You've got the cutest 'lil baby face

The Albert girls: Chris, Althea and Cooper


Can you even stand it? If I turn into one of those pagent moms somebody stop me, please.


Bundled for her trip to Long Reach.


Wicked clutch hittah, wicked cunnin' baby

We're back!

We arrived back in New England on Friday - and began making the visitation rounds! Althea's grandparents and her cousin Jakob meet us at the airport and drove us to see Memere - boy wasn't Memere surprised by our Texas souvenir. On Saturday, Auntie Lisa, Uncle George and the 'hood turned out to visit with Miss Althea - and yes, she stayed up late to watch the Red Sox game. Please give us a shout if you are in town and would like to visit - we generally answer the phone but are finding it difficult to make calls.



Could Memere look any happier?


Joy from Auntie Lisa.


TeeHee! Too cute Ellen!


The ever clear headed and calm Auntie Kristen.


The proud Uncle George.

By Popular Demand

ICPC approval

We have been approved to return to Maine! We are making arrangements for a flight now - whoohoo! Ahhh...to "sleep" in my own bed...

"You all may go to hell and I am going to Texas."

We spent the last two days in the land of Davey Crockett - and that quote is plastered all around San Antonio. It was Althea's first long road trip and she did really well - only one screaming, crying fit during the whole ride, not bad. AND Chris now has a new talent of changing diapers on her lap in the backseat of a car - never know when that'll come in handy.

We stayed at the Drury Hotel on the Riverwalk - I only mention this because the building is so... cool. It was the Alamo National Bank in its other life, a gorgeous art deco style skyscraper complete with WPA-like-wood-cut-like murals on each side of the front door. We were able to walk out of the hotel and right onto the Riverwalk - of course we forgot to take pictures of the Riverwalk which sits below street level, with building rising up along it's banks.




Another museum visit for Althea Rose...


"Excuse me, can you show me where the basement is?"
"What?"
"The basement of the Alamo."
"Honey, there's no basement at the Alamo."
-Pee Wee's Big Adventure


Yup. That is a giant cartoon-like mechanical Davey Crockett - this was right next to the Guinness World Record Museum which was next to the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum - Althea and her parents did not visit any of these "museums".

Cowboys, Steers and Kilts

Yes, he is wearing a kilt and cowboy boots. I can't explain it. He was telling stories and there was a band (think "Mighty Wind" meets Garrison Keller) - it was too strange and I kept expecting to hear that it was sponsored by the Ketchup Council...


Yup, this flippin' out long horn was sauntering down Exchange Street about 30 minutes after we watched him flailing about in the pens. Look at those horns!


"I'm a cowboy baby..."
"I wanna be a cowboy, and you can be my cowgirl..."
Yes, she is drinking Red Bull - funny hunh?



Happy Matt holding Althea in her sling - she loves it in the sling (read: she sleeps).

Long Horns

Well we spent the day in Fort Worth - very cool. The Fort Worth Stockyard has a cattle drive down Exchange street twice a day - totally campy tourist thing but fun none the less. Folks are dressed up in full cowboy regalia riding horses down the middle of the road, right next to the SUVs full of tourists. We stood on the side of the road, drinking our sarsaparillas waiting for the drive to start - I have to say it was more like a cattle stroll - checking out the old Spanish architecture and laughing at the locals in the super pointing rhinestone cowboys boots. Once we retrieve the camera from the car we'll post some photos...

It's Matt's birthday too!

We spent today lounging, eating bar-b-que and watching Mikey Lowell nail Cano, ouch! Can' t think of a better way to spend Matt's birthday - Althea seems to know that there is no crying in baseball and has indeed been the picture of baby Zen today.

Monday brings her biggest road trip yet - San Antonio and the Alamo!

Let's go Red Sox!

Can't start her too early on baseball...

Pacifier Power

Okay, okay, okay so I was wrong, you were right...again. The pacifier is amazing - having had virtually no sleep on Thursday night, pacing the hotel room, rocking, swaying, singing, shhing to no avail - I broke down and opened the pacifier, she wouldn't take it. But last night she started doing the same thing, crying - well screaming bloody murder really - we decided to give the pacifier another whirl not expecting her to take it. She took it. She fell asleep. She stayed asleep. I slept. Matt slept. She woke to eat and be changed. Unreal. Do you think it would work for Matt's snoring?

New meaning to the phrase flower child

Flower Power baby.


Doesn't this just make you smile?


I couldn't resist including this one - I love the spent pollen resting in the petals.



Althea loves getting dressed up for a trip to the museum! Fed and happy she napped on the lawn under the shade of a Texas sized tree.

More Photos from today's trip

Blue agave - so beautiful the leaves looked like waves on the ocean...


The scent of gardenias so sweet filled my nose while I was taking this photo - I found myself
wondering how to capture it with the camera.


Gloriously enormous butterfly bushes - the one in my garden looks like a twig compared with these beauties.


Hydrangeas need I say more?



A water garden filled with these lovely flowers.

You say it's your birthday...

I am so not sure how this became underlined...oh well...

So for Chris' birthday we went to the Dallas Arboretum - Althea's first museum visit, whoohoo! It was wicked hot - holy guacamole - up near 90 degrees. Lucky for us the Arboretum has lots of beautiful shade trees and we were able to stay fairly cool. We had lunch at the Tea Room on the grounds of the Arboretum, just lovely - beautiful flowers and a nice breeze to accompany our iced teas.

Enjoy these photos from the day...



Coy-pond-pondering...




Matt and Althea in the flower covered playhouse.


How Alice in Wonderland is this playhouse? There are crystals hanging in those little elf shoe like corner brackets, and the flowers are growing along the side of the building in some sphagnum moss - a drip irrigation and misting system keeps it watered.



Rose gave me seeds for this flower a few years ago - I was able to grow them but not like this...these flowers were between five and seven feet tall, easily.


Awhhh...Althea hanging out in the baby sling - she loves it in there. All the docents were peering into the sling to sneak a peek at the new baby...