Chair of 3 Generations of Shockley's

When I was little, my father gave me a little wooden rocking chair that was his when he was a child. It was something I sat in and used for years until I got too big for it. It sat in our living room near the fire place and I dragged it all over the house to sit in it (and even outside as the picture below shows). Back in October I thought Scarlet was about the right size for it, so I retrieved the chair from our attic storage, cleaned it up, and presented it to her one day. She sat right down in it and has been using it ever since just like her Daddy did - dragging it around and using it where and when she likes. I think her favorite thing is sitting watching cartoons in our bedroom in the mornings while Mama and Da-da finish getting ready for work! :)

Scarlet's Da-Da's Da-Da's chair.

"I like to move it around and look cute behind it!"

Ah, cartoons and bunny - life is good!

"I'm ready to go to school this morning Da-Da!"

Scarlet's Da-Da at 7 months in the chair.

Summer of 1968 - Scarlet's Da-Da at just about 3 years old watching his Da-Da prepare our Roanoke VA backyard for grass seeding.

So, SO Far behind - catch up photos.....

This is an official Scarlet blog apology to everyone. We have really been awful at getting ANY new pictures of Scarlet out here on her blog. And it is not like we've stopped taking pictures. Far from it. In fact we've taken a HUNDREDS of photos of her over the last few months. It just seems that we've had so much going on, that the blog is always put on the bag burner. Sorry everybody. We will try our best to do better! I've got a bunch of pictures selected to go out here from October and November and there's a whole lot of new December pictures coming after that as well. But first, here's a few missing September photos. We'll call these the orange plaid dress with bunny (and maybe a phone - one of her other favorite things - I know, it is starting way too early). Enjoy, and get ready for a lot of catch up pictures to come in the next few days!!!

The many expressions of Scarlet

Even though Scarlet's hair is a little "disheveled," I thought these were cute pictures. We are just now getting to the point where she will leave in barrettes that keep her hair out of her eyes.

Sleepy look

The "you are taking ANOTHER picture" look

The "you're silly" look. This is sometimes followed up with a fake laugh

We won by thiiiis much

Christopher's birthday

Last month we went to Christopher's 5th birthday party and of course got some pictures while there. Christopher is a HUGE pirate fan so all the kids got hats an pirate booty! The party was held at Going Bonkers, which is a huge indoor playground where kids of all ages can "go bonkers." Scarlet liked the play area but was still a little young to get the full experience.

(L to R): Nicholas, Nicky and the big birthday boy, Christopher.

Relaxing and taking a break. Playing is hard work!

Another picture Dada?

Arrrrgh! The littlest pirate.

Brian and Chloe
Ready, Set.....

GO!

The Miller clan
(Sorry Tana, the look on your face is PRICELESS though)

1st haircut

Although old, I thought these were worth putting on the blog. Scarlet got her first haircut back in July as her bangs were always in her eyes and she refuses to keep clips in her hair. She did GREAT and the haircut is adorable.

Elefun

I have been looking for some sort of rocking horse for Scarlet for the last couple of months and scored this cute little thing (rocking horses arent necessarily "horses" these days). I went to a consignment sale and found this in the bubble wrap that it was shipped in, for about 1/4 of the original price. Think she likes it?

The many faces of Scarlet

Here are some random pictures taken in the last couple of months.

Busy Scarlet

Silly Scarlet (playing in her Bear Chair)

Curious Scarlet

Sleepy Scarlet

another 1st!

We took Scarlet for her first merry-go-round ride a month or so ago (yep, we are STILL behind in getting things posted). Wasn't all that easy in getting a good picture while the horse, Dada and Scarlet were whizzing by.

Happy Birthday to Dada!

Man its been a long time since we posted anything....

Heres a pic taken in early August of Scarlet with her Dada. And yes, she liked the cookie almost as much as Ron did. Guess she takes after her mama when it comes to chocolate and sweets.

Father's Day 2008

(Yet another series of catch-up photos.)

Last year for Father's Day, Ginger took several pictures of Scarlet and I to commenerate the day (http://scarletann.blogspot.com/2007/06/daddy-rons-first-fathers-day.html). So we decided to do the same thing this year - now making it an official yearly "tradtion". Little Miss Scarlet was a LOT more cooperative in taking pictures for Father's Day #2 I must say. Posing with her was considerably eaiser, though getting her to smile on cue is still somewhat challenging. The sure-fire method of getting laughs and giggles from Da-da tossing her up in the air and catching her works quite well. But as you can see from the photos, it presented some difficulty for Ma-ma the photographer trying to capture those harder "action" shots. That said, Ginger did get some really great pictures of her and I. And I happened to snap one of THE BEST pictures of Scarlet near the very end of our outside "photo shoot" (last photo) - one that Da-da now carries in his wallet.

First time swimming in the pool + ISR.

Though Scarlet was born at the start of summer last year, she was just too small during the prime swim season to get her in the pool. But THIS summer is the first year she can start to enjoy the big "cement pond" in our backyard. So just a few days after her 1st birthday this year, we took her out for a relaxing afternoon of fun in the pool. Ma-ma got in with her while Da-da played the roll of photographer - testing out the new camera (and a test it was as Da-da took a lot of the pictures on the wrong white-balance setting and had to fix them after-the-fact). All in all Miss Scarlet had a real good time. She got to ride in her big green & yellow turtle float, then have Ma-ma hold her in the water (an early pre-cursor to swim lessons), and finally play on the steps for a little while.

Speaking of swim lessons, we are now in our third week of taking Scarlet to private lessons to teach her water survival/problem solving. This was something we heard about about a year ago and checked into when Scarlet was a newborn. It is called "Infant Swim Resource" (ISR) and is a specialized program that teaches infants and toddlers to roll over onto their backs to float and breathe. And for children over 12 months old, to teach them to also perodically roll over, open their eyes in the water and look for the edge or a way out of the water (steps, entry area). As pool owners, Ginger and I thought it was a necessity even though we have an alarm that alerts us when a door opens, AND our pool area is fenced off from the backyard/patio area. Sure constant supervision by us is THE absolute best prevention, and then those two barriers are our next two lines of defense. But teaching her what to do if she gets through those (or is over at somebody else's house with a pool) and fell into the water is the very last thing that could save her life. So we're gonna bite the bullet and put her through the course to give her that fighting chance. Here's a link that tells about the program for anyone interested in checking it out: http://www.infantswim.com/home.html. It really is amazing what real little kids can learn to do in a fairly short amount of time. And other than a yearly short refresher course, they seem to retain it for years and years. Also here's a news report about the program with some really good video of what it does and entails.