I am behind! Two weeks ago, Lyra figure out how to put herself in a sitting position from lying down. Those of you who've had babies before know that this is HUGE. Now she doesn't lie there and scream because she wants to be sitting up but needs help to get there. She has been on the verge of crawling for several weeks.
Yesterday, she creeped forward two steps! She hasn't totally taken off yet but I expect that will happen any day now. The cats seem to be a big motivator for her to move forward. For some reason, they haven't figured out that it probably isn't a good idea to take a cat nap *right* beside Lyra. She is fascinated by KC's flicking tail. The other night, Bill let her catch KC's tail (eek!)and pull him across the floor. I cannot believe that KC stood for that.
The other new development from a couple of weeks ago is that the tooth fairy visited Eva for the first time AND the second time! In our home, the tooth fairy brings a Sacagawea dollar in exchange for the lost tooth. Eva was SO excited. In fact, she was so excited in anticipation of the tooth fairy's visit that she had Will pull her teeth out for her. They used the old string on the doorknob trick. Made me sick to my stomach and I had to leave the area immediately after helping secure the dental floss lasso onto Eva's tooth. She said it didn't hurt to have it pulled out this way. I'd've put a picture of Eva out here but my camera came to a bad end about three weeks ago and it took awhile to replace it.
We didn't realize when we acquired a second cat that we were creating a "Will and Eva" dynamic in our pets.
Yesterday, we went to Green Spring Gardens Park with Cheryl, Eric and Kevin. This is a beautiful garden where we used to take Will and Eva when they were little. It's our last week before school starts and Eva really wanted to go back here. We hadn't been in a long time. 
Ever since trying out the climbing wall at Balboa Island in California, Will and Eva have been hooked on climbing. SportRock is an indoor climbing gym nearby and they have "Kids' Night" where the kids can go climb for an hour and a half while the parents get to GO OUT BY THEMSELVES! That is fun for everyone, n'est-ce pas?
One of Will and Eva's favorite things to do is to have "family movie night" each weekend. Eva has taken to rearranging the living room furniture to look like an actual theater. Will likes to provide some sort of opening act, either a one act play (where is the video camera when we need it?) or, in this case, Adventures of Hatasho. Hatasho is a Japanese Samurai warrior who Will created and he is illustrating Hatasho's epic adventures using a diarama he built in a Japanese Samurai camp from this summer. 
Lyra has the best posture of anyone in the family. She is such a smiley girl most of the time. 
This is such a great photo, I am not sure what the right words are to go with it. Lyra had been a happy baby all day, but sitting on the couch watching Star Wars (which she is way too young for) seemed to get her even more fired up. 
Drooling (or "ptyalism") is caused by saliva flowing outside the mouth. Drooling is generally caused by excess production of saliva, inability to retain saliva within the mouth, or problems with swallowing.
We spent the afternoon at Jake's house, and Eva finally got up the courage to go off the diving board. Actually, she went from "I'm scared" to "I'll try" to "Can I please go one more time" over the course of two hours with the encouragement of Jake's dad, Ian. Eva's dives looked more like belly flops, but her cannon balls were very good. 
Noelle has been with us now for a little more than two weeks. Her first week she hid so well we thought she was a ghost cat. Her second week she appeared occasionally, but evidence of her existence was still best obtained by inspecting her litter box.
My friend, Trish, took this picture of Lyra at the park yesterday. Lyra is such a happy girl! 
Noelle was 'hiding" in the attic shower stall. I think this was a cool spot, and protected behind a glass door (that I think the pried open). We are keeping Noelle restricted to the attic, but she is staying somewhat in the open in enjoying some human attention. 
