da da da

Viv finally busted out a 'd' for us. She's pretty much run through all basic consonants at this point so her first word is probably right around the corner. She's still making strides at walking (nice pun, eh?) and she's up to a few steps at a time right now. My dad, grandma, Marjie and Emily are arriving for a week long visit in a few more days so maybe Viv will come up with a few surprises for them. Anyway, here's some pics for all you Viv (and sub-tropical flower) junkies:

back

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm back from returning the boat (actually got back last night). We had to leave the boat in Gulfport at the marina since an itinerant commercial fishing net was floating around by itself 12 miles offshore, just below the surface. It fouled up on the prop and we weren't able to free all of it. We also got hit by fairly nasty (but thankfully, brief) storm Sunday night around 3:00 am. So, all in all it could have gone a lot better.

I'll post pictures and Viv info later this evening.

Surprises

Viv has gotten pretty mobile lately. We let her roam up and down the hall and pretty much all over the house as long as we're watching her. She loves to play with the electrical outlets (which have all been child-proofed, but we still tell her no and take her away from them.) At any rate, tonight she scoots down the hallway and sits in front of an outlet and looks at me until she's sure I'm watching. She then moves her hand about 6 inches from the outlet, looks at me, and laughs. She then takes her hand away and does it again- she keeps moving it closer each time until I tell her no. She thinks this all quite funny then scoots down the hallway to me, outlet forgotten.

Here's another neat thing- she's learned to play peek-a-boo with us:



I'm heading down to Pensacola on Sunday to sail the boat back to New Orleans with Troy and Nonna Linda. Viv's Nonna Linda sailed in college and started up again by joining us for Wednesday racing on the lake this summer. For some crazy reason she's decided that spending 48+ hours sailing a boat through the Gulf in the middle of summer with myself and Troy would be fun :) Wish her luck.

So, there won't be any posts until the middle of next week (unless I put one up tomorrow). However, if I text in a post from my cellphone to the blog that says something like 'omg! wtf! troy hit buoy, boat sinking' please don't hesitate to call the Coast Guard.

First step

two, actually

Viv took her first steps today. She stood in place for about 5 seconds on her own then took two steps forward before teetering and falling down.

With any luck we'll be able to get some pictures of this soon.

Father's Day

I meant to get this picture up a little sooner, but just now remembered it. Anyway, Alice bought me a backpack for the Vivster to ride around in. It's pretty slick.

So, when the weather gets less hot and muggy than the ninth circle of Hades here in New Orleans maybe we'll get some hiking done.

Viveo

Home

I'm back from the Gulfport-Pensacola race in one piece. We finished a rather disappointing 4th after sailing what we thought was pretty much a perfect race.

At any rate, more pics of Viv will be showing up here soon since the camera is now back at home as well.

Thursday

Not a lot new to report. I'm going to be sailing in the Gulfport-Pensacola reggatta this weekend so probably no updates until Sunday/Monday.

Vacation Addendum

While we were in VA we didn't take nearly enough pictures. Fortunately, Laura was on the ball and managed to get a decent shot of Vivi with each of the Hall men. Here are some cute ones of Vivi with her Uncle Adam, with Uncle Zack, with her Grandpod, and with her Uncle Noah.

Swimming Pool, Part 2

OK, this video proved to be no end of trouble to upload and getting working properly. As a result I've switched over to google's new video service to imbed the file in the page. At any rate, here's a clip from Viv in the pool on Saturday. I'm not terribly happy with the video resolution, but one thing at a time for now.

I'm considering putting up a linux server at home that would allow people (with a password) to access all the pictures and video of Viv in the original uncompressed format (we post maybe 5% of what we have). I still haven't decided if it's worth the hassle or not but if anybody has any opinions, let me know.

Swimming

Viv had her first dip in a real pool and as you can see below, she has very little fear of water. We have a great video of Viv in the water as well but I'm having a little trouble getting it to upload and display correctly but I'll try to get that sorted today.

City Park

Yesterday Viv went to the park and rode the train. She also got to sit on a lion- pretty big day for a little girl.

Dollar Bill

Well, it finally happened. "Dollar Bill" Jefferson was indicted, at last. Everyone here with a brain has known the guy is corrupt as hell for years now. However, our 'New Orleans' citizens living in Atlanta, Houston, Dallas etc (who, by the way, are still allowed to vote in local elections) re-elected his lying, thieving ass last December. The effect of race on local politics is more than a little disturbing for someone who didn't grow up in New Orleans.

On the Viv front, she's still progressing by leaps and bounds. She's learned how to clap her hands and can now reach out and grab all the animals on her farm animals hand puppet when you ask her what they are. She was 5 for 5 yesterday on the first try (the chances of her randomly pulling that off are 1 in 3125). So, it appears she's knows a heck of a lot more than she's letting on.


CHA CHA CHA!



OH POOP! They caught Me!

Saturday

First Day, First Storm

Barry is in the gulf and headed towards Florida. Summer should be fun.

At any rate, I'm crewing on a boat for the Gulfport-Pensacola race in two weeks and I'll also be sailing the boat back from Pensacola to N.O. Cross your fingers and hope the weather is decent (so Alice doesn't have a heart attack).

Test Entry

Just trying a piece of software to see how it works with blogspot :)