One More Trick

Millie just started working on this trick earlier in the week -- going from her tummy to sitting. She started trying it out in the evenings when we were lying on the bed together and made one attempt when she was playing in her pack-n-play one night. I can count on one hand the number of times I saw her attempt the move, though that doesn't mean she hadn't tried it more... Seems that was a good time to practice 'cause as of this morning, the skill is mastered! Not a bad strategy -- practice right before you go to sleep and then let the brain process the motor movement while sleeping so you can do it when you wake up! I'm sure that was her strategy ;).

Millie has also been getting up on her knees more this morning -- even rocking a bit. A true crawl isn't far!

Oh yeah, AND Millie has cut about four new teeth on top!!

Back From the Cape

Our time at home didn't last long -- less than 24 hours. Friday morning we got up early and headed up to Cape Cod to visit Bob, Irina and Tavi. Bob was there helping out with a course for graduate students/post-docs at the Marine Biological Laboratories. I would elaborate more, but it's all pretty much over my head -- very prestigious and geeky though :). They were on the last weekend of their 2 week stay, so we were happy we were able to squeak in a quick trip to see them before they headed back to Chicago. Tavi is 11 months old and we hadn't met him yet!

Millie had SO much fun at the cottage. The living room was nice and big and sparse so she was able to pretty much have free reign and scootch where ever she wanted to go. She certainly managed to cover every inch of the floor many times over in her explorations. She loved playing with Tavi's toys and watching him walk/run everywhere. Three months sure makes a big difference at this age! Tavi was very much a little boy :). Very adventurous and sweet. Millie was the most independent we have seen her throughout all of our travels. I don't think she really cared too much that either Scott or I were there. She was happy to just play on the floor and went to Bob and Irina as if she had known them all her life. She was full of smiles and had lots to say :).

Friday afternoon we all headed to the beach for a while. Millie was okay with the sand, but was not so keen on the water. This was the one time during the trip when she was not going to let go of mama! She gave out a loud shriek when I put her feet in the water. I think the waves freaked her out -- they weren't anything big, but something new. Tavi on the other hand LOVED the water. He was splashing about and having a grand time with Bob. We spent the rest of the night and all of Saturday morning just hanging out at the cottage -- it was the best place for the babies to be able to play unrestricted and gave the grown-ups time to just sit and talk and enjoy each other. Friday night Millie and Tavi both had TONS of energy and stayed up pretty late. When we finally got Millie to bed she laid and nursed for a bit. I was certain she was drifting off to sleep finally, but then she unlatched and just started jabbering about her day! She talked for about 5 minutes, then turned back to me, nursed some more and fell asleep. I'm pretty sure she was telling us what a great time she was having and how much she wanted to be a big kid like Tavi :). Bob had to work off and on, but he managed to squeeze us in when he could. We definitely appreciated him making the effort seeing how hard he was working! Here are some highlights from our trip.

Bob is going to be teaching at this summer program for the next 5 years, so hopefully we will be able to make this an annual trip and hopefully we'll be able to spend more time with them next time. Bob and Irina are great friends and we're sad that we don't get to see them very often -- we hadn't seen each other for almost 2 1/2 years! Even after all that time, it was so easy to fall right back into our friendship. It's so nice that Irina and I were able to follow through with our plan to have children at the same time :). Bob and Irina are great parents! Tavi gave us great insight into what we have in store for us in 3 months! It's hard to believe!! We'll definitely have to get these two little ones together again before next June. Hopefully next time Millie will be more interesting to Tavi :).

When we got home, Millie was ready to continue roaming and exploring on her own turf. Only problem was, our living room was not so nice and baby-proofed as the cottage and we had to keep interrupting her play and attempting to re-direct her. It's just not realistic to expect her to stay on her play quilt anymore ;). So, we did some creative rearranging so that she can now pretty much do whatever she wants in the living room without us worrying about her getting hurt or getting a hold of something she shouldn't have. It basically entailed removing everything from the room except her toys :). It's a temporary solution -- we figure since we'll be packing up and moving in a month and a half, there's no sense in trying to keep order in the house. It will be nice to set up the new house entirely with Millie in mind so that we can encourage lots of independent and creative play. I'm already shopping online for new storage :). So, our home won't be winning any awards from "Better Homes and Gardens" for the next couple of months, but I think we'll be well rewarded with the gains Millie will make. In fact, she rewarded us almost instantly by pulling this trick out of her hat:

It's hard to tell from the picture, but there are no knees on the ground there -- she pushed herself all the way up on her feet and was standing holding on to the box!! That was a first! Yeah, we're okay with the furniture arrangement :). You can get a better view of her skills from the video -- she knew she was doing something special, she kept flashing that smile at the camera!

Our vacation is now officially over. Tomorrow it's back to work for everyone. June certainly did fly by. We had a great time seeing so many of our family and friends and we've got a lot of great memories to share with Millie of her first summer :). We have one more quick trip next weekend -- to Philly to visit with our friend Christian and then things will be all work around here as we get ready for our move in August. Good thing Auntie LoLo is coming to help out with Millie for a week in July! We're going to need the extra hands and eyes!

Good To Be Home

Where else can you sit with your feet up like this?! We made it home to CT with relative ease today. It was an early start to the day for everyone, but we were home by 10:00 a.m., so it was worth it. Once again, Millie had a stellar flight -- slept like a champ. I did too :). Well, maybe not quite as well as Millie did, but I dozed enough to take the edge off that 2:30 a.m. alarm.

Our last day in Michigan was a quiet one spent at Grandma and Papa's -- largely catching up on sleep from the big Tiger's game. Katelyn and Megan came over in the afternoon to play with Millie. Millie had fun playing dolls with the big girls, though her form of "play" was to eat the dolls :). We went to dinner with Uncle Kevin, Aunt Amy and the girls and Grandma and Papa and then headed home once again. Uncle Kent made a appearance right before bed and Millie enjoyed meeting him (and playing with Grandma's souvenir cup from the game). It was a relaxing way to end our big trip. Here are a few more pictures of Millie and her Michigan family.

Thanks to Grandma and Papa Reithel for making this such a special trip for Millie. She was exposed to so many new experiences in just one short week! She's going to love going to the farm even more as she gets older and older! It was a good get-a-way for Scott and me too. Life is very peaceful on the farm :).

In Other News

Millie has been working hard on her top teeth for the past week or two. Two of them have broken through (the top middle left and the one to the right of the top middle right) and the third is trying hard to get through (the top middle right). She's been one happy baby considering all of that! She's going to have a very toothy grin soon :)!

Warning: Contents May Not Be Suitable for Cardinals Fans

(except the end ...)

Millie made it to her first pro-baseball game last night (a Detroit game much to the chagrin of her St. Louis family, but at least the Cardinals were there) and she had a blast! Millie was not fazed by the crowds or noise for one minute. We left Unionville around 3:00 so that we would be able to get to the game around 5:00 when the gates opened. The ballpark was celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1968 World Series when the Tiger's faced the Cardinals ... and won (there have been subsequent match-ups where the Cardinals were vindicated -- some in not-so-very-distant memory :) ) and the first 10,000 fans received commemorative replica 1968 road jerseys. A lot of people wanted those jerseys! We arrived at the gate right at 5:00 and the lines to get in the ballpark were HUGE! We made it through in about 20 minutes. I think they were out of jerseys in about 25 minutes. It was nice to see the crowds at Tiger Stadium. This is a ball team that went through a LOT of tough years and the fans were not very loyal. Scott and I are still a little shell-shocked when we go to a Tiger's game that is that crowded. The official count for the night was 44,400 some people -- the third largest crowd in the history of Tiger Stadium. That's pretty impressive considering they've played a post-season there!

The game didn't start until 7:05, so we wandered around the concourse a bit.

Millie and daddy got new baseball hats, Millie got to ride on the carousel, and the grown-ups all found some food to eat (and Grandma got a much coveted strawberry daiquiri!).

Before the game started there was a brief ceremony where some of the '68 players were introduced. Millie really enjoyed all the fan fare:
As usual, Millie made friends with everyone sitting around us. She had bright sparkling eyes and a great big smile for anyone and everyone who would make eye contact with her. Daddy may have cause to be concerned because she made friends with a lot of men in the stands! I was very impressed with Millie, she was busy, but not overly squirmy and didn't fuss at all. She was quietly attentive for most of the game, she was able to nurse frequently and without drawing much attention to mommy (thankfully) and was happy to just watch everything going on. She perked up every time the crowd cheered and loved the beach balls that inevitably made their way through our section. She spent some time with daddy and grandma, but stuck close to mama for most of the game. By the seventh inning (about 9:30) she was ready for a break and she quietly fell asleep while nursing.

Not wanting to miss anything, she woke up for the final inning where the Tiger's tried to get a rally going, but just weren't quite able to pull it off. Personally, I was thankful that they weren't able to tie it up in the 9th (and not just because I was quietly rooting for the Cardinals... notice I DID where my Cardinals red, even if I didn't advertise it), we had a long ride home ahead of us and I was anxious for Millie to get back to sleep. She was wide-eyed as we made our way back to the car and played happily in her car seat as we got out of the garage and through traffic to the highway. Eventually she fell back asleep, with the help of some creative nursing, and slept until we pulled in the garage at Grandma and Papa's house. She had a quick diaper change and then everyone crashed for the night (around 1:00! That is a LAAATE night for this little family!).

Of course, Millie was up and ready to go around 6:30 this morning. And then she was ready to crash again at about 8:15 :). It's about 10:00 and she is still sleeping soundly. This has been one action-packed, adventure-filled vacation filled with all kinds of new experiences for Millie. It has been so much fun watching her reaction to everything and seeing how much she just soaks up. This is our last day in Michigan -- we head home bright and early tomorrow morning and then it's off to the Cape on Friday to see Bob, Irina and Tavi.

Oh, and in case you were wondering who won the game, the Cardinals won 8 to 4 :).

More Fun in Michigan!

Millie's adventures continue. We are keeping this baby pretty busy! So busy, that we have provided a slide show. On Saturday, we attended the parade at the Sugar Festival in Sebewaing. Both of Millie's cousins were in the parade - Katie was marching in the HIGH SCHOOL band and Meghan was on the float for her church (which won first prize for church floats). For those of you who have never experienced the parade, you can see some of it in the slide show, including tractors. Millie enjoyed looking at all of the pretty floats and didn't get too scared by the fire trucks. Then, we took Millie for a drive to see our friends Steve and Kay. It was nice to catch up and catch some dinner at Mongolian Barbeque. On Sunday, Millie got to meet some of her Great Aunts and Uncles, Kamdyn, and her Uncle Kevin and cousin Katelyn. Then we went back to the Sugar Festival to see Katelyn play with the Pickle Band in the entertainment tent. Katie won a scholarship to play with the community band - very impressive! On Monday, Millie played with her cousin Meghan and then we went out to lunch with Great Aunt Carolyn and then went to see Katelyn's softball game (holy cow, she is one busy 14 year old!). Tonight is the Tigers game, where they take on who else but the St. Louis Cardinals!

Here is Millie meeting some new people!! Pictures to come in the future - Millie with Papa, Uncle Kevin, and Aunt Amy!

Millie with Grandma Reithel:

Millie with her cousins Meghan and Katelyn:

So What Can You Do On a Farm ...

...when you are almost 8 months old? Let's see!

You can play with your cousin

You can jump on the trampoline

You can sit in the co-cart (but not ride yet...) **digital picture not available :( **)

You can "walk the section" -- this is a good time for a nap!

You can swing on the front porch with mama and daddy

You can play with grandma and papa (pictures to come in the up-coming days!)

Tomorrow we have a day full of fun planned. First a parade in Sebwaing for the Sugar Festival where Meghan (see picture above) will be riding on her church float and Katelyn (Meghan's sister) will be marching with the high school band. After the parade we are headed down to Detroit to visit with our friends Steve and Kay. Steve suggested mini-golf -- I'm not sure Millie is quite ready for that yet :)!

Thanks Lainey and Grandpa Ric!

Millie, Scott and I had such a nice few days with my parents, despite the early troubles with flights and luggage... Millie got a chance to spend lots of time with Lainey on Monday as the rest of us had to go to work. Grandma Lainey quickly learned the power of the miracle blanket and a good swaddle and succeeded in getting Millie to take several good naps (she was very tired from her weekend escapades). Millie wasn't too keen on eating, but we'll take what we can get. Apparently, bottles are for daycare only and not to be taken at home :). She's a smart girl, what can I say?!

Tuesday Grandpa Ric got to get in on the fun. Millie got to go for a couple of walks, one with the grandparents and one with me when I got home from school. Millie once again took some good naps and this time ate a little bit of mango for grandma. We all went for a nice birthday dinner on Tuesday at Harbor Lights in Norwalk. Beautiful views, good food, and more great company. Millie got lots of ooohs and ahhhs from the waitstaff.

Yesterday, just Scott had to go to work (poor guy). Millie and I took my parents to Fairfield to show them the house we will be moving to in August. Another rental for now. Millie had a lot of fun showing grandpa the backyard and peeking in the windows :). The house and neighborhood feel very "family" and I think it's going to be a good move. The afternoon brought a trip to the airport to drop off my parents. I haven't gotten any phone calls yet, so I'm assuming that they made it back to St. Louis without any trouble, and that their luggage did too!

Last night we started packing for OUR trip. We'll finish up this morning and then head off to the airport ourselves this afternoon for an evening flight to Michigan. We are SO thankful that we found a direct flight (to Flint, MI nonetheless!) -- it makes traveling so much easier. It's a night flight which we haven't done with Millie yet. My fingers are crossed that she's able to sleep and isn't up all night!

Next post will be from the farm :)!

Happy Birthday Shannon!

It truly is a special day! Here is Shannon with the best present either of us has gotten this year! The universe is once again in balance as Shannon and I are the same age for the next 364 days....

For One Day Only...

... I am married to an older man :). The party was small, but the company was good. So was the cookie cake, or so I was told!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Father's Day!

Millie and I were both lucky enough to spend Father's Day with our dads. It wasn't quite the day we thought we were going to have as Grandpa Ric and Grandma Lainey were without their luggage (Airtran is due for a nasty lawyery letter from Grandpa Ric...). No clean clothes meant going for a hike was out for the day. We were able to wrangle up enough clothes/toiletries, etc. for everyone to freshen up and feel good enough to leave the house. So, we headed to the mall -- hoping that the luggage would come and we would be a mere 10 minutes away and able to pick it up. We were not so lucky. But we did enjoy an afternoon of shopping (well, I enjoyed it most probably since we were shopping for my birthday presents :)) and lunch. We came home and Scott grilled up a great dinner of tuna steaks and vegetables (I did make Scott and my dad breakfast -- pancakes!) Millie also presented her dad and grandpa with their gifts after breakfast. Her very first works of art :). (painted by hand with organic baby food -- hopefully they last!!). Despite the airline chaos it was a very nice day -- it couldn't really have been anything less given the fact that we got to spend it with family ;).

Here's a slide show of Millie making her gifts and of our Father's Day morning:

The day ended with a visit from the Luggage Fairy -- who apparently only comes late at night when everyone is asleep :). That was probably the best present Grandpa Ric got!!

Vintage Millie

My Aunt Patti made this robe for my brother Christian when he was little (I believe I got that story right ...). The vintage look is in right?!

Ready for Boot Camp

Millie is officially mobile in all directions. Moving forward is still a little tough, but she can do it for the right motivation -- like a nice pair of shoes :) (or a not so nice pair in this case...). Once she gets her legs into the action I'm sure she'll find that going forward isn't so hard!

Finally, A Winning Combination


We've tried mango before, and we've tried feeding from my finger before, we've even tried the two together before, all greeted with minimal to moderate enthusiasm from Millie. Tonight however, the two added up to a winning combination :). Millie was actively guiding my finger into her open mouth for each bite ;). I snuck in a couple of chunks of cooked carrot too. Those were greeted with less gusto. They didn't seem quite as easy for Millie to mush up in her mouth. I can deal with just mango for now -- it's progress!

Summertime!















We started off a busy June with a pretty busy weekend. First, we looked at houses on Saturday mornings. The first was one that we had looked at last weekend. We were told after seeing it that if we were interested, we had better apply right away, so we did. The owners of the house were satisfied with our stats and wanted to meet us. We wanted to see the house one more time, so we met them there. The house is a nice 50's Cape in Fairfield. A little smaller than what we have now, but well maintained with enough space for the 3 of us (and all of our stuff). The meeting went well and 5 minutes after leaving our realtor let us know that the owners would be happy to rent to us. We did take Millie by the way, so was there really any doubt?


We then drove by another house in Fairfield. Right across from I-95 AND backed up to a cemetary. Uh, no. Then we drove up to Bethel to look at another house. Much different. This one was less than 10 years old and almost 3000 square feet. Really very nice, although it looked like the current owners ran a demolition derby. Every wall and every corner had black marks on it. It was so weird - nice house, nice furniture that wasn't damaged, but the walls! So we were concerned about that and didn't feel like we were ready for a huge house. So we decided to agree to rent the house in Fairfield. More on that when it is final, we don't want to jinx it since it isn't a done deal.


We spent Saturday afternoon doing some cooking and cleaning around the house. Shannon's co-worker came over to watch Millie so we could go out for a date night for our anniversary. We went to Sakura in Westport which is a Japanese restaurant, complete with the Hibachi! We have done the Habachi once before and really liked it, but it had been quite a while. We had a nice time and a nice dinner. Millie did pretty well playing with Toni - until bedtime. She fought it, but when we came home Millie was fast asleep. We thought about maybe going back out or just Shannon did since the New Mom group was hanging out at the Ginger Man (a bar in SoNo). But we decided to stay in, which was a good thing since when Millie woke she was MAD and ready to be with her mommy! By the way, Millie thinks the word "Hibachi" is rather hilarious.


Sunday, there was a play date planned with the New Mom group at Cranbury Park in Norwalk. We went an hour early and did a little hiking before everyone got there. The mom's showed up with the babies and everyone had a nice time hanging out and showing off their new skills. All of the babies are doing great and growing like little weeds. I was the only dad there for a little while, but who can complain about sitting in the shade? We got home and Millie and mommy took a good long nap. I relaxed and watched the Tigers win for a change. I was waiting for it to cool off to mow the lawn, but then we had thunderstorms, so unfortunately it is going to have to wait.


Not too much else to report-Millie is doing great and is happy as usual. She is taking this 90 degree heat we are having pretty well. She is getting REALLY close to crawling and her eating is getting there, slowly but surely. Next weekend, Grandma Lainey and Grandpa Ric are coming into town, and the weekend after that we will be in Michigan! Here are some photos from the past few days.



We saw this turtle on our walk!














Daddy and Millie chillin in the shade:




















From Left to Right:
Jonathan, Millie, Will, Chase, and Cole (and Cole's mom Donna)















Jonathan, Millie and Will. Millie and will decided it would be fun to swap toys. Such nice playing at such a young age!

So You Think You Can Dance

Get a look at Millie's new moves. Absolutely hilarious! (Don't blink or you'll miss it at the end of the video...it's a little shaky 1) because daddy is "dancing" too to entice Millie into moving and 2) because he is laughing!)

Even on our wedding anniversary Millie is trumping us. Sigh, she's just too cute to not be the star right now though...

The Best Wedding We've Ever Been To


Here's to a lifetime of happy anniversaries!

The Joys of Fostering Independence :)

Millie tends to eat much better when she is allowed to guide the spoon into her own mouth. I'm all for fostering indpendence -- and for adorably messy baby faces!

Dr. Update

We headed to the Dr. today to finish up Millie's 6 month shots and have her hemoglobin re-checked. Millie weighed in at 14 lbs 13 oz -- up almost a pound in a month! That's some good milk she's getting :). Millie's hemoglobin was up in the normal range, so that's good news. The vitamins did their job -- thank goodness 'cause they are awful stinky and I'd hate to put Millie through that for no reason (and of course, if they hadn't worked, we'd be dealing with much bigger problems and we are very thankful that that isn't the case...). Millie took her toe prick and DTap shot all in stride. No tears :). That's a sign of a good nurse! No more Dr's visits now until 9 months -- woo hoo!

No Question

We are often asked who we think Millie looks like, and honestly, most days we still don't have a solid answer. However, there is no question where she gets her crazy morning hair from :D.

Happy

The comment that I love to hear the most about Millie, and one that we hear from just about everyone who meets her, is that she is such a happy baby. It's something you just can't argue with :).

Making Progress

We're still working on the eating thing here in CT. We've made progress ;). Millie ate a full "bowl" of oatmeal earlier this week (about a tbsp of dry oatmeal mixed with enough milk to make it soupy...). We haven't exactly replicated that success yet, but she's doing better. She ate a bit of oatmeal again tonight and tried salmon for the first time too. She did a pretty good job picking up the salmon pieces by herself and getting them in her mouth. Of course, they didn't stay in there very long! Some video for your enjoyment :).

May 27th dinner:

June 1 dinner: