A Trip and a Flip

We got back from Texas this past Thursday. It was a terrific trip. Blueberry enjoyed herself and did very well with all the new people, places and things. She smiled at every single person that gave her the time of day. She also smiled at some people who ignored her, mostly at the airport. That was awkward.

One of the big events at the Annual Spupspe July Mini-Reunion is the family photo, and this year, based on an idea spawned by a cousin of Mr. Spupspe, each offspring's family wore their own special color. In Hazel's opinion, the convenience of the color-coding for the viewer of the photo was greatly outweighed by the incredibly complicated, weeks-long preparations (e.g., who wears what color, what intensities are acceptable within that color, what variations in pattern are okay, when is the best day and time for everyone, and does anyone know what's going on, and who's in charge?) and the high stress of hoping that each one of the 6 kids is having a good moment at photo time. I'm happy to say that Blueberry was not the weak link. Maybe when she's older she won't cooperate but all we asked of her was that she not cry during the shoot, and she complied. She did spit up on Stanley's shirt but he simply held her in front of the stain. Problem solved.

Each family got their own photo session as well.

Here is a random photo of Blueberry with no context.

Blueberry had her first swimming experience on this trip.

That face means she's enjoying herself.

After the visit with the Spupspe's, we drove down to Houston to visit our friend Amacrine* and her husband Retina* and baby Sclera*. We found time during our visit to lay our adorable babies side by side to facilitate direct comparison. I found it to be very informative. Apparently Blueberry is tall. She's 1.5 inches taller than Sclera, but is almost two months younger.

Sclera is more mobile than Blueberry; she kindly laid down for the photo shoot but easily could have sat up and rolled around the place. This reminds me that I was very impressed with Sclera's napping discipline. Amacrine said she was conditioned to nap anywhere, and demonstrated this by laying her on the living room floor, covering her legs with a blanket, and giving her a pacifier, and maybe doing some other hocus pocus routine, and Sclera closed her eyes and went to sleep, while we chatted in normal inside voices around her. It was phenomenal.

Here's another cute one.

Then it got ugly.

I was really glad we made the trip down to Houston; it had been a while. It was great to see Amacrine and Retina and I loved meeting Sclera and giving her a dress I made for her. She is every bit as cute in person as in the photos (see blackbirdnight blog on the right for more). We also saw some other friends and Stanley's boss from graduate school. Good times. I don't miss grad school but I miss the people.

This past Saturday, I laid Blueberry on her activity mat, turned around to google "breastfeeding biting" (it's going fine now, thanks), and turned back around to see Blueberry had moved two full feet over onto the hardwood floor. I couldn't believe my eyes. So I moved her back and watched her move from back to tummy for the first time (she had already done tummy to back, but back to tummy is another milestone and means that crawling could happen soon). Then I took some video. The first 30 sec is where the good stuff happens, then I kept rolling for another 30 sec hoping it would happen again, but it didn't. But feel free to watch the whole minute if you're bored.

(video)



So now I can't assume she'll stay on the activity mat, which means it's really time to babyproof now, instead of just talking about it. I'm overhauling the living room so it's more baby-friendly and easier to keep clean. This entailed some sewing projects (yay!) which I may write about in a future post.

*Names changed.