GeeGee and Iggy

Gee Gee (Barbra Fymier) and Iggy (Becky Logue) came to visit us in Altoona this weekend. Lyla sometimes gets worried around new people, and she hadn’t seen her great grandmother for a while- so we were worried about it. Katie worked hard to prepare Lyla starting a week ahead of time talking about Gee Gee and Iggy, showing her movies and pictures…. But when they arrived, Lyla instantly melted down and cried and screamed for an hour. Typical to Lyla’s form, she came around and by the end of the day she loved them. She selected Gee Gee to go with her to play with the stones and snails in the fish tank, which was a pretty big honor.

New fish!

Gaga was very brave and took Lyla to Petco today to buy 3 fish for the big fishtank she found in the dumpster. The experience at the pet shop wasn’t great, but they returned with 3 Danios that have been named “Mommy”, “Daddy” and “Baby”. Lyla loves the snails and calls them “girl” (we don’t know why). She wants to get the “girls” out of the tank and hold them, which is very hazardous for the health of the snails. We ordered empty escargot shells to (hopefully) distract her and lower the snail mortality rate.

Stanley laughing for the first time!

Liam update!

Courtney reports that Liam is supposed to be sleeping 12-14 hours a day, but he is not. She says he’s a little jeebus and is always kicking and moving around--- in this way, he sounds a lot like Stanley and Lyla--- I wonder if this is a trend and all of the grandchildren are going to be little firecrackers…?

Stanley's Photo Shoot

Katie brought Stanley and Lyla over and we had Stanley’s unprofessional baby photo shoot. We covered up a chair with blankets and took some nice pictures with my good Canon camera. They didn’t come out bad. We tried some other poses but almost all of those turned out horribly. I did manage to snap a couple of cute pictures of Lyla reading a book that were pretty cute.For the photos, Katie dressed Stas in a fox suit he got from Brian and Colleen that was not my favorite. I much preferred his truck sweater.

Liam moving

Lyla and Eddie

Lyla enjoys our cat Edward Munch (who she calls Eddie). She comes in to our house looking for him yelling “Eddie!” which is super cute because it sounds like “Eh Eee!”. Eddie is part Maine Coon and a very curious cat, and he really seems to like Lyla (think about that, have you ever known a cat that really likes a toddler??). He hangs around her the whole time she’s at our house. Eddie likes to bite and claw when he plays but seems to know never to be rough with Lyla. This afternoon they passed about thirty minutes playing together with Lyla throwing a little red ring and Eddie chasing after it, with Lyla giggling every time this happened. It is a very unusual relationship.

Stanley

Katie had a bit of a minor break down the other day. Stanley had been crying on and off for most of the day. Of course this set his big sister off and Katie had spent most of the day trapped in the The Brown House with two crying babies. Late in the afternoon, I got to be the relief pitcher with Stanley and he spent an hour snuggling in my arms farting like a mad man—which I think was the source of this problems all along. Little Stanley is a prodigious farter. Katie and Grandma took Lyla to the mall, which is Lyla’s favorite thing to do—especially seeing the “daddy bus” and the “baby bus”. After this break, the Biem family seemed to have put themselves back together and everyone went home happy.