Lyla Talking and Eating Phone

Hey folks. Just a quickie before I take off, and we pack our entire house into the Volvo and take off for OC for the 4th.

I am drinking a vente, the Starbuck's lame equivalent of large coffee (don't even say your smack about Starbucks, I agree, but it wasn't my choice, my co-workers brought it back for me, so I'm forced to drink it), which I just found out is NOT decaf. For those of you who don't know caffeine's effect on me...let me enlighten you. Unless I'm drinking fabulous cold brewed coffee from a Toddy or Atwater's Market, then I will be plagued with horrible stomach aches and pains for hours to come. It is also likely that I will be parked on the toilet indefinitely. Both of these issues won't help me in the second half of my four hour meeting today where I am on video conference with clients and co-workers on the west coast. The other thing about caffeine is it truly does keep me up. I was addicted to chai teas for a while, but it took several months for me to put it together that they were keeping me up all night, and that there was a reason for my desire to do aerobics at 10:00 p.m. I don't know what kind of crazy pill they're crushing and putting into the teas at Common Ground in Hampden, but I'm like a sleepwalking binge eater on Ambien when I have them. Restless, hungry, agitated.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a video of the Lyla Bean. It's been a while, and even though there is nothing too crazy in this video, it is a perfect example of Lyla doing her thing. She just makes me laugh while she entertains herself, barely paying any attention to me. Although if you filmed as much as me, you'd ignore me too. She isn't walking yet, but she is managing to stand on her own pretty well. Normally, I'd let her figure it out, but she was dangerously close to hitting her head on the corner of our table, so I assisted. No, I don't gasp every time she falls. In fact, I need to start paying attention more. We were at a friend's house a few weeks ago for happy hour, and Lyla was riding on this Dora-mobile. I looked away for two seconds to grab my wine (forget that), and she was rolling off of it head first. Luckily, she rolled with it, and I was caught only by Trent.

She isn't too interested in taking steps (except massive ones when forced to play our walking games), but she does enjoy standing, staring, and playing.

She's all growsed up.