Redhead Among the Redwoods

Over President's Day weekend, we took Virginia on an outing to visit the redwoods in Muir Woods. She was in awe of the babbling brooks that ran through the trees - our girl likes the water! She was exceptionally well behaved for our hike, but we did quickly find out that she is not a fan of being carried in our baby backpack. I had to carry her on my hip in the carrier so that she could see all around.

10 Month Checkup

Virginia had her 10 month checkup with Dr. Oken last week, and she got a great report. As we suspected, she had done lots of growing since her 8 month appointment. She gained nearly 2 1/2 pounds, clocking in at an impressive 19 pounds, 10 ounces. She was 28 1/2 inches long. Height and weight were both 55%, so she is right on track and we have nothing to worry about. She handled her TB test and three shots with relative ease and was back to her old self in a couple of minutes. She also seems to have gotten over most of her stranger anxiety. Last time, she just cried and cried at Dr. O, but she seemed to tolerate his presence this time.

At 10 months, Virginia is crawling masterfully and is quickly speeding up her cruising along furniture. She also has just now started letting go of the furniture while standing up and can balance for a few seconds before plopping down on her rear end. She babbles a lot, and occasionally gets an accidental ma ma in there, but we don't think she has any real words quite yet. She loves books, and insists on turning the pages herself. Bathtime continues to be a hit - we are planning on enrolling her in swimming lessons next month so she can get more water time. She also loves the swings and the slide at the park.

Ready or Not, Here I Come!

At 10 months old, Virginia is a speed demon at crawling. She's also babbling all the time (at quite an impressive volume) - ba, ba, ba and ma, ma, ma are favorites. Here she is on a mission to take out the camera filming her, while doing both.

No Sleep Til Brooklyn!

Virginia has been making life difficult for our nanny this week by not taking all of her naps. Yesterday, she skipped out on her afternoon nap, so I put her down to sleep a little early for bed and let her sleep in an extra half hour this morning. Well, that extra night sleep translated into failing to take her morning nap today! I know we are still several months away from transitioning her down to one nap, so we'll have to hang in there for now. It remains to be seen how she will behave for me on Friday when I'm at home.

Despite her lack of sleep today, Kim sent this photo that shows Virginia was basking in the glory of nap-skipping. She was thrilled to get to stay up and play like a big kid!

Virginia Eats Green Beans

Here's Virginia's reaction to green beans:

Talking to Mommy

Virginia sure does like playing with all the stuff in her toy box. Sometimes she gives Mommy a running commentary as to what she's doing by offering the constant refrain of "baa, baa, baa."

Up to No Good

The last month has been full of lots of changes - Virginia has mastered crawling and pulling up, has gotten her first tooth, and has started finger foods! She loves crawling into our bathroom and pressing her face against the glass of the shower door to check out what's inside. Although she was slow on the uptake on finger foods, she now loves puffs and Cherrios.

Here she is modeling a new outfit from Memaw, flashing her toothy grin, and racing away from me to get into something else.

Virginia's Latest Suitor

Virginia has been meeting more than her fair share of boys these days - she's a hot commodity! After meeting Johnstone last week, she has already moved onto a younger man, Griffin Guidi. Griffin is the son of Ellie Griffinger, a dear family friend of the Harveys. She and her husband live in Philadelphia these days, so we were happy to have Ellie back for a visit.

Virginia meets Johnstone

This past week, Virginia met a new pal, Johnstone. Johnstone is the six-month-old son of my best buddy from high school, Ben Flax. Ben and his wife Jean just returned from adventures in Hong Kong, where Johnstone was born. They are settling in the Bay Area and just this week are moving into a place in Lake Merritt, very close to us. We're thrilled to have them back in town. And we were especially thrilled for our babies to meet each other for the first time.

Even though Johnstone is three months younger than Virginia, he is far larger than her. Virginia clocks in about the 50th percentile, whereas Johnstone is high 90s. Here they are hanging out last weekend.

And here they are when they first met one another last week.