Last Weekend

Last Thursday, Elsa and I jumped in Tim and Kate's fabulous new truck and headed up 85 North with Kate, headed to North Carolina. Tim, Jarrett, and Jarrett's brother, Stephen, had a weekend planned to help Tim build a shed in Tim and Kate's backyard, and Kate's mom and older sister and Tim's mom were throwing a baby shower for Kate in NC. Since both my mom and I were invited to the shower, Elsa and I decided to keep Kate company on her drive, and she was kind enough to drop us in Charlotte before continuing to her final destination of High Point. My parents were, of course, thrilled to have Elsa and me at their house for three nights, and it was nice that all four of us were able to make the trip up to High Point on Saturday, the day of the baby shower.

Prior to the shower, we drove by our old house in Jamestown (which looks pretty much the same as it did when we lived there, although the yard didn't look quite as nice, and the neighborhood itself looked like it had changed quite a bit) and then headed to the nursing home Jarrett's grandmom is currently staying at, post knee replacement surgery. We were able to have a nice visit with Jarrett's mom, grandad, and grandmom, and even got to say a quick hello to Jarrett's aunt and uncle, cousin and cousin's wife, and his uncle's parents, as they were there to celebrate Jarrett's uncle's birthday.

My dad then took the opportunity to visit with some old family friends, while my mom, Elsa, and I went to the shower. It was great seeing women from our old church, whom I had not seen in years -- many I did not even recognize! Jarrett's mom and sister, Bethany, were there too, so I was able to visit with them, and they were able to spend some time with Elsa, which was nice all around. And my friend and previous coworker, Erin, who is also pregnant and due in October, was there as well, and it was so wonderful to be able to spend some time with her and chat about the goings-on in our lives. The shower was quite lovely, and it was obvious that very much work went into the fishing theme that encompassed the celebration -- it was all extremely cute!

Unfortunately, Elsa was not in the greatest of moods for most of the weekend -- especially on Saturday -- so we were not able to stay for the entire party and, thus, missed most of the opening of presents, but I was at least able to hear about what I missed on the ride back to Atlanta on Sunday. I found out late Sunday why Elsa had been so upset -- her first molar (on the bottom of her mouth) popped through. Poor girl. I don't know how anyone (and some professionals do) can say that teething does not cause babies pain. It is clear that it does hurt and, really, how could it not?

Besides her first molar, there were a couple of other important firsts that occurred on Sunday and Monday. While waiting for Kate to pick us up at a Wendy's off 85 near Charlotte, my mom, dad, and I threw a blanket out on the grass with some toys and played with Elsa. After awhile, she became quite lethargic, sitting in my lap, and her eyes (and head) just continued to follow airplane after airplane as they descended quite closely overhead, bound for the nearby airport. It was the first time she had really noticed airplanes, and she seemed quite intrigued by them. So now that she has both tasted a donut and has witnessed airplanes in flight, I can hardly wait to go as a family to watch airplanes take off and land while enjoying a good weekend breakfast of donuts, a favorite childhood pastime of mine. The other first was a perfection of "cruising." On Monday, she started actually rounding the corners of the coffee table, which only lead to moving over to the couch. She is getting around quite well now, as long as she has something on which to hold.

Mastered Skill

Elsa mastered pulling herself to a standing position on Monday. She was doing this occasionally on certain objects around the house before, but now she can crawl over to any ole' structure and pull herself right up. This, I have found, makes her much more of a walking disaster-waiting-to-happen, so I have to keep my eye on her. Yesterday I sat her down in her room to play with her toys and left her for not more than two minutes to run and do something in another room, and by the time I got back she had crawled into the living room, pulled herself up on the coffee table, and was standing there flipping through the stack of magazines. We have definitely entered a new chapter of life with baby!

Another Important First

I am a little behind in my blogging and, as a result, am just now reporting another one of Elsa's important firsts, which took place last Wednesday -- her first taste of Dunkin' Donuts baked goods. She had tastes of both my sour cream and old-fashioned donuts, but really did not seem too overly impressed with either. I would say she might take after her mommy and daddy and not be much into sweets; however, both of us thoroughly enjoy Dunkin' Donuts, so maybe it will just take her some time to realize their yumminess factor.

Elsa graduated to her new car seat a couple of weeks ago. I picked it up while we were in Charlotte last since the Babies R Us there is much closer to my parents' house in comparison to the distance separating our house and any of the locations around here. And I had already been to the Lithonia location twice trying to figure out the answer to the Great Car Seat Debacle. I won't get into all of the details, but we basically ended up purchasing and attempting to install two seats and returning them both before settling on this one. I even ended up calling the manufacturer of this seat to make sure it was going to work. The main problem was that the convertible seats are rather cumbersome, especially when trying to install them rear-facing (it is now recommended babies stay rear-facing as long as possible). We don't have a small car, and yet it still seemed difficult to find a seat that would (1) fit in our car rear-facing and (2) not eat up two-thirds of the back seat. The Safety First Air Protect seat is a bit more slender than some, and their side-impact crash test videos online were very convincing. Elsa seems to be pretty comfortable in it, and us parents at least feel like she is fairly well protected.

Mmm... Wood Chips

What is this interesting find?


Hmm... I wonder if it is as tasty as it looks?


Are Mommy and Daddy paying attention?


Yes! Daddy's attention is turned toward the skateboard park.


And into my mouth it goes!

(Don't worry... we didn't actually let her eat any, much to her chagrin.)

First Pair of Shoes

I took Elsa into Downtown Decatur yesterday morning to a local children's store that carries toys (mostly of the classic variety) and clothing -- including shoes. Now that she is crawling and attempting to pull up on various structures, we have run into a few instances where it would be nice to let her get on the ground and explore, but perhaps not with bare feet. So I broke down after holding out these 11+ months and purchased her first pair of shoes. See for yourself in the photos I took today at the park, but I think they are incredibly cute. Let's just hope they last for more than a month!

The Zoo

On Friday morning, Elsa and I met Shelly, Christian, Alison, Finnan, and Jude at the zoo. This was Elsa's second visit to see the animals, and this time she at least showed some interest in the flamingos and the panda bear, who was doing some somewhat sad-looking pacing very close to the window. I was telling Jarrett later in the day that I really have a love/hate relationship with the zoo. I think it is wonderful that we are able to take our children to such a place and let them see animals you just cannot see on an everyday basis, but at the same time I feel bad for them because they're so penned up. The kangaroos don't have room to run and jump, lions and bears pace, and don't even get me started on my childhood favorite -- the elephants. I know the animals are well taken care of, but it is just the lack of space that kills me. But, alas, I am sure I will continue to visit because it is still just so darn cool to see these animals up close.

It seemed like the monkey pictured above, however, along with his monkey buddies, were free to escape, if they so desired. There did not seem to be any sort of cage or netting around them -- just a few zoo staff standing around. Did they really think they could catch these guys if they decided to jet?

Besides looking at the animals and joyously snacking from her stroller tray, Elsa also had quite a fun time inspecting various tree branches and pointing out the vegetation in the snake and turtle tanks. I think she did actually spot a couple of the turtles moving around, but for the most part the reptiles were a little too camouflaged. She did, however, really enjoy my imitation of a hissing snake combined with very much tickling.