Grab Bag

Time for an update on some of Nina's developmental achievements. First of all, she is officially grabbing at things. This almost seems like old news since it started a few days before we left for Houston. Previously, if you put a toy in her hand she would hold onto to it, but if you dangled it in front of her, she would not reach out for it. Then one day out of the blue she reached out for my water glass! It was like a switch was flipped, and now she is grabbing at everything. We'll officially mark it at 4 months and 1 week.


She is so funny. If you hold something in front of her, it takes her a second to focus on it, then she gets all serious and after another second, her arms reach out to it (and of course try to bring it into her mouth!). She still has some work to do though. When she is laying down and trying to grab a toy, she will more often push it further away. Fortunately, one of her favorite objects to grab is attached to the end of her leg so it can't get too far away....


She has been enjoying her exersaucer. She'll play in it alone for a few minutes at a time or longer if you sit and keep her company. Here is a fun sequence.




We have also been experimenting with giving her some solid foods. Originally I had planned to wait another month or so, but we gave her a few tastes for fun and she just seemed love it. So far, we have given her strawberries, watermelon, tomato, banana, applesauce, sweet potato, pears, carrots and peas. Wow, that is quite a repertoire! She hasn't met a food she doesn't like. I suppose she takes after her mom in that sense. We give her just a few spoonfuls at time. She sucks on the spoon generally making a big mess, but it does appear that she is swallowing a good portion of it.

Also, she has been sleeping in her crib! The co-sleeping worked very well for us, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone especially in the early weeks and months. But it seemed like it was time for her to move on. The first night, she woke up crying after a couple hours, and we brought her back to bed with us. The next night, she went a few hours longer. Now she is making it until about 5am. She is such an amazingly good little baby!

Friendswood

Well, if there is one thing I learned on this trip it's that it is nearly impossible to take decent pictures of multiple children and adults. You are lucky if you can get one kid to smile and forget about sitting still or looking at the camera. And inevitably the adults are looking down at the kids rather than looking at the camera. Waddaya gonna do?

Case in point:

Pile on Grandma

Still, it is a cute picture. It was taken the afternoon we arrived. Grandpa is probably trying to get Nina's attention, but instead she is looking down at the basket of baby toys thinking "I wonder how those taste?".

This one is probably the favorite of the trip.

Cute Coordinating Cousins

This was taken in the front yard of Andrea and Owen's new house in Friendswood - and a very lovely house it is. Notice the girls' coordinating outfits!

Later that day, Lucia's cousin Wyatt and Aunt Hayley stopped by. Probably the highlight of the trip was watching Lucia and Wyatt interact and play together. Wyatt turned 2 in March and Lucia will be 2 in August. What a fun age! Wyatt has a bigger vocabulary and generally seems to understand more of what is going on, but I have a feeling that Lucia is the real ringleader.


Having kids is a great excuse to do fun kids things like go to the zoo and ride the train around Hermann Park.

Watch out, Aunt Andrea! One of the monkeys is trying to escape!

On Wednesday, we went to Grandma's for lunch. Of course we had to dress the girls in (Grandma-provided) matching outfits.

Hey, Grandma matches too!

The weather was so amazing while I was there! It was probably the nicest May in Houston, well, basically ever. We took a few walks in the neighborhood and spent every evening sitting out on the porch. On Friday we headed to the local Friendswood park.

Aunt Hayley and Nina

Aunt Maria lends a helping hand.

sweetie!

Owen pulled out the water park for the kids. At first they were a little timid and not quite sure what to do with it. But soon they were all over it, and even Nina joined in the fun.


Wonderful week! We really tried not to plan too much or do too much running around. We basically just hung out and played with the kids. Of course we did find time to cook some pretty delicious meals and drink a lot of wine.

It was wonderful to spend so much time with Lucia. She was a little reserved at first but by midweek we were best buddies - bringing me books to read her and wanting me to sit next to her at dinner. So heartwarming. Aunt Maria loves you, honey!

We're back!

Nina and I arrived back from Houston yesterday afternoon. It was a great trip and Nina really enjoyed hanging out with her family. I have a ton pictures to post later in the week, but today we are just resting and recovering at home (and waiting for my suitcase to be delivered!).

"That was fun, but boy am I pooped!"

Bobbarino

Another one of Nina's friends has arrived! Robert Garrit Kendall was born on Friday, April 27. Nina and I visited last week. Elizabeth is doing great and being taken good care of by Grandma Esther. Say hi to the world, Bobby!

:::

The past several Saturdays, we have been getting out for a family run in the morning. Boy, this jogging stroller is just great! It is so light and easy to run with. Nina is chalking up the miles already.



Tomorrow morning, Nina will have another first - her first plane ride! She and I will take off to Houston to visit with family for a week. Should be an adventure although I am not sure how much the person sitting next to me will enjoy my little drooling squiggly worm!

Families

Before shipping Prof. Moore off to the University of Florida, we hosted a families dinner on Friday evening. Robb, Minja and baby Nikolas came as well as Tim, Jane and little Hannah. It was wonderful to get everyone together, have some good grub (if I do say so myself) and swap new parenting stories.

We also got some nice group shots. First the dads....

Then the moms...


And finally the families...

I just love that last picture! Everyone looks so genuinely happy. Also, notice Nikolas checking out Nina. That boy is going to be trouble!

Then on Sunday, we had a picnic with Mirjana, Miroslav and the girls. Being rather experienced at this whole parenting thing, they knew of a great park just down the road from us in Los Altos.


You might wonder, what Nina is up to in the shot above. Why munching on some watermelon, of course!


She absolutely loved it. I gave it to her just to see her reaction, and she started to suck on it like crazy. In fact she got rather upset when I tried to take it away!

And finally another excellent family shot.


Yay, summer's here! Looking forward to many more lazy Sundays in the park.

4 Months

Nina is 4 months old today. And for her big birthday she got to .... go to the doctor! and get 4 shots! and an oral live virus vaccine! Lucky girl. Here are her four month stats:

Height: 24 inches (41%)
Weight: 13 lbs 14 oz (57%)
Head Circumference: 40.5 cm (37%)

Her growth in the second 2 months of her life has been a lot slower than the first 2 months as is normal. She has, however, moved down in the percentiles (they were all around 70% last time). The doctor was not at all concerned. She said height and head measurements can vary by a bit since they are so hard to measure, and her weight looked fine especially since she is so active. Blah, blah, blah, she is healthy and doing great. Dr. Enright also said Nina has good trunk control. Now if that is not a complement then I just don't know what is!

Ok, ok, now let's get to what you really want to see - 4 month portraits!



As you can see in these pictures, Nina's personality is really coming out. She is alert and aware of the world around her, but she is also beginning to respond and interact with it. She is definitely wanting to put everything in her mouth these days but her coordination is not always quite there. The development of hand-eye coordination is really a very slow process. She has managed to put her pacifier back in her mouth a couple of times. If she is on her stomach or side and the pacifier falls very close to her and is angled just right, she can use her hand to push it toward her mouth. Pretty cool!

To make up for the whole shots-on-her-birthday business, I bought her one of those exersaucer thingies. So stay tuned for some fun standing baby pictures! On second thought it could take a while - there appears to be rather a lot of assembly required.

And the fans go wild!

Houston, are you next?