Thanks

For Thanksgiving this year, Alan and I had our parents over plus my Uncle Ken and Aunt Yvonne and Alan's sister Jenny and her boyfriend, Ian. It was my first year cooking the turkey and fixins', though luckily Tammy, Sandy, and Yvonne all helped me in preparing the feast. Sonia helped keep everything light by laughing and cooing. And pulling beards.



Little Sunny often finds grownups she does not see everyday a little frightening. Because of her separation anxiety, she did not care to be passed around the first day, but by Thanksgiving, she was more at ease. This fear takes hold even if she knows the person wanting to hold her. Funny how just when it gets to the point where I cannot hold her while stirring hot stuff, she does not want to be held by anyone but me or Alan. As you will see below, all the comotion tired her out for awhile, but when it was time for bed, she cried for half an hour to come back and join in the fun.



Besides sweet potatoes, Thanksgiving time brings another kind of baby food: dried leaves. Being inside gets a little old of both of us, and for her and Alan, so we often go on a little outing. This outing was just to our front yard, but she had so much fun! We are pretty laid back about the yard, so there are piles of leaves perfect for a baby. She liked to crush the leaves, bang on them, then give them a lick.



Sunny surprised herself by sitting alone, for a few seconds, just before Thanksgiving.




Random, adorable photo:

Picture day

Can't blog. Got a new camera.

Scootching

This morning I left Sonia in her play gym(for those not in the know- that is a colorful mat with overhanging arches that toys are attached to) and went to put out some mail. I came back in and she was completely off of her gym! She still has not gotten the hang of rolling from her stomach to her back but she found that she could stay on her back on use her legs to scootch around. It is amazing how far she got in a few minutes when I had never seen her do it before. I have always told people that babies learn fast and not to trust them. I should listen to myself. I also have to comment that I think it is a bit sad the word "gym" is used to describe a place for babies to play.



Sunny loves to eat. This is great because so do Alan and I. We had to start giving her four meals a day because she was wanting dinner at five. Today for lunch she had some butternut squash with olive oil and rice cereal. She loved it and ate almost a half cup, which is a huge amount for her. Her love of food and adventurousness with it are such good qualities that I am a bit nervous about doing something wrong and making her picky but hopefully these are inborn traits I cannot change.

Besides craving variety in her food, she also appreciates a change of scene in her day. Again, this is great because so do Alan and I, especially when each of us is alone with her for a whole day. Last Sunday we went to the Rio Grande Nature center. Sonia got to enjoy her new hobby which is pulling leaves off of branches. Her she is looking for unsuspecting leaves.



This week I am getting a new camera, so look for better pictures. Too bad I could not upload that video Alan took of her rolling over, but hopefully I will get more videos in. For our last picture today, I have Sunny getting ready for a photo shoot.

Mobile

Sonia gave us a treat on Halloween- she rolled over! I went to work in the morning and picked her up at Jeff and Tammy's. She had started her rolling antics there and had four rolls under her belt by the time I arrived. I took her home and for a few hours, we could hardly keep her on her back. At this point she has the ability to roll from her back to her left on to her tummy, but cannot reverse this maneuver or roll to her right. As a result, she is both liberated and trapped so we often have to rescue her as you will see in the video. The video is from Alan's video camera instead of my photo camera, so the quality is much better. Argh! Once again, I cannot get the video to load. Well, look for it soon. Instead, I offer a photo of Alan and Sonia. Or should I say, Alan and his Mini-me.




Sunny is just six months and sprouting. She is now 16 lbs 3 oz and 26 inches long. She is average for a six month old and off the charts if we correct for her prematurity.

Our neighbors, Betty and Richard, gave Sunny a couple of dolls that her size. She loves them. I would have thought she was too young to appreciate dolls but she smiles at them and strokes their faces. She looks so sweet and gentle until she tries to bite their heads off.

Laughter the video

Here is the video I described in my last post. It makes me smile every time, but then again, so does anything with Sonia's little face.