I'm still catching up on my unfinished reading from yesterday.  My goal today is to read all books yellow...

I had a nice, relaxing time today and even got to catch up on local news.  Rumor has is that someone by the name of Santa is going to be in the neighborhood soon....

This has been such a fun and exciting holiday weekend with my family.  After playing 17 games of Carcassonne, dancing to 'Yummy, Yummy' by The Wiggles 12 times, and obsessing about this orange New Year's party toy non-stop for four days, it's time to return to regularly scheduled programming...

With such wonderful weather we decided to trek around Gunpowder Falls today.  I just LOVE wandering about and looking at all of the beautiful things that nature has to offer.

Aunt Britt is here to visit during Thanksgiving and I'm having a blast!  She knitted me this cool, funky hat with extra-soft yarn which was very thoughtful.  Today we played lots of fun games.  I've been staring at her all day and just laughing my head off - over and over again.

I love these new maracas that Mom just bought.  When I'm all done shakin' it up, they provide great relief on my gums. 

I just love Ollie (or is it Octy?) the octopus these days.  (S)he's even more exciting after having been gift wrapped (again)!

I just love reading with Mama despite having to hear about this Jack Horner character.  Not only does this brat sit in a corner all alone and hog an entire pie but he then proceeds to stick his thumb in it and then to top it all off he proclaims his goodness for committing such an act.  One has to wonder about these children's stories since so many of them seem to demonstrate questionable virtues...

P.S.  Have you ever had plum pie?  If so, what did you think?  Can't say that I've ever tried it.

I just love being upright now and finding out what my legs can handle.  There are so many cool knobs, twirly things and buttons on this gizmo that I just can't wait to discover something new each time I check it out!

I've always liked to babble but I've definitely stepped it up a notch lately in terms of chattiness. I just LOVE trying to imitate animal sounds... You can click on the video above to check it out.  If the video doesn't play after a while, you can right-click HERE and either Save Target As...(Internet Explorer) or Save Link As...(Firefox) to save it to your hard drive first.

Simon came over today to explain what's up with this Silly Sally character who walks to town upside down.  That whole thing is pretty hard to fathom considering I'm still trying to figure out how to walk right-side up and, oh yeah, I can't read yet!  We had a lot of fun.  I sure hope he comes over again soon to teach me more.

P.S  Notice the size of Simon's feet compared to mine.  Wooah.....

I hadn't spent much time on the floor of my room until today.   Wow, there's a whole new world down here I never knew about!  Now if I could just get to that wayward binky under the dresser... 

Okay, I'm a lot better at sitting today (my 1st half birthday!).  Apparently I figured a lot of this out while sleeping last night.  I was able to sit just long enough for Mom to take a picture before ..... you guessed it - kaboom!

I've been making progress in trying to sit for the last couple of days. I'm still pretty wobbly but I guess that's how I'll learn... You can click on the video above to check it out.  If the video doesn't play after a while, you can right-click HERE and either Save Target As...(Internet Explorer) or Save Link As...(Firefox) to save it to your hard drive first.

It's cool to be able to eat with Mom and Dad now at the dinner table.  I've now worked my way through rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, squash, and now green beans.  Peas are next.  Yummy!

I'm absolutely loving this cool Gertie ball that Mom picked out for me.  Not only is the color captivating but it has a nice, sticky texture.  It truly is, as the manufacturers claim, the world's most catchable ball!

Seth from across the street came by for Halloween tonight!  Since he's got Halloween experience (okay, he was about two weeks old last Halloween)... and is more than twice my age, I figured I'd look to him for clues as to what this crazy day is all about.  I've still got a few questions about this whole thing so I'm hoping that it will all make more sense next year...

It's time...  Mom and Dad have been working with me on my transition to unswaddled sleep.  I've been 'arms free' since Saturday!  The first couple tries were a little rough but I'm really starting to like my freedom.

I'm back into my feet again...  These things sure seem to come and go in waves.  I guess life is just full of cycles...

P.S  Yeah, I know the shirt makes me look a bit like a boy, but I think it's cute.

I'm thinking of starting a new fashion trend.  What do you think?

The Pod is back after a brief hiatus.  I guess I just hadn't been in the mood much lately...  Now that I'm so much stronger, I can even bend down to play with Speedy Spider and other friends.

Okay, this rice cereal thing is going pretty smoothly now.  I'm thinking of working my way up to oatmeal soon...

We're hittin' the streets today, so it's time to bundle up.  Can you tell that Granny B. kinda likes me?

Yay, I got to meet Granny B. today!  We're having such a fun time reading stories and chatting.  Way cooool....

Boy, am I lucky to have Aunty Kris to hang out with on a regular basis.  She always takes great care of me.  I have so much fun with her and learn lots at the same time.   Pretty cool, huh?  Mom and Dad sure are lucky too.

Socks are strictly optional these days.  Sometimes I like both and often times neither. I occasionally prefer one or even an in betweener...

I'm quite the goofball these days.  Sometimes I just laugh and laugh at the simplest things, particularly at the end of a long, tiring day.

Today I started eating rice cereal.  Boy, was that interesting!.  You can click on the video above to check it out.  If the video doesn't play after a while, you can right-click HERE and either Save Target As...(Internet Explorer) or Save Link As...(Firefox) to save it to your hard drive first.

With Aunt Britt and Uncle Bryce's wedding behind us, I've just needed to relax for a bit (which is why I haven't posted in awhile).   Notice that my feet still are nowhere near touching the floor in the pod...

I got to attend Aunt Britt's wedding ceremony in it's entirety and didn't even cry!  I even spent a good 8 minutes at the reception!  I think I was the hit of the wedding!  (Oh yeah, except for Aunt Britt and Uncle Bryce of course!)

Staying at the Faculty Club at UC-Berkeley is pretty fun!  My smart and resourceful Mom designed this cool floor gym for me using the luggage rack.  In some ways, I think it's better than mine at home since it's quite easy to adjust the location of each toy.

Well, we're off to Aunt Britt's wedding in California!  Mix a 6 hour flight and a 4.5 month old girl and what do you get?  Well, actually it could have been a lot worse.  Although there were some very tough moments, most crises were mitigated thanks to a lot of preparatory disaster planning on Mom and Dad's part.  All in all, things turned out pretty well.

Since the whole doorway jumper thing seems a little scary, particularly without a double-doorway in our house, Mom and Dad got me this cool Jumperoo.  It's all the rage these days.  It's cool and all but I just don't get why they design these things for giants.  I've got two books underneath my feet (note I'm stepping on JFK's head) and I'm still swimming in this thing.  Oh well, we'll try again in a little bit...

Since Sarah, Jay and Simon brought over the Wednesday club high chair just for me, I just had to try it out.  Even though I'm not eating solids yet, I asked Mom and Dad to do a nice mock-up with the bowl and all to get a feel for things.  Although I appear fairly happy here, I had a bit to say about this new setup and am trying my best to reserve judgment.  Maybe we'll try this again in a week or two...

P.S. Note the groovy Grover bowl which Dad used when he was my age.  Now that's old! 

Simon came to visit yesterday.  We had a good heart-to-heart and I put my hand on his arm to assure him that everything was going to be okay.  Even though he's all grown up, we had room to spare in this larger-than-life chair which continues to amaze me.