Kelly and Chris brought Elise this birthday monkey.
Sitting on presents is more fun than actually playing with them.
Birthday parties are exhausting so it's important to take sippy cup breaks.
My gift to Elise was this 6' long tunnel. We both enjoyed going through it.
Here I am with my Aunt Anne. She came home from Chicago for the weekend.
It rained most of the day on the 4th, but we were able to go to a few parties. Here I am running around in the drizzling rain at one of them.
The day after the 4th we went to the Zoo. It was really crowded!
How do I look in this flamingo hat?
After the zoo we went out to dinner to celebrate my Great Aunt Tina's birthday. I really enjoyed stuffing food in my mouth. Here I am with my Great-Grandmother Audie.
After dinner we went to a store that sold all sorts of teddy bears and one of my favorite things...frogs that sing and dance. Here I am with Aunt Anne and my blue frog Ricky Martin (oh, and a giant teddy bear). Ricky sings "La Vida Loca" and does a great little dance.
Annie Kuhnhein came over for a visit. She's pretty small and doesn't do a whole lot so I wasn't so interested. For some reason, mommy seemed to enjoy holding her even though she didn't squirm and try to get out of her lap.
One day I went to the pool with my mommy and my Grandmother Babbie. There was a slide in the kiddie pool area and I fell while trying to go up the wrong way. It resulted in this black eye.
Mmmmm. Graeter's ice cream makes it feel better!
One day we went to Springfield, Ohio to visit some more family. Here I am with my Great-Grandmother Gommy, my Great Aunts Joani and Lynn and my Babbie.
Mommy and I went to Indianapolis one day to visit some of her friends from college. Here I am watching Ben, Emma and Marisa have some lunch.
Marisa is one cool cat. She wore those sunglasses all day!
This is our best attempt at a group photo. Not pictured are Julia Stormer, Miles Habegger and Marcie Murphy.
Here I am with my buddy Miles.
We went to Ellie and Matt's house one night for dinner. Matt tried to brainwash me into becoming a Steelers fan by making me wear this terrible towel. I was so preoccupied with the delicious cookies and ice cream that I wore it for a little while. Then I realized how upset my daddy would be and I took it off. Who Dey!
Ellie had a wonderful sticker collection. Who needs a shirt when you can just strategically place stickers on yourself?
Here I am with the wonderful hosts.
Griffin Barlow came to visit one day. Here we are discussing politics. He's concerned about Obama's stance on ending snack time for toddlers. I tried to tell him that I don't think he will put an end to toddler snacks and that he will be very thoughtful about snack withdrawal, but apparently Griffin heard otherwise (a nasty rumor spread by the McCain camp, perhaps??). We believe Senator Obama is on an international trip to the Middle East and Europe right now to find out their views on snack time. The results of this trip will definitely determine how our votes will be cast!
Now onto more important things...playing with Ricky Martin.
I decided to brave the pool again, despite the black eye incident from a few days prior.
One afternoon I decided to take my new shopping cart for a spin around the block. Ricky Martin went along for the ride. Ricky is quite temperamental and had to be repaired several times by Grandfather. A lot of the time he doesn't work...just like the real Ricky Martin I suppose.
