Peektures.

Here are some of the things we've been up to this week, in addition to crawling for puffs, like true Thiel.

Chewing on her hand-me-down Rubber Bunny. He's almost as delicious as Sophie.

Standing! She can't quite pull herself up, but she loves being put next to the coffee table. Mostly because she hopes I'm going to leave the remote or the netbook within reach of her grabby hands.

Then she flops down and pulls all the coasters out. HOORAY COASTERS!

This week was also exciting because Grams bought her a new toy (surprise surprise!) She is a big fan of her rocking dog. She can even stand up and ride 'em cowgirl, which is pretty cute.

She also enjoys having staring contests and being cute. Mostly this week though, she's enjoyed fussing about everything. What can you say? It's hard to be a baby. Even such a cute one.

Forward Ho!

We've got some scooting! Some forward scootching! Nearly crawling! As you can see, she's finally figured out to move her right hand. But, not so much the left. Once she gets that baby going, I think we'll have a full blown crawler on her hand.

Did I mention that her best friend Lexi is already walking? I guess babies really do achieve on their own schedule.

Surprise!

We've had a good week so far. Yesterday we went for a walk and then had a quick trip to the mall, so I could look for wild fake eyelashes for my 30th birthday party costume (I later bought several pairs on Amazon. I like to have options. Feathered, multi-colored options.) Then we went and got ourselves a cookie at Tim's work. 3pm cookie time is my favorite time.

Today, swim class. We had a really funny moment as we were sliding into the water. Another mom looked at Elizabeth and I and exclaimed, "oh, she's so big now!" It took me a second to place her and her daughter, but they'd been at mommy matters class during the first month or so that I went, before she had to go back to work. Her daughter is five or six weeks older than Ellie, which doesn't seem like much now, but when Ellie was four weeks old and I thought I might lose my mother-effing mind, her ten week old baby who slept well and wasn't killing her mom with the constant nursing seemed like the sort of experience I'd never possibly have. But yet, here we are, both in the same swim class, with two cute, happy little baby girls approaching their first birthday. It was nice to catch up with her, and funny to think that she was probably pleasantly surprised that Ellie and I are both happy and together and a fully functional team. Motherhood involves a lot of on the job training, but I think I'm holding up okay. I think Ellie will keep me, at the very least.

After swim classes, I've taken to just plopping Ellie in the shower with me while I clean up, rather than giving her a separate bath. She loves it - it gives her a chance to try to stick her fingers in our drain, and after I scrub her, I let her play with her washrag, which is apparently the best toy anyone has ever invented. She'll continue to sit on the floor of the shower and play happily with it long enough for me to get dressed, brush my teeth, put on makeup and fix my hair. If only giving her a wet washrags at other times wouldn't cause a mess!

Then of course, it was over to the salt mines of mom and dad's house, to clean up cat poop (thankfully, all in the box) and check on the pool, all while being pointedly ignored by their stupid cats. Seriously - mom and Sara will probably get mauled to death in their sleep, because despite the fact that I was over for at least an hour every day over the past week, Rocky and Petunia deemed me unworthy of their attention, to which I said "FINE, GO WITHOUT PETTING, LOSERS!"

The fam was set to land around 7pm tonight. I had decided that Tim would drive Dad's car to the airport to give back to them, and I would show up as a surprise with a certain lady known as "Itty Bitty." The big question was: would mom cry at seeing her grandbaby after a whole week apart? The answer is of course: yes. And then Ellie cried at her Gramps, because she is kind of a jerk sometimes. She'll make it up to him later in the week, hopefully.

She is SO close to crawling. Every time I put her on her butt lately, she either immediately flops on to her back and puts up a fuss about it, or leans forward until she gets herself on her hands and knees. Still hasn't figure out how to use those hands, but she seems to be understanding that if she gets into the crawling position, eventually she'll be able to head in the direction she desires. It drives me crazy though that every time I plop her on the bed for a second she dives forward. I spend a lot of time every day saying "please don't throw yourself on the floor," and "if you don't like it, learn to crawl."

"Why does the kitty have all my toys?"

Baby Posse

We had our July gathering of babies this afternoon - a pool party for all of our little swimmy fish. Kelly and Ian's pool was easily 90 degrees (unheated) and the kiddos had a great time. Once again, we brought the duck over and it was a hit with many of the kids.

Good thing too, since we left all of them afloat in the pool, supervising one another, while we all went inside and made margaritas.

Just kidding!

Little Aviatrix

Tumbling Tots class is no joke, as you can see. Today she did an excellent hand stand, some super swinging, some bubble popping, and some great singing and dancing. I'm not sure if we'll continue to do tot class once our initial term is over, but we're having fun while it lasts!

A funny story about how things change and babies grow up - tonight we had burritos and Ellie could not get enough of my pinto beans. Funny to think back to her first few months, where me eating a burrito with beans meant that the next day Elizabeth would scream as though she was being murdered and then fart all day.

Tumbling Tots, etc.

So month 9 has been treating us pretty okay. On Tuesday Grandma came down for some baby time. We ended up skipping swim class because Ellie fought her morning nap and had only been asleep for fifteen minutes when it was time to leave. I didn't think it was worth waking her up considering how much time she spends in the pool lately. Instead, we went and had a delicious lunch and then tried to find a new entertainment cabinet that didn't offend my delicate sensibilities. We failed in the latter quest, but I have a better idea of what I'm looking for as we re-do the living room.

THEN we got to visit Tim at work so he could show his mommy around and so that I could get one of the cookies that are freshly baked for the nerds at 3pm. And by one cookie, I mean two cookies and an iced coffee. Get this - even though his workplace is for grownups and does not have on site child care, they have several very nice high chairs in the cafeteria, so Ellie sat in one and made love eyes at all of the smelly nerds. That place is deluxe!

Today we went and tried out a new baby activity. One of my friends sent me a link for half priced classes at a kiddie gym, so I bought an eight week session. I mean, why not? Today was our first class. It's 45 minutes and features a lot of singing, some playing with balls, the use of swings, rolling around on the floor, bubbles, and most exciting, a zip line across the room (the baby is in a swing, not trying to hang on to a handle.) Ellie was pretty into it all, so we'll see how it goes. I feel like it might be slightly more fun if she was mobile, which she's still not, of course.

Then we swung by mom and dad's to check on the cat friends, and Elizabeth zonked out for a sweaty, exhausted 2 hour nap. Tiny tykes is a tough class, apparently. She was delighted to skype with her grandparents when she woke up. The cats were pretty bored with us, which is better than when my cats try to stomp their way into my lap with Ellie just as she's beginning to drift off to sleep in my arms.

Here she is, working on her wave. You can catch a tiny glimpse of her two bottom teeth. Still not top ones yet.

Here's our new recliner, which yes, is identical to mom and dad's new recliner. It's incredibly comfortable, and I spend most of my time fighting Lulu for it.

9 Months!

Our little lady love is 9 months old today!

Yesterday she had her well baby visit and Auntie Sara came along to check out the stats and help hold Ol' Squirmy in the waiting room. Elizabeth was on her best behavior and for the first time ever, didn't pee or poop on anything or make a mess out of herself. She did however, put up a stink about having her height measured.

At nine months, she weighs 19 pounds, 12 ounces, which puts her in the 70th percentile. She's 27.5 inches long, so in the 50th percentile. Her nogging is 46 cms around, which puts her in the 90th percentile. She's such a Ford. The doc was pleased with all of her development, and remarked on how strong she is and how happy she seems. So, pat on the back for me! She didn't have any real suggestions for me, except to keep doing what we're doing. As she was leaving, she said to Ellie "you'll probably walking when I see you next!" (at a year.) I replied that she shouldn't count on it. We are still not crawling around here, but then again, Ellie seemed like she was going to roll over for a full month before she actually did. She just needs to move those dang hands!

This morning I dropped the family off at the airport for their trip to the hot, humid Midwest (Al Roker said Minneapolis was supposed to be 98 degrees today. And it's a nice, thick, wet heat. YUM!) Hopefully mom will survive without her little girlfriend. Hopefully I'll survive without mom! Today Grandma Eileen is coming down for swim class, and then we're going furniture shopping. We need to get a new entertainment center so we can move all of the electronics to a safe spot in case Ellie does someday decide to crawl.