Poker face

For this week's blog, I figured I would start with our little munchkin's latest... She is becoming more like a person by the minute- a goofy person, that is, with a crazy sense of humor. Today, she discovered how much she likes various parts of my face, and how fun it is to poke, grab, and munch on my mouth, nose, and eyes. She started out cute enough. She grabbed both of my cheeks and starred at me while she smiled and giggled. It was pretty darn cute. As this game went on, she started talking a little more, getting more excited, and began squeezing my nose and grabbing at my eye sockets. All of this was fascinating to her and even more fascinating to Shonna. This went on for 5 minutes or so, then an hour or two later it was time for round 2. Round 2 included the same actions as round 1, but she also decided it would be fun to treat my face like it was made of bananas and butternut squash. Scarlett was trying to eat my face!?! The funny thing is that if I pulled my face away, she would reach out with both arms extended and try to grab on and pull my face into position for another bite. I wish I could have filmed it. Don't worry, she didn't leave Shonna out. Soon after, she decided it was time to take a bite out of Shonna's cheeks and grab her teeth... Same excitement and entertainment for her, and since mommy was holding her, she was the perfect target! She was just giving Shonna an early birthday gift:).

Speaking of birthday, we started Shonna's 29th celebration a bit early. Saturday night we had a nice lobster dinner and bottle of red wine we brought back from our trip to Napa last spring. Today, Bonnie and Leila took Shonna out for a birthday brunch. We met in Kent Narrows at Annies, and Scarlett got to hang out with her future best friends Kazia and Caroline and they picked up the check :) Thanks! Apparently we have to celebrate as much as possible this year because next year is the big 3-oh (although there is talk of a group celebration so that the focus is not on one individual I assume...)

Shonna here... I have to say that whole thing was the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life! It wasn't just all of the grabbing at and eating his face. She was really just gazing at him and smiling as big as she possibly could. It seemed like she just realized how great she thinks her daddy is and couldn't get enough! She got so excited and started squealing as she reached for him. They were also just looking at each other about 5 inches apart and laughing. Paul would laugh and then Scarlett laughed... back and forth. It was really just so sweet to see! In between she was stopping to snuggle into his chest. Paul is right. This weekend she seemed to all of the sudden become more like a real person. Her personality just continues to evolve.

The other thing that happened this weekend was that she seemed to get a lot more interested in Bacchus. Yesterday she started petting him for the first time. She was doing really well being very gentle until all of the sudden she got really excited and started banging on him. He was a good sport about it and just tried to get away from her by pulling away. Today he jumped up on the couch right next to her (she was on my lap) and she got really excited and started squealing and slapping her arms up and down. Bacchus looked pretty startled but he stayed put! He seems pretty patient with her, considering!

One of the big things this week was that we had another rookie mistake. We went out for one of our long evening walks on Friday and got all the way to Clarendon (after about 3 and a half miles) when we realized that Paul forgot the diaper bag! We had to run around to three different stores trying to find diapers, wipes, formula, and a bottle. The only problem was that they didn't have the kind of bottle she uses and she had no idea what to do with the one we got. She kept trying to eat but the milk just poured out of her mouth. Poor thing got pretty frustrated after about an hour of trying to eat! We finally broke down and got her some store-bought baby food to get something in her stomach.

Scarlett went to her first Capital's game outside of the womb on Wednesday. It was game 7 of the first round of the playoffs. We were a little anxious about trying it because we knew it would be ridiculously loud at the Verizon center. Paul put his huge rifle headphones on her and they worked really well! They seemed to protect her from the noise. So well, that she actually slept through most of the third period (fell asleep at her normal 9 PM bedtime!)! She did great at the game and was a big hit with the crowd. The only problem was that she kept wanting to bounce on my lap and I was worried that she would impede the view of the folks behind us. She also wanted to be upside down a lot and a worried that she wold hit the people in front of us in the head.

The big thing is that Scarlett continues to display more and more of her personality. She has such a great sense of humor and is always smiling and laughing. Paul is right that I think she is manipulating us a bit more these days and she seems to be getting pretty spoiled in terms of wanting attention all of the time, but she is so darn cute that it makes it impossible not to give in because we want to be with her all of the time. Hard to believe that she hits the 6 month point next week. I cant wait to see what new tricks she picks up by then!