Great Great Grandmommy's Sweater

This weekend, Grammy brought over some baby sweaters that run deep with family history. The sweaters were hand-knitted by my own mother's grandmother, Grandmommy Andrews. For genealogists, that is Great Gram's mother, my Great Grandmother, and Virginia's Great Great Grandmother. Grammy (my mom) wore these sweaters herself when she was a little girl. My brothers and I also all wore the sweaters.




This morning Virginia tried one of them on. We were amazed to find that the sweaters were in great shape and really, really good looking. They easily could have been a part of this year's LL Bean catalog. Virginia found them to be just her style.

Bathing Beauty

This Saturday Virginia took her first swim lesson. We signed her up for casual drop-in "Tadpole" lessons offered at the indoor pool at Mariner Square Athletic Club. After her morning nap, we hustled her over there and fitted her out in a wetsuit and baby bathing cap. She looked like a bathing beauty from the 1920s.

With little fanfare she was lowered into my arms in the pool. Virginia's immediate reaction? Not amused. The pool room was loud and echoey, the water was deep, and there were a lot of strange faces around. For a moment Virginia put on a brave face, but suddenly her little lower lip stuck out and the tears began flowing.

After a while in the water, though, Virginia got her bearings. We swam over to the rail and picked up a few water toys, which Virginia seized on as though they were pieces of driftwood from a sinking ship. We swam a few laps together by ourselves. After a time, she eventually saw that this was really not all that different from bath time after all, and she began kicking along and blowing raspberries.

Looking forward to next week!

Wormy's Playtime

Wormy was in a grand mood today and enjoying her playtime. She spent the morning at Wee Play, a playtime session for little babies offered by Alameda Parks & Rec at the Veteran's Building. She was the belle of the ball, cruising from toy to toy and meeting new friends. We thought it would knock her out for the day. But back at home, she still had some playtime left in her (followed not long afterwards by a two and a half hour nap).

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."