The adventures of Jamila......

Jamila is 8 months now and she gets very excited when we go to restaurants. Since everyone else is talking and having a good time, so does she by screeching to join in the conversation and jumping up and down if we are holding her.

At least she now sits in a highchair; and I figured out the best way to keep her busy while we are eating is to give her a finger food, presently cheerios are easiest. There are none in front of her now since she either ate them or had a lovely time dropping them on the floor. She uses her forefinger to stabilize the cheerio and either drags it across the table to get a hold of it with her thumb or if the finger is wet enough she can transfer it to her mouth that way.

Jamila attended her first friend's birthday party at a park that has a great playground built by volunteers. One of the toys is gigantic chime.

Jamila's first time on a swing and she thouroughly enjoyed herself laughing and laughing every time I would push her. The funny part for me was trying to figure out how to position her in the swing so she would enjoy the ride.

Our new house....we have lots of plans to do some remodeling and gardening.

The kitchen....

Dominic and Jamila enjoying the family room.

Our weekend off...

In February, we had a mini vacation to Pensacola Beach just 30 minutes away. Dominic no longer has two jobs so we can relax a little and do some new projects on our house and just hang out.

This was the view out of our window of the hotel at sunset.

Some vegging time in the hotel room.

Papa's kissing me!!!!

I got to meet Uncle Nelson that weekend. He was here for a meeting.

And Uncle Billy is most interesting to me. I think I know him from somewhere but I am not sure.

Jamila found Dr. Roberts intriguing and spent most of her time staring at him while he was holding her. Maybe she remembers him from the Treasurer's Office but really who knows. (He was my boss while I was working at the Baha'i National Center.) It was quite entertaining to watch.

California dreamin'....Jamila took her first airplane trip in January to see her Auntie Sine and they hit it off right away.

Sine and Jamila enjoying each other on the pier where there is lots of wind which Jamila loves.

We took a trip to Hollywood with Sine's family she lives with-Big Patrick and Little Patrick and Maggie the mom/grandmother (not pictured). Too bad I didn't get a picture of Maggie-she helped out with a lot of the pictures. We are in front of the famous Chinese Theater.

Little Pat and I went to two museums. The one pictured above and a wax museum-always a strange place.

We were walking down the street when this guy started making up a rap for Jamila then he made one for Little Pat-that he should be a good example to Jamila. It was really good coming off the top of his head.

We had dinner at Mimi's Cafe because Little Pat got a certificate from school for being a postive helper for some specific group of young people at his school. Jamila loved the different colored lights you see in the background above the tables.

One day Sine took me to this place called the Anti Mall and this parking lot had a different saying for every space.

It took us three passes of the car to get this crazy picture of the Anti Mall. Not that impressive to me. It still had major corporations in it. From the sound of it, I thought it would have been more down to earth but it was a trendy smaller alternative to a mall.

This was the sitting area at the Anti Mall. Very good way to recycle. In Guyana, I remember using those kind of oil drums to catch rainfall in to use later for washing clothes and taking a bath.

Jamila just adores Sine and from the first time they met Jamila was so excited trying to jump around in my arms, smiling and laughing. Of course, she is the doting Auntie and has lots of fun with her little niece.

Sine has her own radio show and we accompanied her to her recording. She is very cool! If you want to catch her show it now airs on Fridays at 10:30 a.m. Pacific time on the web at www.ktstfm.com .

Newport Beach....

Funny, this could almost be Florida but its California. The surfer is more typical of Newport Beach than Pensacola Beach during this time of the year though. And the big difference is there is no white sand which Pensacola Beach is famous for.