*from our 4 month photo shoot*
okay, folks - it has clearly been way too long since i've updated this blog, and thus you are in for a long one. think of it as two months worth of entries squashed into one...and feel free to break it up to read in sections if you must! i do apologize. here are some of the buggy highlights from the past two months:
**note** in reviewing this entry, i've noticed that it is filled with descriptions of all the things our bug "loooooooooooooves" - clearly, we are having so much fun watching our little bug grow. this is SUCH a fun age, each day seems better than the next & our little ladybug is more fun and interactive all the time. maybe you can start to see why i don't seem to find the time to blog - i'm too busy having fun!
1. schedules & such: i've found myself somewhat preoccupied with trying to nail down a solid daytime schedule of naps & such for our little ladybug, so that things don't go completely wacko when i return to work in a month. that's right, folks - this mama is heading back to the office in about four weeks. this will be a big adjustment for our baby bug (and for me!) but we are slowly working on trying to nail things down now to make that transition as smooth as possible. cross your fingers for us!
speaking of trying to nail down a schedule, i started a blog entry a while back about how it seemed i had FINALLY nailed down the schedule and things were smooth sailing. silly mama! i should have known that little miss elliot would be secretly checking in on this blog & let her mama know who is really in charge around here...it seems we have been in the midst of a transitional phase for almost a month now, and that throws any hopes of a predictable sleeping/eating/playing/etc schedule right out the window. and honestly, i just don't think it's possible that she has been going through a growth spurt for an entire month. more likely, i think she's been growing, and mixing in mastering certain skills and generally becoming more aware of her world and how interesting it is - oh, and we've been travelling & generally trying to work in as many fun & exciting things as possible - and all of those factors have lead us down a path of erratic eating, sleeping, etc. i may regret saying this for all the world to see, but it honestly seems that as soon as she hit four months old, things have settled down a bit and we are starting to find our way back to a decent & reliable routine. here's hoping!
2. travels: our bug has now been to four different states (washington, oregon, idaho and montana).
we took a trip to prineville, oregon, to visit aaron's parents for father's day weekend. elliot had a wonderful time, spending time with her grandparents, meeting their friends, napping & generally being loved & adored as any sweet little ladybug should.
*daddy & bug with nana & grandpa, on our 1st father's day*
then we took a family trip with my parents to anaconda, montana, for the fourth of july - elliot survived her first 9 hour car trip and did SO well. we had a great time with my folks, golfing, hanging out in the hotsprings, seeing the sites and generally have a great time with family...and, of course, more love & adoration for our sweet bug.
*with grandad & grammy toto in butte, montana*
i should note that the bug rolled from her back to her tummy for the first time on our montana trip - this has been a big milestone for her, as she LOVES being on her tummy and really will not hardly spend two seconds on her back anymore if she can help it.
*loves to be on her tummy*
i should also note that it was right around the time of our montana trip (and just about the time she turned three months old) that she decided that she clued into what we were up to with our whole "bedtime routine" and she was absolutely NOT having any of it! almost exactly on her 3month birthday (and right before our departure for montana...and several nights of staying in a hotel!!) she started to scream and wail as soon as we started to read her a book before bedtime. i will say, aaron and i were pretty nervous about the idea of taking our sweet little lady (who turned into a screaming, wailing banshee between the hours of 7:30 and 9:00pm each night) to stay in a hotel with other folks for severals nights. lucky for us, buggajo opted to take a vacation from her bedtime protesting during our stay in montana - PHEW! looking back on it now, it is probable that all of the bedtime protesting was somewhat tied into a growth spurt AND learning how to roll over, but that didn't make it any less stressful for her parents.
about a week ago, we took a short ferry trip over to poulsbo to attend aaron's cousin's wedding, and we were able to introduce the bug to several of her relatives - she had a wonderful time and it was so much fun to see everyone & be part of such a special day.
*sacked out during the ceremony*
and finally, in a couple of weeks we are headed to wisconsin to introduce the bug to many of her ilk relatives. she is VERY excited about this trip, looking forward especially to meeting her great-grandma & grandpa ilk - we keep telling her about this trip (trying to prep her for her first plane trip, etc) and she is just so excited to meet everyone. we are hoping the actual insect bugs in wisconsin in august aren't bigger than her - time will tell!
3. friends: during the month of july, aaron and i celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary with a fun date night - and buggy got to spent some fun time with her grammy toto. we've also started meeting with a PEPS group once a week, which has been a fun way to meet other parents in our neighborhood with kids right around her age - there is even one family who lives two blocks away! i've also been spending time with some other fun mommy friends who's babies are right around elliot's age, and it is so fun to see them starting to notice each other & take an interest in interacting with one another. once a week, i meet up with a group of moms from our birth group to walk around green lake and that has been great fun, too - we've been seeing these babies since before they were born, so it has been great to watch them all grow & develop. i'm hopeful that we can continue these great new friends as the buggy continues to grow and can take better advantage of her new friends.
*with some of the moms from our birth group, at green lake*
4: fun with dad & uncle kyle: we've been trying to take advantage of any time that aaron has away from his practice to get in some good, quality family time. a couple of weeks ago, we met up with uncle kyle for lunch & a trip to the emp to check out the jim henson exhibit. the exhibit itself was fairly small, but there were several of the ACTUAL muppets on display, which was really neat to see, and we were able to tour the rest of the emp & science fiction museum, so that was pretty neat, too.
*seeing the muppets*
bonus: i had no idea i was married to a star trekky until our stroll through the science fiction museum...huh.
5. moving: elliot is now proficient at rolling front to back and back to front. she LOVES to hold her head up and look around at her world. she is working on sitting up, and loves nothing more than to be upright & better able to observe and participate in the world around her. she has been *gasp* making motions toward crawling, although at this stage in the game i think it is best labeled "clawing". she grabs, pulls, pushes and scoots to make her way across the room. she will also employ a nice barrell roll if the mood strikes, and she has been known to push her bottom up, and then use it as leverage to scootch forward, inchworm style.
needless to say, while she is not yet actually crawling, our girl is certainly mobile and mama & daddy are a little nervous & thinking it may be time to begin the baby-proofing process. in fact, if you are in possession of a 1-2 year old little mover who happens to be highly mobile & interested in getting into things they shouldn't, can we please borrow your little one so that we can observe the trouble spots? i can think of at least a few friends who may fit this bill - babysitting is included, so don't hesitate to respond!!
6. talking: she is talking up a storm. well, talking may be a little too generous - she is cooing and making baby noises up a storm. we haven't heard much in the way of "words" just yet, although i swear we've heard things that sound like "hey" and "hiiii" quite a bit - potential for a first word forming? possibly. we certainly say "hi" to her all the time, so i wouldn't be surprised. and, if you are within two miles of our house starting at around 5 each night, you are likely to hear her other form of "talking" which happens to sound quite a bit like a VERY loud & high pitched prehistoric bird or dinosaur...i'm not kidding, our girl can screech like nobody's business...most of the time she seems to quite enjoy making these noises, and it's fun to see her so pleased with herself. but, as her adoring mama who loves her endlessly and thinks the world of every little thing that she does, i will admit that these are LOUD & slightly painful noises. still, we love her so we love her sounds - and it's pretty fun to see how excited & surprised she is at testing the full range of her voice.
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7. books & music: one of the things i had been really excited to introduce to the bug was books. i am a HUGE lover of books of all kinds and have absolutely dreamed of the day when she and i can settle in and read books together, just like my mom and i did when i was young. from an early age, we had incorporated a bedtime book into our bedtime routine, and while we know she is far to young to make much of these books (and honestly, with most of them, there isn't to much to make of them...), she does seem to enjoy the pictures and the rhythm of the words, and the closeness of mama & daddy during storytimes. it's so much fun to watch her engage more & more in storytime (discounting, of course, the month of bedtime protest when she basically screamed from cover to cover...am i not supposed to admit that publicly? oopsie....). dr suess is a big hit these days, with all those rhymes and wacky, colorful illustrations.
another thing we have noticed that our bug loooooooooooves is music. i have a mix just for her in my itunes, compiled almost entirely of elizabeth mitchell & beatles music (gotta start her out with the really good stuff, right?) and she really loves it. we also have certain songs that we sing to her, aaron and i each have picked a song that is "ours" to sing with her...now, when she hears those tunes she will begin to coo in recognition - amazing & so much fun!
8. sports: in preparation for my return to work, my has dad stepped in to care for the ladybug while i went into the office a couple of times. it has been great for my dad to get a few trial runs in before his role as grandad daycare begins in september, and elliot looooooooooves spending time with her grandad. grandad has some very special, fun talents - he is able to make some seriously entertaining noises that no one else seems to be able to duplicate, he has introduced her to the world of baby sit-ups, and has begun to foster in her a love of all things sports. our buggajo has sports & athletics on both sides of her family, but my dad is by far the biggest sports nut she will ever know, and he cannot wait to get her started down that same path. elliot has also had the good fortune of watching her first mariner's game with her grandad recently - and she LOOOVED it. must be something about the green grass, the summer sunshine and the special time with grandad explaining all of the ins and outs of the game, but i think we have a burgeoning baseball nut on our hands.
and just yesterday when we saw grandad for a short visit, he asked her if she was ready for her first basketball....um, not quite yet, grandad, but not too much longer.
9. firsts for everyone: last week, seattle experienced the hottest day on record in this city. that means that the bug, mama & daddy ALL lived through our first 103* day - and let me tell ya, in a city with high humidity and no a/c, it was hot!! add to that, our old house made of bricks & original windows (think of an oven) and we were fairly miserable for a few days. it was a full time job just to follow the baking sun, opening & closing windows and moving the fans to try to keep the house as cool as possible, and periodically cool the bug down with a nice sponge bath. it was hot, but somehow we managed to get through it, some more gracefully than others...
*baby siesta, hottest day in recorded seattle history*
PHEW - so that is 9 highlights to cover approximately two months or 9ish weeks...i promise to be better about updating from now on...or maybe i should say, i promise to do my best! we have our four month pediatrician appointment this week (more shots! although, i've heard some of them are oral, so i'm holding out hope that the trauma level will be lower this time around...), and a few other fun things coming up.
until next time, bug sends her love to all!
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