Tio Cesar Comes to Town

Takamatsu Restaurant.

View of Phoenix from South Mountain

Lalibela's

Cesar with Selah

Selah loved the Phoenix Art Museum.

All of us so happy at the Grand Canyon

Cesar in Sedona.

Selah got a little sunburned.

I'm going to walk all over you

Cesar arrived Tuesday afternoon. He and Selah hit if off right away. She loves her Tio already.

As to showing off Phoenix, we've gone to a couple of our favorite restaurants, Takamatsu and Lalibela's. Yesterday we drove through South Mountain Park and got a great view of the valley. Cesar discovered the Lux this morning, and I think today we may go see some of the museums that Phoenix has to offer.

We thought she was a genius baby when she started repeating oooh's and aaaah's two weeks ago. I looked up baby developmental milestones to prove it, only to find that she is right on track. By the end of month two, babies will repeat "oooh" and "aaah" to the hysterical delight of their parents.

"Oh really Plato? Is that what you think? Now, if you'll just hear me out. I find that human nature is more complicated than that. For example..." "Ha Ha, Hey-yey guuuuys. Whatsatchyasay? No no, er, nothing in my pocket. No-thing-at-all. Hey well, good seein ya. We'll see ya later. Gotta go."

Flagstaff

Granny and Grandpa arrived from Texas on Friday morning. We all packed up and went straight to Jerome and then to Flagstaff for the weekend. We spent the weekend in the cool weather, enjoying thunderstorms and Macy's coffee. Selah showed off her head control and her ability to converse with Granny using her gentle and tonal "ooooo" language. She may have suffered a Temporary Threshold Shift (TTS) in her hearing thanks to the constant train whistles blowing.

Hold Your Head Up (Movin On)

Don't call me Bobblehead.

There's No Debate About It: Selah Loves Nick's Hair

Nick is in town for a two week debate camp at the lovely Twin Palms Hotel at ASU. We picked him up Tuesday night and headed to everybody's favorite Ethiopian Cafe: Lalibela's. We got the Exclusive, to which we all did ample justice. Selah went 5 hours without eating...all so that we could have a peaceful meal and conversation. It was fantastic, but a reality nonetheless. Selah was jealous of Nick because he has hair and she doesn't. Question: second cousin, or first cousin once removed? Here's a video of Selah when I explained to her what Fishing Subsidies were.

Simultaneous Lightening and Thunder

I don't know what it is, maybe the fresh air, but this little baby sleeps so well camping. We pulled off two nights in a row this weekend. Look at that awesome crib! It's so easy to bring along and set up.

Saturday we got hit with a killer thunder, rain and hail storm that threatened to flood our tent. Lightening and Thunder were presenting themselves to our eyes and ears at the same moment, and we, being tented under a few big pine trees, several of which looked like they'd been struck by lightening before, decided to wait the storm out in the car. But it cleared up beautifully so that the evening was cool enough to really enjoy the walk around the lake. Casson's bike ride was a bit muddy. On Sunday I ran into Katia again, the woman with the baby girl of Selah's age. Her daughter's name is Natalie. I didn't get a picture of her because it started to really rain again and we had to dive for cover in the car again.

I Want To Be a People Person or Let's Not Sit At Home Alone So Much

Look how happy Selah was when she learned that her Uncle Michael and his girlfriend Kate were coming to visit in a few weeks. I've never seen her smile so much at the mention of any other upcoming event. I, Lisa, went for my six week check-up today. Dr. Brown says I'm healthy and back to normal, and I feel back to normal too... actually have for a few weeks. Dr. Brown was so excited to meet Selah. Selah was reticent despite her excitement. Last night we had a birthday dinner at Rachel's house for her nephew Alan, who is in town until today. He and Selah are sort of friends now.

She's On Her Rocker

Camping in Prescott National Forest

We packed up the car on Saturday morning. The Shapiro's stopped by for a visit before we left. They had just got home from their three week bike trip along the California coast. We saw pictures and heard stories and drank coffee. They were going to try to come with us to go camping, but decided that they should probably get things done at home since they'd been gone so long.

We got to our campsite while it was sprinkling glorious rain. Casson set up our house-tent and then drove to the nearby campstore to buy firewood. Unfortunately the rocking of the car over the dirt farm road made our bike rack snap in half, but thankfully the bike fit into the car even with all our camping gear. The great news was that Selah began sleeping next to the campfire, and slept pretty continuously until the next morning at 7:00. It was great for me to get six hours of sleep in a row that night. We read the original The Ugly Duckling around the fire, which made us both want to cry, and thankfully didn't make Selah want to cry.

Next day Casson rode his mountain bike in the hills surrounding Lynx Lake, and I took another walk with Selah around the lake. I met a young woman who had a six week old baby girl, out for a walk around the lake, whose husband was also out mountain biking. We talked for a while and she gave me her phone number to get together next time we are in Prescott. It was strange to have so much in common with a total stranger. She was even wearing the same Wal-Mart nursing tank top that I'd just recently bought. Then we tried out the new baby carrier, with a short hike to the Lynx Lake Indian Ruins. Selah loved it. We draped her with a wet blanket to keep her cool and in the shade.

Rocketman

We Have Achieved Happiness, or The Summer of the Disappearing Days and Diapers

July is almost over. If I were returning to work, I would already have to be getting my room ready, etc. That seemed to go so fast. But it's just me and Selah during the days from here on. She seems to be getting happier about the idea every day. She smiles a lot. I finally caught a partial smile on camera.

Emergency: We only have 4 diapers left! They also seemed to go so fast.

Selah's Subaru

Selah has been sleeping well at night between about 11 and 5, waking up hungry once or twice, but falling right back to sleep. It's fun because when she is awake during the day, which is a lot, she is really expressive and fun to be with.

Casson went to get a new battery at AutoZone. They told him that he had bought his battery at WalMart less than two years ago, and that WalMart should replace it for free. Casson was hesitant, but the man at AutoZone convinced him that it should be no big deal, and would save him a bunch. So Casson went to WalMart. Well, they tested the battery and said because it still had a little charge, they couldn't replace it but could recharge it for us. That would take, only about an hour "if you want to wait an hour." Casson had already spent an hour on this project, so he said forget it, and went back to AutoZone. Needless to say, he got home a bit bummed and sweaty. He leaned down to Selah and told her he'd had a rough afternoon, to which she gave him the biggest grin of her life! Casson called me over and she grinned again! She's really into smiling lately. She's started making little squeaks and cooing noises too.By the way, Mike, from Mike's Place, fixed our Subaru. He had a new axle ready to replace ours, since we just didn't want to take any chances. When he took it all apart, he saw that someone had bolted the axle on with the wrong part, so it was tightening and untightening randomly. All he had to do was put the right bolt on (something like that) and it runs perfectly. In fact, now it doesn't make that other vibration noise that it has been making all along.

Sleeping late Saturday

Saturday

Selah with her Daddy

Selah's REM Sleep

Unregulated Sleep Patterns

Road Trip to Lynx Lake near Prescott. So far we have gone to Prescott every weekend since Selah was born. It's the only way to be outside this summer.

The path around Lynx Lake is perfect for strollers.

Last Friday

Last Friday. Selah is awake a lot more during the day now, and usually sleeps pretty much all night, waking up to eat every three hours or so.

Selah took another bath yesterday. Here she is all cuddly and dry. I took her on a short car ride today to the post office to buy stamps. Her head kept falling forward in her carseat. I had to keep reaching back and hoisting her head up. Some kind of strap system may be necessary to keep her head in place.

My friend Amy had her baby girl on Tuesday night - Pazly (I'm not sure of the spelling yet).