crawling

Victoria has been practicing crawling for a couple weeks ... she'd get up on all fours and sway back and forth. You could practically see her mind turning as she tried to think how she should move her legs and arms ... it's so amazing that babies figure this out without instruction or anything. They simply reach a point where they're strong enough and they decide on their own that they should be able to move on all fours. Every stage of development is absolutely fascinating to me. As she continued in her practicing, she would eventually move one knee forward ... and then either move it back or fall to the ground. Sometimes she'd move her arms forward.

Then, last Tuesday night, she was on her bedroom floor playing with toys when she decided she wanted mommy. Before I knew it, the movements had clicked for her, and she crawled three or four "steps" to get to me. The next few nights, she would crawl ten or twelve steps with encouragement ... and by this weekend, watch out world! She's been crawling everywhere. To the coffee table, to rip off magazine covers. To the laundry basket, to tip it over and send clothes flying. To the dogs, who will put up with hair pulling and toe tickling only so long before they get up and leave. And when they leave? Then it's the dog toys:


Of course, she is obsessed with things she isn't supposed to have. Those dog toys get pretty gross, but at times she becomes absolutely fixated on reaching them.

I captured this video this morning of her crawling in the living room:




Crawling has been the biggest news of the weekend, but as you saw in the video another new thing is clapping. Very interesting that clapping developed at the same time as crawling. It simply must be so she can give herself an ovation every time she crawls! She's been doing it all day and it's pretty cute.

We had a pretty packed weekend, between watching V, cleaning our pole barn for Matt's big birthday party next weekend, attending my cousin's bachelorette party, seeing Harry Potter, and going to Water Babies. It's a good thing V gets us up at 6:00 to fit it all in! I've tried to make the best of these early mornings, so that I don't end up bitter at my lack of sleep. Yesterday morning I and the girls went for an early morning walk:


It was a gorgeous morning for a leisurely walk. I stopped along the way to admire the wildflowers:


The "year of the wildflowers" continues! V enjoyed the bumpy ride and watching the puppies run (she'll often squeal when they run by). The dogs enjoyed all the fresh deer smells from the night before. After the walk, V and I took the pups down to the river for a swim. I do enjoy spending time with all my girls together. Last week when we went to the recycling center we decided to take the dogs with us, and because it's pretty rare for the dogs to be allowed to ride in the back seat, I snapped this pic of all three girls in the back seat:


I am pretty lucky to have such an awesome family!

miscellaneous photos

I was looking through my iphone pics the other day and there were a few from the past month that I thought were worth sharing.

One Friday night when Matt was out of town for a bike race, I was feeling sorry for myself being "alone" on a Friday night ... until I realized I had the best dinner date around, a baby girl who loves sweet potatoes and pears. I snapped this photo and love the look on her face - mommy, why are you taking a photo instead of feeding me? She was upset that I put the spoon down to take the photo.


Several weeks ago she started pulling down on the crib bumper to peek over the top and see if we were coming to get her. This photo was taken just before we had to lower the crib mattress when she learned how to pull herself up.



It felt like a momentous day when we took her into Target and could sit her in the seat of the cart! No more lugging the car seat into the store, thank god!


She loves being outside, and one evening I had some work to do in the garden. I put her on a blanket and happened to have a kitchen strainer, which became her favorite toy. Whatever it takes to keep her happy while I work! Hannah was keeping her company.


Speaking of Hannah, she follows me everywhere I go, and her favorite spot when I'm in the baby's room is in the corner against the radiator. She likes to use V's toys as pillows, especially her stuffed dog. Looks comfy, no?

laughter

Tonight I laid with Victoria on a bed at my parents' house. We were there for a party, and I intended to feed her (hoping she'd get sleepy) and put her to bed. I was happy to have some quiet alone time with her, since she'd been pretty social all night. I've learned with V that in trying to put her to bed I really can't engage with her at all. Any talking, smiling, etc. just energizes her instead of making her sleepy. So I laid on the bed with my arms around her and let her hold her bottle. I closed my eyes, relaxing .... Within seconds, V decided to stick one little finger way up my nose! It was so unexpected I started laughing. And then she started laughing. And she was so cute sitting there laughing at mommy that I just laughed some more. Soon both of us were laying there giggling uncontrollably, feeding off of each other, while milk dribbled down her chin. What a pure moment of joy.

Water Babies

As I mentioned in my last blog post, last weekend was our very first session of Water Babies. Until Sunday, the most water V had ever seen was the few inches in the bottom of her infant tub. Given how much she kicks and splashes in the tub (mommy and daddy are so wet afterwards they need to change shirts), we figured she'd love the pool ...


... and we were right! She was very happy to be in the water and started kicking instantly. Normally she "runs" in midair when being passed from one person to another, so in the pool her mid-air running turned into mid-water running whenever she tried to get to mommy and daddy. Once we propped her on her belly, she added splashing hands and could "swim" wherever she wanted to go. If she stopped paddling or kicking, we simply stopped moving her. Soon she figured out that by kicking and paddling she could go places.



She also wasn't afraid of water splashing all over her face. In fact, she splashed harder and ended up completely doused.

She also loved (of course) watching all the other kids. Grandma Bonnie came to watch and take some video and photos too. We're already looking forward to next week!

Of Weeds and Fireflies

It's the middle of July already? The weather suggests that summer just started, but the calendar tells us it's half over. Despite the late sunsets, there still isn't enough hours in the day to get everything done. We try to find the right balance between house projects and adventures, between relaxation and scheduling things on the calendar. If I feel like none of those things gets enough attention, does that mean we've found balance?

Among the things we've been doing, here are a few of the latest house projects ...

• Mowing, trimming, and weeding. This is a losing battle. Despite our best efforts, the woods are taking over. Moving here has been a huge lesson in how fast a field can become impassable, how quickly a few weeds can choke flowers and even take down fences. Matt has burned up three belts on our field mower. He has spent so much time trying to mow and trim around the yard he hasn't even started the trail clearing we dreamed about last winter. The previous owners let the weeds take over, so I spend hours trying to reclaim landscaping areas. I can only dream of someday starting my *own* gardens.
• Vegetables. The same sun and rain that creates crazy weeds has thankfully blessed the vegetable garden. Despite not getting enough attention, I think we should get many fresh veggies this year. Keeping fencing up (see previous bullet) to keep the deer out has been a top priority.
• Basement bathroom. After basement flooding last year, Matt has started taking down moldy sheetrock. Next up: acid wash, waterproof, insulate, add sheetrock, and repaint the bathroom.
• Carpet shampooing. We really really want to get rid of our living room carpeting, but the money keeps going elsewhere. Deciding that we were going to keep it awhile longer, we opted to clean the carpeting instead, and borrowed a shampooer. Maybe I shouldn't have been so anxious to make progress on a house project. In the midst of moving furniture, we put one huge scratch and one deep dent in our hardwood floors. Add new flooring to the dream list!

Some fun adventures ...

• My last blog post is all about our 4th of July fun.
• Last weekend the whole Moses clan (dogs and all) went to visit our friends Barb and Ben in St. Paul.
• This weekend our adventures included dinner at Thirsty Pagan with friends Brian and Suzanne and our first Water Babies class. More to come on Water Babies soon!
  

One constant through it all -- house projects, adventures, and relaxation -- is ... Victoria! While I sometimes feel that with house projects I take one step forward and two steps back, with Victoria life is full speed ahead.

Our baby girl is now over 7 months old. We're now taking photos of her and "Viktor" the dog every month. Here is the 7 month photo:


In posting this photo I had to look back at earlier photos where she is sitting next to Viktor. Check out her 8 week photo. She is a full head taller now!

True to form, movement is Victoria's biggest priority. She continues to love "walking" with the help of Mommy and Daddy. She has been practicing crawling every day, pushing herself up on all fours, rocking back and forth, pulling and pushing with her arms. She's developing a pretty good army crawl, and between rolling, army crawl, and getting up on all fours to launch herself forward, she can move around the floor pretty well. While being fed, she kicks constantly. Held in someone's arms, she loves to do back bends. Today was the first day she pushed herself from laying down into a sitting position ... and then, to make it a day of double firsts, learned that she could grab onto her crib bar and pull herself up ... so she was STANDING! She did it twice and thought it was pretty cool. Mommy also thought it was cool, as I was there to witness the look of glee and pride on her face. Needless to say, Daddy spent some time tonight lowering the crib mattress to a safe height.

Some other highlights from Victoria ...

• Spit bubbles are the coolest thing ever. Why bother trying to form syllables and words when you can just blow spit bubbles everywhere? It feels funny, is wonderfully loud, cools you off (Mommy says she can wring spit out of my shirt!), and makes everyone laugh. It's best to try it when you have a mouth full of mango or sweet potato, and can shoot food all over the person feeding you.
• I really wish I had more than two hands. It's so frustrating to have three or four cool toys and only be able to pick up two of them.
• Strangers are kinda scary. I used to love meeting new people, but now I often just want Mommy or Daddy. Except when I'm tired -- then it's just Mommy.
• I really love it when Mommy carries me with her as she waters plants or cleans the house. I help her get an extra workout.
• Sleep is a waste of time. Naps are overrated. I apparently prefer to fight tiredness, get overtired, then cry and fuss for up to an hour every night before finally going to sleep. Mommy say someday she'll teach me that sleep is great!
  

Despite how fast summer is flying, and how busy life can get, we all take time to stop and smell the roses ... literally. We have beautiful wild roses growing on the path down to the river. It's a remarkable year for wildflowers, with black-eyed susans, daisies, purple clover, Indian paintbrush, buttercups, and other flowers I don't even know the names of dotting the driveway and roadsides. We also find time to get on the floor to play, relax in the living room to the sound of birds and frogs, keep an eye open for wildlife (with the help of Hannah and Piper), or watch fireflies. It is a banner year for fireflies, and it's impossible not to feel like a child full of wonder when you can stand in the yard and watch them flash all around. I'm so glad we are surrounded by such beauty, so that in the midst of busy lives we don't have to leave home to go searching for nature ... it makes it seem like keeping the weeds at bay is a decent price to pay for wildflowers and fireflies.

4th of July

Matt's sister Karen and niece Madi came to visit for the 4th of July weekend. It's always so nice to spend time with them, and on this visit we got to play tourist and show them around Duluth a little. We toured the Irvin (where I learned a lot about Great Lakes shipping - awesome tour guide), spent a couple perfect afternoons on the rocks along Lake Superior, took them to my favorite Duluth restaurant, and watched the parade in Cloquet.

On their first afternoon here, I took the opportunity to let Victoria experience her first dip in Lake Superior:


As often is the case, it's really the little things that matter. Madi is 7, and I treasure the opportunities to get to know her better. On this trip, we learned that she loves lemonade and strawberries. We watched her learn to skip rocks, and she told us she collects snow globes. The love she discovered for Lake Superior ("what do you want to do today, Madi?" - "go climb on the rocks!") made me feel proud, simply because I love the lake too. She brought the game Life, and we all enjoyed some "old-fashioned" fun playing board games. We laughed over her adventures playing in the water, where she usually got more wet than she bargained for. And she lost a tooth while staying at our house and in tears asked her mommy if she really was the tooth fairy, demanding, "tell me the truth, mommy!" She is at such a fun age, with all the joys and tribulations of childhood. She impressed me with what a helper she wants to be. She clearly adores Victoria and helped get diapers and give her a bath. She also loves the dogs and was helpful in playing with Piper or letting the dogs in and out. We look forward to many more visits with both Karen and Madi!


There were many cute pictures taken, too many to fit in one blog post. But, you can see them all on my flickr page.