Great relatives come to visit

(Note: These posts are from Sharyn. Dan reluctantly shared the password with me when I threatened to poison his food if he did not cooperate. I apologize for the lack of quotes and long narratives, but clearly you can see who has more time on their hands... and at least my posts are timely).

This past weekend Livia was visited by great-grandma Dotty, great-grandpa Sonny, and great-aunt Elyse. Cousin Jordan also came by while he was in town and he is great as well. It was so nice having my family meet Livia, and just spending time together with relatives who live in all different places. What a treat to have everyone here at once. We talked in the living room, went for walks on the trail behind our house, and ate some good meals (well, mostly good meals with the exception of the dish that gave Dan food poisoning).

More great relatives...

You can really see the family resemblance in this photo below.

Here we have four generations of women-- too bad my mother was missing from the photo...

Great-grandma Dotty really enjoyed watching Livia talk to herself in the mirror.

Livia's Favorite Things... and a Milestone!

It is time for an update to Livia's favorite things. We are saying goodbye to the supplemental nursing system, colostrum, enfamil, fenugreek, the lost umbilical cord, and even the left hand (these days she likes both hands). New to the list are mirrors, smiling, breastmilk in a bottle, the swing, and the Shhhhhhhh tape. She loves to look in the crib mirror and "talk" to the baby that she sees (even if she doesn't realize who the baby is). The Shhhhhhh tape is a real classic, created by Dan. It consists of 20 minutes of Dan yelling "SHHHHHHHHH" into a tape recorder. Livia loves to hear this when she needs to relax. When the shhhhh tape is not within reach, we also have a teddy bear that plays a recording from the womb. She likes this almost as much as the shhhhhhh tape. Dan may have found his calling as an entrepreneur with the shhhhh tape-- please let us know if anyone would like a copy.

One of the only constants in Livia's life is tummy time. Tummy time is now one of Cassidy's favorite things as well, and she doesn't even need a fancy play mat.


The photo below looks kind of boring, but it actually represents a real milestone. This was supposed to be tummy time, but Livia decided that she'd rather be on her back so she rolled over (she had been trying to do this for a couple of days). I didn't catch it on videotape, but this is what she looked like afterwards. She hasn't done it again yet, but it's still pretty good for 6 1/2 weeks!