Rain rain go away

Anya is rapidly approaching 5 months. The time from now until she is 18 months old is what our pediatrician refers to as the "golden age". Babies are through the newborn stage and spend their time soaking up the world like a sponge.

She is laughing at us now and can mimic our silly faces. She loves to be tickled and kissed. When she wakes up she is happy, smiley and so excited to see you. I feel as if every day she gets cuter and cuter. I shamelessly attach photos of her to almost all email correspondence, claiming myself to be the ambassador of her cuteness. Her smile lights up our life.

She has been swimming every week and gets excited when we enter the pool area now. Myles was able to take her in the pool twice and has a blast with her too.

She is totally aware of Boone and loves to pet him (pull his fur). He licks her and looks at me with pleading eyes to please remove her death grip from his hair. She inevitably has some black hair stuck in her fist but Boone seems totally unaware of her fur filching. He is still the first one to let me know when she is upset or if she simply has woken up from her nap. I couldn't have asked for a better dog to welcome our daughter into his pack. They are going to be buddies.

The rain has put a damper on our outdoor activities. Gone are the days of sitting in the shade on the grass in the back yard exploring the great outdoors. If the rain stops or lets up a bit we plan to go to a pumpkin patch this weekend. Myles is not wild about the idea- he suggests we put her in the pumpkin bins at Safeway and take pictures of her there..... not quite the same.

Anya is loving her exercauser. I have posted this video to share. She can spend a lot of time discovering all the features the toy has to offer. The bonus is that she stands up- which is her favorite position. I question whether she will walk before she crawls simply because she prefers to be standing on your lap than sitting.

We visited with Ashley and Fred Northup's new bundle of joy this week- Zola. She was 12 days old when we took dinner over. I can't believe that 4 months ago Anya was that small. It is totally amazing how fast they grow and change. Zola was a perfect, beautiful little newborn. She slept and ate. Anya on the other hand, was distracted and didn't eat much and was whining at the dinner table. Granted it was her bed time 6:30- so she had reason to be a bit of a pest.