Thursday, May 29, 2008

Nature is Cool

We chose our neighborhood for a lot of different reasons, but the main one was being within easy walking distance of a nice lake with a trail around it. The lake has geese, ducks, about a million turtles, some fish, and a resident heron.


The heron usually hangs out in the one place where the trail pulls away from the lake so you never get a good view of him. This time he decided to be brave and see what he was missing. And I happened to have my camera.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Nap Much?

Ellie is a great sleeper...at night. Daytime naps are hit and miss. This weekend she insisted she wasn't tired and didn't need a nap. So, we got her back up and went to sit and watch some tv. This was taken moments later.


Friday, May 23, 2008

Music is Good

They say music is good for babies so we've been trying to expose Ellie to all kinds. Last week it was Beethoven. This week, Rush.



Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Outside At Last

Today I got to play stay-at-home-mom for a day while our daycare provider is getting over the flu. The weather was nice enough to load up the baby, grab the dogs and my new toy, and head to the lake near our home for a little photoshoot.


{my new toy}

These all required a little brightening so I need some work on my exposure, but I had fun messing around. Between a baby who doesn't quite have sitting up figured out, two dogs who don't like being left while I wander looking for a good spot, muddy ground from lots of rain, and intermittent clouds and sun, I think I did okay.




{the sun made a brief appearance}

There's room for improvement. Of course, as I was walking back home I noticed a bunch of spots that would have been better. Just means I'll have to try this again soon I guess. Ilow and Dragnet got their turns as well.


{my beautiful Ilow}


{metering a black dog is hard}

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Food, Glorious Food

We finally did it. We fed our baby. Rice cereal that is, her chubby legs attest to the fact that she isn't starving. It was a mess and a hoot.



We had it pretty watered down so that, when we weren't quick enough and she'd grab the spoon, the cereal would go everywhere. Eventually we figured this out (Mom and Dad are slow learners) and would head for the mouth much quicker, so she'd just help us cram the spoon in her mouth and then suck on her fingers to clean them off.
[image]
{step 1: try to grab spoon}


{step 2: cram spoon into mouth}


{step 3: suck off remnants}

We're pretty sure she liked it because if we weren't quick enough in getting the next spoonful to her, she'd yell at us.



To try to contain the mess we used these nifty little towel things my grandma brought for us. They're still a little big on her but I just loved the idea of them - towels with a hole cut in the center and a tshirt collar sewn on. We have two and they're going to get a lot of use.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Generations

My first Mother's Day. Days like this remind me of how lucky we are to have so much extended family still with us. 3 Grandmas and 5 Great-Grandmas, that's one lucky baby.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Tummy Time Fun

Ever since the "Back to Sleep" campaign was initiated in, I don't know, the 80's some time, it has been recommended that babies spend some of their awake time on their tummies for what pretty much everyone I know calls "tummy time." It's such a cheerful sounding thing. Something about the phrase "tummy time" elicits thoughts of fun. To me. Ellie disagrees. In the early days when tummy time meant basically planting your face in the hairy carpet, I can understand some discomfort. But even now that she has pretty good control of her head and can look up and around and grab things, it's still barely tolerated.



She starts out fine, even happy. Then you get the panic face, the one that says "Please save me."



And I'd say you'd better act fast, but really it's already too late.



Oh, the horror.