July 2011-1st Half

Some 365 Pictures:

And more (with another 'reflections week' at the end):

Here are some outtakes of the girls 365 shoots, plus a few extra:

So I 'made' these jerseys for them. I took cheap matching t shirts from Tesco, sliced up an old white t shirt, and sewed the stripes on them. The front has a little logo to match the "Colby Institute for the Vertically Challenged" crest on the Spirit Week sign, with the little girl/arrow and the initials CIVC on the banner under neath. I'm not sure if I got a good picture of the crest in all this or not.

The backs have their names and #s: Amaia's says A. Colby with a 1, and Solia's says S. Colby with a 2. I love how they turned out!

So since we finally got our new camera back (in a way) we decided to head over to Hampton Court Palace. We didn't really take a lot of pictures of the inside of the rooms-pretty much the same as any other 'old' building around here: lots of really really old faded tapestries, huge 4 poster need-a-ladder-just-to-get-in-bed-at-night beds, paintings, and a huge dining hall.

Although, that scene with the King in the beginning of Pirates: On Stranger Tides is all filmed here, so I guess that's cool. We did take a few pictures of the outside:

And of this awesome room. I don't even remember how many different pieces there are on these walls (I swear the guy said in the thousands), but they take it ALL down every 25 years to clean it all. Apparently they would show guests through this room first, to let every one know who was boss. Click to enlarge it, if you can't see-it's tons of guns, swords, javelins, pistols, etc.

And one random shot of some money on the corner of a card table. Oops.

After walking around for a while, we went out to the lawn out back and hung out for a while:

First thing Amaia does when we let her out of the stroller when we get there, is to lay on the ground and pose for us (left top and bottom photos):

Here's some of Amaia in her jersey-you can see the back of hers here:

And kind of the front (on that bottom right one...)

Amaia:

*Justin calls his mom on FaceTime every once in a while. And every time (without fail) (within the first 2 minutes of chatting) Amaia says "I want you to eat beans". We still don't know exactly what kind of beans she wants her to eat, or why she wants her to eat them so bad.

*If we ask Amaia a yes or no question, she usually answers with "probly yes" or "probly no", or "probly I want that", or "probly Solia wants...". You get the picture.

*She's given up on all the sleep rituals we used to do, like letters and kisses and laying with her before she goes to bed

*Amaia's figured out buttons-in fact, she won't let me button up these certain PJs that have buttons up the front-she has to do it herself.

*When Solia cries, Amaia goes "Alright alright, ok, ok".

*Amaia is more like me than she is like Justin (so far): she's got dark hair/eyes/skin; she gets angry really easy; she loves cheese; she thinks every thing is friggin' hilarious and is super ticklish

That's Amaia's marble painting, and the swan family hanging out in our 'river.

Top right, you can see Solia posing at Hampton Court Palace, just like Amaia did.

Here she is in her jersey:

Solia:

*Is more like Justin (so far): super light hair/eyes/skin; hates cheese; can roll her Rs (Amaia can't), thinks nothing is funny (except Amaia) and definately is not ticklish.

*Solia can get to standing without using anything to pull up on

*If I hold out my hands or a container, and ask Solia for what she has, she'll come put it away

*Solia took her first steps at the end of June, and by mid-July, she's walking around more often than crawling (although still with plenty of falls!)
She likes to play in our window :) She loves going outside but I can't take her out all the time and this is the next best thing. The only bummer is when she throws stuff out-there is a little gap in between the grate and the ledge. Oh well, as long as she's entertained!

Justin and Amaia went on their first "Daddy Amaia Night". He asks where she wants to go, and they go. This time they went to the mall. When they came back, Amaia told me all about the sushi that they ate, and Justin had bought her a whole set of Rapunzel figurine toys. She loves them and they had so much fun. Hopefully he'll be able to keep doing that, she couldn't stop talking about how 'she had sushi and it was so yummy!'