Your teacher’s name was Miss Lisa. When class first started, you were quite content to just sit back and watch the other children crawl/run about the room playing with toys, as you were the youngest of the 4 kids and was the only girl and had not yet mastered the fine art of crawling just quite yet. Your favorite songs that we sang and signed were Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. Miss Lisa always brought a lot of fun toys for us to play with and learn from. You usually picked one toy out the pile and held onto it the entire class. During our last 2 class sessions, Miss Lisa brought a large short storage container filled with a water and lots of water animal toys such as frogs, turtles, fish, and ducks. I think is where you finally learned that splashing in the water is a lot of fun, which has now made bath time a whole new experience! A week or so ago, Mommy got so excited when you tried to sign milk for the first time. It was so funny to watch you do it. You could just see the wheels turning, and you had such a determined look on your face. On the last day of class Miss Lisa said that she couldn’t believe how observant you were during class. You are definitely your Daddy’s little girl!

You are now a seasoned crawler and are pulling yourself up to things. I think walking is just around the corner! In the last couple of days you have also mastered the pick-up game. You love to drop things on the floor and have Mommy and Daddy pick them up. The one thing you are still missing is teeth. We are patiently awaiting the arrival of your first chompers!

This past week has been a big one for you. Mommy and Daddy went out and bought you a high chair, and you got to experience baby food for the first time. Your first meal was rice cereal, which you did unbelievably well with. I was expecting a complete mess, but you ate it like a big girl. By the end of the meal, you were opening your little mouth when the spoon came toward you wanting more!

Here is our a picture of you with your first experience with sweet potatoes.  Despite the mess, you did really well!

Here’s a video of you and Daddy playing one evening after he got home from work.  I just can’t get enough of that laugh!

On Monday after we slept in, which Mommy very much enjoyed, we decided to make a trip up to the Indianapolis Zoo. In April, we took you for your first zoo trip. You kind of took notice to the saltwater fish and the penguins on that visit and slept the rest of the time we were there, but on this trip you had a much better time. Your favorite exhibits were still in the Oceans building. You loved the tropical fish and the big dog shark petting pool.

Here is a picture of you and Daddy watching the sharks as they swim by.

This is another picture of you and Mommy admiring all the pretty fish. You could have stood there all day just watching them swim by!

We had a great time at the zoo! We will have to remember that July 4th is a wonderful day to visit the zoo. Since everyone was home getting ready for BBQs and fireworks, the zoo was not busy at all, and we were able to truly enjoy it!

Then for Mommy’s favorite part of the appointment, we took your measurements.  After I stripped you down to your diaper, you weighed a whopping 14 pounds and 5 ounces, so you’ve gained just a little over 2 pounds in 2 months, which put you in the 50th percentile for weight.  Your length was 26-1/4 inches long, which still landed you well above average for height in the 95th percentile.  Lastly, your head circumference was 41 cm, which you were also in the 50th percentile for that as well.  Dr. Moore assured Mommy that you were just right in weight for your age, since Mommy was starting to worry that you might be a little on the skinny side.  He just said that you were long and lean and not to worry.  Every time we go Mommy also has to fill out a short questionnaire about things that you’re doing developmentally, like can you roll over, play with your hands, make loud noises, etc.  According to that, you are above average developmentally for your age.  In fact, you are doing things that a 6-1/2 month old should be doing, and you’re only 4-1/2 months old!  Daddy likes to call you our over achiever!  Dr. Moore was just so shocked that you were trying to roll over when he was examining you.  He cautioned Mommy and said, “Watch out!  This little girl is going to be rolling over soon!”  Mommy kinda laughed and told him you had been doing that since the beginning of May.  He seemed pretty surprised and said that very rarely he sees a 4-month-old rolling over let along one that is only 3 months.  After the exam comes the part where the nurse brings back your shots.  You received 2 pokes and 1 vaccine that was oral.  You didn’t care for any of them but overall handled them pretty good.  You just cried for a few minutes with the pokes and then just wanted to take a nap.  After we checked out of the doctor’s office, Mommy was thinking and brought the Baby Tylenol with us and gave you some when we got to the car.  As you can see, we kinda made a mess with it.

All you wanted to do after that was sleep, so Mommy and Grandma took advantage and did a little shopping.  Later in the day after Grandma had left to go home, you woke up and wanted to play despite having a low-grade fever for the rest of the day and until about noon today.  Mommy took this picture of you when we were playing on the couch.  You can be such a ham!

By popular demand, here is a video of you rolling over for all to see!

The night before we went to Taste of Bloomington, which was a lot of fun for Mommy and Daddy. This is a festival where a lot of the different restaurants in town come and sell small portions of their food, which is really cool because you can get lots of different things. Mommy and Daddy’s favorite thing was the red velvet cake pops dipped in white chocolate and coarse sugar. They were delicious. We even back for seconds before we left for the evening.

You pretty much slept the entire time we were there, which totally amazed me because they had live bands there that were really loud, and there was a ton of people around. You didn’t care at all. You are such a good baby!

Here’s a picture of you and Mommy when we were leaving the Taste of Bloomington.

You’re definitely not a pacifier kid, but you sure do love your fingers.  You don’t really have a preference on which hand, but you always suck on your first two fingers.  It’s so cute when you fall asleep like that!!!  This last week you’ve really started to reach out and grab toys and hold on to them too, so toys are a much needed item in the diaper bag when we go out and about to keep you entertained.  You’ve also developed a particular interest in when it’s Mommy and Daddy’s dinnertime.  You love to watch us eat and seem very interested in our food.  Just the other night I was drinking a glass of milk and out of nowhere you reached out and just about knocked it out of my hand trying to grab onto the cup.  Good thing Mommy has quick reflexes even though she is sleep deprived and caught it before it became a huge mess!!

After we left there, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Zook’s house. Aunt Lucy, Uncle Primmer, and Uncle John were there too!! I was so excited that you were in a good mood once you had a little catnap in the car on the ride over there. You showed them how you love playing with the Ipad and laughing at Daddy when he makes faces at you.

Here is a good picture when we were about ready to leave with you and Uncle John.

The next day, Grandma and Grandpa Raney came down to our house for a visit.  We took a drive over to campus to see the mess that last week’s storm brought and boy did it.  They were still cleaning up the mess.  This was the first time Mommy had seen it too, as we hadn’t been out around town since before the storm.  Later that day while Daddy and Grandpa were busy making Mommy a salad table to plant a few vegetables, Grandma and Mommy took you to May’s Nursery so Mommy could buy some flowers to make the porch and deck pretty.  You, as usual, slept the entire time we were out and about.  While they were here, you also showed them how you can really roll over on your tummy now with no trouble at all, but you are still trying to figure out how to roll from your tummy to your back.  You get so frustrated because you can almost do it but not quite.

Later that evening around 9ish here comes another line of storms, but this time it was showing no sign of splitting. Out power went out and didn’t come back until 3 AM. In Bedford, about 20 miles south of here, they had reported a confirmed tornado touchdown and hail the size of tennis balls!! Aunt Malena was still on campus working late and called and said things were a mess on IU’s campus. Trees had blown over, even in some cases uprooted. You didn’t seem too scared during the storm, just a little startled and bright eyed with some of the loud claps of thunder.

Here’s a picture of the “unidentifiable metal object” Aunt Malena saw when she was leaving work.  Dan, Daddy’s coworker, took the picture.

You are also baby talking a lot more these days.  Daddy and I tried to sit down and watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 last evening, and the funniest part of the entire movie was having to rewind it several times because we couldn’t hear what was going on over your not so little babbles.  You’re voice has gotten a lot louder, and you have just recently started giggling too!!  Apparently you just find Daddy funnier than me because you do that belly giggle, which is so darn cute!!

Anyway, we left our house around 11 AM Friday morning after a rocky start with last minute packing and got to the hotel around 7 PM. I knew we weren’t staying in a 5-star hotel by the price that the hotel gave us, but at least it was clean. The funny part was that our room had what we all called a “pick-a-boo” shower and whirlpool. I had never seen anything like it before. You could take a bath or shower and watch TV all at the same time through a large octagon opening between the bedroom and bathroom. This came in handy while showering. I could just leave you in her pack and play and still keep an eye on you.

The wedding was Saturday at 2 PM. The bride is a veterinarian that I worked with in Michigan and her maid of honor was the practice manager at the same clinic. It was great getting to see them again. This was the first time they had met you in person. Of course, they have seen lots of pictures though. When we finally arrived at the wedding site (It was at a golf course and outside), I was so worried about you getting too cold. Good thing Daddy was thinking when we packed the car and packed the stroller too!! That way we could have you completely covered. The weather was in the 50s and was threatening to rain. It was right off Lake Michigan, which made the air feel even cooler. The ceremony was very interesting. It was officiated by a minister in the Mexican Indigenous Church. Thank goodness you slept through the entire ceremony, waking up only once with applause. You even slept through the drums! We unfortunately couldn’t stay at the reception long. I was just too worried about the temperature. We went back to the hotel and hung out there for the rest of the evening. We were back on the road again Sunday morning after a great breakfast at Perkin’s. We were back home again around 6 PM. The trip home seemed much faster than the trip up there. It was so awesome to see friends again, and we want to wish Paula and Chuck all the best!!