"Let me see your camera, Mama." I am too kind to our 2-year old. I have given in and allowed her to "take pictures" under my supervision. As I found today when uploading pictures to the computer, Teya has been taking pictures of herself while I'm not watching. This one shows how she hasn't yet figured out how to turn to the camera toward her subject. Pretty cute, but I know she's lost eyesight from flashing herself in the face......



Swim Days with church friends. The past two weeks, we've been blessed to have the opportunity to participate in Swim Tuesdays with Tiffany Roerdink and some other moms from church. It has been WONDERFUL to have some time with friends (for both Teya and me) by the pool while David naps inside. This week, Rachel joined us with the boys. Here Teya and Noah are lounging and stuffing their cute little faces with lunch.

Tessa Tolson turns four! Today Teya, David and I celebrated Tessa's 4th birthday with friends, cupcakes and Caprisun at the Mountain Maze. Once again, I was thankful that David weathered the travel and change of schedule really well. Afterward, we went to Clay and Amy's for lunch - we are so thankful to have them nearby, though we don't see nearly enough of them! Here Teya has polished off her cupcake and is about to ask for another. She is sitting between John Tyler Tolson and Jacob Oster (son of Olivia Pugh Oster, a friend from college).

A Little of Eveything...

COUSINS....Teya is surrounded on boys on the Stanton side, and David is surrounded by girls on the Long side. Maybe Anne and Taylor will come through with a boy this time around! If not, we LOVE our girls and have plenty of nail polish to go around!

A few weeks ago Rachel and the boys were over & I caught a rare (never before or again) moment where all three were sitting still. These cousins are all boy - Sebastian (4 1/2) and Noah (2) - and they have opened up Teya's world to activities like jumping, hide and seek, tag, etc. Teya LOVES to boss Noah around, and he doesn't seem to mind. Phil found her the other day holding Noah by the collar saying "NO, Noah. Don't do that!" Who knows what had just transpired, but they seem to have a symbiotic relationship - he bugs, she bosses, and the world goes round.


Teya has become a world-class "helper" in the kitchen. Sometimes I can get her to unload the siverware from the dishwasher. Most of the time I remember to wash her hands first, but you might want to be wary if you ever come to our house for dinner :-0. We spent much of this very hot day today playing "tea party" on the living room rug. This game involves removing all the contents of a kitchen drawer, pretending to eat spaghetti (she no longer calls it 'bano', so sad) & drink fresh cold water with lemon in it. I have yet to get used to re-loading the drawer only to have it emptied again hours later for another round of "tea party."


Teya has also started saying to us, "Mommy, Daddy, let's talk." I don't know where she got that, but I'm hoping it will continue through her teenage years.

A partial smile from D. Philips, as V. Philips, Sr. calls him when he's being good. When he's crying or pooping, he's David P. Long. Guess that's the advantage of having your grandson named after both grandpas!

Praise the Lord, at 2 months, the D-man is sleeping like a champ. I've found that if I get him down for a nap BEFORE he gets too tired, he'll go down pretty easily and sleep well. That basically means we have 1 hour from waking to get back to bed. That's lots of sleeping! Nightime is also going well. I'll put him down at 7:30 and the other night he slept till 2:30, and then again until 7 (I did have to let him fuss at 5:30, but not for long). We think he's a cutie pie, even if he smells like drool and spit-up most of the time.

Good night, buddy boy! There's the yawn....its time to hit the bed!

Camera lost - camera found!

So somehow I misplaced our camera a couple weeks ago. By the weekend, I figured it was gone forever, perhaps being enjoyed by a fortunate finder of the camera. But alas, in a frenzied search for my car keys, it appeared in the pocket I'd looked for it in at least a hundred times. SO we have pictures!

David has really settled down over the past couple weeks. I thought we had a perpetually cranky baby on our hands, but he seems to have a sweet little personality. Must have been tummy issues and just needing to grow out of some fussies. In his brief moments of waking, he smiles and coos and even laughs, and he's enchanted by Teya, following her squeaky, piercing voice around the room. Picture: The boys hanging out....

Teya and David lounging, moments before Teya flailed and smacked him in the face. (That didn't really happen, but it could have)

Teya is a sweet child, though she is most certainly 2 -going-on-15. She is concerned mostly that other people like her pink sparkley crocs and her pink sparkley toe nail polish. Teya always wants to know people's names, which creates great opportunities to meet strangers. We met a kid named William at the grocery store today, and Teya locked that name into her head. If we ever see him again, she'll know who he is and where she met him - I think she's sucked all the memory out of Phil and me combined.

What's new....

Teya's potty trained...mostly, except for the mishap yesterday at the aquarium in her swimsuit. YUCK. I think we'll be buying a new suit.

David has stopped crying incessantly. Poor kid seems to have some food sensitivities, which means poor Melissa has to cut out the goods like ice cream, cheese, ice cream, and ice cream. BUT he's happier, and that makes everyone in this household happier!

David still thinks night is day and day is night, apparently.

Phil and Melissa are thankful for the moments when both kids are asleep at the same time!

Dog Days of Summer

As would be expected, the pace of life has changed since little David's arrival. We spend most of our days at home in the refuge of constantly running air conditioning, following David's pattern (or lack thereof) of eating, sleeping and crying. While he sleeps, Teya and I like to slip out into the backyard to play soccer, harvest tomatoes and green beans or talk to our 12-year old neighbor, Alexis, who Teya affectionately calls "Necklace."

Teya is enjoying her new baby carrier (a birthday gift from Aunt Rachel), which is just like the one Mama carries David in. Being squished into a Mei Tai carrier is sometimes the only thing that will soothe our fussy babe. He seems to have some tummy issues & we've had some rough days and nights. A visit to the doctor Monday, though, assured us that he is growing and growing FAST. He is already a whopping 10 lbs 2 oz, 3 lbs heavier than his birth weight. So we're not worried that he's not getting the nourishment he needs, but he certainly spends many of his waking moments in sadness.

David in a rare moment of sitting by himself at about 3 weeks old

Teya is a happy, sweet big sister (most of the time)!

Two weeks ago Sunday, we had the joy of having David baptised by Phil's dad, after whom David is partially named (3 namesakes make life a little more confusing). Andrea was able to join Popsey for the visit, and we were excited to be joined by much of the Long & Stanton clans, as well as Mema. My dad read a Psalm chosen by Phil (I can't remeber which one right now - how terrible!), Phil's dad performed the baptism, and we all watched on as my sister's youngest, Noah, rolled around on the floor at the front of the church. As always, Rachel handled her half-pint with great grace and poise.

Teya, the Master Carrot Cake Baker helped me make a deliciously unattractive carrot cake for Phil's birthday. She is always a "help" in the kitchen, whether its stirring eggs for breakfast, washing green "beams" or tearing lettuce for a salad. Beware if you're ever invited to our house for dinner...most certainly Teya's little grubbies (clean grubbies, of course) have been in the food.

So this is the world of blogging.....I never thought I'd catch myself in front of a computer in this capacity. However, the recent changes in our life make this a very helpful way of keeping family/friends in touch with our life here in Red Bank.

We welcomed little David Philips Long into our family on June 8. At 7lbs, 3 oz, he was surprisingly tiny compared to Teya's arrival weight of 8lbs, 6 oz. She was all fluff, and he is all skin, bones & muscles (maybe a bit like his Dita, after whom we gave him his first name). We are in full recovery mode, working on getting nights and days straight and trying to wrap our minds around what in the world has just happened! Teya loves her little brother, but she is having her fair share of growing pains, mostly in the form of whining and mild disobedience. Along with the adjustment of a new person in the house, Teya has decided that it is time to potty train. Yes, that means wherever we are, convenient or not, we have to plop the poop she's done in her diaper in the nearest potty and talk about how we want to go in the potty next time. Very interesting.....