The 4th in Flag

In order to be able to take as much baby and hiking gear as we wanted, we packed up Hannah and all of her accessories and drove to Flagstaff to spend the week with my parents. Hannah did quite well in the car, with only the occasional melt-down. Music (Mom singing) definitely soothes this beast. I can only sing my standard repertoire so many times, so I found that James Taylor (turned around backwards from the front seat) works great and Simon and Garfunkle (in the back seat with the volume cranked) doesn't.

Our biggest challenge was dealing with the 5% humidity in Flagstaff. For those of us who live in the Texas swamp, this might seem attractive. Turns our 5% is dry enough to suck all of the moisture out of a person, especially when this person won't drink water! Hannah had some fussy moments, but seemed to do okay with a bit of extra water in her formula.

Of course one of the best things about a week with grandparents is the sharing of baby duty. Early riser Grandpop took morning bottle duty and Grammy changed way more than her share of poopy diapers - thank you!!! Andy and I also had the chance to get out for a hike (too high for baby) and went out to dinner on our own! (Of course Flagstaff is a small town and the proud granparents were just a few blocks away showing off their precious grandbaby.)

Hannah took advantage of the extra attention to show off her new sitting skills.

This is the bassinet that my I slept in, as did my mother and her brother!

(Please disregard Hannah's subtle sign language!)

Hannah and Grammy in their matching "Life is Good" t's. Indeed it is.

Sitting pretty

Hannah has decided that she really wants to sit up on her own. She's able to stay up for longer periods and can even right her self some before the inevitable tumble. I swear her cheeks look bigger when she sits!

Along with the fun sitting practice has been a not so much fun "can't fall asleep for a nap" development. I actually tried swaddling her (sort of - gotta leave that thumb out to suck!) for the first time in months. I'm hearing a fresh round of protests from the other room...

She teeths

No official teeth yet, but "windows" have appeared on Hannah's bottom gums (confirmed by the pediatrician, not just me seeing things) and she has all of the other signs - massive drool, shoving everything in her mouth, and that lovely teething disposition. Lucky she has her charming and fun times, too.

We call this one button face. I'm not sure what to call the other one...

We had Hannah's 4 month checkup last week and the child who didn't gain weight for the first 3 weeks of her life is now a whopping 15 pounds! 75th percentile! She's also 25 1/2 inches, which makes her 95th percentile for height. (Apparently her head size is a bit more average than the rest of her.)

We have our first real babysitter coming tomorrow evening, though we're even cheating a bit because it's a friend of mine from marathon training, but we do have real teenager lined up to try next time!

Going "home"

Hannah and I travelled to Virginia and North Carolina this past weekend. My mom met us there for "old home" visits in Virginia and a chance for Hannah to meet her great grandma and grandpa in NC. As a bonus, we got to see Andy's parents before their townhouse sells, so Hannah got another chance to see her Grandma and Grandpa LeCuyer. (Plus they were kind enough to pick us up at the airport and what turned out to be a very late hour - thank you Karen and Jack!) Not wanting to add to an already busy trip, Andy graciously stayed home and rode many, many miles on his bike.

Hannah meets her Great Grammy Fredda.

Great Grandpa Hale has had a couple of strokes recently, but there was no doubt he recognized the feel of a fat baby thigh!

Visiting with Karen and her daughter Melina. Karen and I were best friends in elementary school and our families have managed to keep in touch all these years and miles.

There's a theme here... With the exception of one friend who had twins a few years ago, all of my closest friends from elementary through high school have had or will have babies within a year of each other! We made a quick visit to see my high school friends Zarmina and Matt with their beautiful baby boy, Aiden, before heading down to North Carolina. We also had a wonderful lunch visit with my childhood friend Catherine, her husband Jason and son Ethan, but neglected to take any photos. What were we thinking? (Perhaps the crying child in my lap for the second half of our visit explains it.)