Had a wonderful weekend. Leina went to a party with the big kids on Saturday and while she didn’t get to run on the mats or chow down on chocolate cake, she did enjoy the party favors.

She is a great little sitter now and loves chairs. She’s also developing quite the little will which I haven’t decided if I like or not. I kind of miss my little baby blob. This new little person is a force to reckon with when crossed. I’m thinking she may have a little Taurus in her after all! Right now she is out with daddy on a late afternoon stroll. Her latest trick is to stay awake from 1 to 7pm. Crazy kid. Clearly, no one has told her that babies should take an afternoon nap! Oh well, at least it’s nice out and Artie doesn’t mind all the extra walking.

Still to come, the seven month Pooh picture so check back soon!

Yesterday was Leina’s first swim class and she did great! It took her a while to warm up to the water but once she did she was splashing and kicking up a storm. She looks so sweet in her little bikini. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to snap a picture but I’m definately going to get a shot of her in her hot bathing suit next week!

She had a blast right up until I dunked her. Not on purpose mind you, but nevertheless, her little face went right under and man did that freak her out! She came up sputtering for air, her eyes wide and her lashes plastered together. She looked around the pool in absolute horror and was winding up for the mother of all screams when everyone started cheering. “Yeah Leina!” “Good baby!” they all cried. Leina, being the center of attention loving Leo that she is, went from terror to delight as she realized that the whole swim class was smiling and clapping at her.

I’m telling you, you can’t turn your back on these kids for one second or they’re falling off the sofa or dunking their faces in the pool. I’m going to have to work on developing eyes on the back of my head I think. Just yesterday I got her all dolled up to go over to her grandparents house to celebrate an engagement of her auntie Laura. She was in her pink dress and white tights. I put her on her play mat and told Artie to watch her while I went to change myself. When I came back, she had managed to roll over a few times, off her play mat, and into the fireplace!!! Her cute pink outfit was now more of a sooty color and her white tights were now a very chic charcoal. Artie it seems had fallen asleep during baby duty. Of course now that she has learned how to cross a room by rolling, she is all over the place. Every time I turn my back she heads for that fireplace. I shudder to think what will happen when she starts to crawl!

It’s a beautiful spring day so we’re off for a stroller ride. But before we go, I thought I’d leave you with a photo of Leina doing her EdithAnne impersonation. Enjoy!

So many changes in so little time! Lets see, where to start?

Well, my baby girl has turned into the rollover champ. She’s making up for her slow start and now evertime you put her on her belly, she rolls. This was cute until it was time for her nap. I put her down on her belly, tucked her in, and tip toed out the door. After a few minutes of fussing, I heard a big old wail. After 20 minutes of heary crying, I decided to see what was going on. Poor little baby had flipped over, tangled herself in the sheets, and somehow ended up smooshed against the crib railing! So I gently straightened the blankets and flipped her back over. Quiet for few moments, and then crying! Yup, she was back on her back. So I flipped her again. We did this about four or five times and then when I went in, she saw me and started to laugh. I swear the look she gave me was, “oh mommy, what a fun game this is!”

That was the last time I went in to flip her back over. Now, if she rolls on her back, she’s stuck on her back. Can anyone tell me how long until she learns to roll from back to belly? Ah well.

Aside from rolling, she’s also figured out how to breath through her nose. Ok, I guess she’s always been breathing through her nose but now she can do it on purpose and it is HILARIOUS. She’ll catch your eye and then scrunch up her face, wrinkle her nose, and start huffing and puffing. Sounds almost as if she’s hyperventilating. Of course, it cracks me up which is probably why she does it. But it’s simply beyond cute.

And then this morning, she began blowing bubbles! Little baby raspberries. I don’t know where she learns this stuff but it leaves me in a constant start of amazement and wonder. I’m sure Leina is a total typical, normal, plain vanilla baby but to me, her mother, she’s a wonder.

Aside from turning her over, I’ve been spending a lot of time fishing things our of her mouth. She’s gotten very good at using her two little teeth. Between her two pearly whites and a copious amount of drool, she can pretty much destroy anything. Her favorite is paper. Newspaper, kleenex, napkins, you name it. So this moring, after fishing a large chunk of the front page out of her mouth, I decided it was time for a teethng biscuit. I figure, if she wants to gnaw on something, it’d probaby be best if it was digestable. So, I popped a biscuit in her chubby little hand and let her go to town. Boy did she ever!

If I thought Leina was excited by the buscuit, imagine my surprise when the dog walked in on this messy sight. Until now, Artie had little use for Leina but when he saw her with food in her little hand, his face lit up. Even better, every crumb that fell was quickly devoured by the pooch and when Leina was done, he gave her hands and face a nice doggie cleaning by licking every last speck of cookie off her. I’m thinking Artie has found a new best friend.

What will tomorrow bring? I can’t even imagine. This kid, I tell you, is simply full of surprises.

Update your calendars because Leina’s 6 months old now and getting big! Here’s the latest update to her growth chart. Check out that smile

click on her Growth Chart to see all the months.

Suzy wanted to see Leina laughing so we decided to try an experiment with putting the video online. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a 20 second video of Leina laughing while watching Artie. There’s 3 versions – small, medium, and large. The largest file is the highest quality. Let us know what you think and how well this worked.

– The Pooka Management

They came and took down the tree. It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. This one dude put on these spike boots, walked up the tree and began chainsawing with one hand. It was amazing. So much so that I snuck out and snapped this picture.

Amazing, no?

Even more unbelievable is that Leina took a two hour nap during the tree removal. She even slept through the sound of the men grinding out the stump. This kid is so unpredictable. Who knew that the sound of power tools could be so soothing?