bathing beauty

Slightly ridiculous, but so much fun. I know a baby doesn't even need a swimsuit and I've bought her three this summer. They were too cute to pass up. I can rationalize it because we spend so much time on the lake (most of the time she swims naked).
Last night we were out on the houseboat and I jumped off the top of the houseboat to show my 8 year old friend how to do it. She went next. I told her to jump out far. Well, she jumped so hard that she propelled her head too far in front of her body. Thus, landing in a perfect belly flop. She had a life jacket on and didn't submerge at all. It was so painful looking. We convinced her to do it again before she could realize just how bad her last jump had been. Her next jump was perfect.

hillbillie baby

Yesterday my mom got our baby up from her nap and dressed her for me. I commented that she looked cute but a little like a boy, so while I was occupied, my mom, being funny, put a hokey little bow in her hair with a piece of tape. She spent the rest of the day like this...bow and all. I had never concidered putting her in these overalls because they were too big for her, but I think she looks darling in them.

new tricks

Here is my monkey baby. She loves bananas. I love the funny looks on her face and how dirty she is. Besides trying new foods, she has been doing lots of other fun tricks. She has perfected the cross crawl, so no more worm. She has climbed out of her stroller (hence falling out). She is crawling up stairs and last night we let her crawl down them (sort of crawl down). She balanced by herself while standing. She stands and shimmies along the couch. By the end of the summer we should have her water skiing.

cheers for cheerios

I have officially joined the ranks of women all throughout the world who love Cheerios. The little round cereal I once thought was only good for bad breath and stinky burps has made it possible for me to sit through an entire lesson in Relief Society (well, is that really a good thing?) I had previously wondered why most babies could be seen with a container of Cheerios during church. Late one afternoon at my mom's house I decided to see for myself. She loved them instantly. At first I broke them in half and fed them to her. Then I got brave and let her eat them whole. Pretty soon they were spread all over the high chair. She was grabbing them in her tiny fist and maneuvering them into her mouth. The more she ate the faster she got. We bought our first box of cheerios at a gas station on the way to dinner the next day. That's the power I knew they possessed within the first 24 hours of introducing them to her. Our grumpy and sleepy baby made it through the entire dinner one Cheerio at a time.

in unison

Because I lead the singing, I sit on the stand during the Sacrament. While up there I get to watch my little girl play, flirt, and smile at those all around her. Yesterday, the choir was going to sing so I was sitting among 12 or so choir members watching my little girl as usual and enjoying the quiet and reverent sacrament. She was playing with her granddad. She was leaning forward and grabbing the pew in front of her, then arching back to stand upright. She did this a few times times and then one time as she was going to grab the pew, she turned her head to the side to smile at someone, and CLUNK, she missed her hands, but made contact with her forehead. As this motion was happening I could feel the entire group sitting near me tense and then in unison I heard all of them and several rows of people sitting near her gasp. The reverence was gone. I knew she was alright (she is a TOUGH little cookie, she only made one small cry and then she was done) but the choir of gasping people did me in. I started laughing so hard I was snorting. I put my head down and couldn't contain myself. I contemplated walking out or laying on the floor so the rest of the congregation wouldn't be disrupted by my irreverent display of uncontrollable laughter. It was even funnier that the Patriarch was sitting next to me laughing almost as hard. Since my head was down and tears were streaming out of my eyes, I didn't get to see Jeremy, evidently he was laughing as hard as I was. My mom who was sitting a couple of rows behind me saw the two of us and couldn't keep herself in control either. It was definitely an experience I will never forget.

This picture was taken yesterday. There are two significant things about it. First, I was letting her play with my dirty keys. That's a big step for me. Second, she was playing by herself for a LONG time. I was even in and out of the room and she didn't cry for me once. It was refreshing and hopefully the beginning of a new stage for her.

spidey hands

On Thursday I walked into her bedroom to find this! I was so overwhelmed by the stench of her diaper that I didn't have time to revel in her glory. On Friday I was prepared, I had my camera ready to catch her in the act. Look how delighted she is. I knew this was coming. I even expected it earlier because she loves to scale up anything to standing. She has Spiderman hands. She can palm large toys easily in her little hands. She uses those spidey hands to scale up the back of the couch, front of the couch and up a large step. It would be normal if she grabbed her way up, but she doesn't. She palms her way up. I am preparing the house for our climber. I have a feeling we will find hand prints and foot prints near the ceiling of the hallway in a couple of years.

carrots and peas

I think she looks a little villainesc with the mustache and beard. Her dad fed her with an adult spoon. It was difficult getting all the contents of the spoon in her mouth and started to get messy, so he decided to really make it messy. Maybe she would gain more weight if the food went into her mouth.

baby me

Here I am! Can you see the resemblance? I can, barely. If you thinned out my face, gave me big blue eyes, long eyelashes, more defined eyebrows, a different nose and a different mouth...we could be clones. I know it's a stretch, but I can see a bit of me. At least she has a few waves in her hair. Chances are she did get the blessed curse of natural curly hair. I should see if I can find a baby picture of her dad.

mom or dad

You will never be able to tell from these pictures (looks like I'm taking a bite of her cheek) but...
who does she look like? Mom or Dad? I just tell people she is a perfect combination of our recessive genes. Her blue eyes and long eyelashes are definitly recessive. Her wavy hair...mom. Her slight but strong build...dad. Her eyebrows...mom and dad (poor girl is going to look like Burt and Ernie someday, thank havens for tweezers). But, this morning I got a glimpse of ME. It was so fun and actually made me cry. While she was laying in my arms watching me and I could see her resemblance to my baby pictures. I think when she gets a little more chub on her face and longer hair in the back I will be able to see it more often.

family reunion

Here's a few pictures from our 4th of July houseboat adventure. Every summer my family has a week dedicated to the houseboat. Some families come and go at nights while other families spend all their time on the lake. This year, because of our baby, we went home at nights and came back out early in the morning. At the end of an entire day spent on the boat we still had sea legs and felt like we were rocking back and forth while standing on solid ground (in the shower it's horrible).
This particular week was HOT, so we spent lots of time in the water and in the shade. We usually went out skiing in the early mornings or right at sunset, so we could get the best water and beat the heat. In the mornings our baby slept on the seat of the ski boat while we skied. She was adorable in her little life jacket and hat snoozing away. In the evenings she would just sit there totally relaxed and watch what was going on.
While getting up the courage to do a flip off the top of the houseboat my sister-in-law said that once you have a baby you go into a self-preservation mode. I definitely believe that. I'm not near as gutsy as I used to be, but I decided that I wasn't going to give into my fear, so I did it anyway. HE did it first and then I followed.
Another tradition during the week is going on our friend's houseboat and using the slide. I'm sure you've seen normal houseboat slides, well this one isn't normal. This is a tube slide going through the four layers of his boat. This is NOT a slide for children. It's made for crazy adults. If you choose to go down you expect to get beat up on the way down. Many of us still have slide burns on our elbows, hips, and ankles, but we had a great time. One of the best parts is watching someone else shoot out the bottom of the slide and see what direction they ended up.

the joys of parenthood

It's found in the simple things...

Paper and stickers and ribbon, oh my!
I love colored paper. I have shelves filled with them. I still have my sticker albums from 3rd grade and I have boxes full of beautiful ribbon. While I was wrapping a birthday present she crawled over to help me. Maybe my obsession with those things has rubbed off on her already. She loved playing with the ribbon, stickers and paper (well, eating them). I am sure someday I will pass my beloved sticker album down to her.

Unexpected moments....
I came home to find my two loves cuddled up together in the living room.

Free entertainment...
Her love of rice cereal has taken a bitter turn now that we are adding formula to the cereal instead of water. Her dad was feeding her carrots and then a bite of cereal. This was a typical reaction once she realized it wasn't the tasty carrots. I was laughing so hard I was having a hard time holding still to snap a picture so we had to keep tricking her into eating the cereal so I could get a picture.

more to come

We just finished our annual week long houseboat trip. There are so many fun pictures of her to share, but here's just one to start. This was taken on the Fourth of July. It was so hot and hard to give her enough liquids so we let her suck on watermelon. She loved it. My brother tried to take it away from her and she held on TIGHT. Later that night we watched the fireworks from the top deck of the houseboat. I thought she would love them, but she was more interested in the glow-in-the-dark necklaces we were wearing.