Alli is crawling all over the place now and I finally got a gate for my office door. Yesterday she crawled all the way down the hall and into Cherie’s office. She was quite proud of herself and sat and clapped with joy when she made it through Cherie’s door. We, of course, were waiting there to praise her when she arrived and joined her in celebration. Alli still comes to work with me almost every day, but as she gets bigger and more active I will probably have to look into part time day care so she doesn’t get bored to death around my office. I have to admit my office looks like a day care………with toys all over the floor and the Pack-n-Play set up. I recently put the outlet plugs in all the outlets in my office and I am plotting to “hide” my computer cords so she won’t want to play with them. Another options is that I could work part time, but that would require that I get my house sold and so far that seems like an impossible task. Leave it to me to be selling a house when the housing market is in the biggest slump ever. :(

Wednesday night Alli rode in the trailer with me and Jessica all the way out to Coopers Landing and back for a total of 32 miles. She never complained once. We took a big break at Coopers and got out and stretched and ate some baby food and looked around. She was very interested in her new surroundings. Her favorite thing was the price tags on the fishing poles that were stuffed into the rafters of the store. The air flow made the little white squares dance around which was almost as good as a ceiling fan. She watched them in fascination every time we went inside.

Alli finally has a top tooth coming in and its partner is going to break through her gums any minute now; total of 3 teeth and counting. These days she is eating jarred baby food and some real people food such as cheese and yogurt. But her bottle is still her favorite way to satisfy her hunger. She takes at least 2 naps a day but has never seemed to adopt a very rigid schedule which is somewhat frustrating to me. She now says “Da-Da” and “hi” and knows other words when she hears them; like “ba-ba” for bottle. I am always amazed at how well she communicates without language. She makes her wishes known, that is for sure. She enjoys watching her Baby Einstein DVDs and her favorite one is Old McDonalds Farm. She laughs and laughs at the puppets.

Zoe has made contact. I received the following note and photos from her.

Greetings from tommorrow.... Yo! Wassup? lol　

Sorry it took so long to write :P

gah this keyboard is weird... hmmm.....

Yah we went to a school and played volleyball yesterday and it was like supermondofrickanawesometasticyah （Tats my new saying　btw）

Food is awesome here..... you are so jealous.　

On the GO!

You can double click and pop this open and see it bigger....it is the race results tracking.
2nd place by only 3 minutes!!

So, the boys made it home this morning around 6 am. I am SO relieved to know they are safe and sound. From what I understand, the team that beat them, did not have their lights on, so our team did not know that they were right there in front of them; otherwise they would have paddled a little bit harder and possibly won the race. I think such no lights tactic is against the rules.......Bummer :(

James could barely walk this morning because his rear end is extremely sore. He is also sun burned and completely exhausted as you would expect. When I left for work this morning they were all three sleeping; James, Slebos and Grandpa Gene.

I did a quick clean out of the car before I left. It was VERY stinky. I got all the wet clothes out and stuffed them in the washer. I got all the old food out and put it in the dumpster at work. I laid all the wet gear out in the sun so it would dry out. I would have run the SUV through a car was and vacuumed it out, but the canoe is strapped on top. I should have taken a photo.......the car even looked beat!

Grandpa Gene is the real hero of this race. He did the Herman pit stop at dinner time (Wed) then went on to Weldon Springs later in the evening, probably around mid night and finally picked the guys up at 2:30 in the morning (Thurs) in St. Charles. THEN…….he drove them all the way back to Columbia. All this after doing the night time check points on Tuesday night / Wednesday morning the day before!

We are proud of them all and SUPER glad they are home safe and sound.

This is how they looked after 24 hours on the river!

This morning at 8 am I met James and Slebos at Coopers Landing to take them breakfast. They are currently in second place. They are making excellent time given the fact that they are in a canoe, not a kayak. The team that is winning is in a really fast kayak. I took them lunch at the Jefferson City check point and they were in good spirits. Tired and sore of course, but they seemed to be in pretty good shape. However........I think they are getting too much sun and not enough sleep.

I have official confirmation that the kids made it to Japan safely and are now with their host families.

And, last but not least, Alli is now officially crawling. This morning she managed to go about 5 feet to get the remote control I was using as bate. The funny thing is she used one knee and one foot. She looked pretty funny with her chubby knee in the air. I am sure she thinks it is more like walking which is what she REALLY wants to do.

Alli Bean is learning new tricks at an astounding rate!!!

Here she is walking with Steve around the office. This is her all time favorite thing to do right now. She is like a drug addict looking for her next fix. She will try to get anyone and everyone to hold her hands so she can walk around.

Here is another new trick that brings joy to her life. When in our restrooms at work, she sits in the sink and puts running water on her feet.

Today, she was SO proud of herself. She was letting go of the edge of her Pack-n-play on purpose and then she would shriek with joy at how smart she was. She can let go for at least 10 seconds!

Zoe is on an airplane headed for Japan! (this is NOW freaking me out)

5 pm update recieved on the boys in the boat race. They are ahead of schedule, in 3rd place and feeling strong.

Photo of the start of the MR340 river race. (from the www)
James is in there...........can you find him?

It is hard to believe that July is already ½ over............time really does fly by!
A lot has been going on here.

First and foremost, James is headed off today to do the MR340 boat race. http://rivermiles.com/mr340/
He has been planning and prepping for months and now it is finally here. I am confident that he will do well and make the best of it. I am also confident that he will come home with very sore butt! (He-he-he.) I’ll post updates this week as the drama of the race unfolds!

Tomorrow morning, Zoe leaves for a 2 week trip to Japan. She also has been planning and prepping for months. I spoke to her today and she is giddy with anticipation. I personally supervised the packing and I think she is ready; at least as ready as a 13 year old leaving the country for the first time can be. I am scheduled to drop her off at 5 am tomorrow to catch a bus to the airport. When she returns, I will post all about her trip.

Last weekend was another really nice weekend. We stayed here in Columbia and kept busy, but not too busy. Friday night, James, Alli and I went out for dinner. We got to Jazz before they started lining up. I had my favorite dish, Coonass Chicken. Alli was SO good. You really could not ask for a more perfect child. She sat in her high chair and ate her jar of baby food while we waited for our dinner. She nibbled on bread and Cheerios while we ate. She scoped out all the ceiling fans and smiled at anyone sitting close by that would take notice. After dinner, we stopped by Tryathletics and visited with friends.

Saturday morning, I got up at 5 am and rode my bike up to the 6 am “Krak” bike ride. I brought along my running shoes. The morning ride was a gorgeous, flat 25 miles with one small exception; there was asphalt work being done on Rangeline so we had to ride though some tar. One poor girl slipped, wrecked and broke her handle bars. After the Krak ride I headed over to Smokin’ Chicks to do the 5K with my friend Cherie and her husband. It was their first ever 5K race and they both accomplished their goals of not coming in dead last. We had a great time and after the run, we got coffee at It’s a Grind. My favorite is……the Road Warrior; a cold, blended drink with ground up chocolate covered coffee beans!

I spent the rest of the morning doing the weekly cooking (extra cooking for the big boat race), laundry and playing with Alli. Malcolm called me around 3 pm for taxi service so I picked him up, fed him and delivered him back to his dad’s house. At the same time, I picked up Zoe. We hit the grocery store and got a movie. We watched The Bucket List http://thebucketlist.warnerbros.com/ Pretty good movie, I would recommend it.

Saturday afternoon it rained some as a cold front came though. After dinner it was so cool and nice out that James and I popped Alli in the trailer for a little bike ride. We also opened up house to let the fresh air in. I just love having the windows open and it is a special treat in mid July!

Sunday, Zoe and I finished her packing. Alli went swimming with Elissa while I went to BodyPump class at the gym. Zoe and I went to the final Japan meeting and she picked up her small shirts that fit her like a dress.

Sunday night James, Alli and I all climbed in bed to watch TV and have quiet family time. Allis was so sweet and cuddly lying between us. She tries to hug and kiss you, but she mostly just gets slobber everywhere. She eventually fell asleep in my arms. It was a great way to end a great weekend.

9 month portraits
We had these taken at a place called Portrait Innovations. It was GREAT. Our appointment was at 9 am and we were all done with prints in hand by 10:30!! They even gave me a disk with all the files.

9 months check up today AND no shots!

Here are the stats:
Height- 27.75 inches tall (75%)
Weight- 21 pounds, 3 ounces (92%)
Head- 18 inches (92%)

Alli performed a few of the skills she would expect to find at 12 months. She is advanced in her fine motor skills and verbal skills. She is also very strong.

4th of July weekend

More pictures!

Power shopping with Grandma Arden in St. Louis. 6-28-08

She likes her new car better than her new doll.

Elissa and Julia have been keeping Alli on Mondays. It is a nice break for mommy.

Alli really does like to ride in her trailer.

Grandma Rea has a cute towel for Alli when she visits.

Happy Alli!