6 Months Old!

I don’t have much time to write today. It has been a busy week at work and at home as we are working on Zoa’s room and trying to get it done in time for company to arrive. Zoa is also officially six months old as of yesterday. We did not really do anything to celebrate as the weather was cold and rainy. Zoa has also had a mysterious rash all week, which could possibly be from the bananas. Who knows. If she is anything like me and Jeff, though, she is probably prone to rashes. So, this could be a sign of many rashes to come.

Here are a couple pictures from the week. Zoa has taken to sucking on socks to fall asleep, which we figure is better than a pacifier as the future dentist is definitely anti-pacifier. The other photo was taken yesterday in honor of her 6-month birthday.

We may take a little time off the blog this week, as we will be busy with company. Today, my cousin Francisco is stopping by on his way from Santa Barbara to St. Paul, so we are looking forward to his visit.

Well, the baby is awake from her nap and hungry, so I better run.

Coolin' and Droolin'

This weekend has been filled with trying to get stuff done around the house/yard. We (well, Brian really) have renewed inspiration to work on the house as we will soon have a house full of guests for Thanksgiving. So, he is busy working on what will be Zoa's room one of these days.

Zoa and I are coolin' and droolin' as I work on laundry and a bit of cleaning. We also have a trip to the grocery store in the works too as soon as she eats again. Last night she started on bananas which she is enjoying much more than the rice cereal we gave her last week, which frankly looked and smelled like paste. It is no wonder that she spit it out a lot. Last night she sucked down the mashed up bananas and looked happy to do so.

Have I mentioned that Zoa is just a pleasure to be around? Well, she is. This morning Brian and I were marveling at how we ever got along with out her. She is the perfect addition to the family and is almost always smiling and laughing. She also feels like a lot less "work" lately. I used to be totally exhausted by about 3 in the afternoon at work. Between trying to work full-time and be a full-time Mom when I was home, I was totally overwhelmed. However, now I feel much more like myself and no longer feel like I am going to drop dead at 8pm. I am not sure if I just got more used to my work and home schedules or what. I don't really get any more sleep than I used to. All I know is that I am feeling good lately. Work is going well, and it is a pleasure to come home everyday to Brian and Zoa. In a nutshell, life is good.

Well, I better go check on my little sleeping angel; she has been sleeping for about a half an hour, which is pretty much a marathon nap for her.

Gurgle, ppppptttt...dadadadada

That's right. Gurgle, pppppttt....dadadadadada. Baby Bugsly Doodle has finally mastered the one word that will ensure a place in my heart, forever. After months of prompting, poking with a long pointy stick, and sarcastic humiliation (i.e. "Oh, you can say mama, that will really help you out while she is working those long grueling hours at the rash cream factory), she has finally come around and let the beloved words of "dada" fly from her toothless mouth.

Along with phonemes, Bugsly Doodle has also begun mastering the art of barrel rolling. Not to be confused with the barrel rolling in lumberjack contests, Bugsly's version involves a rapid fire spin to move her from point A to point B.

To determine the full extent of this rolling, I devised an experimental apparatus that measures the angular velocity of Bugsly Doodle, for it would be far to dangerous to measure her unencumbered velocity on a straight path. If we figure that Bugsly is has a diameter in barrel configuration of roughly 1 ft (or 0.3048 m) with an angular velocity of 0.0984 radians/s, she has a velocity of roughly 0.03 m/s (2m per minute). In short, I cannot ever leave the room whilst she rolls.

I have thought about attaching blades to her to turn her into a lethal weapon to do my bidding. Imagine standing at the supermarket with all those grocery buying dopes who don't have a spinning baby blade to push their way to the front of the line. Let's just say I won't be waiting to make my purchase of Hot Rod magazine, kerosene, and kielbasa sausage for very long. The pictures show a sequence of rolling taken by a high speed camera on a laser tripline. Bugsly is very hard to photograph in her natural setting, so this contraption was necessary to catch her in action. I have considered applying for funding from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to explore future battlefield implications.

The days in Omaha grow shorter and the weather colder. Our morning walks have either been postponed or turned into death marches akin to prisoner transport through Siberia during the Cold War. The -200C temperatures have frozen the lubricating oils on Bugsly's transport vehicle, permanently locking the axles. I think perhaps we will just watch the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory again until it heats up this afternoon.

-Brian

And this happy little fellow is the gouger...

Well, our family date was a success. The babies all behaved wonderfully as we enjoyed our BBQ. I think our parents group will be getting together again soon before the holiday season begins. One thing that we did learn about Zoa on Friday is that she does not play nicely with the other babies. She goes straight for the eyes and tries to gouge them out. One of the other mother's actually scooped up her baby to protect it after Zoa had gone for the eyes. This seems to be a dubious start for lady Zoa. Hopefully, as she gets older, she will not alienate all her potential friends by being overly aggressive.

Other big baby news is that Zoa has started eating solids (see photo). She is almost 6 months old and has begun "chewing" while we eat and trying to grab food out of our hands, so we figured she is ready. So, she started with a little rice cereal yesterday. She was definitely eager to eat either the cereal or the spoon it was served on. Yesterday, she ate it a little bit more vigorously than today, but we will try later tonight too.

We also had time for some fall family fun this weekend. Our yard is full of trees which have now all dropped their leaves, so we had plenty of yard work to do. Zoa sat in her chair and napped in a beautiful one-piece sweater and hat (see photo) that my mom knitted her while Brian and I worked. Today, the raking and bagging of leaves continued, and we are still not done. I think that some will have to wait for next weekend. Zoa is taking a rare nap, so I need to take advantage and finish getting some stuff done. More later in the week.

Flying

Well, I came home from work a little early today after ditching out on a meeting hoping to spend a some time with my husband and baby. However, I came home to an open house with a neighbor's cat in my kitchen fighting with our cats and no husband and no baby. So, natually, instead of calling the police, I decided to catch up on some blogging (Actually, I noticed the Baby Bjorn is gone too, so they can't be too far).

Yesterday, Zoa had a day full of playing airplane (see picture). With her new upperbody strength, she does not mind being on her stomach so much any more. In fact, she has been spending a lot of time the past few days rolling from back to stomach in order to play. She is still kicking her legs and moving her arms as if she is crawling; however, that big belly is still stuck on the floor. We thought that because she loved standing at such an early age, that she would just skip crawling and work more on walking. However, she seems to be working pretty hard at figuring out how to crawl.

In other Zoa related news, we have a family "date" tonight with 2 other couples and their young babies. We are headed to a BBQ place that also has live music. Hopefully, the music will be louder than the babies.

Well, now I am getting a little worried about my family as they still have not materialized. I am off to find them.

Bugsly Doodle's Big Week

Well, this week has been a big one for our little girl, which is why it has taken us a while to get back to our blog. Mountain Doodle's high-energy baby playing inspired a renewed effort to make fools of ourselves for the baby's amusement. So, Bugsly had two days of new gags to amuse her before Grandma Bloom came to visit. Once again she had a weekend of non-stop doting. Although, we did find time to do other activities as well. We went to Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City for the day and Bugsly behaved wonderfully as we dined at the lodge there and then toured the Tree Adventure (see photo of Grandma, Brian, and Bugsly atop the observation tower). By the end of the day, she had finally had enough and was ready to get home, after a little crying, she shut down for the car ride home.

Sunday was another big day for Bugsly as she had a Halloween party to attend (see photo of our little lady bug). One of the member's of our parent's group threw a party especially for babies and probably 15 babies and toddlers attended. The babies suffered through being dressed in ridiculous and uncomfortable costumes as the parents snapped pictures and drank beer. It was a great afternoon, but I think that we had more fun than Bugsly.

Yesterday, Grandma's visit came to a close. We reluctantly sent her back to Madison after having a picnic lunch on the floor of my office. The ambiance was not great, but the company was. We will miss her, but are excited to have her back in just 3 short weeks for a Thanksgiving celebration.

Last night, poor Bugsly was forced back into her costume again as we welcomed Trick-or-treaters for the first time in our new home. Bugsly was generally unhappy to be back in the lady bug get up, but she cheered up everytime kids came to the door. She definitely is interested in other children.

Finally, on the developmental front, Bugsly has finally realized that her ability to roll can help her travel and get to what she wants. She has started to roll to toys or other things she wants to shove in her mouth. We are now really going to have to gear up to baby-proof the house.

Well, I really need to be off to work. I have a very full work week with RPT (retention, promotion, and tenure) due on Thursday. I guess I need to finish that if I plan on keeping my job.