hate looking around my living room and seeing layers of dust on everything. It's not perfect, but it's better than before!

That's really all I can think of to talk about. I've been up for a couple of hours and am showered, etc. but I still have a fog in my brain. Lila and I are meeting a friend for lunch and hopefully that will help to perk me up. :)