Last week we took our first big road trip since the 4-hour ride home from my sister's home where we recovered after our China trip. We went to visit Steve's family in the Twin Cities and Ariana was a trooper sleeping half the time each way. We packed a lot of activity into one long weekend and she handled all the new faces and being passed around to strangers pretty well. Naturally everyone is completely smitten by her.
She is walking like crazy...actually, more like a miniature drunken sailor! She typically takes about 3 or 4 steps before loosing her balance, but sometimes can go forever.
We are working on 2 molars on the bottom and they are taking forever. Poor girl, thank God for Or@gel.
Last week she decided to grab the spoon and feed herself. Some even made it into her mouth. I'm letting her try a couple spoonfuls every day just because she is so proud of herself. Eating is no struggle at all with this child. She loves shredded cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, toast, bananas, broccoli, squash, carrots, anything with blueberry and of course, puffs. We've yet to find a fruit she doesn't like. She has only had meat in baby food as she doesn't seem to chew well yet. We just got a M@gic Bullet and are hoping to grind up some chicken as soon as we have time to pull the thing out of the box.
Her latest adorable trick is to blow kisses. Mommy and Daddy's hearts have melted many times.
Duck continues to be her constant companion and chew toy. She occasionally steps out on him with the Fi$herPrice cow. We are pretty sure she has said "duck" a couple of times.
We have already had two professional photo shoots since we can't get a shot off before she charges the camera. One was at a T@rget Portrait studio, and I must say, they did an awesome job for the money. Friday evening we had an outdoor session with a very talented young husband and wife team whose work I've been admiring for a while now. We were scheduled to go to the Great Lake near us and the weather was terrible. We had a high of 52 degrees after temps in the 90s earlier this week. I was actually hoping for a downpour so we could reschedule without losing our deposit, but it wasn't meant to be. We had to leave the coordinating summer outfits I picked out at home and bring my ski jacket to bundle Ariana in between shots. She was a rock star once again and I can't wait to see the finished product in a few weeks. Unfortunately, we couldn't shoot much on the beach as the wind was way too cold for Ariana. I really need to get my big camera out again and I think I was inspired tonight.
Ariana seriously loves music and has already worn the battery out on the Baby Grand. If she starts to fuss while she's in the car with just me I can calm her by singing to her (she's obviously not a discerning listener yet.)
