Hello! I swear the technology gods are doing their best to try to keep me from writing this post today. I've had some serious problems downloading AND uploading pictures today. It's almost like the computer knows that I only have a finite time when I can get this done. ANYHOW...
Fall's still upon us up in Anchorage. We've had a number of days where it threatened to snow, but nothing happened yet, which I'm totally okay with because I know this will be the next six months of our lives and I still haven't really figured out how we're going to handle the winter with a baby. I'm constantly worried about her being too cold as it is! Mostly it's been pretty clear and actually warm (okay, well, warm for October anyway...I think last week the temperature was generally in the low 40s). Still cold enough that we have to bundle this one up when we go for walks! (again, I was bundling her months ago...)
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| She just loves her hat...can't you tell? |
Super nice of them to trim the raspberries for me...god knows I wasn't going to do it.
At first when the moose popped by I thought it was just the mama, but she still has her baby with her. Andy was watching them while I was feeding Olive and he noted that the baby was getting a little amorous with his mother (hello Oedipus!). Sadly(?) I missed it and don't have any pictures to share with you. I have a feeling that she'll be kicking him to the curb fairly soon.
After tooling in the garden they got brave and headed right for the back window. I also thought it was funny that, after we made fun of the neighbors all summer for wrapping their lilacs in steel cages to protect them from moose (because moose OBVIOUSLY don't like lilacs), the mama went right for the lilac by the back window. Punk.
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| look at his little antler nubs! Cute! |
Hello!
This weekend we took Olive to go pick out pumpkins. I am sure there is a patch somewhere (maybe in Palmer??) and I know they also do a little indoor patch at one of the local nurseries here, but our options yesterday were limited to either Fred Meyer (where pumpkins are currently FIFTY FIVE CENTS A POUND!) or the local feed store where we buy dog food and plants. We opted for the feed store and only drew a few odd looks while we took pictures in their pumpkin "patch." The lack of cheap, available pumpkins is a serious downside to living in Alaska. As with every year, you can look forward to me going on a similar rant about Christmas trees in a couple of months.
Ripley wanted to get in on the pictures...
That's pretty much the face I make when I get dog kisses, too.
If you can't tell from the pictures, our skinny mini is looking a little less skinny these days!
We took her for a follow up appointment in our continuing pursuit of chunking her up and found that she gained 19 oz in 16 days! Woo!! As of her last weigh in, she was a whopping 10 lb, 10 oz! She's still BARELY on the chart for weight, but I think she's noticeably chubbier. Of course all of this bottle feeding at daycare has triggered an epic nursing strike, in which she will only breastfeed in the middle of the night when she's too tired to remember the bottle exists. As you might guess, I'm thrilled about having to pump all week long AND during the weekend! Some things I have read suggest that this all may have something to do with a major growth/developmental spurt that happens around four months. I don't know if this is what's happening, but we sure are noticing some big changes with her!
She is an expert grasper. She grabs pretty much anything that isn't tied down and puts it immediately into her mouth. This along with the constant presence of her fists in her mouth have me a little concerned about teeth in the near future...
She's also doing a great job of holding her head up when we pick her up by her arms...
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| Just look at these two. |
Sometimes, though, the need to put things in her mouth outweighs her desire to keep her head up...
The changes aren't all developmental...can you tell all her hair is falling out? Also, it's starting to look mighty blonde these days. What's up with that? Bring back the red!
She's also actually starting to enjoy spending time on her stomach, and just in the last week or so she began rolling over! She does it both to her left and her right. After rolling about three or four times, she figured out that she could do it really quickly if she flings her entire body weight in one direction, which is scary to watch because it seems like she's going to hurt herself by throwing that giant head around. Needless to say she is done spending time by herself on the couch and the bathroom counter (not that she ever did...). She is ALMOST rolling from her back to her front, but not quite. I think pretty much any day now though!
It's so funny to watch her learn new things and then quickly master them. I feel like every day she has a new skill! We just love watching this baby grow!
