Switching Roles

A new semester has started, but this one has a bit of a twist.  Kristina is going to work, and I'm staying home.  I was able to get a month and a half of paternity leave so that Kristina can complete her internship and then be finished with her degree.  We are all very excited for Kristina to finish her degree.  It will be a great accomplishment that Kristina can be proud of.  We were also very happy that she was able to work out and internship where we could stay in Rexburg.  She is doing data analysis for an atmospheric chemistry professor in Provo.  It is an exciting project, and she's glad to have a personal consultant when necessary.  I'm have made it through two days as a stay-at-home dad, and already appreciate my wife more.  I think it will be really good for us to have this opportunity to get a feel for what each others' "work" day is like.

Enough about us, Lizzy is making great progress.  About a week ago, I was working outside (we are getting close to having sprinklers and grass) when Kristina comes out and says, "Guess what?"  Kristina had left Lizzy in the living room to play, as we often do (did).  She usually restricted her movements to the carpeted area of that room.  It is surrounded by tile and that had effectively been a wall.  No more.  That day, Lizzy went from the living room into our bedroom to see what Kristina was up to.  Now the whole house belongs to her.  I quickly finished my baby-proofing work, so now we let her wander where she will.  She has moved to a full crawl and is fast.  More than once, she was getting into whatever I was working on, so I would carry her off somewhere else.  By the time I'd gotten back to where I was previously, she was right there too.

It is great.  She is a happy, fun baby.  She is currently recovering from an ear infection, so that is a bummer, but she's recovering well.  She even slept "almost" through the night last night.  During our vacation last month (I'll write another entry soon about our vacation), she started scrunching up her face when she smiles.  It was super cute.  I even managed to get her teeth in the picture below.

 

She was as happy as Kristina and I to finish all that driving and be back home.

Actually, her sleep pattern has been a bit off since our travels last month.  The first night of our vacation, we tried to lay her in the pack-and-play to sleep.  That did not go well.  I've never heard her cry so hard.  We ended up having her sleep with us the whole trip (12 nights).  It coincided with a new bout of teething, so who knows what actually triggered what.  The short of it is that our great little sleeper is gone.  I'm hopeful that we will settle into a nice new pattern once this infection clears up.

She is super tall and already out-growing clothes for 9-12 month-olds.  This jumper is for 12-18 month-olds and is already tight.

She has a thing for sucking on straps.  Here she is going crazy on the belt on her high chair.