Ironically our illnesses that lasted 6 weeks were bookended by Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Our celebrations for those two holidays weren’t what we really had in mind…but all we cared about was being healthy again.
Elizabeth continues to surprise us with new and exciting things. Several new yoga poses she has been practicing include Cobra and (what I would call) Seated Big Toe. She holds her seated balance very well, even as she sits almost straight legged, but with ankles crossed, and reaches around in multiple directions and will look straight up and watch the ceiling fan in awe. While seated, she likes to do Pelvic Tilts and a side-to-side shimmy “dance”. She’s even starting to scoot on her butt while in a tripod position. All of this is making me wonder…how much longer til she is up and running?
Our little girl is definitely a water bug. She loves the bath and the pool. She is even more tolerant of the pool’s cold water than we are. Several times, I’d sit on the edge and let her splash on the step…that’s as deep as I wanted to go in! (Keep in mind, we had some hail storms that cooled the water temp!)
And Elizabeth continues to enjoy playing with her musical instruments. She has a full set – bells, a shaker, a rattle roller (pictured here), a wave drum, and xylophone. At the park she plays the piano.
We were excited to see our nephews Nick and Joe, and Nick’s wife Amy. Nick is in the Air Force and was being relocated from Alaska to Panama City, FL so the three of them did a wonderful cross-country tour with a stop in Denver. We took the opportunity to ask Nick in person to be Elizabeth’s Godfather. They were only scheduled to be in town for one night, but whenever you’re traveling like this plans are always made in pencil…
They decided to spend a second night in the area, but wanted to go camping. We sent them up to Echo Lake, near Mt Evans. They drove up the 14er and then fished and camped at Echo Lake. Andy and Elizabeth joined them at camp after work for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, I was teaching Yoga that night and missed the fun.
Elizabeth started finger foods this month and we also began experimenting with more textured foods as well. Here she is with Gerber Puffs…
Ok, they weren’t a hit right away…and neither was the cottage cheese, the mashed banana, the mashed cantelope, or anything else we tried. But stay tuned as we keep encouraging her to eat more textures. She does love the creamy baby yogurt, though…but of course that is not much different then her baby food. Oh well.
We found a new park to hike this month. Meyer Ranch is one of JeffCo’s Open Spaces that we just hadn’t gotten around to before. It’s not very large and we did almost the entire park. The series of trails we took ended up around 5.2 miles. We hadn’t intended to go that far, but I can no longer do basic math.
We chose this park because the write-up mentioned forests. It was hot outside and we were hoping for some shade. We had a beautiful pine forest and aspen groves to walk through. This would be very pretty in the fall with the colors. The wildflowers were blooming, too.
After the turnaround point, we took Elizabeth out of the pack for some nourishment and to expend a little energy. It was a sunny spot, so Andy let her borrow his hat. So cute.
We’ve been fortunate enough to start getting some of our old routines back. One of the important rituals for us was our morning paper and coffee. Elizabeth has been getting into the groove of this ritual. Here she is reading the sport section to Andy. On a normal day, she’d just eat that section of the paper…and any other section we let her get her hands on.
My Mom came out for a visit at the end of June. I tried taking her to some of our local scenic spots – Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, Eldorado Canyon State Park, and then Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Here we are at Panorama Point…
Three generations standing in front of the Continental Divide…
From there, we drove out the western side of the park and up to Nederland. Mostly for a scenic drive, but I also like the little shops in Nederland. When we got there (very late in the day) we found that there was an art festival, so we got distracted by that and I never made it into the shops. I’ll just have to go back another day soon I guess.
Mom, Elizabeth, and I also went to Butterfly Pavilion. I just love butterflies. It was smaller than Butterfly World in Florida, but I still enjoyed it…and seeing Elizabeth’s eyes when she zeroed in a brightly colored winged creature fluttering past her. She has very quick hands, and I swear she was a millisecond away from unknowingly crushing a few if I hadn’t stopped her. We continue to try teaching her what “gentle” means.
I was surprised, however, I little I enjoyed the heat and humidity in the butterfly aviary. That kind of thing didn’t used to affect me. Hhhmmmm.
Mom also went to the swimming pool with us. Thankfully the water was a little warmer during her visit so we could actually get IN the water.
I still have a hard time with “dry air and cool breezes” and how on a 90-degree day I’m shivering if my skin is wet. Sometimes I miss Florida’s warm ocean and air – when they both feel like the same temperature. Then on other days, I love finding relief from the heat just by finding a patch of shade, or going into a canyon near a cool stream, or by changing my elevation. This little girl seems pretty content right where she is, though.
It was so nice having my Mom out for a visit and seeing her and Elizabeth spending time together. We look forward to seeing family again in August for Elizabeth’s Baptism.
More Pictures available on June WebAlbums…enjoy.
There is something I’ve been pondering since Elizabeth’s 9 month visit with her pediatrician. Is it possible for a baby to hear what someone is saying, understand it, and then immediately begin to set out to prove them wrong? Well, I’m thinking exactly that is happening with Elizabeth…I’ll explain my thoughts next month…
No comments:
Post a Comment