Summer Days

The weather has cooled down for a few days...after a month of temps above 90 degrees (and a couple weeks of temps over 100 degrees!), anything below 90 feels great!  Today it was 75 degrees all day, and I'll be honest, I put on a jacket.  When the weather is nice, we spend time sitting out on our front porch.  We enjoy being outside and watching all the cars run the stop sign on the corner.  :)  Laurel also enjoys being outside, and likes to look around.  

Hi Mommy!

No, baby!  You are not allowed to drink any Diet Pepsi!

Laurel did not take an afternoon nap today, so she was pretty mellow...and not very smiley.

Here I am in my light jacket...and I'm not even hot!  I like this weather!

 My flower garden has not done well this year, due to the drought and the hot conditions.  I can't justify watering it every day just to have nice flowers, when all the farmers providing food for us don't have enough water to ensure their livelihood!  The hostas are looking pretty dry, and I haven't had a lot of flowers this summer.  But, my surprise lilies bloomed this week.  Surprise!  We even had a short rain storm, so you can see the rain drops on the petals.

I have 2 hydrangeas, and they have a few flowers...about half as many as usual.  And the leaves are so thin it doesn't even look like a bush anymore.

Laurel turned 4 months old on August 7.  She now has figured out that she has hands, and those hands can grab things!  When she is sitting on my lap she reaches for my phone, or my fork, or whatever I'm holding.  No fine motor skills yet, but she is a good grabber!  She also has found her feet, and spends a lot of time holding her toes.  In the past couple days she also has been spotted putting her big toe into her mouth and sucking away.  Laurel also likes to talk a lot, and makes all kinds of strange noises.  She doesn't cry very often, but does get fussy when she is hungry, and seems to be starting to get some teeth, which makes her not very happy.

See how flexible I am!  Some day Laurel will look at this picture and wish she could get her foot anywhere near her mouth

I'm holding my foot!  The only problem with this is that she has stopped rolling over, because her arms and legs are in the way!

Remember the last picture of tummy time, where she was crying?  She is much happier now.

Today Laurel fell asleep in the car on the way home from Pella in this position.  I kept trying to push her head back so she could lean back in the car seat, but she wouldn't move and kept going back to this position.  Once we got home she slept for about 15 more minutes like this.  Guess she was comfy!