week 37 +

I'll start with last weekend. The highlight was the apple farm in Minnetrista, MN. Shannon and I ate apple cider doughnuts, apple cider brats, drank coffee and apple cider, but we didn't buy or pick apples themselves. We already had plenty at home from the farmer's markets. PJ seemed to enjoy the walking around, plus we saw turkeys roaming in the corn maze and goats and chickens. She fell asleep before the pumpkin patch however, so that cute pictures with her surrounded by pumpkins will have to come later in October.

Shannon and I did a sleeping in schedule that rocks. Saturday after the dogs were walked and the baby was nursed, I went back to bed alone and unfettered by baby. Obviously Shannon could bring her up if need be, but it wasn't and I got two or three more hours of rest. Sunday we switched and Shannon got to go back to bed. It was delightful and we will do it as much as we can.

There was still snot this week, but PJ and I both got checked out by our doctor just to be cautious. PJ's ears and chest sounded great. She was up to 22lbs and 28 inches long. Even my bad ear was not filled with pus, huzzah!

Monday night we met the Kellys for an early dinner of pizza and salad. Kelly H had spend a week in Finland for a conference so we wanted to hear all about it. They both hadn't seen PJ is awhile so she showed them how she loves to eat cheesy poofs now. We had a lovely time that was early enough not to destroy PJ's schedule but also allowed Shannon and I some fun. Here's to 5:30 dinners on weeknights.

Crawling has been accomplished. PJ swings one of her legs out and scoots with it, so it's not text book crawling, but she gets to where she wants to go with pleasure. Since this new skill has been acquired, PJ is back to longer stretches of sleep. She'll even fall asleep in the car with much less fussing and crying. It's kind of awesome and is giving me hope the upcoming Christmas car ride is not going to be torture.

But the big thing to write about as actually this weekend, the one in St. Louis. Shannon had a conference Fri-Sun and since there was the summer of travel and separation and my family all lives there, PJ and I decided to tag along. I cashed in some frequent flyer miles and with a little finagling, we all got on the same flights out and back. PJ continues to be an awesome flyer, seemingly unaware of any pressure changes and happy to nurse and sleep.

We crammed lots of family and friends into the past three days, both sets of grandparents got lots of time oohing and ahhing over PJ's new skills. We even tracked down my brother at his job. Plus we got to see the Petes' and Jen's baby Seven plus Ellen and Nathan. All this fun totally destroyed PJ's nap schedule, but luckily she has been able to sleep in cars easily again. I would nurse her as much as I could, she napped during most car rides, and at dinners, she tried new foods. She ate tofu and miso broth at the Japanese restaurant with my Dad's side of the family. She ate cheesy poofs and a french fry at the St. Louis Zoo with my mom and me. She ate broccoli with Ellen and Nathan at the Vietnamese restaurant. Plus she had cheerios each morning. Usually she just plays with the cereal, but this weekend she really ate at least half of the ones I put on her tray. I think she's really using her teeth more and getting into food.

PJ is also totally having some separation anxiety. She needed a good 15-20 minutes with new people before they could hold them. Even after this, she still had to look for me right away. When she got overly tired and hungry, she was a bit preferential too.

I put up some of my mom's pictures on the flickr, but didn't end up taking that many myself. I always get wrapped up in the moment and slightly annoyed at my mom's photo taking that I don't do much of it myself when she's around.

The zoo was very very fun. I forget how wonderful and big the St. Louis Zoo is. PJ rode the train and checked out the children's part. She petted goats, watched hippos swim, and was fascinated by both guinea pigs and little birds. She also went on a carousel for the first time ever.

The breakfast with the Petes and baby Seven was awesome too. PJ and Seven didn't interact much although PJ did take the time to squish his face and poke his eye. Luckily no damage was done and the mauling made us all laugh. The babies are very similar in their development, although Seven is a bit more into pulling himself up and PJ seems to talk more. Seven is also big into solids.

Now I need a few days to recover from the weekend. We flew back last night, arriving at the airport at 8pm. We recovered our car, drove me and the baby home to try to get her to sleep while Shannon picked up the dogs from Dallas and Brandon. We ate some fast food while Shannon worked on homework and I passed out. Now it's Monday and I'm brain dead at work, posting this update. Luckily Shannon switched some of her rotations so she's got this Friday off. This weekend will hopefully we filled with pumpkins...