Mirror Lake

We went up to the Mirror Lake area on Sunday and had a great time hiking through the meadows and alpine lakes. I captured some great pics of the MD and MB. MB sure is getting more vocal. She managed to sing, chirp, and make dolphin noises a good part of the hike.

Hello Sleep, remember me?

Munkey B has finally started sleeping through the night again. We considered ourselves very lucky that from the start she was sleeping long stretches at night. Then all the sudden at about three months it came to a grinding halt. She was up at 2, 3, and 5 a.m. routinely. I think it was because she was teething and possibly having herself a little string bean growth spurt.

I was taking her back to bed with me and developing a very bad habit of her sleeping with us for a while. Luckily I wised up and started to sit up with her just long enough for her to eat, about a hour, then put her back in her bed. It worked wonderfully and it helped get her trained to go back to sleep in her own bed.

Just since last week, she's been sleeping through the night again. The first night she did, I woke up at 3 like usual, worried because she hadn't woken me up crying. I went in there and she was sound asleep and it's been like that every night since, except I don't get up to check on her now, I sleep!

We've gotten her on a regular nap schedule during the day and she has a somewhat fixed bedtime of 10 p.m. and we're hoping to move that up even earlier in the future.

Munkey also had another milestone last night. We were playing with her on the floor and she managed to roll over by herself from her back to her front. I guess it won't be long now until she starts trying to crawl, then it will be a whole new ball game for me.

Four months check up

Munkey B went for her four month check up yesterday. She got a good report. When Munkey Daddy got home from work he looked at her growth charts that they print out for us measuring her height, head circumference, and weight against the norm. He says, "She super skinny, has a perfect sized head, and she's taller than a banshee". We had a good laugh at this. I asked him how tall a banshee is and he said he didn't know but that Munkey B is taller than one.

She was in the 13% for weight, coming in at 11.15. Her head circumference is 50%, and her length was 24 inches. We thought the doctor was going to tell us to put her on cereal supplement but he did not and we were glad. We don't want to start her on solids until 6 months. The doctor basically said to keep doing what we're doing.

I can't believe in 2 months she'll be six months already, time flies.

This is the place

We went on an interesting journey up in Salt Lake last night. We were meeting MGKepi and MGTDD (aka my parents) for what was to be an evening picnic at Red Butte Gardens. When we got there we found out the gardens were closed for a private party. Instead we ended up at "This Is The Place" Heritage Park. We gorged on a wonderful picnic that MGKepi put together, while we were surrounded by frolicking bunny rabbits.

At the park they have a replica village complete with tithing office and quilting museum. MD was excited to go back and visit the quilting museum sometime when it is open, he loves him some quilts. We hiked through the village up onto the Bonneville Shoreline trail which runs just above the Heritage Park.

We walked along the Bonneville Shoreline trail enjoying the nice purple and lavender Penstemen flowers, the Butter and Eggs, and the Vetch. Also we saw several bombadier beatles that were standing on their heads. It looked like they were doing Yoga except instead of downward dog they were doing the downward beetle. MGTDD spotted this wonderful green beetle, it was more colorful than this picture does justice.

We walked until the alpenglow was hanging over the distant mountains and it was getting dark. Munkey B woke up right at the end of the trail when it was mostly dark and looked over at me. She likes to stare at me when we hike and she kept shooting me cute little grins like she was the happiest baby alive to be out past her bed time hiking with the downward beetles and her MD and her MG'rents.

Bouncin' Babies

MGranny Kepi ( who is a Suzuki Flute Teacher) told me recently of a Suzuki Teacher Trainer who is bouncing babies for his PhD in neuro-science & brain development research. He says that babies need to be bounced rhythmically before six months of age if you want them to have a higher comprehension and ability of rhythmic skills. To do this research, he also has to bring a change of clothes, as bouncin' babies produces sometimes more than rhythmic skills.

MGKepi also reminded me that this should include various rhythms such as 3/4 time that occurs in waltzes because they are somewhat uncommon. She is giving us a recording with waltzes that we can bounce our Munkey to soon.

Also another interesting tidbit that I learned from MGKepi was that Munkeys prefer to bounce in multiples of two verses three. However a popular childhood past-time, skipping, is done in multiples of three somewhat naturally I suppose. Maybe that's where most kids learn it, very fascinating.

Dan and I were trying to brainstorm if we knew any waltzes but maybe the lyrics are just bit old fashioned and are dying out with each generation as Disney songs take over. We did come up with "My Darling Clementine" which is a waltz in 3/4 time, but neither of us knew the lyrics. MGKepi also points out that "Away in a Manger" and "My Country 'Tis of The" are also in threes.

All this got me thinking there must be websites that have lyrics for kids of songs no one remembers or ever knew. I really don't know any song lyrics so MB and I might as well learn them together. I found this web site today that lets you hear the music and see the lyrics so you can sing along. I would love to find more song websites like this if anyone knows of any.

I think it would be neat for MB to hear folk songs and waltzes too. I really love bluegrass music and folk music and Grandma Belle (who MB was partially named after) played many waltzes for me on her electric Organ when I was little and took me to waltz with them occasionally at their ballroom dances.

Today I picked some songs off the web site with lyrics and we sat on my exercise ball and bounced along while I sang somewhat in tune. MB stared at me in amazement and she sat very still listening to the words and being bounced along. It actually ended up putting her to sleep by about the fifth verse of "Alice the Camel" (so MB never found out that Alice the Camel was actually a horse, she will be devastated :) . I think we'll do a little bouncin' and singing songs every day.

Rock Canyon Hike

Tonight we hiked in Rock Canyon with family. MD and MB are so cute hiking together. MB very often looks over at me a laughs like she is having the best time.


Also she needs to be constantly chewing on something because she is teething. She tried to eat MD's hand but she left him a stub so he can still work.

You would have thought something horrible was beside the trail the way everyone was looking but it was just a river.

I like these flowers that we saw, not sure what they were though.



MD feeds MB on the trail. MB says, "Aim more to the left Dad".

Happy Four Months

What's going on with Munkey B right now... lots and lots of drooling, lip smacking, finger chewing, shirt and towel eating, rooting, and waking Munkey Mommy up all hours of the night for snacks. We love every minute of it. She gets cuter every single day and we can't get enough of her red hair.

FIRE FLYS

OUR LITTLE MUNKEY IS 4 MONTHS OLD





IF I COULD GIVE HER A GIFT RIGHT NOW, IT WOULD BE SEEING FIRE FLYS
ON A DARK

JUNE NIGHT


--LOVE NANNA

First Tooth

Yesterday I went to see a lactation consultant and while examining Munkey B she found some interesting things. She suspects that MB might be a bit tongue tied due to her high palate and not being able to get her tongue out over her bottom jaw. This may be contributing to the nursing problems I'm having. Now her bottom jaw also includes two new teeth starting to break through. I tried to get a pic of her first teeth, they are so cute!

Munkey pics

Some pics as she approaches four months oldness...

Out in the yard with our June Bug

I'm so lucky to get to stay home with Munkey B and have moments like these enjoying the sunshine out in our yard!