What a difference a month makes! Alex has decided that table food is tasty now. As a matter of fact, she has now moved completely past baby food to finger which, it turns out is what she wanted all along. She eats waffles, cheese, yogurt, berries, peaches, applesauce, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and last night, she stole some fish sticks and french fries from Lily. Lily was unimpressed.

Alex had her nine-month checkup this week - she is squarely in the middle of the charts for height and weight, and off the charts in cuteness. She is crawling now, but only backwards, which makes her very frustrated, but she has now learned how to turn around and back towards whatever toy she's after. She's not so great with forward locomotion, but she is crazy smart.

Lily had her second trip to the emergency room this past Monday. She was carrying a watering can in the backyard and tripped, cutting open two of her fingertips.

The cuts weren't that deep, but they wouldn't stop bleeding, so Jason took the night off, we dropped Alex with a friend, and took Lily to the hospital. She was her usual charming self and had all the doctors and nurses smiling. Not only did she not get stitches (just Steri-Strips), she got SIX Disney princess stickers. They wrapped her fingers in gauze in a complicated kid-proof way and sent us home with orders to follow up with our pediatrician.

The kid-proof gauze lasted almost all the way out of the parking lot.



Mostly we're just trying to beat the heat - it's been in the high 90's for most of July, so we're playing outside in the mornings and retreating to the air conditioning in the afternoons. Lily is increasingly interested in helping me in the kitchen, so we are working our way through a pile of kid-friendly recipes. Here is Lily's oven-baked macaroni and cheese -