amsterdam and lela's first decipherable, intentional words!

lauren, lela, camden, and i went to amsterdam last week - heineken experience, tulip gardens, the amstel, red light district, brownies from a coffee shop... we had the full experience.

tasting bar where we learned how to best drink a beer (no, not out of a funnel!) - tilt your head back while tilting the beer to reduce the amount of foam intake, if you didn't already know~

playing with the babies in the hallway of the heineken bar (different from the one above) since the bar was more of a club scene and a little much for two 8-month-olds...  :)  a little odd walking up to the bartender with a baby carrier on (remind you of "the hangover"?) and ordering a beer, but we had to take advantage of our two free heinekens!

keukenhof tulip gardens~

lela standard while out traveling (look closely)~

buddies~

camden heard that the weed was good in amsterdam.  this one.... not so much~  

of course, 1000 more photos from this on our mobileme:  http://gallery.me.com/sbreilly

lela and camden are blossoming into best buddies.  they were from the start, but they are now at the age where they can actually play together, rather than just lay side by side next to each other.  on the way up to amsterdam, they were holding hands in the back seat, sharing toys, and mimicking each other's yelps.

just yesterday, lela was smiling up at something, talking softly, and smiling, beaming at something.  i follow her gaze and she is looking up at the picture of brant and i on our bookshelf.  she looks directly at it as i'm watching her and says, "da da".  the most precious sight ever.  i encouraged her to say it again and she did and smiled and then went back to playing, every once in awhile looking up at the picture again.  looks like brant won.  :)  however, lela was at her friend taegan's house on tuesday while i was getting some mother's day pampering and when i picked her up, my friend becky said, "hey, did you know that she says 'all done' when she is finished eating?"  i listened for it today, and yup, lela says "all done" as well...  "all done" and "da da".  lela's first words.

lastly, breakfast.  lela is a german-born american that eats like a frenchwoman.  she has taken to only eating bread at breakfast.  little nibbles of bread and coffee and she's good.  (just kidding)  bread.  that's it.  pretty soon she'll be asking for baguettes.