Yup. It's been a looooong time.

We were just sorting through some of Bea's videos, and some of them are priceless. Here's a selection:

Photos and videos

We're still here!!!!

A few videos

Has it really been six weeks?!?!

I guess it has. Well, that should be an indicator of how busy we've been. Bea's been busy, too. Busy not sleeping or eating, unfortunately. It's frustrating, but at the same time Bea's suddenly emerging from her little baby chrysalis with loads of new skills and personality. She can't talk yet, of course, but sometimes it almost seems as though she can because she's so expressive. In the past six weeks she's gone from barely sitting up to almost crawling. I think she'll have developed some type of locomotion by the end of this week. Her dexterity is amazing, and she LOVES the Sesame Street radio that Grandma and Grampa Armstrong brought her on their last visit. She'll slam it around to start the song, turn her attention to another toy while the song plays, then smack on another tune when it gets quiet. We've been slow to start solids with Bea, but she's enjoyed some rice cereal and avocado so far. The messes are classic. At some point she had rice cereal up her nose!

Almost a half-birthday girl

I can't believe how time flies. Bea seems completely different from when I last posted. She's coming up to her 6-month birthday, and sometimes it seems like she has new developments and skills every day. Four months old was a difficult time for us. Bea's gotten so alert that she has a hard time shutting down, so we spent several weeks struggling with naps and a cranky, overtired, overstimulated baby. Still cute, though.

Bea can sit up now! All by herself! She likes to go from sitting to belly by nosediving sideways. It looks painful, but this doesn't prevent her from doing it often. In the past week Bea's starting blowing raspberries and attempting some funny "m" or "n" sounds. Sometimes I think she sounds like ET. She's gotten so dexterous lately that I think she's bored with her simple little baby toys. She prefers to practice "drop" and "throw" than to hold her toys now. Oh, and she figured out how to suck on her toes!