Road Trip

I'm off again on a road trip to Kansas City. 10+ hours in the car, I'm not sure if I'm up for it. Mom's packing up a picnic to give me at least one good oppotunity to get out and stretch. We're not leaving until mid-morning, so she's going to take me on a walk and to the pool to see if she can get me really tired out for the first half of the trip at least!

Why in the world are my parents doing this. Well, they're determined to make me a great traveler. But more importantly, I'm going to go see my cousins, Will and Chanie, my great Gram Lillian, and I'm going to meet my Aunt Katherine for the very first time! I'm so excited for this, I'm sure I'll have to remind myself of that though when we hit Oklahoma City.

I won't be posting any pictures until I get back, but I hope that all my loyal readers have a wonderful 4th of July holiday!

Inevitable, Independent Mobility

With each passing day, I am getting stronger. Mom looks on excited yet sad, soon she will not be able to put me down and expect that I stay nearby. (Rolling has gotten me to pretty good distances, but crawling will open up a whole new world!) So, here I am testing out my arm strength in comparison to teh weght of my belly. I'm getting some clearance, but not a whole lot. But I do have the correct leg motion down for the army crawl. I'm successfully scooching about 1 ft in this position. Despit her sadness in this new development, mom has been helping me figure out this crawling thing. She holds my belly up for me so I can move my arms and legs on the floor. Carpet sure is rough and I'm sure we look like quite a sight!! 

Mmm, Mmm, Good

Well, it's not Campbell's soup, but it is Earth's Best Organic Rice Cereal. (Yes, it's organic. Mom's trying her hardest to instill good eating habits and exercise routines right from the start.) So, we (feeding me is a group effort) started cereal today, a few days earlier than anticipated. After watching and grabbing for every bite of mom and dad's salad this evening, I made mom feel guilty enough about eating in front of me that she finally broke out my real food (if you can call it that).

It was a very exciting moment to eat with a spoon and dad got the honors of trying this whole feeding thing out with me. I think I liked it, I took about 6 baby spoonfuls before becoming disinterested. Not too bad for the first try. Mom says I'll be eating this now for at least a couple of weeks before I graduate to pureed vegetables and fruits.

I must say though, I'm not to sure about this bib thing! First, mom says to try and get the cereal in my mouth and not be messy. What's the fun in that? So, I get this continous swipe of the spoon across my chin, isn't the bib suppose to catch that part of the food? Then, after all of that effort, the bib comes up, wipes my mouth off when we're done, and then it goes in the laundry. So, tell me mom, why are you trying so hard to keep me so clean throughout feeding time?

Spike

My hair is getting longer! Dad has been playing with it a lot when it's wet! Mom caught him this time. They both called me "spike" for the afternoon since even when my hair dried it stood on end like this. Can you believe my parents!

Like Father, Like Daughter

My weekends with Dad have been so much fun! We've been doing all sorts of things like reading, going to the bookstore, out to lunch, and to the big pool in the neighborhood.

Here's the two of us reading together. I had been reading "Fluffy Chick and Friends", I love the textures and the different colors. But then I became very intrigued by Dad's book. He was reading me "The Warren Buffett Way," not a book you'd find in the kids section at B&N but still informative. We always have to keep one of my books near by though, I love to reach, crinkle, and slobber on Dad's books and magazines. He doesn't necessarily appreciate the love I show for his reading materials.

On Saturday, we went to the big pool. Mom didn't get in the water with the camera like she did the first time so instead, we got a great picture of dad's favorite part of pool time. The relaxation and drying off time!


This Sunday though, we decided to chill on the back porch together. I sat like he does, looked like he does, and even smiled at mom the way he does for this picture. Mom, loved every minute of being with her two favorite people.

We've been prcticing kicking and splashing in the small pool because I have a little bit more freedom. It's paying off, I can kick in my floaty in the big pool and actually move it somewhere without the help of parental motors.

Intelligent Entertainment

Yes, I'm drooling with excitement in this picture and showing off one of my new funny faces. So much so that you can see the drool. But as they say, a picture says a thousand words. Well, my vocabulary is definitely not that large yet but I can say, this toy rocks! (Well not really.) Thank you John for letting me borrow it.

I love that I can stand up, play music, turn around, and walk around in this thing! Since I've outgrown the baby papasan (also borrowed from John) this toy has kept me occupied while mom works diligently in the kitchen preparing food. (On Wednesday, she'll be preparing cereal for me! Stay tuned for my first food post.)

So why is this intelligent entertainment. Well, it plays the ABCs, the Wheels on the Bus, helps me with my colors, teaches me musical instruments, and the list goes on. You can see by the picture it's full of activities. But in fact, I think it's helping mom more than me at the moment. She loves to sing me the Wheels on the Bus, now that she knows the words.

Teething

Well, it has appeared to everyone that I have been teething now for at least two weeks. Has anyone considered that I just like to chew on things...fingers, toys, teething rings, sippy cups, my clothes, my blankets, and yes now my pool float. It may appear as if I am making an attempt to play ride em' cowboy but I'm really just trying to gnaw on the white handle. Unfortunately for me but fortunately for the pool float, my hand seems to get in the way. But like all things new, it only takes a little while to figure out how to get to what you are really trying for. It just takes perseverance, a quality that will serve me well as I grow. (We'll see how it serves my parents.)

So, yes I am in the midst of teething, I think. Mom is armed with nasty cherry tasting, gum numbing stuff that she sticks in my mouth every night. Does it numb my gums or numb my tongue? I also get some Tylenol if the going gets real bad at night. (I was waking up every 3 hours again, mercifully, I am back to just once a night.) And every once in a while mom rubs some Benadryl on my gums. Supposedly, this makes me tired and decreases my drool. However, this backfires on mom every once and awhile and instead, I drool more and refuse to nap. (My first nap that lasted longer than 45 minutes in aweek occurred today after numerous outdoor activities. I think I'll have more mom insisted outdoor playtime from now on.)

But alas, there is still no sign of the teeth when I rub my tongue on those gums or try to bite my finger off. This is probably good for my finger but bad for drawing out the pain. Check back for the momentous "I have a Tooth" post!

A Day at the Pool

Well, my mom continues to gradually get over her "first-time mom paranoia" and has actually stopped reading box label recommendations and instead goes with her gut feel on whether I'm old enough or not for something. So finally, I got my first pool floaty and she got her first day in the sun! We went to the pool at 9:30 this morning, before the sun got too strong. Here I am in my (6 mos and up, remember I'm 5 months old today) pool float, complete with rotatable sun blocking canopy.


It didn't take me long, but I decide that I really liked this. (I give swimming a full, thumbs up.) I'm actaully a little too small still to really put my legs through the holes and enjoy, but when mom held me, I kicked and kicked in the water. (I'm a little off center in the picture because mom is holding me with one hand and snapping the photo with the other.)

But man, the sun sure does tire you out. We got out and mom wrapped me in a towel while she got everything ready. Mom, brought my bathrobe to the pool to help get me all snuggly warm once I was dried off. I fell asleep almost right away. This was a great break for mom. We both enjoyed the waterfall by the pool and relaxed an hour more of the morning away.

Stepping Out

My first pair of overalls came from my Great Uncle Gordon. He thinks I'm gorgeous, not pretty! I've decided that pants aren't the most comfortable when I'm scrunched in my car seat but I love walking around in them with my mom (or dad's) help. So, here I am stepping out (on the kitchen counter).

A Cup!

After battling against the bottle for months now, mom and dad finally wised up and tried a cup. I find this much more satisfactory. I've drank (if you can actually qualify a few drops and a lot of drips, drinking) out of it with and without the lid. Mostly though, I really like chewing on the spout as cold water drips out because this makes my gums feel a lot better. I'm teething now and it's quite uncomfortable. 

Beating the Heat

Wow! Texas summers sure are hot! Staying out of the direct sunlight requires a lot of patience on both mine and my mom's part, we have to wait until at least 3:30 each day before we get any shade on the patio! Mom's looking into a sun tent for me though since I love being outside so much! By far, my favorite part of the day is pool time, here I'm just chilling out. Mom and I like to watch the golfers go by. They all wave and say hi to us. Good thing they don't here our golf swing commentaries! But the best is watching kids hit from the junior tees, they're a little bit bigger than me but before you know it, I'll be out driving them.

When you Have Tags...

Who needs toys? Yes, I am very thankful that the toy industry has not taken after Hanes in creating products that are tagless. Tags are way too interesting and fun to play with. Those of you who know my dad would say I'm taking after him and developing my research skills. Any toy that has a tag simply becomes a favorite and provides me with minutes of endless study material.

All Wrapped Up

We went to the doctor's yesterday for my 4 month shots! Yes, this was definitely an unpleasent experience for me again, but both mom and I managed. I did get a great report from the doctor though. I'm growing long and strong. I currently weigh in at 13lbs. 1 ounce (40% for my age), have grown to 24 and 3/4 inches tall (60%), and my head is in the 57% range. The doctor said this was super and mom concurred that having a skinny, tall, smart girl on her hands was fine with her.

When we got home, mom gave me a super big playing area by laying out a sheet. Unfortunately, she didn't weight down the corners and I got all wrapped up as I rolled all over. But, this definitely made for some cute pictures for you all!

Me and My PaPa

My PaPa is not an early riser, but every morning he arose early before work just to spend some time with me. I gave him big smiles of course for this special effort! We had a lot of fun together while I was there and he taught me a lot of new things. He started with exercise, I used his fingers as weights and lifted them with his help, 3 sets of 4 each day. He also gave me pony rides on his knee, complete with music. He was giving me a taste of the rides to come...first on his knee, than on his back, than on a real pony! We also practiced pushing with my feet...an exercise to help me get my crawling legs started. We got close enough that between that and my rolling, mom and dad installed a safety gate at the stairs when we got home.

PaPa's are great!

Rubber Ducky...

You're the one....You make pool time so much fun....

For those of you that know my mom well, no she is not teaching me the wrong lyrics to a song. She was just trying to help me be cute with our tag line. So, while I was at Grandma and PaPa's, the weather was very hot. However, I loved sitting out on their veranda. Because I loved being outside so much, Grandma and PaPa bought me a pool to cool off in. Granted, it's actually a blow up tub that I will one day grow into. Anyways, I had a ton of fun and went in it everyday around 5:00.

Great Grandma Dort

I have now met 2 of my 3 great grandmas. While I was in South Carolina I got to meet my Great Grandma Dort. She flew for the first time in over 30 years just to see me. (Well, my mom too.) We had a wonderful time together. She helped to teach me peek-a-boo, which I finally got the hang of on Sunday, May 28th. I squeal now whenever I hear "There you are!"

We also visited my Aunt Trish at her apartment in Spartanburg and walked around campus together. My first college visit. Mom's starting me early. The campus was beautiful and we took beautiful pictures by the fountain. (Picture forthcoming when grandma emails it to mom.)


And of course, right before great grandma left she showered me with love. Some cute little new outfits for me. Some more good incentive for mom to keep snapping photos of me and posting/mailing them to all of the people I love.