Baby Noah

I was so excited to meet Noah last night. He is so beautiful and was a little angel the entire time.

Here is my favorite one!

5 days old, and already smiling.

I was excited about this pose, but I don't think it turned out like I expected it to. Oh well.

Fruit Flowers

Allyson has talked about fruit flowers as long as I have known her. Yesterday, we had a guest speaker at work and I was asked to put some food together for a small reception. I did the normal cheese and crackers bit, but I had to add an element of "Valerie flare." I made these arrangements instead of the usual fruit on a tray. I felt a little dorky, taking pictures of fruit at work, but you all know what a show-off I am.

Poor Randy

I guess it was only a matter of time before Randy became infected. Yes, as of Tuesday Randy has strep also.

The good news is that my mom came to help out with Teague, so I started back at work yesterday.
When I heard the doc say, "after 24 hours of antibiotics you will no longer be contagious," I thought she meant "after 24 hours you will feel better." That was wrong. It took several days to feel better, and now poor Randy has to go through it.

The Uggs

I haven't posted in a while because Teague and I have a case of the uggs. On Thursday he was diagnosed with the croup. On Saturday, I was diagnosed with strep and immediately took Teague back to the pediatrician (with a case of mother's intuition) and found out that he had strep too. 5 days later, and 5 prescriptions later, we are still not feeling any better. I am sure I will get a boost of photographic energy once this rolls overs. UUUUUGGGGG!!!!

Our little boy friends

I only talked to Melanie for a couple of hours (wink - wink) but she taught me so much that I couldn't stay away from it. Here are the little boys that have visiting us recently. Is it "stalker-ish" if I take pictures of other kids? Anyway, I am obsessed right now, so I will probably post old pictures that I have edited now. Thank you Melanie!

Because of Melanie...

Melanie - I found some free actions last night. I don't think making one in CS3 would be hard at all. I would give you one to test out - but I don't know how to save it in E5. Let me know what you think:

The original:

Muted Fashion:
Vintage Tint:
Urban Acid:
I did this one all on my own...I'm so very proud.

Alabaster:

ABC's

It's not impressive that my 22 month old child can say most of the alphabet,

it's impressive that he can play the kazoo.

Florida VII

Tourist moment.

It was so much fun to feed the giraffe. The dude behind Randy thought so too.

Florida VI

Here was a moment of nervousness. They allowed us to reach in a touch the stingrays!

Florida V

Tampa Zoo

Not the greatest pic, but you know, it's with the otters.

Florida IV

There pictures are a bit out of order...

On the plane ride home, Teague wanted to listen to his "mucus" (music). I thought he looked so funny sitting there like a college kid with a Palm.

The big planes were a big hit.

I think that was ice, not rain, on the window. I am surprised that we made it home!

Florida

Randy: I remember this mall being bigger.
Valerie: Hmmm. It's not much bigger than Kzoo's mall.
Randy: I remember that there was a Tiffany's at this mall.
Valerie: This doesn't look like the kind of mall that would have a Tiffany's.
Randy: I remember this mall having two floors.
Valerie: This map here shows there is only one floor.
Randy: I think this is the wrong mall.

Randy was really excited to take me to the cool mall that he went to last year. We drove out to Tampa and went to the wrong mall. Oh well. The next day we went to the right one. The right mall was really cool. They had a great play area.

Valerie: I don't know about letting Teague in the play area. There could be germs.
Randy: Look at the women here; do you think they care about germs?
Valerie: Well...no.
Randy: Right, they are carrying expensive handbags and using nice strollers. If they can let their kids play here, we can let Teague play here.
(After I looked closely I realized the women were carrying Louis Vuitton bags, and had Preg Pergo strollers. Their kids were wearing Juicy Couture and Lacoste. It was ok to play there.)

There was the baby pool at our hotel. Teague spent 2 hours there!

Florida III

The evening was just amazing. I bet they have blue skies like this every night.

I picked up some shells from the beach. I brought this one home for you, mom.

I can't wait to play with these pictures on Photoshop. I this one will end up looking neat.

Randy thinks they must comb the beach every night to break up the bigger pieces of shells.

Florida II

Our hotel it's own personal parrot. Her name was Lisa. Every time we came or went Teague wanted to say hello or goodbye to Lisa.

Valerie: Let's try to get Lisa to say hello.
Valerie: Hello
Valerie: Hello
Teague: Try, Lisa.

The beach was just a block away from our hotel. Here is Teague's first steps on the sand.

It looked like the waves were going to sweep Teague away. But he stood there and took it.