Cute Picture of the Week!

Why should Georgie get all the picture space on my Blog! BTW, Shayna had no idea that the bow was in her hair! What a cutie pie!

Random Picture of the Week!

Happy Birthday....

We just got back from Sonora this past weekend, where we celebrated Shayna's Granddad's birthday. We had lots of fun visiting with family. Shayna spent most of her time either swimming in the pool or helping Grandma Lynn pick "Matos" (tomatoes) in the garden. Although it was such a short visit, it was really nice to be with everyone, including Casey the kitty who Shayna chased around the house!

I was reading about the String Theory the other day. Not sure why I read the article, but it somehow made perfect sense to me. OK, check out the illustration to the left... this is the "scientific" string theory which, if you're lucky enough, you can catch sometime on PBS. This is NOT the String Theory which I was thinking of tonight... Lorie's String Theory consists of a string hemmed into a piece of clothing, that you pull and pull and pull and pull until voila, the button falls off or the hem disappears. This is my life. I keep on pulling this string and buttons just keep falling off. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just an observation. When we brought Shayna home from the hospital that one sunny November day in 2004, I pulled my first string. Not one single nurse came home with us for that first night alone...with a newborn.... scary! Mark and I worked as a team and took care of that little tiny baby all night. She slept in her bassinet, only to come out for diaper changes and nursing. Ahhh, my first string and I didn't even realize it! Nursing....If I only I could've known how hard it would be to get Shayna to take a bottle after 7 months of nursing... and then accepting the bottle with breast milk to refusing a bottle of formula... NOW, it's almost time to move on and lose the bottle altogether... do you see where I'm going with this? Probably not, but it all makes perfect sense to me. Then there's rolling over... and "I can't wait til she can sit up on her own." Then..."I can't wait until she can crawl," (not thinking, she'll be ALL over the place...) Then..."I can't wait til she can walk," (not thinking that she'll be all over the place at a taller level)... I had an epiphany today.... I guess that being a parent, one thing leads to another in such a way that everything is intertwined, like a string...hmmmmmmm....

USA...USA...USA

I know most of you are saying, "What the heck... why is this photo on her Blog?" Well, I'll tell you why. The cyclist above, Floyd Landis (who used to ride with Lance Armstrong) executed the ride of his life, yesterday, and looks to Saturday’s Time Trial to seal the deal. Winning the Tour de France! Simply an incredible ride in an incredible Tour! I can't wait until Saturday's important time trial where Floyd should easily be victorious! Can you believe how exciting bike racing can be? Their tight bike shorts help a lot, too... LOL

Pottypalooza...

We have begun the dreaded potty training here at the Bartee household! On Monday night we sat Shayna on her new Elmo/Cookie Monster toilet seat. I told her to go pee-pee and she did! Well it was more like a couple of drops, but who cares - she DID it! Too bad that she hasn't been able to do that since, but it's a start. We decided to start this because she totally understands what pee-pee & poo-poo are. She has her favorite hiding place (behind our dining room chair) for her #2 business. She will actually tell me that she has to go if she's sitting in her highchair. I let her down and off to her dining room chair she goes. I will try to pick her up and transfer her to the bathroom, but I get a response of, "NO MAMA...POO POO." So I know that she's not ready for the "Big Seat," and I let her go behind the chair. I don't want to ruin what we already have going.

Here is a cute picture of Shayna with "Kitty." She has given up her baby for Kitty for now. Who knows what it will be like tomorrow...

A Happy Birthday goes out to Shayna's Granddad today! Happy Birthday, Art! Can't wait to visit with you and Grandma Lynn this weekend!

Random Picture of the Week!

As I was sitting at my desk at work today, looking for a particular picture to insert into a report, I came across this picture in the “My Pictures” file on my computer. I don’t know why, but I love this picture! I am sitting in front of everyone, with the bunny ears (thanks, Jenna!). This picture was taken at Badwater, of course, in Death Valley on our Igneous-Metamorphic Petrology Field Class in 1993. What a fun time we had at SSU! Sure do miss those college days! BTW, you can visit Jenna's Blog with the "Lawrence Triplet's Blog" link to the right --->

Back to the Heat!

We are back from our little jaunt up to Seattle, Washington... well actually, Gig Harbor, WA. We stayed with our friends, Bill, Kim, and their almost 3 year old daughter Andrea (Andy for short). It was a quick trip but relaxing for the most part. I don't know what it is about the trees or cloudy skies or cooler temps, it just makes me feel more relaxed. We spent some time in Seattle as you can see by some of my pictures. Shayna is an AWESOME traveler! I brought some crayons, paper, tape... and she was off! A 2 hour flight felt like 10 minutes! We are so lucky! Here she is, looking like a "Big Girl" in her own seat (which we were lucky enough not to pay for) on the airplane. Also, the next time you fly, make sure that you place the sippy cup through the XRay machine (do NOT have you child carry it through the metal detector)- as we were ordered to by TSA (Those Stupid A-holes).

Here we are on the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle for dinner. The city is gorgeous!

We also made it back to Seattle on Thursday. We headed over to the Pacific Science Center, until Shayna fell asleep in the car - then the stroller. Mark and I decided that spending $28 for us to get in and play with kid stuff just wasn't worth it. So we walked around the Space Needle area and found a huge indoor food court with tons of places to choose from and lots of stuff for Shayna to play with when she woke up.

Here we are with our friends on the ferry to Seattle for dinner.

Here's a neat shot of the Space Needle!

and here's one at the Pike Street MarketPlace - where they throw the fish!

All in all, we had a great time! We love it up there!

Buh-Bye...

We will be off to the great Pacific Northwest tomorrow for a well deserved "break". We will only be gone til Thursday, but who cares - It's still nice just to get away from all of the concrete!

We finally took our professional photos last month. Here's the 3 of us. Yes, I know I'm flipping the bird (by mistake) - but it's better than the one with Shayna's finger in her nose!

I don't know what it is with these "professional" photo places. They have kids taking the photos and it just seems like they have no idea what the heck they are doing. Am I just getting old? A good friend of mine mentioned to me last week that I am halfway between 20 and 50.

Holy Crap!

Here is our "family" (well, my extended family) portrait - gotta love the light fixture above us!

Friday Night Fun!

Another Friday night at the park for some music and fun... this time Shayna and I went with our neighbor, Jenny and her adorable 9 month old daughter, Larissa. The musical theme for the Long Beach Municipal Band tonight was "Fun." They played everything from the Pink Panther theme to the sun will come out...tomorrow... It was another warm evening here in the LBZ. Shayna had lots of fun sharing her food and toys with Larissa. It's so hard to believe that Shayna was this little only just a year ago. Time flies by when you're having fun! Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya Tomorrow! You're always A day A way!

Back to Work

Well, I know that yesterday was the first day back to work after the long weekend but it still kinda felt like part of the holiday. We had a great 4th of July! Every year, the Rosebay Street residents close off the street and set up an entire block o' fun! The kids are split up into Team Red and Team Blue. Lots of competition - Everything from "Fill the Bucket up with water from a cup on your head" to the good old balloon toss! The adults have fun, too! Of course there is always someone carrying around a tray of Jello shooters! Yum!

Even though Shayna is a bit too young to participate in the festivities, she had fun soaking herself in someone's lawn sprinkler. I had her in the most adorable 4th of July outfit... for about 3 minutes... as soon as she spotted water, she headed straight for it. I let her have at it! She was soaked to the bone in 5 seconds! I ran home to get the camera and towel. We walked back home and I put her in her bathing suit, water shoes, and hat and headed back to the sprinkler! Everyone loved watching her splash around in the water! It was a great day!

4 Day Weekend!

What more could you ask for? Ok, maybe a 5 or 6 or 7 day weekend... I'm not the greedy type so I am enjoying day 3 of my 4 day weekend! Even though I made a brief appearance into the office today, it doesn't count because we were BBQing! Shayna had fun at the BBQ as well... I had to break out the colored pencils so she could color in the stick figure "kitty" that I had to draw. Don't ask me how to color in a stick figure, Shayna is an artist and I don't question her beautiful artwork! It's really strange because I've had some of these colored pencils since my SSU days. Who would've ever thought that Mark Bartee and I would've gotten together, married, and had the most beautiful little girl? Ahhh, those old SSU days!

Our awesome neighbors (with the pool) are away this weekend and asked us to watch their house in exchange for the use of their pool & jacuzzi. Hmmmm, I think we got the better end of this deal! Shayna and Mark love pool time together. Shayna is learning how to hold her breath and to blow bubbles. She loves the water and I'm sure we will be spending most of tomorrow swimming. It's been pretty hot here in the LBZ - 80's - 90's.... so hanging out at the pool has been a wonderful plus to our weekend. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our neighborhood! Have a fun 4th of July tomorrow!

An Evening of Fun in the LBZ

Last night we had a chance to picnic in the park with the Lindsay family. It was great because it was "Concert in the Park" evening, featuring the Long Beach Municipal Band. It was wonderful! We heard everything from Yankee Doodle to the America the Beautiful. Shayna got to see her friends, Camille and Mason, and Mark and I got to spend time with our friends, Mike and Lisa! Here we are with Mason reading a book about construction equipment! Mark even got to dance with Shayna!