She Found Her Thumbs...

Hello all! We have had an exciting week. Christa has really changed a lot. She is officially a thumb-sucker! I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, a thumb is quite a difficult thing to take away when the time comes. On the other, it makes for a great self-soother right now. And this lazy mama has no interest in getting up at night to stick a pacifier back in her mouth! I sucked my thumb when I was a baby, so like mother, like daughter, I guess.

She is smiling and cooing so much more. She's really getting some personality, and it is a treat to play with her. Daddy's no longer getting the bulk of the smiles. Mommy is finally enjoying her fair share and so are the animal friends on her bouncer (shown above).

Christa also rolled over for the first time this week. I went into get her after her nap, and there she was - on her back. Yes, we let her sleep on her stomach - please don't judge us! (We did try the whole "back to sleep" thing, but it just didn't work out.)

Cline and I have not learned any new tricks this week. We do have the weekend off, so we're headed to Rome. Don't forget to eat at Chili's on Monday if you can!

Goodbye Summer

Mommy making silly faces... Impressive
Mimi's hand.... VERY Impressive
Miles and miles of nature's most serene and beautiful merging of land and sea.... Pretty Boring!

Hello all! The first two pictures were taken at the beach... indoors... where we were forced to spend the entire first three days due to relentless rain. The third picture was taken on Sunday when our patience was rewarded with... more rain.... and 20 minutes of a light mist that we took advantage of to get said photo. I wanted to post a couple of pictures of the smiles for two reasons. 1. They're the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen, and I'm sure you all agree :) 2. I'm quite relieved my child is able to smile while awake. Let me explain. I didn't realize that babies are supposed to be "awake smiling" in response to entertaining stimuli by 2 months of age. When I took her to the doctor last week, he asked me if she was smiling, and I truthfully answered, "no, not consistently." His response was, "we'll keep an eye on that; I don't think she has autism." My paranoid, first-time-mom ears heard, "I'm trying to think of a polite way to say that your child is autistic. We'll re-address this at a future visit," and I proceeded to have multiple panic-attacks. Thankfully, she started smiling at daddy (do you think she's making a statement on who is entertaining in our house?) the very next day, and I was able to catch a couple of them on camera during our abundant indoor time at the beach. Despite the rain, we had an excellent time. I got to spend a whole afternoon doing one of my favorite things - shopping for clothes at the outlet mall with money my sweet husband gave me for my upcoming birthday. Since my parents were with us, I got to pick out a few things "from them" as well! As a result, Christa will be well-dressed in the fall, and I have a new wardrobe more appropriate for my motherhood-enhanced body (that I'm still trying to embrace.)
My patient husband is waiting on me to watch a movie with him, so I must go. Talk to you on Thursday!