a place to rest her feet.....

Mastery!

I think that since she can suck both thumbs at once we can put that on the list of skills mastered.

3 Months Old!

Dear Siler,
 
You are three months old now(13 weeks this past thursday, but who's counting weeks anymore??) You are practically a grown-up now.  You're neck is very strong, you love to look at your hands and toes, you love to stand up, you love people watching,  you let us know when we are not paying enough attention to you, you have already finished reading your dads dissertation......the list just goes on.

You have grown out of this little co-sleeper now.  You slept in here for the first two weeks in-between your dad and I.  That got a little cramped so you moved to a place beside the bed and now you are just in the pack-n-play but not beside the bed anymore.  I'm pretty excited about this recent move because your dad's side of the bed has been by a doorway and he takes his shoes off there every night and then I trip on them so now he can have the side of the bed where nobody walks!  Now that  you have a little more room in your bed you are moving around in your sleep a little more. You haven't done 180's yet but I'm sure it coming.  This little bed was so great for traveling.  I'm gonna miss it.  You don't seem to care.  You sleep wherever I put you down which is one of the great things about you.  

You are a super happy baby.  You cry when you are tired and often more than me holding and rocking you,you want to lay in bed and suck your thumb.  Self-soother.  Yet another great thing about you!  Yesterday you tried to get both thumbs in your mouth at once.  Thumbsucking is here to stay!

You are already a great and talented artist.  Here you are making your first art project for Gammys birthday.  Nice work kid!  It was a little hard because you still want to ball your hands up and curl your toes but for a first project......great work (it only took 3 adults to make this thing! Your dad and I figured we could do it ourselves but the girl at the pottery studio kindly took over when we looked baffled.)

I finally got rid of all of the 0-3mo. clothes.  You are in the 3-6mo. stuff now and I have this funny feeling that you won't be wearing them at 6 months.  Call me crazy but you seem to be having a constant growing spurt.

I tell you every day how much I love you and how thankful I am that you are part of my life.  I hope for you to be a very happy and healthy person and find joy in whatever you choose to do (within reason of course).  

Love you so much,
Mama

road trip

Thursday - Tuesday......we made it!  Fun times with grandmommy and friends in Asheville.

Here we are on the ride to Asheville.  With a baby and two dogs there is not a lot of room....sorry Jahnimous!  Although we probably left Charleston with a swarm of mosquitoes in the car, that is not why Siler has a mosquito net over her seat.....it also serves as protection from dogs who like to lick babies!  The plan worked and she did not get trampled on either....probably because the car was so full there was no room for either of the dogs to move!  Perfect!




We got to go on a little hike in grandmommys backyard everyday with 6 dogs....never a dull moment.  Siler loved the woods but usually about half way through the hike she looked like this:

Here we are with 4 of the 6 dogs......

Siler will have so much fun in these woods when she gets older.  I hope she realizes how lucky she is to have a fun place like grandmommys house...woods and a creek....wild pack of dogs.....what more could a kid want?

We visited a bunch of folks in Asheville too. Thanks for a delicious lunch Ashleigh and Mandy. Thanks for letting us stay at your house Laura and Katie and thanks for a rocking good brunch Matt and Elizabeth!

Have you ever seen a better looking bunch of folks??

Well, except for these folks!   

Going home.......  

Around the house.....

I have not been spending too much time outside these past few weeks.  Even in the morning and evening when it's almost pleasant the mosquitoes try to fly away with you.  Aside from quick walks around the neighborhood, I get outside time here, at the clothesline. 

 Almost every morning and late afternoon you can find a member of my family here(usually me, sometimes Siler and Parrish help too) .  I love having a clothesline.  It is often the first thing I put up when I move to a new house.  

A friend asked lately if I like using cloth diapers.  I love it.  The few times I've used disposables we've had blow outs.  I don't know if it was coincidence but if not then we'll have a lot of blow outs in Utah because I'm not taking the cloth on that trip.  I don't think that cloth is any harder to use than disposable, especially these days that we have so many cloth options.  I also am really lucky because all of the diapers that I have were lent to me so Parrish and I save a lot of money on diapers.  That's a pretty big motivator to make it work.  We do a load of diapers every third day so two loads a week.  Not a big deal really.  We make a pile of diapers during the day and Parrish washes them out at night.  We have a really fancy sprayer hooked to our toilet that helps that process (it came with the diapers!) I figure we wash diapers out instead of going to the trash can.  We are fortunate to have a really laid back baby and a mamma that works very part time...  

Lately, when I'm out at the clothesline this guy or(gal) is nearby.            



 I hear it in a tree in the neighbors backyard and see it flying around.  It sounds a little like the night hawks we used to hear in  Vermillion,SD.  It's a Mississippi Kite and I think the one that I hear is a baby. This one has the markings of a juvenile so maybe it's the only one I see.  I  don't know but I think it's pretty cool.  Parrish and I were on a walk a few mornings ago, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and watched the kite catch a dragonfly.  I was sad it wasn't eating the mosquitoes!

Siler wanted to get a better look.....we let her out of the mosquito netting only briefly!

My mom and dad have both come to visit recently.....here are some pictures from those events...

bath time with grandma.....

Playing cribbage with Grandad and Dad.....She'll get her real cribbage skills from Grandad Waters though!

(Sorry Parrish, I have to give a shout out to the grandparents on the blog.....we all know you are the best babe!)

Siler and I are going on our first girls only (and the dogs) road trip.

Hopefully I'll take lots of photos now that I got a Kodak Playsport camera.  (Thanks Lisa King for schooling me on the way of getting photos when you only have one hand and you are sitting in a river!)

Bathtime

Thanks to Brad Jayne for the modesty patch!  Siler loves bath time and has just figured out that she can splash in the tub.  She seems to really enjoy that.  Go water babies!  She did look a little confused at first when the water splashed her face but decided she didn't really care!

Thumbsucking and other adventures

Siler has re-discovered her thumb which means that there have been a few mornings lately where she rouses a little at 5am then finds her thumb and sleeps on and off until around 7am.  OK.  Works for me!  It is still a lot of work for her to get the thumb in her mouth so it's my favorite baby tv channel right now!

I think that I might have mentioned somewhere that she is growing up so fast.  I can't believe she's over 2months old.  We went to her 2 month check up and she was 90th percentile in length and 95th percentile in weight!  Good, strong, sturdy baby!  She got one shot and cried for a half second when the nurse stuck her and then continued nursing.  Feeding is more important than crying hence the 95th percentile bit!

She really like to hang out in her play gym.  Sometimes it's so much fun she falls asleep mid-play.  She has started grasping things when they come in contact with her hands and we are working on rolling over.  It's hard for her to suck her thumb when she's on her tummy though so I don't think there is a lot of motivation to roll!

Last weekend we went up to the Chatooga River for a raft guide reunion.  Siler got to play in the Chatooga for an afternoon and hang out with lots of baby friends. We had a gaggle of mammas and babies and a couple of daddies and baby gear!  What a great way to spend a hot day!  I only have a couple of photos of that because I was by myself (Starr got Parrish on a raft down the river. Thanks Starr!) but I'll work on getting some more from Lisa and Bart who have the worlds coolest camera and baby gear.  Siler has been threatening to pack her bags and move in with them because when they go fun places outside Lucille gets a tent, a cooling system and a fan.  They were kind enough to share a pea pod with us and a cooling system.  I'll work on the fan!  Thanks Bart and Lisa and Lucille!  

Kim and Brooks - he's running in this photo and Kim is sweating!  This is what I'll be doing next year!

siler in her pea pod

Lucille in her pea pod

Clearly having a horrible time on the banks of the river!

Jahnimous is telling her a secret! They are best buds!