Sitting up

For the last month and a half, we've been practicing sitting up. The problem was that Christine got bored in seconds and would lunge forward to grab a toy or to get onto her stomach. I was telling my friend about our dilemma and she let us borrow her bumbo chair. The bumbo chair was a huge hit! So we bought us one. I wish we had bought it sooner because she loves to play in it.

After playing in the Bumbo for a little while, Christine learned that sitting could be fun.

You see, when you can sit up you can reach more things...

s

Oh, yes, sitting is very fun!

Visiting Cousins

Last week, Christine's cousin Zack came to visit all the way from Canada. I asked Zack how he liked living in Canada. He responded, "It's still winter there. It's summer here!"

My brother and sister-in-law left Canada where it was snowing and arrived in Houston in unseasonably cold weather. It got down to the 60s in the mornings while they were here, but not a worry, it got up to the 80s every afternoon. I'm with you Zack, I'll keep the warm weather!

My sister-in-law tells us Zack is obsessed with babies, and Christine was no exception. He even got excited about when it was diaper change time... has he smelled Christine's diapers?!?

Two of Christine's other cousin's came to visit from Temple, Texas, too. All the cousins wanted to take Christine on a walk, so my mom was happy to oblige.

Everyone took turns pushing her, and Christine was lulled to sleep. The sun was so bright and nice, we were afraid that she would get sunburned!

Visiting cousins means playing with new toys! Zack broke out his favorite tool set to share with Christine. Care for a wrench??

"No Daddy, I prefer the saw!"

"These boy-toys are so much cooler than mine!"

"Binky Smile" and other updates on life

I have been trying for a long time to try and get a picture of Christine's "binky smile"- when she's enjoying her binky and you can just see the corners of her smile. It's very hard to capture because whenever I pull out the camera she stops smiling and focuses all of her attention on how to get the camera from me. This is the best shot I have gotten, and it's not even a real smile. (what is the correct spelling of binky? binkey? "pacifier smile" doesn't sound as cute)

My allergies have been TERRIBLE this last week, and since I am still breastfeeding Christine I can't take ANY of the good drugs (like Sudafed. Oh how I miss you Sudafed!) I am just praying that this doesn't turn into a sinus infection.

Jeff is DONE with his Medicine rotation! Jeff loved it all, but Christine and I did not enjoy the long hours he spent at the hospital, nor did we enjoy our weekends alone, going to church on our own, eating alone, this list could go on and on. The worst of it was knowing that this is just the beginning... it was a glimpse into my life as a wife of a resident. I'm happier if I try not to think about it.

Yesterday as I was making dinner I opened the cupboard and a HUGE cockroach went crawling across the cupboard door above my head. 5 minutes later the smooshed cockroach's carcass was in the dumpster outside (it creeps me out to even have the dead body of a cockroach in the house- what if it comes back to life? cockroaches are indestructible you know!) all evening long I kept seeing cockroaches crawling on the wall out of the corner of my eye, of course nothing was there, I just go a little crazy after having nasty bugs in my house. It's a small price to pay for summer weather 11 months of the year.

Christine doesn't like cockroaches either.

Surprise Package

What's this? a box full of stuff? for ME?

What do we have here?

some bibs so mom can stop washing mango puree out of all my clothes.

A pretty dress! Let's see if it passes the taste test... yep it's a good one!

oops Mom forgot to put on my matching headband!

isn't it a pretty headband?

Thank you Grandma!!!

Almost Moving and Already Getting into Trouble

Christine is starting to work to get items out of her reach. If she is sitting up, she'll lunge forward to get on her stomach. If she's on her stomach she'll roll over (sometimes multiple times) to get to the toy she wants. They have to be pretty fun toys to be worth all the effort. Toys like... mom's crunchy bag of chips... mom's Jamba Juice cup... the TV remote. Hmmm, I am starting to see a pattern with the "toys" Christine likes the best.

As you can see, Christine has chosen the remote over her soft baby doll that rattles AND her squishy block made of different textured fabrics.

come here remote...

almost got it... don't go under the boppy!

Still can't get it, guess I've got to roll over.

To distract her, we turned something "she's not supposed to get into" into her very own purse.

For some reason all paper and cardboard products fascinate her, and this cereal bar box was no exception. I was carrying baby around in my Moby (THANK YOU Amy, Jill, and Laura!!) doing chores one day that Christine insisted on being held. Then, Christine picked up this empty cereal bar box.

She carried it around for the whole afternoon, so we decided to attach a ribbon and make it into a purse.

It's still her favorite toy.