A gray afternoon well spent

I was feeling like a homemaker yesterday afternoon. It was a gray, rainy afternoon for the most part, with some breaks of warm sun. I decided to carve into that monster zucchini and make some delicious zucchini bread. I took a picture of "G and the Giant Zucchini."


This thing was literally as big as G! Now, it is comprising two yummy loaves of bread and 3 cups of frozen, shredded zucchini in my freezer. That's right, I got 6 CUPS out of that thing!! This is the first time I have ever made zucchini bread. It was fun. I especially enjoyed mashing the shredded mess in the strainer to get some of the water out. Slimy green fun :)


I also made about 3 1/2 dz oatmeal raisin cookies. This was not the first time I have made ORCs, but it was the first time I used this particular recipe. I will not be sharing this recipe, because it sucks. I am very unhappy with this pile of cookies I now have. They came out gummy and thick. The recipe called for 1/2 cup canola oil and 1/2 cup applesauce. So healthy! So yuck! I guess there are sometimes you just can't spare a little butter. Now I know.

And, to top off my manic baking session, I rounded it out with a pan of homemade meatballs. (Get it? rounded it out....I crack me up!) Now these babies turned out delicious!!

They were perfect with spaghetti and sauce (even though the sauce, regrettably, wasn't homemade. I didn't have the stuff, or it would have been, given the roll I was on....roll, haha!) And, it was G's first experience with meatballs. She seems to like them. What a good girl.

What I should have taken a picture of was the mess in my sink and dishwasher after all this fun! It took 2 loads in the dw to conquer all those pots and pans and mixing bowls and measuring cups and spoons and strainers and wisks!! It was all worth it this morning when G and I had fresh zucchini bread for breakfast.

Update on the 'puter

Well, we have some good news and some not so happy news. The good news is that we took the laptop to CC yesterday and the guys at the "Firedog" desk (what a stupid name!) said that my computer was under warranty still and that since you couldn't tell that it fell off the table, Sony should fix it for us. He said to tell them that the operation system won't load, for whatever reason. Cool. That means a free fix.

The not so great news is that I have to call Sony (this means, probably, at least an hour if not more on hold) to tell them this happy news. Then I think I have to send it back to them to be fixed. So, I figure we won't see the laptop till sometime around G's 18th birthday. (Pout!)

But, at least it should be free, and that is good news. However, this means unless I get desperate and load the camera software on this stinky computer there will be no pictures for a while. (Double Pout, that's my favorite part!)

BooHoo

This little stinker in my house, who shall remain nameless and initialless (spellcheck doesn't think that's a word) knocked the laptop off of the coffee table last night. Now it won't start. :(~

So, I am using my junky, old, slllllllllllooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww computer which keeps trying to do stupid updates since it hasn't been turned on in 9 months and it is wasting all of my precious nap time!!! We are taking it to Circuit City today and hopefully (keep your finger crossed for us) they will fix it and we won't have to give them said nameless firstborn in exchange. Oh, and we are going to Target to pick-up those baby gates for the stairs, too. Maybe we'll find a fun toy at Target that will be more fun than knocking the computer around. We'll see. I also plan to make yummy zucchini bread from this MONSTER zucchini that a woman from work gave me, and some oatmeal raisin cookies, just because. I hope to have pictures of all of that ala sweetfern later.
So, Later!

We've got a climber!

G's newest trick....scaling the heights....of the stairs.


Both of these pics are taken at the TOP of the stairs after G climbed up all of them all by herself!


Oh, and she has also started "cruising"-that's what all the baby books call it when they stand holding onto to furniture and then walk around holding on. She can turn around, too, like from the coffee table to the couch, without falling! I think she is going to take after me and be a monkey! My mother never lets me forget how I was able to climb up the bookshelf (yeah, literally up the bookshelf) before I could walk. Hooo boy!

Haute Cuisine, it's not

This is Giuliana tonight at dinner.

Too bad it was mostly pears tonight, you can't tell in this picture how ABSOLUTELY COVERED IN PEARS SHE IS!!!

I was taking the advice of the Gerber mailer I got today about feeding a baby on the verge of toddlerhood. Wait a minute! On the verge of toddlerhood?!?!?! That's what Gerber said about my tiny little baby! Well, anyway that's what they said about 9-12 month olds, and G will be 9 months next week! So, their advice was to give her a lot of choices at meals and to let her play and smear and throw her food...all in good fun (obviously not good clean fun!) So, I let her have at it.

Now I know it will come as a shock to all of you who think I am uptight about messiness, but this is not so different from how we have been doing most meals. I let G take the reigns with the spoon(s) as often as she likes, which is almost always. I let her have lots of different things and don't force her to eat any one thing. I don't usually encourage finger painting with pears, but, what the hey, I say!

However, G has proved so far to be a "challenging eater," as I like to say. It's not that she is so much "picky" as that she just can't be bothered to eat. She will always take her bottle, that's no problem. But she dines almost exclusively on Cheerios these days. She just isn't interested in most other foods most of the time. And forget about taking food off of a spoon or from Mommy! She clamps her little mouth shut so tight you would need the jaws of life to pry it open. And her new thing is to shake her head back and forth so I have no hope of getting anything anywhere near her mouth. So, I give her the spoon and about half of the time some of it makes it into her mouth. Sigh...John tells me I get too worked up over it and she will eat when she is ready. But it just seems so important. I am really trying to be zen about the whole thing and just relax and let G take the lead. But I am always up for good advice.

Hence, I was pouring over the Gerber mailer that showed up today like it was The Bible! Look at all these pictures of happy babies eating all these healthy foods! Their mothers must be so relaxed and carefree! Is that child actually eating cereal off of a spoon from his mother's hand?? How did she do that??

Double sigh. These are the things that keep me up at night, people. World peace, it's not. Oh, and by the way, Max is a HUGE FAN of the "let the baby fling her dinner everywhere" method of eating! HUGE FAN.

On a less neurotic note, look at this close up.


See anything ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE?? This is the day I have dreamed about (after I have finally fallen asleep from the hours of pondering baby feeding strategies.) I was able to accessorize G! This is her very first hair accessory, a little tiny clip! How freakin' cute is that?!? I have always wanted a little girl so I can play with her hair (shallow and petty, I know, but there it is. Oh, back off! There were other reasons too!) YAY! This totally made my day :)

Cats and Dogs and Babies, Oh My!

John found this article online today (off of one of my blogroll links heehee). I feel like I could have written it myself, except the part about abandoning our three pets for a week with no dire consequences. I have to admit that if that had somehow happened to us, we would have come home to cat hair fluff balls all over and little else (ewww, I know, but it's true, Max and Petey are just biding their time.)

For those of you who might not know our family history, here is a pic of our cozy, furry crew PG (and minus me, I was taking the picture).


The couch has always been the "safe zone" for the cats. For some reason, they do not feel as threatened by Max there as anywhere else. I private hunch is that they are just too damn comfy to care.

So, anyway, back to our pet family history. Petey is the eldest of the bunch. She and I go way back. About ten years (this week, I think!) to be exact. I got Petey from some people who were found her as a stray kitten and were going to take her to the shelter. I was looking for a cat and gladly took her in. I have ALWAYS had at least one cat and I had just moved out of my parents' house and into my very own first apartment. And I needed the comfort of a furry housemate. Petey, though she can be standoffish, was a lovely roomie. She needed me and I needed her and it worked out great.

A few years later I acquired Suzy in an odd set of circumstances. I had also always grown up with a Siamese cat, and missed having one around. For those of you who do not have any experience with Siamese cats, they are entirely a breed unto themselves. They are beautiful cats with gorgeous coloring and fabulous blue eyes, and they know it. And exploit it. All Siamese except Suzy that is. But that is not germaine to the story, and I didn't know this about her at the time anyway. So, my birthday was coming up and I decided that I would love to have a Siamese. Now, normally I do not believe in spending a lot of money for any animal when there are so many who need a home at the shelters, but I really wanted a Siamese, and you just don't find those cats in a shelter. You have to buy them from a breeder. This story will explain why this was the first and last time I will EVER buy an animal from a breeder. So, I found a breeder who had several cute Siamese kittens for sale, and I went and picked one out for my birthday. The breeder showed me these cute kittens in his living room, which was clean and normal. I picked out a little female who was scrawny but cute, and named her Delia. (Stay with me here, yes, Delia.) I took Delia home and Petey FLIPPED! She hated having another cat in her home. But they adjusted over the course of a few weeks and things settled down. About a month after I brought Delia home I woke up one morning and couldn't find her. Eventually I did, on the bathroom floor, dead. I was so shocked and heartbroken!! Nothing was visably wrong with her, she just died. Well, since I had bought her from a breeder, I called him up and told him my tale. I wasn't looking for another cat, I just wanted to let him know what happened and see if he had any information as to why my cat would just die for no reason. Anyway, he must have thought I was looking for a replacement and told me that he didn't have anymore kittens. But he did have two older cats he would give me instead. "Older" in this case meant 1 and 2 years old, a mother and daughter, who had each already bred a few litters. So, I went over to his place again. This time he took me into his cat room. It was horrible! There were all these cages and several cats and it smelled like a horrible litter box! I felt terrible. He showed me the two cats. They were nearly identical. Mai Ling was the mother and had 3 toes on her right front paw. Sui Ling was the daughter and had three toes on her front left paw, and was cross eyed (probably from inbreeding, I would guess.) I was so horrified for them that I took them both home. Again, Petey wasn't happy, but she got over it. I called the cats Maizy and Suzy. Though all my cats are indoor cats, somehow Maizy got out of the house after only a few days with me. I put posters up all over the neighborhood and looked all over, but I never found her. So, that's how I ended up with Petey and Suzy. Who now love each other, but there were a few rough patches there for a while.

Enter Max, the massive black beast in the picture. John and I lived happily together with the two cats in our apartment for three years, but quietly we both longed for the romping, slobbery love only a canine can give you. So, when we bought our house we promptly went down to the Humane Society and got Max. Actually, we had been looking at shelter dogs for weeks before we closed on our home in anticipation. Anyway, Max stole our hearts with his big brown devoted eyes. And I happen to loooove labs, so there was that happy coincidence. Now, this time, Petey had just about had it with animals invading her space. She is considerably older now (in cat years) and she just lost it!!! She literally tried to kill Max, who is at least 8x her size. I had to take her to the vet for some kitty tranquilizers and put her in the "kitty psych ward" (now G's nursery, but then unused) for 6 weeks!! These days, I wouldn't say harmony reigns, but most of the time all three animals tolerate each other.

If you are still with me after all of that, I am finally at the point of my post. I have fought for and with all of these animals. I rescued all of them from a doomed future. And I love them. They have all given me quite a few headaches and heartaches, but that comes with the commitment of pet ownership. I like to think they all have a pretty good life now. However, now we have a sweet, innocent, fragile little baby. She loves all the animals dearly. In fact, one of her first true words was "Maaa" said while looking right at Max. She loves to pull on Max's snout and get handfuls of cat hair whenever she can. And for the most part the animals leave her alone. I can't say they love her, it is more an indifference to her. Sometimes when she is crying Petey will come to see what is wrong, with this poor, cute concerned attitude. And Max will give her doggy kisses sometimes.

But, oh, how annoying these animals have become since we brought G home!! These cuddly, furry, dirty animals. Who shed everywhere. Who have dirty feet that walk all over the floors my baby crawls on. Who don't always watch where they are going and walk right over her or knock her down when she is standing (Max). Who decide to pick a fight in the upstairs hall while I am this close to getting G down for an ever elusive nap! Who have lately decided that though our bedroom has been off limits for, oh, the last 5 years, they would love to nap on our bed everyday and leave it covered with cat hair (cats, obviously).

I have always firmly believed that having pets is a commitment. You can't just give up on them or give them away when it doesn't work out. Especially animals that you rescued-how could you doom them to that fate again?? They need you and depend on you (even the cats, who believe you need them really.) But, boy have I been close sometimes in the last 8 months!! I would love to have one day that I don't have to sweep up mounds of dog and cat hair just so G can crawl around without getting absolutely covered head to toe with it. I would love to not have to constantly be pushing Max away because he just doesn't get how big he is and that he is going to hurt her! Oh, and to have all those interrupted naps back!! In fact, Max woke her up just this afternoon with loud barking.

But, here are a couple of things I know. I know that I honestly believe that it is a good thing for children to grow up with animals. It helps make them compassionate toward animals. It prevents a fear of animals, while teaching proper respect for them at the same time. And, I honestly believe from my own experience, that in some children it helps prevent allergies from developing. And I do know that I still believe that adopting an animal into your home is a lifelong commitment (although this is a decision every pet owner has to make for their own families.) So, even though they make me nuts somedays and make me want to scream at moments, I do love these furry guys, and G does love them too, and they will be staying in our happy, cozy, fur ridden home. But this IS a warning to all of my friends who have "furbabies" but no human babies yet. Your relationship with your animals WILL change after having children. Accept it. It happens.

Confessions of an arts and crafts supply junkie

Somebody stop me. I may have lost it. Here's my story:
I went to Kmart earlier with G. It was totally innocent. I needed to get formula and milk and a couple of other things. I picked up a few shirts for me that were on clearance (this is not my confession.)
Then, I saw the back-to-school supplies. Kate, I know you will support me on this, there is nothing like new crayons and markers to make you lose your mind. I have a kid now, so I can justify this craving for fresh arts supplies, right? She's only eight months old, you say? What's your point?!
So, I had the presence of mind to realize that even though Kmart's prices were pretty good G would probably spend more time chewing on the crayons and ripping the paper than actually creating object de 'arte at this point. Sooooo, I went to the Dollar Store! And bought this stufffor my eight month old. I really wanted to buy little scissors and glue sticks and construction paper too (and a nice container to put it all in because, oh, yeah, I'm a storage/organization supply junkie, also), but didn't. No, it was not the fact that G will not be able to use these things for, oh, 12 months at least. It was the fact that the crappy Dollar Store near my house didn't have them.
I wonder if G will mind if I test out her new markers??.....

Let me tell you about Saturday mornings...

Here's G, her pj's covered in blueberry stains from breakfast-bananas, blueberries, and waffles (Aunt Jamima's, not mine). She is crawling around downstairs (ok, so her pj's are more than just blueberry stained...there may be a pound or two of dog hair on those knees...Wait a second! Where's Max?? Oh, that's right, he's on the front porch chasing a moth. Uh oh, G wants to be a moth hunter, too, hang on.)
Ok, baby is corralled (ha! yeah right!).
Where was I? Oh yes, describing the happy homey scene in my house right now. Hang on, more baby moth hunting.... you should see this. I go out to the front porch and there are G and Max with a poor trapped moth, G smiling huge and waving to me, or the moth, I'm not sure. Hey, I just noticed my yoga tapes are all over the floor...when did that happen?
So, my home, always clean and organized, no slouch am I when it comes to chores. Wait, G is whining, we need a little baby dancing interlude...
Whew, that was fun! G is a fabulous dancing partner, she doesn't care that I have no rhythm, unlike her father. She just giggles the whole time :)
Back to my clean house. Was the dog's dish always in the middle of the kitchen floor? And didn't I just pick up the yoga tapes? Why are they all over the floor again? Max must have caught the moth, because he wants to go outside now. Where did G go, I just turned my back for a second to let Max outside...oh, she's back on the front porch, the dirty, dirty front porch. Used to be clean, not sure when it got so dirty. G's little feet are gray from crawling out there. Hmm, I see someone is on their way back to the yoga tapes. I think I have a culprit!
What was I writing about? How I always use Saturday mornings to catch up on chores? Oh hell, let me tell you what we have really been doing this morning! G exercised her lungs and vocal chords first thing this morning yelling in glee at Blue's Clues and Franklin. She and Daddy and I played gymnastics (with more loud yelling) on the couch. G loves to do somersaults, and you should see her fly! There were about 5 minutes of playing with actual toys and lots of time playing with cds, magazines Max's dish, the yoga tapes...we played peekaboo with the kitchen dishtowels, too. G has been eating the magazines again. How much paper do you think an 8 month old should include in her diet? And we have been baby dancing as I mentioned. Somewhere in there we did have an actual nap! And when did the chores get done? Hmmm, maybe next Saturday. I'm having way too much fun right now.

Nothing Much

Random observation: I have posted enough to now have an "older posts" link! Cool! I feel more like an official blogger. Yay.

Unexpected Blessings

I received this card in the mail yesterday from Sarah Phillips, our Vermont host. This beautiful card was 10 times more beautiful on the inside with Sarah's sweet and thoughtful comments about watching me as a wife and a mother. It made me cry and totally made my day. Thank you, Sarah.

Friday Fotos

This is my version of "Wordless Wednesdays", since it's Friday and I can't guarantee that it will be "wordless."


G's first ride on the carousel.

A rose among...petunias (and marigolds).

Our office is moving next month. Yesterday we packed some important stuff.

G is making sure her toys get moved too!

Daddy will be happy to know G is already a Stephen King fan.

Danger, danger everywhere!

Seasoned parents have been telling me for months (at least 8) that I have it easy and that when G learns to move on her own-that's when parenting an infant gets tough. Boy were they right!! G started crawling a couple of weeks ago. She is so cute scooting around with her little tush wiggling behind her. Exactly two days after she learned to crawl, she decided that wasn't enough and learned to climb. Her first conquest was the lower shelf on the microwave cart which she climbed right up on, no problem. Next, not satisfied with those two new skills and having watched Monroe standing, she decided to learn how to do that too. She pulls herself to standing on everything.

G climbed over that chair rail to get in there. If the pic wasn't so dark you could see how proud she is of herself.


So, now I have a crawling, climbing, standing hurricane. She is everywhere. I thought I was tired before...late nights/early mornings, endless diaper changes with a squirmy baby, desperately hoping for a nap (for both of us!), creatively trying to get her to eat something...now I have all of that plus watching her every second, worrying about all the dangerous possibilities around the house and office, catching her/not catching her when she falls, soothing booboos, trying to make sure she doesn't kill herself. Last night she got her first fat lip. She was attempting to pull herself up on one of her toy baskets which fell over and then she fell over and somehow bit her lip. It was a bleeder. Little toughie that she is, she only cried for about 15 seconds. She sucked on a wet washcloth for a minute and then was back at it.

It took me about an hour to write this post. Not because I couldn't think of what to write, but because Giuliana fell over twice, tried to climb over her walker, bumped her head(now I see why people think this is a good idea)...had a bottle, fought a nap and fell asleep. This was a fairly productive hour for me! I'm exhausted and it's only 10am.

We have done our best to baby proof. We still have to purchase a couple of baby gates for the stairs and cut a hole in the basement door so the cats can go in and out but the door can stay closed. I created a makeshift baby barricade in my office which keeps her corralled for the most part and also provides interesting things to stand on/try to climb over.


She is supposed to be on the other side of that walker. I was trying to get a picture of her climbing over her barricade, but she was too fast. I've shored it up now!

The other day I was saying to John that I am anxious for G to learn to walk because it seems less dangerous. John was like, what are you saying! That will only give her more height to get into/onto more things! He's right. I have a feeling we are just getting started.

G, learning new things

Hey, Mama!

Exploring her world. So many books to chew, I mean read.


Blueberry picking with Aunt Gina and kids.


Learning to crawl...off she goes.


First time in the sandbox.


New shoes.


What the heck am I supposed to do with these things? Can I chew them off?


G and her new toothbrush...she's a pro already!

`
Learning to stand....STAND !!

General Hospital, Take 2

After a gloriously relaxing weekend in peaceful Vermont, John ended it with a very unrelaxing and unpeaceful trip to BGH ER. He was admitted again with horrible abdominal pain that continues to be undiagnosed. Tuesday the on-call GI doc did a procedure to remove a stent that had been placed in John's common bile duct last month. The stent was supposed to fall out a couple of weeks ago but didn't and the doctor admitted that he didn't have any other ideas about what to do for John. Unfortunately, so far it doesn't seem like the procedure has helped at all with John's pain. John was released from the hospital on Wednesday in just about as much pain as he went in with and a small, low dose of pain meds. He spent the next two days trying to get any doctor to listen to him that he was still in pain and the meds weren't sufficient. However, at this point, none of the doctors seem to care, or at least that's how they act. What is it about doctors that they don't listen!? And, what is even more infuriating is the arrogant attitude they throw you when they can't figure out what is wrong with you...so it must be your fault for still being sick, or worse, you must just be a junkie looking for a narcotic! Needless to say, John has had it with doctors and the medical community in general. So, he has decided that for now, he is just done with them and will find ways to live with the pain. It really shouldn't be like this. I have a whole new appreciation for the families that I work with who have to go from doctor to doctor just to try to get a diagnosis for their developmentally disabled kids. And the humiliation and frustration they feel when people don't listen, when they have to repeat their stories a million times, when they have to endure test after test with no results...what a messed up system!


A gratuitous pic of my hot hubs, from Easter, since I don't have many of him on here.

A weekend in Vermont

So, we left Binghamton at about 6:30pm on Friday with Giuliana fed and asleep in the back, Max hyped up in the way back (I love that phrase, "the way back" it just sounds like childhood good times! I'm so glad we have a way back) and the car literally stuffed to the gills with everything we could possibly need for the next 6 weeks! The drive to Plainfield, VT took about 5 hours; unfortunately we didn't see much of the beautiful VT scenery as we drove through the windy, twisty roads.
Jeff and Sarah and Monroe's home, in the New Hamburger Community (but not a commune) is just so perfect for the Swift-Phillips clan, so neo-hippie Vermont. The houses are all hand built, set into the woods like they just sprang up organically there. What a peaceful place to relax with good friends.





Jeff with Monroe and John with Giuliana, Saturday morning.

Saturday morning was yummy homemade zucchini bread and Jeff's whatever's in the fridge quiche, and adorable babies playing.



G was so impressed with Monroe's standing! She decided that she could do it too, and has been pulling up on things all week since!

We had a great trip to the Montpelier Farmer's Market where were Sarah stocked up on locally grown produce that she turned into a delicious and creative dinner. And we enjoyed pizza from a portable oven and Jamaican somosas. I bought G a cute baby apron recycled from an old shirt. (That reminds me, Kate, we may still owe you $8!) And Sarah talked me into purchasing goat's milk caramel, which turned out to be unbelievably good! Thanks, Sarah.


Then we walked around Montpelier, the smallest state capital in the US. It was like a smaller version of Ithaca. I had to take a picture of this building on a bridge...looks like something from Europe somewhere.




Saturday afternoon was a surprisingly energetic hike in the woods to the dilapidated treehouses that were built in the early 70's for the New Hamburger transients (yeah, not a commune). I say it was energetic because when Sarah suggested it, she neglected to mention that it was a 20 minute hike up hill in the wet, soggy woods, in flipflops. With about 500million mosquitoes. Anyhoo, after that, more babies playing and general good times hanging out with friends, and making the delicious dinner I mentioned before. Chopping veggies is so cathartic, don't you think? Especially smashing and mincing garlic :)

I don't have any pics, but Max had the time of his life wrestling with the other dogs and running freely through the woods. He and Duke had a few scuffles but they'll work it out.

Unfortunately, Saturday night didn't end well for John. He had some more severe abdominal attacks after dinner. We almost had to try out Vermont's emergency room. But he was able to get it under control enough to just go to bed early and wait till morning. Sunday, after more babies playing, we left early for a loooooooooong trip home (almost 7 hours altogether). At least we got to enjoy the scenic VT drive. Even though John ended up having to go to the hospital late Sunday night it was a great weekend full of yummy food, nature, guitar/mandolin/banjo music, dogs romping, and babies playing.

Just G

I know I need to post a long post about this past weekend in VT and then our hospital drama, take 2. But for now, just the most beautiful picture of G...even if it is about 4 months old now.

Am I cool enough?

Having a blog just seems like something the "cool people" do. You know who I mean, the ones with all the interesting things to say, funny ways to say it, interesting hobbies, beautiful kids and artsy photos. Well, I have the requisite beautiful kid, name-sake of this blog, the gorgeous G herself, but I don't know about all that other stuff. See what I mean? I think I'm gonna need a thesaurus..."stuff", better come up with a more interesting word!
Anyway, nothing like beginning my new blog with a positive approach, right? So, why am I here?

Back to the beautiful kid. She inspires me. I've had lots of inspiration in my life. I can be a pretty creative person, and that takes some kind of inspiration. But when you create a kid you find a whole new world of inspiration. That's why people go on and on about their kids till anybody listening would prefer to not be listening anymore. So, you can all listen here and when you choose not to listen anymore, you can go away. I can't imagine why you would ever want to go away if I'm talking about G, though, she's great! She has already taught me more about life than I ever thought I'd learn in her entire childhood...and she's only eight months old! I say "only eight months" but really, who can remember life before G ( pre-G?? PG?) and yet, how can she POSSIBLY BE 8 MONTHS OLD ALREADY, FOR PETE'S SAKE!! Anyway, she daily reminds me that everything in life is interesting, and everything should be explored with wonder. Good lessons, I think. She's so smart that little girl!

Right now she is exploring a book. She has been exploring that book all day, off and on. She keeps opening it, closing it, looking at it, chewing it, smiling at it, waving to it, and then doing all of that all over again. Then she goes and explores something else. Then back to the book. The book, apparently, is interesting. That's life when you're eight months old. What fun!! And that's what this blog is about. What G sees with her blue eyes, and what she shows me, and our fun, interesting life together, exploring!

Will it be cool? We'll see...guess it doesn't really matter after all. Thanks, G! See what I mean, she is teaching me all the time.