Let's see... news to report:
Aria survived her first bout with illness and we survived our first bout with a sick baby. All in all, it wasn't too bad. She came down with a fever and was pretty unhappy for a couple of days. The fever abated and we rejoiced, thinking we had our healthy baby back, but then she broke out in a rash, which a nurse convinced me was viral and related to whatever bug she had been fighting. (We think it was a mild stomach flu.) But the rash cleared up a couple of days ago and she seems back to full health (knock on wood).
While she was sick, we spent a lot of time cuddling and napping on the couch. Here's my attempt at a self-portrait.
Just for contrast, here's us in a similar position not all that long ago. All I can say is "Wow!"
She has entered the oh-so-charming phase of reaching for things (just about everything) with a little squeak that communicates "gimme" very clearly (not so new) and then fussing or even crying if she doesn't get it (new and oh-so-charming). Here it was the camera that she wanted. (This picture is funny, too, because of the appearance of a halo hovering over her little fussy head. Don't be fooled!)
This is such a great image of our little monster getting into everything.
She is has developed a great deal of agility and mobility. The days of the toddler are approaching quickly, we can see. It's most fun to take her into her room where we can let her get into everything (or most things) and we don't have to say no constantly and then listen to the protests.
In her room, she crawls around happily and pulls herself up to standing on any person available or on the futon or on her crib or her shelf. Here she has just pulled herself up to standing on me.
Her favorite place to stand is at the bookshelf. The preferred game of a few weeks ago was to pull all of the books off of the shelf one by one and drop them on her feet in a big pile. That game has been replaced by pulling one book off the shelf, dropping it on the floor, then holding on to the shelf and bending down to try to pick the book up off the floor. Usually, this results in falling back down on the floor, from where she gets the book, pulls herself back up to standing and then chews on the book victoriously.
Here's the standing at the shelf part.
And here's the holding on and bending down to reach for the fallen book part.
And trying again...
Here I was attempting to capture the whole ritual, but the presence of the camera was just too distracting.
So then she moved on to another favorite activity - pulling toys out of the toy basket one at a time...
... and chewing on them!
And I'm a sucker for sweet Daddy and Aria pictures, so I just had to include this one.
Our sweet little girl is growing up. It's one of those things you hear a million times, but it just doesn't mean much until you have your own: They grow up too fast. We're doing our best to cherish these sweet times and to welcome the new stages as they come. This parenting stuff sure ain't easy, but it is so much fun (usually).
That's the news for now. Check back soon.
