34 weeks!

Sitting in the lactation room at the nursing school which is conveniently located right next to the library (on the other side of which is the divinity school) pumping, pumping away... As I spend most of my time on campus at either the library or div school, I am very grateful that our midwife Marecha tipped me off to this spot. The Div school really should have a room of their own, but nope... they definitely don't. This is only my second day on campus this week. We think Caroline is working on a few more teeth because we've had some rough nights this week. Needs for worship planning for a service I'm leading this weekend and exhaustion kept me home 3 days out of 5 this week, but Kev took Caroline out for a big chunk of yesterday so we all got more practice in 3 out of 5 days once more. I think we'll shoot for 5 out of 5 next week.

Before I get into updates on beautiful, wonderful, fiercely strong Caroline Grace, I have to say how overwhelmed I continue to be by the generosity of the community that follows this blog. I've been engaged in a wonderful, educational exchange via e-mail with Mama V, a lactation consultant-in-training. And no fewer than three of you have offered to send storage bags via mail, and other much needed items as well. Silent sent a MARVELOUS package with storage bags AND so much other GREAT stuff. Wendy, marvelous cousin is assembling a package with more bags and other child proofing items. And Mama V, who sent us a VERY generous package before Caroline was born is sending more bags along. Wow, all! I know a package is coming from Mamie as well. We are SO BLESSED. One of the wonderful bits of wisdom Mama V passed along via e-mail was a nudge to use on-line discussion groups for moms in my area to see if i could secure a stronger dual pump, for at least a month as I seek to build a supply for the fall. She recommended a specific model and nudged me to seek it out. i put a feeler out on the one discussion board on which I typically only lurk and within 24 hours a mama was offering a month loan of the exact model Mama V recommended, or a sale for a very reasonable $25. 24 hours later I met her in a parking lot, got the pump and orientation to it, and I can send her a check if I want it or just set up a meet to give it back if I don't. She says she almost never reads on the board anymore so it was a fluke she caught my request. I'll call it providence and thank God for it. For the time being, I'm using the old pump. I'll sterilize the parts in the new (old) pump and practice using it at home this weekend.

I've been pumping frequently and still haven't gotten enough ahead of the game to start freezing, but I'm enough ahead that we don't start the day with nothing anymore. We started the day today with about 9 oz in the fridge. Enough about that!

Well, well... as I said, we think C is working on more teeth, Evidence of this claim?

1. uptick in drool, again
   
2. dramatic mood swings, very smiley/laughy one minute, SCREAMING her lungs out the next, then happy again minutes later
   
3. rubbing her tongue along her gum line repeatedly
   
4. disrupted sleep (a terrible night followed by a day with no naps longer than 30 min)

She has also been clenching her jaw and growling. She was doing this on the drive to campus this morning which led me to declare "Well, she's either screaming to express her outrage at the injustice of gum pain or growling to show those teeth who's boss!" I tell you, we have one TOUGH and FIERCE little girl.

Caroline was introduced to plain, whole-milk yogurt this week and she loves it! She was also introduced to rice cereal, first with breast milk and then with yogurt (her breakfast the past two mornings) and in both cases she gobbled it down. I mixed banana with yogurt one day and she LOVED that. She also was introduced to grapes, via her mesh teether, this week and LOVES those. We were under the impression that our girl is an especially great eater, but Aunt Katherine nudged us to try non-sweet foods to see how she takes to those. So we steamed and mashed some zucchini from our garden a few nights ago- um... she was DISGUSTED. After awhile we mixed in some apple sauce, but even that didn't help. The next day we tried carrots. Kev boiled and then mashed them... totally not interested. After awhile I tried mixing the carrots with yogurt, but nope. We'll keep trying, but it seems she has an overactive sweet tooth. Wonder wher she got that? ***blush*** Hopefully some videos will go up tomorrow of some of the latest adventures in eating.

She definitely has developed a distinctive crawl. You can see it in the pictures below- from 33 weeks. She keeps her left leg bent, but her right leg straight. (Kev is sure it is the other way around- left leg straight, right leg bent. We'll investigate tomorrow and see.) She has figured out that straightening both legs, as if to stand, doesn't get her anywhere. But she can motor pretty quickly without toppling with one leg straight. Occasionally she bends both, but I think this is her way of defiantly asserting "I still would rather be walking. I'm NOT giving up on that." But then again, maybe this is another way to protect the leg she broke. (Our investigations may yield some insight into this.) Who knows? She is mobile and happy about that. That's what counts.

We know she's committed to walking as soon as possible because she pulls up at every opportunity, even when there's nothing for her to grip on to. She presses her little hands onto flat surfaces and pushes her way up. AND when she gets there she takes one hand away and often steps a bit. She frequently tries removing both hands only to promptly fall on her cushly diapered bum. She still isn't exactly scooting around areas while standing, but it is only a matter of time. Any bets on when she'll be walking?

Her other big motor accomplishment this week has been stair climbing. We only have a few steps in our house, one down into our bedroom. One or two down into the guest bathroom. Well, desiring to follow a parent who heads to the kitchen hoping she'll keep playing in the bedroom she has on more than one occasion climbed that step. We have a dark video of this that I'll post if I can later. She is VERY proud of this! And we're pretty proud of her! We are, however, now making occasional strategic use of a safety gate,

She also seems to be experiencing a language development explosion. Her favorite syllable this week was an emphatic "DA!" But we're hearing lots of fascinating strings of sound. She is making lots of endearing, talky sounds. Really, really cool. We're trying to consistently link the sounds she makes to actual words. It isn't that hard to do. She frequently says something that sounds like "All done!" Apparently at presbytery last week the caregiver who was playing with her thought she said "Again!" when they were doing something drum like, and so they continued. I look forward to hearing what is on our girl's mind... most of the time anyhow.

I'm home now. Apparently twas a rough day for Caroline. Not happy much at all, until an explosive poop while in the bjorn on daddy, apparently the MOST explosive poop she's ever had. Kev said it was an adventure. After that she felt much better. But... the girl napped for a today of about 35 minutes, and not consecutively. She did very well on our long afternoon, early evening of grocery shopping, our once every two week tour of shops. She got LOTS of big grins as she was carried about on daddy. And gave lots of big grins too. She should be sound asleep now, but she woke up when we went to put her down a little after 7 and has been in a very giddy playful mood ever since. She's been hilarious the last five minutes. Crawling across the bed to get to me with her head pressed into the bed, "like a mole", Kev said, squealing with giggles while daddy walks her to boston and beyond. She was DELIGHTED with the grapes we gave her in her mesh teether while we ate our dinner a little while ago. Gosh our girl is cute.

Cute story from presbytery last week. So on one of the breaks I went down to the nursery and was nursing Caroline. There were two three (nearly four) year old girls there, best friends since birth, the minister's daughter and her friend. The friend came over while I was nursing Caroline and said "What'r you doin'?" "I'm feeding Caroline." "What are you feeding her?" "Milk." "But where's the milk?" "In my body." "But where?" She nearly whined with her frustration. "In my breasts." I wonder now if her mother is going to appreciate this lesson her daughter is getting. "Hunh." She replied. Clearly baffled. I was quite entertained by the girls during this feeding as they first played pirates, "Ho, ho, ho" over and over again, until an older girl who was helping out said, "No, its yo, ho, ho." So they'd correct themselves and shout "Yo, ho, ho" over and over again, until it morphed back into "ho, ho, ho", correct, repeat, morph, correct, repeat, morph. Until finally some invisible switch got flipped and they were rock stars. That was their declaration. And they put on QUITE a performance for us. The little girl who was baffled by nursing is quite the lyricist. I wish I had written her lyrics down.

I'm sorry, but I'm too tired and so is Caroline and so is Kev... so tonight... no pics or videos. Tomorrow hopefully. And no energy to edit, so I hope this is halfway coherent. Baby is melting down now. Must go.

Some Other Pics from Sunday of Caroline's 33rd week!

We were ALL exhausted after church on Sunday. We all sacked out, but Caroline got there before the rest of us. (Note her shoes in this series of pics... her robeez finally fit just right!)



On the move to the diaper bag...


Checking out the diaper bag...



So we did get a few standing shots afterall. She pulled herself to this stand, honest...



in her jumper again...

Caroline Meets Watermelon and her New Teether- Videos and Pics

Daddy was hoping maybe Caroline would join his melon hating team. But turns out she's on my melon loving team... for now...

33 weeks!

Well... this is a new one for me, I think, blogging while pumping. I'm on campus. Kev is home with Caroline. This has been our arrangement the last three days and will be our arrangement most days starting a month from now. We figured that some practice was in order for all of us. Caroline needs to get used to not being with mommy much of the day (and not having on-demand access to boob- what a lucky girl she's been these last almost 8 mos! though still lucky- so much quality time with daddy!) Kev needs to get used to balancing baby and home and personal commitments (hard task for sure). I need to get used to pumping away from home and being focused in my time away from my loves. As I have a paper I need to write in the next several weeks and had a sermon to write for this weekend this seemed a good time to practice. Likely our practice will continue next week. Who knows maybe right up till it is for real? Kev should probably weigh-in with a report, but my sense is that so far, so good. She has had some rough stretches, but she did when home alone with me too. We are slowly, but surely accumulating a milk supply (hard to do when one's average yield is 2 oz per pumping- maximal yield 3+). I am discovering places to pump. Today's choice won't work in the fall, but seems fine for now. I am also discovering that it takes time to pump away from baby. Yesterday I looked at pics of sweet C on my iPod and it went faster. Today I thought I'd blog. (Just checked- almost to three oz! i haven't gotten this much in one go in DAYS- mind you- 40 minutes or so of pumping!) Bedtimes have been bumpy the past two nights. I've been totally exhausted and have just ended up bringing C into bed with me and going to bed early. Kev hasn't found much practice time (playing at church on Sunday) so I'm hoping to go home a bit early today to let him practice and planning to take C to presbytery with me tomorrow to give him lots of focused time to himself. (O.K., done pumping for now- 2.5 oz... better... but not as great as I hoped. bit by bit...) Our plan had been for Kev and Caroline to meet me on campus midday each day this week for a feeding and a hand off of whatever milk had been pumped since I left home. Wednesday I just went home with them early as they came a bit later given her nap schedule and it didn't make a lot of sense for me to pump and bus it home in the afternoon. We figured this would help build our supply. Right now (there has been a bit of a pause since I last was writing) I'm waiting for them to pick me up early again. Everything I'm doing on campus I can do at home and this will give Kev a chance to practice. But yesterday... I took the bus to campus and took the bus home and they checked in midday and all was fine. I think we're going to be fine. If only I can start filling up that freezer with milk!

But perhaps I shouldn't worry that much about having a full freezer. Our girl is eating more and more solids these days. We've started using a teether that her cousin Gracie loves so much that Mamie bought one for us- it is a teething/feeder- a cool (as in chilled) base with a sturdy ring on it to which a mesh bag in which you place fruit (or other food I suppose) for gnawing on. The baby gets the food in safe bits through the mesh and has relief for the gums. Caroline LOVES this thing. This week she has used it with both watermelon and banana. She has eaten a lot of both of these fruits this week. She can eat almost a whole banana in a day if we let her. As this has a binding function we switched to applesauce yesterday to try to move things along, soften things up... and she happily took to that. (Mamie just reminded me that applesauce is in the BRAT diet... so we may need to get some other fruit...) We did try avocado this week as well. She wasn't terribly interested, but we'll try again. We have some carrots ready to cook up for her to try. She has fed herself some- watermelon bits, banana bits... She often takes the spoon from us as we put it into her mouth and puts it the rest of the way in, sucks it clean and chews on it a bit before we reclaim it. We usually reclaim it when she starts inserting the wrong end into her mouth (am I the only mom with soft palate puncture phobias- oh, not a phobia, just a heightened concern about the soft palate...) It is fun, if messy, this venture into more solids. We still haven't tried cereal... I know... we really should.

So, just last week I was saying that it seemed her desire to walk was hindering her growth as a crawler... but SHE CAN DO IT NOW! Rather than just melting down when we set her down on the floor in her nursery and walk away (temporarily) to get or do something, she fusses a bit and sets to crawling out to find us. She makes fast progress. She still has moments of trying to crawl with straightened legs, but for the most part she's really crawling now. And she seems quite pleased with this. (I watched her a bit this afternoon and see she still has a bit of an unusual method... but it works... more or less.)

We think she might have a future as a drummer, perhaps with congregation number 2, she found a metal canister (that I had been using as a yoga brick when expecting her) while exploring the living room the other evening (she is QUITE the explorer these days... with a real fancy for cords and paper...) and immediately turned it into a drum. She often drums on her feeding chair or while seated on my lap at the dining room table she drums on the table (unless of course she can pull a place mat off the table (preferably with stuff on it it seems), that is MORE appealing than drumming, but drumming is pretty appealing. We brought down one of the drums Kev owns a while ago and she made some good sounds on it. She keeps a fairly steady beat.

It continues to seem like she sings along with us from time to time, or matches or echoes pitch quite well. Perhaps this is wishful thinking on our part, but we don't expect it and yet both hear it... so maybe.

This week also has seen a real increase in her babbling, particularly in her stringing together of single syllables- favorites being "bababababa" and "dadadadada", but i've heard more "mmmmm"s this week than ever before (mostly on the way to crying) and lots of other complex sounds too.

She is soooo funny. She makes the funniest faces. Right now I'm home with her and she's sleeping on my lap, she's even making funny faces in her sleep.

Mamie wants pictures of Caroline standing, but we don't actually have many good places in our house on which she is able to pull up, certainly not on which she's able to hold herself up for very long. This doesn't make for great picture taking. She can pull up on the couch if I hold a finger to steady her. I don't pull her up, I just let her hold on to me and she pulls up all on her own strength. Soon enough we'll get a picture. Soon enough.

I succumbed to the bug that Kev had late last week early this week. I was nowhere near as sick as Kev, but he did the lion's share of care of Caroline Monday-Tuesday. So in addition to his three relatively solo days with her this has been a daddy intensive week. Lucky baby. Lucky daddy? I think so... but perhaps he'll let you know himself. He had a clever line this afternoon and I asked if I should blog it. He said "Yes." And then thought a bit and said "Or I could guest blog..." Great minds... didn't I say at the beginning of this post that perhaps he'd want to speak for himself this week?!

That's all the news I can think to share for now... pics and/or video and possibly a daddy post will follow.

Some Pics from the 32nd Week- Be Sure to Catch the Videos in the Previous Post!

Three Generations


Fun on Great Grandma's Floor Again- with Daddy's feet especially!



Getting Closer to Great Grandma Thanks to her Watch





One eager bite of banana in the hotel lobby


Three generations again at lunch before catching our plane


And here she is just yesterday...

32 Weeks- Animalia (and VIDEOS!)

We think our girl might be a monkey, but we don't yet have pics or video to prove it. She LOVES bananas. Cannot be fed bits of banana fast enough. AND she loves hanging upside down. Some years ago I was sent a link to a Creation Science Fair in which one of the winning projects was (horrific to both Kevin and me) a girl disproving evolution by presenting her uncle who doesn't like bananas as evidence that we can't possibly be descended from monkeys. Perhaps there were some other elements to her proof, but this was key. Well... we're happy to present Caroline as counter proof to this absurd project! And we're happy that there's a solid Caroline enjoys! It is hard to say whether she especially likes bananas or if she's just old enough now to be less put off by the texture of solids. We'll be trying other things soon!

Then again she also might be a snake. She hisses quite frequently. I wouldn't have imagined giving birth to a Slytherin, but... hey Harry himself spoke parsel tounge, so perhaps she's a Gryffindor afterall... I don't think we have her hissing on tape... but it is hilarious.

I'm hoping to be able to post a series of videos in which Caroline is a bear hunter. Working on that now... Guess it was a WILD week.










The rest of our time in Florida was good- restful mostly. Caroline did warm up to great grandma a bit, especially when she realized great grandma had an interesting watch to explore. She had a great morning in church, impressing all around. Caroline was a champion traveller on what proved to be a much longer trip home than anticipated. She slept almost the whole way from Sarasota to Atlanta and then was happy player through a VERY long delay getting out of Atlanta (of course after they loaded us on the plane and pulled us away from the gate) and an extra long flight home because of bad weather in Nashville. She started to meltdown at the airport when we waited for a bag that never showed up. Thank goodness, however, her car seat did come through. And eventually we returned to home sweet home. The bag showed up the next morning.

That was a rough night. I think she and I only got a sum total of three hours of sleep. Daddy maybe got a bit more, but not much.

Much of the rest of the week has been spent in catching up- on sleep, on laundry, on study, on learning to crawl...

Here's my sense on the crawling thing... she can do it. She just doesn't want to. She wants to walk. She crawls a few steps and then straightens her legs as if to stand with hands touching the floor. If the videos manage to get loaded you'll see her do this once or twice. She definitely does crawl from time to time. And she effectively moves herself where she wants to go one way or another, but she is desperate to walk. She is pulling up quite regularly now. I hope she'll keep working on the crawling, but we'll see...

Week two of babysitting for Fiona was exhausting, but good. Fiona had a better, more comfortable day and Caroline had a decent day. Both the girls seemed to want mostly me, most of the time. That was a bit much at times, though flattering. Sam, Fiona's mom, left behind her ERGO baby carrier for us to use with Fiona on a walk. She said I'd love it and I do. I don't know if Caroline would, but... think I'll be trying that next week and hunting Craig's List. If anyone has one that they want to loan or hand down, I'd be thrilled! The girls both did very well on the walk. And had some good times of play together.

There's a bug in our household at the end of this week. Kev got sick, sick, sick yesterday. I felt lousy two days ago and sapped of energy much of the week, but haven't yet gotten really sick. Kev is much better now. It seemed to work its way through in about 36 hours or less. I might be coming down with it now... or else I'm just fighting it hard... we'll see. I really hope I'm not or that if I am that I get it soon because I'm preaching Sunday morning. And leading worship with a stomach bug is for the birds. I've done it once and I don't care to do it again. Caroline seems to maybe have a touch of it, but so far has been in pretty good spirits if a bit clingy. Hopefully we'll all be well soon.That's about all I can think to share about this week.

(Pics tomorrow folks... if I'm lucky before I go to bed tonight there will be three videos up... two are up already. The other is taking forever to load and I have a baby melting down and stomach churning who knows what... so... I'm going to release the expectation of myself that I will get both videos and pics up tonight.)

31 Weeks!

Greetings from sunny Florida! Today it was sunny- yesterday, when we arrived, soggy. But that was o.k. with us... because it was tolerably cool in the rain... phew! We're here because we have very much wanted to introduce Caroline to her great grandma Til who recently celebrated her 95th birthday. Caroline is her eighth great grandchild. Her ninth was born just a week or so after Caroline (and shares Caroline's middle name). I guess this will be one of those posts where I work backwards... Til has been VERY excited to meet Caroline and we have been VERY excited for Caroline to meet Til. They met officially for the first time last night. Caroline was pretty sleepy at the time... so no pics from that short visit. But... today... we spent a good three plus hours with great grandma, the first hour or so in her room before heading out. Great Grandma wants to hold her almost newest great granddaughter and we would like that as well, but separation stuff seems to be kicking in for Caroline (for about two weeks now she's been going through a major MOMMY phase- even crying hard with daddy at initial separation... I know this is normal at this stage, but it is sad... It does make me feel special and loved, but... I loved how comfortable she was with so many before! And Kev provides SO much care to her that he deserves primary caregiver status too! Soon enough he will be... and then I guess the tables will be turned!) and she has not allowed great grandma to hold her. She has had some very happy play time on great grandma's floor and has flashed her more than one beautiful smile. Caroline stares at great grandma pretty intensely, trying to soak in this new person in her life, it seems. Here are a series of shots from today.

Caroline and Great Grandma checking each other out, with delight, from afar


Great Grandma delighting in Caroline


Caroline delighting in Great Grandma


Caroline delighting in the wheel on Great Grandma's walker


And the two of them togetherish again


Perhaps tomorrow we'll get a shot of them CLOSER together. We'll see. For now, two more pics from that play time of our girl- they're blurry, but the first one i love and the second one kev loves... so they're being shared.




Big news of the day, other than the quality time with great grandma, is that at breakfast Caroline was showing great interest in my banana. We have taken a bit of a solids break after trying applesauce repeatedly to little interest or progress. We've been meaning to make up our own rice cereal, but just haven't gotten around to it. Anyhow... I figured, why not? I mashed up a bit of the banana, put a smaller bit on my finger, and put my finger in her mouth. And she didn't even wince. She sucked and swallowed. And then she opened her mouth for more. She took several bites before producing the gagging/coughing noises she often produces with solids. She only gagged a bit, but still was willing to take more even after that. It seems our girl likes bananas. As I said to Kev at breakfast "Shh... don't tell Barbara Kingsolver, but if this is what she'll eat... it's what she'll eat!" I'm tempted to try avocado while we're here, but we're supposed to do one solid at a time... so I guess we'll wait on that.

Last night we had dinner at Barnacle Bill's upon the recommendation of Kev's grandma. They offered us a high chair and we weren't sure. We haven't had a lot of luck with restaurant high chairs so far. Inadequate straps for our smallish and SUPER active little girl. But theirs was better. So our hands were free for dinner... most of it anyhow... ah. She spent a good deal of dinner throwing down toys we'd give to her and then looking around to see if the other guests were paying attention... or so it seemed. She also found the high chair (and the table) quite tasty it seems!






Note that dear Caroline is in her pretty green dress handpicked by her Aunt Katherine. Yesterday Aunt Katherine turned 30 years old! And so Caroline wore this dress to meet great grandma in Aunt Katherine's honor! Happy birthday, again, Aunt Katherine! We love you!

We flew in yesterday and Caroline did great on her fifth and sixth flights ex utero. She had a bit of a meltdown waiting for the delayed second flight (we could tell our fellow passengers were LOVING us as she screamed while we waited in line, but once we sat down and she started nursing she was fine. Caroline had fun playing with our baggage as we waited for our plane... EVERYTHING goes in the mouth these days! (Her bottom teeth are definitely in and her pediatrician says that her top gums feel VERY full... the teething goes on...)



And here are daddy and Caroline as we waited for the rain to die down here in FL before heading to our rental car. I love this shot for the funny looks on both of their faces and because you can so clearly see that they have each other's eyes.



So before we left town? Well... it feels like it was a big developmental week... as I reported earlier, she pulled into a stand on her own for the first time ever. She also, apparently, crawled her first steps, but I was not privileged to see that. Daddy did. I can tell she has all the skills she just needs to work out how to put them all together. Often though, when she gets into position to crawl, she pushes up into a full push up and it looks like she's trying to stand and forego this all fours nonsense. She then usually gets pretty frustrated. She was having a frustrated "I CAN'T DO THIS YET!" moment here... Just in case you've forgotten our girl is INTENSE. Still is...



We've had lots of good, silly times together this week. For example, we were playing peek-a-boo with a burp cloth and then for some reason, wrapped it around her head, which she didn't mind a bit. We just had to take a few pics...




On Tuesday we spent the whole day with Fiona, Sam's daughter, at their house. We'll be doing this the next two Tuesdays too. Helping Sam out during a teaching intensive she has going on. Fiona was rather blue all day... it is hard to be away from mommy (and in the care of virtual strangers) all day. I realized then what a non-cuddly baby I have. In her sadness she just snuggled into me all day. I had more nuzzling from Fiona in 11 hours than I've had from Caroline in 7 months. In any case, Caroline did GREAT on this day. She was full of smiles and played beautifully.

She is playing independently so much more and for longer and longer stretches. This is MARVELOUS. We just really have to keep an eye on her. I had an experience this week of her getting really quiet and me thinking "There will come a time when that should make me nervous". I decided to check what she was up to and indeed, now is that time! She had found a clothes pin and was happily sucking and chewing on it. Um, not a great toy. Not the worst, but not good! She is brilliant at making a bee line for the one WORST "toy" in her vicinity.

On Sunday I preached again, at a different church, and Caroline had a grand time in the nursery. This was a VERY cool church nursery. I wanted to stay there myself. And she was the only baby so she got LOTS of quality attention.

I'm super tired and working fast here, but I think that's all the major news. Oh... more shots on Monday. She survived. And her ped. confirmed it, we are all dealing with chigger bites. Lovely. O.K., really, I think that's about it.

I may post addendums tomorrow. But for tonight... tis all!

Seven Months!

Caroline was in an adorable blue outfit for church this morning! But the best photo opps came in diaper alone...

BIG NEWS FROM TODAY- CAROLINE PULLED HERSELF UP TO A STAND FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER! She was in the pack and play at with Fiona at Sam and Matt's house. She was very excited about this development. And so were we!

Happy birthday, baby! Seven wonderful months with you!

30!!!! Weeks!!!

30 weeks? Really? Wow. Wow. Wow. And in just two days... seven months!

Little Mary predicted that Caroline would be crawling by this update... not quite. She is yet closer, but still hasn't coordinated the four limbs. She is getting very good at what I understand some people call the "army crawl"- arms only, pulling forward with all her might. And every day she works, works, works... she still frequently pulls onto all fours while nursing... not wanting to waste any time! She will master this!

She did figure out how to pull into a sitting position on her own from time to time this week. Often from crawling or rolling to sitting. She can't quite get from back to a sitting position quite yet, but when in motion she often lands sitting... and is quite pleased with herself.

She DEFINITELY has two teeth poking through on the bottom now. They are sharp and STRONG. Our poor girl has worked hard on getting those teeth out this week.

Big events of the week?

First campout- in our backyard!



Of course it was one of the hottest nights of the year and neighbors a few houses down were having a LOUD party with a d.j. So, we modified our plans a bit. Kev cooked on the back deck, but we moved our picnic to our bed and hung out inside until a bit later. The first couple of hours in the tent were rough- HOT and LOUD, but... by 1:30 it felt quite nice in there. And we survived the night. We ate our first sweet corn of the season- not our corn, yet, but corn from the farmer's market. Hmmm... nothing tastes more like summer... except maybe watermelon... which I also ate my first of, from the farmer's market, that night. Some pics from the occasion...

hanging with daddy while he cooks on the deck and meeting corn!





picnic on the bed





In the tent! Blurry, but... hey, it's a shot!



And after church after the campout! Mommy in a dress she hasn't been able to wear for a long time! Baby in a dress that Cousin Jenny sent along!












A visit from Great Uncle Dick- Kev's uncle! He was in Nashville for a quick business trip and swung by for about an hour Tuesday morning. It was lovely to spend some time with him.



And we took three more walks at the park this week. Here's a shot from today!




And finally several more shots from today! Hammy pics mostly! Including at least one gum up smile- her latest look!












And we have so many videos, but I have had so little luck posting them! Here is one from today! And maybe I'll get more up later this weekend. We'll see! It is awfully late now though. So just one for now.