All dressed up and no place to go

Jennie made Flynn this beautiful blanket, and I had to find an appropriate way to show it off. It's too elegant for crib shots, and so I thought I'd get Flynn a bit dressed up and do something a little more feminine than we've been doing lately.

Besides, it's the last of the summer weather, it's been gorgeous out, and this will probably be her last chance to wear all these beautiful summer dresses that people gave her! Sigh. I think this one was from Hayley.

This was the closest to posing she was willing to do.

The barrette stayed in her hair juuust long enough for the photo shoot. She still doesn't quite have enough hair for ornamentation!

There's that smile.




At this point, she was busy pulling up grass. Her attention span for photo shoots is not long.

QQ has been home for just about seven weeks, and is now 12-and-a-half months old. It's been a week of many new skills for her. She is crawling all over the place on all fours now, which makes me glad. I needn't have worried that she'd skip that step. She even came crawling to mommy when I called her last night for the first time. She's just discovered "sharing", and never tires of handing things to me, having my thank her, and then asking for them back again. She loves to have her hair brushed while mommy also brushes her hair....she also has a terrific sense of humor and laughs fit to bust if mommy brushes her teeth with the hairbrush. She lives for her bed-time puppet show (which I perform with a very realistic hand puppet of a hedgehog) and has learned to lift each of her cheeks in turn for a kiss when the "hedgehog" asks for it. But her very most favorite thing is still standing upright. She will now stand for long periods of time while holding on to the outside of her exersaucer, or the side of the coffeetable, and playing with things. She is pushing me away more and more and wanting to do it without help - which resulted in her falling straight over backward twice today. But she only cries briefly, and then immediately wants to try again, so I give her props for that! Walking with assistance, her steps are becoming much more even, rhythmic and directional. She likes to move between one object and the next, so I set up little obstacle courses for her, with me as one of the obstacles so that I can spot her. I think it's good for her to learn to turn and reach for something behind her without falling over her own feet. I've also caught her trying to haul herself up on things lately. Usually she picks the most difficult things to haul herself up on...like the sheer side of the play pen, which has nothing to grasp onto. But again, I have to give her A for effort. Our ped told us that it's usually about a month between the first effort to let go and stand without assistance and full-on walking. At the rate she's going, though, I wouldn't be surprised if she beats that average. She is nothing if not motivated! That's my girl.