Mindy is pregnant!!!!

I have fabulous news! My sister Mindy and her hubby John Juan (pictured above) are expecting their first baby December 11, 2008!! Minds and John we are so excited for you guys and can't wait to see this little one and give him/her tons and tons of kisses and love. Congrats!!!!!!!!!

love, JoDee, Rodolfo, Georgia & Wally

Ah! The Beach!

This past week my parents joined us in Seaside, Florida for a little R&R at the beach! I love the warm, salty air and the feeling of sand between my toes! It was so great just to be back at this beautiful location. I've never visited the Caribbean, but I can't imagine that it is any more turquoise than the water here. This was Georgia's first major trip and for a 22 month old she handled it swimmingly. I am glad to have had my parents handy, it made everything much, much easier.

This is my sexy "I'm at the beach" pose. Someone mentioned it looks very similar to Blue Steel made famous by Zoolander.

Here is the charming street that our cottage was located on. I didn't take a picture of the house, which is lamentable because it was so perfectly beachy and relaxing.

Scared of sunburn? Not this jolly gang of vacationers!

Georgia had no qualms about jumping right into the sand. She stuck her toes and fingers in willingly. See that crystaline water in the background? Oh I miss it already!

Rodolfo whipped up some delicious paella for all of us to enjoy. He just felt inspired one day and told me that he wanted to make some. Rodolfo must have some terrific chef genes because this stuff tasted fantastic! I was very impressed and am making a note to self to have him do some more cooking very soon.

Georgia got a real kick out of sunglasses. I had about a bazillion shots to sort through. These are some, but not all, of my favorite sunglass moments.

Here is the very last picture my camera took before it ran out of batteries. This was taken on our last evening in Seaside. We had so much fun and can't wait to return!

Say Cheese!

Above is a picture of my cutie saying "CHEESE" by the hydrangeas that are now blooming (my favorite flower). Below is a picture of Georgia singing a song. Doesn't she look adorable?

Lark

Georgia has surprised me lately with very clear pronunciation of certain words. She says "tent" and "tv" with crisp, high octave distinction. I think these are two items she is thrilled to have in her life. Every day for the past couple of weeks she has piled stuffed animals and blankets in her tent and then goes in there with 3-5 books. She is very busy about this whole process and does it with bee-like efficiency. Once in the tent she carefully places the blankets on her stuffed animals and gives them kisses. Sometimes she walks in and out telling them "good night". After she has arranged matters to her liking she snuggles in the middle of them all and reads her books like a dedicated and serious student. I have been quite surprised at her concentration levels. She can sit in there for about 30 minutes, pouring over the pages. She enjoys looking at the pictures, but sometimes I hear her trying to recount the stories in her own baby way. Georgia's other current passion, besides these books are slides, of course, and Elmo. She races to the tv when I ask her if she wants to watch Elmo. For the longest timeI had her watching Clifford the Big Red Dog, which has a lot of good morals to it, but I've decided that Sesame Street is more educational so that is what she watches now. Other talking news, Georgia strings together 2 - 3 words in a mushy sort of adorable way. Example "mow agua psheese" really "more agua please" and a really funny one to hear, "goo bo Walsy" which is really "good boy Wally". Lately she has also been singing along to songs. Current favorites are Happy Birthday Max (we recently went to Max's 2nd birthday party), E-I-E-I-O, Aye, aye aye cante y no llores, and Ashley's song (I love you, you love me...). At night I sing to her 3 songs before she goes to bed. They are Rain Drops on Roses, The Sound of Music and Amazing Grace. When I sing Amazing Grace she loves to belt out the ME part of "... that saved a wretch like me..." and RELIEVED in the second verse "... and grace my fears RELIEVED..." Oh, also we both really like the songs on the OETA show "It's a Big, Big World". Just yesterday I discovered that if you go to their website http://www.pbskids.org/ and click on this particular show you can listen to all the songs for free. We listened to them all throughout dinner last night. It was highly entertaining.