almost 5 months...

and cheetahlips is racking up the frequent flyer miles! lela, brant, and i flew back on december 29th to michigan (due to her blowout just before landing in detroit, lela arrived to greet the grandparents naked in a reindeer snowsuit... we'll remember a change of clothes next time), spent some time visiting with family and friends, and brant left january 2nd for vegas (after the lions' game, of course). lela and i hung around michigan until january 15th when we flew to phoenix with my parents so i could run the phoenix rock and roll half marathon with friends. nisha, crissie, and i finished (with very little training, i might add) and relaxed at our resort the rest of the weekend. lela got to meet the girls for the first time which she was happy about, but she was not so great at adjusting to the minor time difference. i think i got three hours of sleep the night before the race.




we then headed to vegas on the 17th and my parents helped lela and i settle in and got to spend a little time seeing brant. we've been in vegas ever since... enjoying the sunshine and living with brant's busy work schedule here. thankfully my parents, brant's sis meredith, and his parents have made trips out to visit to relieve me from my single parent vagabond lifestyle. :) lots of germany friends are here too, so that's been a relief.

on january 20th, we will never forget this day, lela discovered her vocal cords. she woke up singing. she kept singing all day, and night, and the next day, and on, and on. the girl didn't eat, didn't sleep, didn't cry, didn't poop, singing was her life. she would stand up on her tiptoes and opera sing at the top of her lungs, all octaves, all day long. this has since calmed down a bit, but not too much. so at this point in her life her interests include consuming her hand, chewing her pacifier, socializing, smiling like a shar pei puppy, creeping (butt high in the air and scooting along her blanket), tai chi, squealing, looking from her car seat out of the corner of her eye at me and smiling demurely, and opera singing.

also, throughout our time here in vegas, lela has started trying to sit up on her own. from her car seat, she will try to lean forward and get up. she did the same thing in her crib when brant's parents watched her when we went out one night in vegas. other milestones:

december sometime ~ rolling tummy to back. in fact, whenever we lay her on her tummy, she instantly rolls to her back... and then sometimes to her tummy again.
12/30 ~ starting to creep, butt in air, inching toward things
1/3 ~ first cold (thanks to that transatlantic flight!)
1/20 ~ rolled from back to tummy in crib while sleeping
1/24 ~ rolled from back to tummy right before our eyes

lela and i head back to michigan next week and then to germany at the end of the month. brant will follow us home a week later and then we're going on vacation to spain. madrid and the costa brava just north of barcelona ~ tapas and sangria make me happy. :)

here are a couple of the thousand photos we've taken lately. the rest will have to wait until we get home.

the girl knows a thing or two about casinos...


in auntie meredith's bedroom...


cousins!! nolah, lela, and eli


with "uncle" sefi...


lela riding around in nolah's shopping cart... :)