By Jason
Since we’ve been back from our travels, Athena has aggressively pursuing the relevant developmental milestones. She’s getting very determined, and when she wants to turn around and be held facing forward or grab a particular toy, she is not easily distracted from her goal.
One major new skill is creeping. Creeping is the term for getting around on her belly but not actually crawling. What Athena does is actually more accurately called inchworming, since she plants her face and hands on the floor, scoots her legs up, and then inches her way forward before starting over again. As of this writing, she’s getting very close to actually crawling, so I’ll have to get some video soon.
The other major accomplishment to mention is teething. Teething is horrible. I don’t know whose idea this was, but her gums hurt and she doesn’t know why and she doesn’t like Orajel or baby ibuprofen, even though it makes her feel better. Feeds have become a bigger challenge, and she’s too sore to be the reliably happy baby we’re so used to. We ended up not going out to dinner for Mother’s Day (getting takeout instead) because we didn’t want to chance it. Hopefully this tooth will pop out soon.
Visiting with Uncle Ahan:
Playing Rock Band at Google on a Saturday afternoon:
Athena hanging with Sandy:
In general Ann and I have been doing alright. I’ve had a head cold that refuses to completely go away for about two weeks, though it seems to be on it’s way out now. I’ve been pretty busy at work and having my ears all blocked up has made it hard to lead meetings and such. Ann has been busy drawing up plans for a grant application at her clinic, they’re hoping to redesign the floorplan and make their space more efficient.
In fact, it was after a trip to her office to measure walls that we stopped by Kelley Park in San Jose. Kelley park isn’t particualrly famous but it reminded me a bit of the Metroparks back in Cleveland – there’s a lot of trees, a creek, picnic tables and interesting sections.
Athena enjoying the koi pond in the Japanese Friendship Garden:
More fun with mom by the pond:
The Japanese park is on two levels, with ponds connected by streams. Here we are at the upper pond:
This picture was fun – we tried to sit Athena down in the grass for a photo but she immediately flipped herself over and started pulling up the grass. It was pretty much the most amazing thing she had ever discovered. If we had left her there I have no doubt she would have defoliated the entire lawn.
Athena also enjoyed clawing the bark off the trees:
She’s not really waving, but we’ll say goodbye with this last photo:
