Baby Bird

Watch this one closely. Alex was babbling very animatedly during breakfast, but got skittish once I turned on the camera. And then, Dear Readers, approximately 16 seconds into the recording, she flips me the bird. Gratitude, folks. Gratitude.

Forward! (Mostly)

Yup, she's mobile now, and now that's she's crawling forward instead of backward, she can actually see where she's going. This is a plus, since it was getting tiresome untangling her from the couch legs. KIDDING! It was actually pretty fun untangling her from the couch legs.


I neglected to post about it, but Lily did have a birthday last month. I'm just now posting because I think we're finally done celebrating it. Lily managed to stretch her birthday out for the better part of a month - pretty impressive for someone who just turned three! We were traveling to Erie on her actual birthday for Eric and Katie's wedding, and Amy and Dan gave her an awesome afternoon birthday bash, complete with Tinkerbell ice cream cake. Then we had a second party the following week in New Jersey, which was a good thing, because Lily wasn't entirely sure that birthdaydom could cross state lines - the entire trip home she was asking us if she would still be three when we were back in New Jersey.


So we had a handful of Lily's friends over for pizza, kiddie pool, and trampoline, followed by gummi bear cake. The next day we took Lily's birthday money - which was an impressive pile of cash for a 3-year-old to be in control of - and took her shopping. Included in the haul was a tricycle and helmet, an Ariel doll, and a deluxe parachute guy. She was quite pleased with her shopping experience.


I'm pleased to say we have nothing exciting planned for August. Well, I'm turning 37, but other than that, nothing planned. With these two crazy girls around, there's no such thing as 'nothing exciting'.

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 -