Catching up

Seems like nearly a lifetime since I last posted. Sorry for the delay but I've been busy. In addition to learning to crawl and eat anything found within two feet of any floor surface, I've done the following cool things in the past couple of months:

First, me and mom and dad went to Monterey to a place where they have windows you look into and see fish. Here I am looking at some interesting and colorful fish:


And here's a video I'm not in but of something really rare that we saw. It's called a Sea Dragon:
After a day and night in Monterey, we met up with my cousins, aunt and uncle, and Onay and Papa for some camping at Big Basin in the sequoias. Here I am with my cousins Griffin and Sidney. You can tell a lot about our personalities from this picture: After camping we went to Sacramento for a few days and saw lots of people. Then me and mom and dad went home for a week. Then Onay and Papa came to visit ME!!! You wouldn't know it from this picture, but I was quite happy to see them:
I love that picture...but I was sad to see Onay and Papa leave:
Thankfully, my parents had the intelligence to get me out meeting new and exciting people in fun places, like drainage tunnels:
Actually, I felt kind of like Cleopatra crossing the river stinks here:
Finally, I've been spending lots of time with my daddy since he hasn't traveled in months. I think we're both enjoying it.

What do a pirate and a raspberry have in common?

Me.

Hey, it's tough to come up with titles when you're only 8 1/2 months old...

I went on my first camping trip with my folks the other weekend. It was one of their running club deals and it was at El Capitan State Beach. The theme was Pirates.

I guess everyone was supposed to dress like a pirate and drink beer on Saturday. I refused to put on my pirate costume but here I am with my parents in their somewhat unconventional Pirates attire.
Oddly enough, no one else was dressed like them. In fact, most folks had baggy clothes with stripes and frill and kept saying "Argh" and calling each other "Matey". Go figure.

Camping was fun. I got to wake everyone up in the middle of the night with my mom for once. I'm sure they appreciated it. And I got to ride along the beach in my baby jogger. And eat avocado. And see some old friends. What could be better?

In other news, I'm learning to communicate. It involves pushing air and spit through your lips while your tongue sticks out. It feels kind of funny and makes my tongue numb when I do it for prolonged periods, but it seems to be the only noise my mom and I share in common at this point. I hear there is an easier, less messy way to get your point across and am hoping to figure it out real soon.

Here I am communicating with my mom over lunch. Note to babies: this works best with a mouth full of something orange and gooey and when your parent is in close range:

Oh yeah, I heard about you all laughing at me practicing sitting (Cousin Griffin?!?!). Just so you know, I'm now doing it much better and am even starting to crawl forward!

Next week is my second camping trip and I heard we might go somewhere called an aquarium.

The importance of posture

So I'm learning to sit up all on my own pretty well. To you it may not be that impressive but I've only been able to hold my own head up for a couple of months and it's a pretty big step. Here I am peeking at my mom from my high chair.
And here I am practicing sitting up by myself. Don't worry, it's a short one:

Hey, don't laugh, it's really not as easy as it looks. Balance is key. On minute you're smiling and happy, the next you're toppled over not knowing what hit you.

Oh, and by the way, this learning to crawl before you can walk thing is serious and frustrating business. More on that next time.

More to love

We've all heard about my chubby cheeks, or jowls, or chipmunk storage units, or whatever wise cracks you want to make about them. And quite frankly, I'm tired of the jokes. I'm a baby and I'm supposed to have chubby cheeks. Perhaps that's why I sometimes appear a bit confused about all the chubby jokes.
Before you comment on the following, let me remind you that I am still a baby and my thighs are supposed to look like this:It means I'm healthy...And well padded...And could possibly survive several days on my own. It has been brought to my attention that my thighs are the same circumference as my mom's biceps. All that means is that she is scrawny and possibly malnourished. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if all these jokes about my fluffiness scar me for life...

Finally, if you think this means I'm a porker, I offer this video of my reluctance to eat anything placed before me:

It was mashed squash...

Bad hair day

Because my mom is technically in charge of this blog she sometimes exploits me. Seriously, what self-respecting baby would put something like this on her own blog:

Not cool, mom, not cool. I guess I should be happy I'm finally getting enough hair to style, no matter what style that may be.

Despite my mother's twisted take on recording my childhood, I am developing into what some would call a happy girl. Case in point, this extremely cute (if I do say so myself) photo of me at my mom's office taken today:

Roadtrip!

My parents got something called "Mountain Fever" and decided to take a road trip to Sacramento to visit Onay and Papa for the weekend. The drive part was pretty boring (Bakersfield to Sacramento, anyone???) so I conked out. My mom was nice enough to snap this shot of me in my rearview mirror.
I know my cheeks look big and may be the reason my jaw is slack, but I think it's an optical illusion caused by the bulbous baby mirror. Or, it could be the fact that I'm now eating mushy foods on a regular basis. Here I am enjoying some carrots on a Monday.
No, I don't know why my bib has the day on it either. To tell you the truth, I can't tell one day from the next and I think my mom purposefully puts the wrong day's bib on me just to confuse me into think I didn't eat the same thing for dinner the day before. She's sneaky like that...Anyhow, back to my road trip.

I had a great time visiting Onay and Papa. Here I am with Onay in her backyard:
And here I am with Papa in the living room:
Onay and Papa were so shocked at the size of my jowls that they decided to get me on track with my first exercise machine. It's called an 'Exersaucer' and seems to have been designed to fool we babies into thinking exercise is fun. So far it seems to be working. Thank you Onay and Papa!In addition to learning to eat mushy foods and exercise regularly, I'm also learning to drink plenty of fluids. Here I am with my first drinking vessel:I'm told I have to bring it on my next roadtrip, which is to someplace called a "Camp Out" where I have to wear a pirate costume and be pushed around in a baby jogger while my parents sing songs and run around the beach. Sounds like fun.

On birthdays, siblings and puppies

My dad's had 82 of them, my mom's had 70 of them, and lord knows how many my grandparents have had, but today is my first half-year birthday. The reason I'm smirking is because the other day my daddy came home with a bag of frozen peas in his lap and I was told there would be no more lentil beans in the family. I don't know what the peas have to do with the beans but I was tickled pink at the thought of being an only, spoiled child.

Just when I was feeling so pleased with myself, unable to wipe the smirk off my face (see above), my mom took my dad to pick out a brother for me. Here I am with my new four-legged, drools-more-than-me, tail-wagging brother:

As you can see, I'm not too thrilled about daddy having a new puppy to love. I saw what happened to mom's first child, the dog that once was treated like a queen and now is locked outside while mom plays with me. I wonder if I'll be locked out while mom and dad play with the new addition?