Summer Days

Drea has been her usual wild self lately. Since she figured out crawling she spends most of her time trying to figure out how to stand up. She pulls up on all the furniture she can reach, and she has managed to stand up several times. She also tries to stand up by herself by getting on all fours and then trying to stand up on her feet. So far all she has accomplished is sticking her bottom up in the air (she can't pull her upper body up so her hands stay on the floor).

She's getting into everything she can, and is more aware of the world around her than ever. We are starting to use signs for "milk", "more", and "eat", and plan to add more as we go along. It should be a couple of months before she starts using signs back, but I think signing will be a great way to help her let us know what's on her mind until she gets better at talking.

She started doing something new over the weekend. Instead of sitting during her bath, she's now crawling all over the place and splashing her toys into the water. This makes her mommy and daddy very nervous, but she's having a great time.

Our AC just can't seem to keep up with the heat now that it's been so hot. It got up to 78 degrees in the house today. I guess I should at least be glad it's working at all. I want to get a pool for Drea; she loves water so much I'm sure she'd love it. We need to go swimming again at the Y soon; if I could just get over this whole insomnia issue so I feel up to getting up and about during the day. There's so much I want to be out doing with the baby now that it's summertime.

We've rented a house in Myrtle Beach for the last week of July. We're planning to share the trip with several family members. It's been a long time since we went anywhere like that as a group. I can't wait to see how Drea reacts to the beach.
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Brian's Father's Day Video

I made Brian a video in honor of his first Father's Day. I used the song Unforgettable because he loves to play it for her at night.

Good Times/Bad Times

We've definitely had our ups and downs lately. Drea's sleeping patterns have become more and more erratic over the last month. For the last few weeks especially. The last few nights have been unbearable, frankly. But tonight was a little bit better than last night - so that's something I guess. I think she might have a cold. I don't think it's the sole reason behind the sleeping problems, but I'm sure it's not helping matters. We're going to the doctor today to see if he has any ideas.
On a happier note, Drea's started crawling forward in the last few days, and has learned to have more fun playing on her own. She's still getting the hang of it, so she has a bit of a hitch where she pauses because she's trying to figure out what to do with her arms and legs. I have a feeling that she's suddenly going to be crawling all over the place in the next day or two though.
We had a good time during my birthday and Memorial Day. We got together with my parents and my brother's family both days. I'm looking forward to going to the beach in July. I hope everything works out OK and we're all able to enjoy it.
I'm looking forward to Thursday night. My mom is going to bring the other kids over here and have a slumber party with the baby while Brian and I go off to get a full night's sleep somewhere else. Drea always loves being with her Nana and her cousins, and they will enjoy having run of the house - so it should be fun for everyone. Except maybe Nana - but it was her idea.

Caught the Right Moment

I just happened to be recording Drea playing when she sat up on her own for the first time. Click on the video again after it starts playing and you can see the whole screen. I didn't realize the blog margins cut off so much of the video until after I embedded it, and I have no idea how to go about fixing that.