32 and 33 Weeks Old

I'm still trying to catch up. Here's cute little Pepper's photos from the past 2 weeks.


Some notes:

• She is going through a really needy phase. She always has to be clinging to some part of me. When I'm in the kitchen she climbs up my leg, then if I have to move (like from the stove to the sink) she cries and whines until she crawls two steps over and climbs up my leg again.
  
• She is so good at clapping. It's definitely legit now. I'll clap, and she'll copy me.
• I've caught her standing by herself a few more times.
• When we hold her she likes to pat us on the back.
  
• Her default mood is serious, but when she's happy, she makes this really cute scrunched-face smile and shows all her gums (no teeth yet.) I'll try to get a picture of it sometime.
• She thinks Josh's phone is her phone.
• We moved her up to size 2 diapers, even though she hasn't really grown. I figure you never know when she'll hit a growth spurt.
• She is great at hanging on the pull-up bar. We're constantly amazed at how strong she is.
  
• She has gotten cuddly again. So I guess we can forgive her for being so needy.

A few more pictures:

She would NOT let me get a diaper on her this day. She kept squirming and trying to crawl away so I finally gave in and let her run around naked for a while. She loved it.

Serious face. On the verge of glaring, I think.

Our big-eyed cutie.

Dad's Sweatshirt

So basically we put Josh's hoodie on Pepper and it was really cute so we took a bunch of pictures.





Here are some other random ones we've taken recently:

Lying in a big, warm pile of laundry:


Blurry but cute:

Amazed by her hands:

Bryce Canyon

Sorry I took so long to post stuff. I was waiting for Josh to fix some of our photos because he always likes for me to wait until he's fixed the photos before I post them, but he kept never getting to them and finally I decided I'm getting too far behind so I've attempted to fix them myself.

The Saturday before last Pepper and I joined Josh on his Geology field trip to the beautiful Bryce Canyon. His teacher was really nice and let me and Pepper ride on the tour bus with the class.


Pepper's first time on a bus.

It was really beautiful.

After the official field trip part, our friend Michael (a professional photographer) and Josh stuck around to take more photos for art purposes. Michael's friend Anthony accompanied us as well.

Here's a group picture:

It started to get chilly later in the evening.

Pepper fell asleep in Anthony's arms.

Some views of Bryce Canyon (completely unedited photos. Josh will make them look better later.)

31 Weeks Old

I cheated and took her 31 week pictures today instead of last Thursday. I don't think it makes a huge difference because she really doesn't grow very much. She still fits into clothes she was wearing 5 months ago just fine.

Josh wasn't here to help me with the camera and it was on some weird setting I didn't understand, so I just put everything on auto mode and was forced to use the flash for these pictures because I didn't know what else to do. Despite my lack of camera know-how though, Pepper was being so cute that there were way too many pictures to choose from and I just didn't feel like sorting through and picking out my favorites this time. So you're just gonna have to endure the scroll-down of a million Pepper pictures today.













Although she's not growing much in size, she's definitely growing in ability. She shocked us last Thursday by letting go of whatever she was holding on to and standing by herself for a few seconds!

She is great with her hands and can pick up even the smallest of objects from the ground (and promptly put it in her mouth.)

She is so wiggly during diaper changes that the only way you have a chance of getting a diaper on her is to distract her by letting her play with another diaper so she doesn't twist around and try to crawl away.

She loves to clap her hands-- it doesn't make a sound, but she's definitely got the motion down.

She has an obsession with looking up. Every time we pass under the pull-up bar, she stares at it intently. I don't understand why.

Michiru gave me these really cute magnets for my birthday and Pepper loves to play with them while I'm in the kitchen.

She does great in public places and anywhere where there are a lot of new things to look at.