March Madness...(not the basketball kind)

Sorry I didn't post last week. I was on a temporary assignment to another part of Germany. Luckily, I was able to bring Vanessa and Aurora along to keep me company (sane).
It has been an exciting past couple of weeks for us all. Aurora has officially been around for four months. As always, she has been hitting milestone after milestone, and I've done my best to capture them on camera. The following is just a small hint of the fun she's been having.

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We start each day with our Physical Training regimen. We warm up with stretches, jumping jacks and running in place, followed by two minutes of push-ups and sit-ups (some days for extra abdominal work outs, we do planks, then fall down, roll over and laugh). Then we do cardio for about a half-hour. It's rough, but I figure that by April, I'll be able to keep up with her.

When she's not on the floor, Aurora likes playing in her swinging / vibrating chairs (and who wouldn't really?!?). She kicks, the little dangly things move and make noise, and she gets surprised, then happy about it. When they stop, she kicks again, and the fun starts all over again. I guess she is learning cause-and-effect, but since her attention span lasts about the same as a goldfish's, it makes for some neat moments as a parent to watch her rediscover things over and over, getting excited each time. I guess she gets it from me, because sometimes I'll be watching TV, and change through the channels, only to discover there's nothing good on, but then I'll find something that's a little interesting, and it takes a minute to figure out that it's what I was watching to begin with.

One day we were sitting on the couch (just Daddy and Baby) when she had the idea to get a bottle and put some apple juice in it. Well, there must have been something more than apple juice in there, because the next thing I know, she starts talking about how Mayans really figured out the calendar from the space men that came with the plans for some awesome super-computer they built in the form of a giant pyramid, and it's designed to control all the humans and make them think penguins evolved from killer whales, and are the real evolved life form on Earth. So she puts a pair of shorts on her head to protect her from the cosmic rays. Man, what do they put in kids' beverages these days?

Aurora's still sleeping through the night; though after one particular night of hardcore binge apple juice drinking, she stumbled in the door at 4a.m. mumbling something about the baby down trying to talk her into getting a tattoo (luckily all she got was this shirt) and then they got a ride home in a taxi stroller. She puked on the floor, and passed right out. Kids! They grow up so fast.

She's also begun making new friends. She recognizes faces pretty quickly - especially Mommy and Daddy, but lately there's been a new kid hanging around the house. Another little girl. She's not always here, but she comes over once in a while, and Aurora gets all happy when she sees her. I think they're starting up a baby synchronized song and dance routine, because they move in perfect time with each other, and they sing the same notes at the same times. They're both beautiful little babies, but of course, I think my daughter is the prettier of the two, but I'm probably a little biased.

I'd like to thank my Cousin Amanda for these next few photos. You see, she knitted a pillow and blanket for Aurora when she was still pretty teeny-tiny. What I was unaware of, was that not only was she a knitstress, but also a handy-craft chef. She made a cookie out of the same yarn as the pillow/blanket combo. Apparently, Aurora has known this all along, and sneaks a snack of it in the mornings after she wakes up if we don't feed her right away. I tell her to save it, and when Mommy's feeding her, she can have cookies AND milk! She laughs at that joke every time.

However, don't you dare suggest she wait until after her breakfast to eat her yarn-cookie! Then you get that, "I'm gonna smack you with a dirty diaper" look.

Of course, that's not all she eats. We've been trying different things to see if she's ready to have other kinds of foods added to her diet. One of her most recent favorites is Daddy's ear. I guess a growing baby has got to eat...

So I think in the next post, we'll tackle her first attempts at eating baby food. It could get messy, but no more than having an ear full of baby drool : )~~~


I hope everyone has a great week (or two) and I'll be back to posting as soon as I can.


ULI

MADLY