Brightwood Lights

and one giant leap for Mama.  Yes, it’s true.  Our little Simona has taken her first steps.  The very first one was in Iowa on May 20th, and this past Monday she took her first consecutive steps (about 5-6 in a row!).  She is slowly working up the nerve to take more and more.

 As for photos:  On Mother’s Day, our good friend Sam took some beautiful pictures of Simona.  He is quite skilled, as you’ll see.  I’ve updated the “photos” page with just a few of them.  I figure I’ll do a bigger picture update sometime soon, at which time I’ll post pictures from our most recent trip to Iowa and our upcoming trip to South Carolina.  Plus, I’ll put up a few of the major project that has dominated much of our time in the month of May: working on our house.  (I’m sure everyone’s simply dying to see those!)  I’m trying to capture some of Simona walking, so I’ll post those when I can.  Until then, enjoy!

. . . is disgusting. Actually, make that a bird in the house. We traveled to Iowa this past weekend to visit our family and returned on Monday morning. Simona and I dropped Caleb off at his office and headed home, only to discover some feathers under the dining room table. Upon closer inspection, I saw that much of the entire house was decorated with some “droppings.” Ironically, only our full- and half-baths were spared from the “interior decorater” that one of our two cats must have invited into our house. The beds, Simona’s changing table, our radiators, the windows, and especially our toaster oven and cookbooks– all had been lovingly covered in the white-black-green mixture that is “bird-doo.”

The most wonderful part of this discovery was having the privilege to hunt for the perpetrator. At first I assumed I would find bird body parts around the house, but as I headed up the stairs, I heard my “friend” flapping away in our bedroom. So, Simona got to spend some quality time out on our front porch while I went upstairs to try my hand at trapping. The bird was behind the curtain, trying to get out of the window behind our bed, so I opened the other two curtains and windows. When I pulled back the curtain, the bird gave me a quick glare and then mercifully flew out one of the opened windows on its own.

Thankfully, my friend Sarah was able to come over and keep an eye on Simona while I did a thorough cleaning. (She even graciously helped clean while Simona napped!) All in all, lesson learned: always make clear to your cats that they are NOT to have sleepovers while you are away on vacation.

And don’t worry– more pictures to come soon!