Selah and Pasley

Mike and Amy Quinn stopped by on Friday night to share some apple pie and time. They brought Pasley Lane (the "a" in Pasley is short) with them. Brennan and Kivi got to stay with their grandma for the evening. Pasley is adorable, and has the sweetest voice. She's so quiet that the Quinn's even took her into a movie theater without a problem. Anyways, that was a super fun evening passing babies around.

Strobelight Stormynight

Casson went out with Dave and Mike on Thursday night. I won't say why - other than it had to do with Rachel and buying something that might need financing. But the place was closed, so they just kicked it at the Bamboo Club, watching the most dreadful monsoon roll in, destroy Tempe, and roll out, leaving hundreds of downed and uprooted trees. Selah and I watched the storm rolling in from our apartment. The next day, Casson got the day off because electricity was out at his building. Whole power lines were downed. The destruction was epic - at least for Phoenix.

Heidi came over on Wednesday after work. We talked shop for a bit, then about marriage (she recently got married in Mexico), and had a great afternoon.

Selah really knows how to pass out after a full day of cooing and watching me and Casson act like lunatics. Some laughter and other cutenesses.

Walking is Like Riding A Bike, which is hard at first

Honestly, this little girl is interested in walking. Ever since she was born she has been trying to stand, and here I discovered that she has the one foot in front of the other concept already down. She and I spent the afternoon treading a path through the blankets.

A Hand Is Hilarious

Lots of looking around, tracking hands and people, and noise-making. I think she could even be a ventriloquist.

Tio Cesar Comes to Town

Takamatsu Restaurant.

View of Phoenix from South Mountain

Lalibela's

Cesar with Selah

Selah loved the Phoenix Art Museum.

All of us so happy at the Grand Canyon

Cesar in Sedona.

Selah got a little sunburned.

I'm going to walk all over you

Cesar arrived Tuesday afternoon. He and Selah hit if off right away. She loves her Tio already.

As to showing off Phoenix, we've gone to a couple of our favorite restaurants, Takamatsu and Lalibela's. Yesterday we drove through South Mountain Park and got a great view of the valley. Cesar discovered the Lux this morning, and I think today we may go see some of the museums that Phoenix has to offer.

We thought she was a genius baby when she started repeating oooh's and aaaah's two weeks ago. I looked up baby developmental milestones to prove it, only to find that she is right on track. By the end of month two, babies will repeat "oooh" and "aaah" to the hysterical delight of their parents.

"Oh really Plato? Is that what you think? Now, if you'll just hear me out. I find that human nature is more complicated than that. For example..." "Ha Ha, Hey-yey guuuuys. Whatsatchyasay? No no, er, nothing in my pocket. No-thing-at-all. Hey well, good seein ya. We'll see ya later. Gotta go."

Flagstaff

Granny and Grandpa arrived from Texas on Friday morning. We all packed up and went straight to Jerome and then to Flagstaff for the weekend. We spent the weekend in the cool weather, enjoying thunderstorms and Macy's coffee. Selah showed off her head control and her ability to converse with Granny using her gentle and tonal "ooooo" language. She may have suffered a Temporary Threshold Shift (TTS) in her hearing thanks to the constant train whistles blowing.

Hold Your Head Up (Movin On)

Don't call me Bobblehead.

There's No Debate About It: Selah Loves Nick's Hair

Nick is in town for a two week debate camp at the lovely Twin Palms Hotel at ASU. We picked him up Tuesday night and headed to everybody's favorite Ethiopian Cafe: Lalibela's. We got the Exclusive, to which we all did ample justice. Selah went 5 hours without eating...all so that we could have a peaceful meal and conversation. It was fantastic, but a reality nonetheless. Selah was jealous of Nick because he has hair and she doesn't. Question: second cousin, or first cousin once removed? Here's a video of Selah when I explained to her what Fishing Subsidies were.

Simultaneous Lightening and Thunder

I don't know what it is, maybe the fresh air, but this little baby sleeps so well camping. We pulled off two nights in a row this weekend. Look at that awesome crib! It's so easy to bring along and set up.

Saturday we got hit with a killer thunder, rain and hail storm that threatened to flood our tent. Lightening and Thunder were presenting themselves to our eyes and ears at the same moment, and we, being tented under a few big pine trees, several of which looked like they'd been struck by lightening before, decided to wait the storm out in the car. But it cleared up beautifully so that the evening was cool enough to really enjoy the walk around the lake. Casson's bike ride was a bit muddy. On Sunday I ran into Katia again, the woman with the baby girl of Selah's age. Her daughter's name is Natalie. I didn't get a picture of her because it started to really rain again and we had to dive for cover in the car again.