Catching up - September

Wow, so quick, and I'm already terrible about updates.

Piper is almost six months old.

We've been doing tons of playing and laughing and jumping and such. She's nearly mastered the 'low crawl, and soon we'll be actually crawling. We laugh pretty regularly, and have gotten the hang of sleeping through the night. We did baby-food green beans the other day, and we weren't very crazy about them, though we did five or six bites. Imagine the expression you'd make if I fed you a spoon full of cold mud. Hers was much the same. Day two was much the same, Uck. But day three was completely different, and we decided that we liked green beans just fine. Piper seems to inherit the "Yes I'll eat some of that" trait from her dad. Day four of green beans went pretty well too, and soon we'll be moving on to sweet potatoes and squash.

As I keep saying, its funny to watch her develop over weeks and months. She's gone from a tiny little thing who barely opens her eyes, and does little aside from cry or squirm, to someone who sits constantly poised to grab the brightest (or least-kid-friendly) object in reach. I've joked with Maddie that there must be gravity wells around dangerous things, because if you set a bucket full of razor blades on your living room floor, your kid would surely disregard all manner of brightly colored or shiny objects, and make right for the bucket. Piper is in "grab mode", I've had to take to wearing my glasses on top of my head, or taking them off entirely, when playing with her, otherwise they end up in her grasp, and in her mouth.

She's on the very cusp of crawling, and can raise herself up on her hands and knees, and frog/bunny hop forward a bit. Or the belly-crawl that I mentioned earlier. The dogs and the cats have yet to know the terror that is being chased by a seven month old.

She likes to talk. Not all the time, but pretty regularly we get "NOM NOM BABA BABA BABA GAB GAB GAB MAM MAM MAM". Sometimes while a toy or someone's finger is in her mouth, being chewed on.

You might have seen the animals we painted on the nursery walls. Sometimes when its almost time for bed, I carry her to the bedroom and we say goodnight to Tori the Tiger and Giselle the Giraffe, and others. If I hold her close to the painted animals, she'll reach out to them, interested in the borders, her fingers reaching for their ears, or their eyes, or their smiles.

She sleeps through the night now pretty regularly. She still cries out from time to time, but if we wait, often its just a short cry or three, and she's asleep again.

I love how happy and cheerful she is when first waking, either first thing in the morning, or fresh from a nap. She'll make noise, and if we go in there, we can often see a head up in the crib, and as soon as she lays eyes on one of us, or we speak to her, she smiles really big and starts to have an absolute wiggle tantrum, often accompanied with giggles and laughs.

Oddest thing - she's CRAZY SUPER tickling on her sides, like on her ribs under her arms, and on her tummy and chest. Her sides especially. Consistently, if she's tickled on her sides, she SCREAMS OUT LOUD, and every single time we check to make sure she's not hurt or upset, just find that she's grinning with a few fingers in her mouth. She loves it.



Krissi and I still have some worries about what the future holds. We're still not 100% certain on a second child. We've still got some very serious financial hurdles, and some pretty high goals when it comes to Piper's education and such. But I feel awfully optimistic about things, which is a little odd for me.

Odd too, because I'm a worrier. I sometimes stress about things that the far future holds.... "what if she doesn't wear her seatbelt while driving?", "what if she makes terrible career choices?", etc. Which strike me as very adult middle-class things to be worried about.

She's a fairly cheerful baby, only making a fuss when she's hungry or desperate to be picked up, or very sleepy. Sucking our thumb has become a pretty regular thing, mostly when sleepy, but sometimes just because.

Driving with her in the car is.. funny.. she sits in a rear-facing carseat in the back seat in the middle... and she's reached a point that sometimes she'll crane her neck to look for us, so its fun/distracting when she looks for one of us.

Lots of things have been on our minds lately... We've been very fortunate that my mother comes by at least once a week and hangs out with Piper, and my dad comes by rather frequently as well. Krissi's parents are in Virginia, but try to visit when they can... her brother is here, and that's been a benefit. Jobs are tough in this area, and we've considered looking in other parts of the country, but we have friends that are easily as close as family, and so its hard to even consider moving away.

[why can't I end these things on a more upbeat note?]