Our Little Tadpole

Gretel is a big fan of bathtime, whether in her tub or ours. She really enjoys floating too. Check out the rolls on those legs!

Learning to bottlefeed

Mamma Liesl is going back to work on September 1st, so poor Gretel has been learning how to eat from a bottle. After several mostly failed attempts with the first bottle we tried, we got smart and bought a new bottle. This one came highly recommended by Jenn Tappan and Gretel seems to tolerate it fairly nicely. Here's Pops Casey feeding his little June Bug.

Cousins!

Gretel (age 6 weeks) has the good fortune to see her Hess cousins often. Here she is with Orion (age 4 3/4) and Soleo (age 11 3/4 months) having some fun!

Our Garden Runneth Over

Even though we didn't mean to have a garden this year, we managed to get a fair amount of flowers, fruit and herbs into the ground just the same. We've got seven-foot tall tomato plants! Gretel and Liesl have been enjoying sunny days lounging and working in the garden.

Gretel is learning how to dry tomatoes for the long winter months ahead...

Sometimes life IS black and white...

Great Grandma Norma made this wonderful quilt for Gretel. From the very first moment she saw it, Gretel has loved the black and white fabric and great pattern!



Doing some exercising in the living room.

Gretel also loves that her dog matches...

Grandparents visit from Maine

Grammy Daisy and Grampy Frank came out to meet Gretel and spend some time in Oregon.

Gretel got her very own Doodah from Grammy Daisy. (Doodah is a wonderful Lackaff family tradition!)

Grampy Frank very proud of his newest grand daughter!

We went out to Sauvie Island for more berry picking and a picnic.


Gretel was busy picking a whole flat of Blueberries!

Liesl and Grampy Frank carrying the haul back to the fruit stand...

Tomato weather

Liesl working on the front yard garden.

Our first year of tomatoes at the new house. Lots of sunshine makes 'em really grow (and hopefully fruit well!)

Mamma Liesl tending flowers...

Ziggy supervising nap time.

Some hot weather...

Yeah. In the shade...


The house was pretty hot so morning naps were on the front porch. Alistair is already a great babysitter...


Peel those clothes off for hanging out on the porch.

Gretel loves her 'gym' that our friends the Elkin's gave her!

Work, play, and enjoy...

Liesl and Gretel have been busy picking our bumper basil crop! We only had a chance to plant a few things in the front yard when we moved in the spring... so tomatoes, basil, flowers and herbs were a must. Head Gardener Gretel has supervised the season.

After working in the garden Gretel 'sang' to Ziggy for a while (something along the lines of 'needing a bath')

Getting a little bottom scrubbing...

Cute head of wet hair after bath time.

Catching up!