life's about to get even better...

Hey GUESS WHAT???

WHAT??!! I AM SO EXCITED, MOMMY!! WHAT??! 

Actually, probably no one else will be as excited by this as I am, but I'll share anyway. Pitch Perfect 2 comes onto Netflix tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(please insert seven billion more exclamation points to understand how excited I really am)

(I am like Millie-in-her-car excited. And more. Like Millie-in-a-car-with-her-tambourine-and-some-string-cheese. Like the world might explode with my enthusiasm.)

I just found out about this late-breaking news about five minutes ago and it's done wonders for my outlook on life. But not my health. I fear I might be coming down with something sudden and severe and extremely contagious...alas.

Anyway, other than that, things are just trucking right along over here. Millie is getting smarter and funnier (and cuter, if possible) by the hour. It's a lot to keep up with. This week she learned how to dance on command ("Millie, can you dance?") and it's definitely the best thing to ever happen. Ever. I have about 82 videos of it, but uploading them seems like a lot of work, so just take my word for it. She dances. With enthusiasm. 

When I'm not dancing, I'm sampling supposedly non-edible ornamental plants from the flower bed. Who makes these arbitrary rules about what you can eat, anyway? They're wrong.

We're soaking up the end of summer here (although the end of heat is nowhere in sight)...last week we even experienced a few exciting firsts!

I went fishing during a staff fun day at work and caught my first fish in about 20 years!! And then I caught two more!!! I was on fi-yah. It was very exciting, as you may have guessed by my expression.

Millie and I went up to the mountains for the day on Thursday to visit my friends James and Kristina. Millie had her first experience wearing a life jacket and swimming in a lake.

Auntie Stine, stop laughing at me!! YOU DON'T KNOW THE STRUGGLE!!!

It was...not her favorite. I can't blame her, though. That life jacket was all up in her face. I tried to make her feel better by telling her that next summer she will be big enough for puddle jumpers, but it didn't help. Oh well. 

Back home, I tried to make up for the traumatic Life Jacket Incident by letting her do all of her most favorite things. That means we take about thirty walks a day in her car(s).

Mommy, I no longer require a five-point-harness in a rear-facing car seat. Look how safe this lap belt keeps me!

Tropical Storm Erika ended up being a pretty excellent natural disaster name-twin. There were enough funny headlines and news stories to keep me laughing, and not a whole lot of destruction and bad stuff. We even got some rain and cooler weather here in the Southeast, which many people thanked me for (you're so welcome, I had a LOT to do with it), so that was nice. I wore long sleeves (rolled up, but still) on Sunday and it was delightful. Tomorrow it'll be back into the 90s, so our reprieve was short-lived, but...we'll be fine. I mean, we can just stay in and watch Pitch Perfect 2 every day, so who even cares what the weather is like?

I was trying to get her to make her fabulous smile for the camera, but she's definitely a stinker already and has figured out how to glare when she wants to.  And then she thinks she's so funny.

When she's not dancing, Millie's busy carrying our photo books all over the house. It's the most adorable thing ever. She always wants to crawl in our laps and look at all the pictures. I cry basically every time as we tell her the stories about her life so far.

I just like to look at the cute baby.

 In case you can't tell, I'm trying to make more of a point to be in pictures with Millie. Last week I noticed that although I take approximately 40 pictures of Millie every day, there weren't any pictures of me with her for almost a month. That's just sad. So tonight we took a break in the middle of our normal hectic evening- Matt and I trying to cook dinner (curry and naan) while we trip all over Millie's toys on the floor (that she quit playing with because she needed to be held so that she could watch us cook)- and took a Real Life picture. Millie looks a little dazed, and I look a little hyped up, but dang. Sometimes (okay, most of the time), I just can't believe how incredibly lucky I am.

Mainly because Pitch Perfect 2 comes to my TV tomorrow. But I guess there're some other reasons, too.