WHO'S A SUPER-CUTIE?

So Grandma Patty left on Friday. Boo hoo hoo! We all miss her. In addition to cleaning house, feeding us (pets and plants included), and generally being cheery, she was "right there" to take care of Vanessa.

Grandma Patty was dedicated to teaching Vanny how to grasp. Two favorite classrooms are The Machine - formerly known as The Play Station - and The Arch. The Machine has rattles, voices, and animal noises, and Milo is petrified whenever Van gets into it. She especially likes to be in it barefoot, so she can feel every little detail down below, and she often flexes her impressively developed abdominal muscles to bring her body into the pike position. As for The Arch, Van not only grasps the toys, she gets her feet up there to bat at those hanging toys with her monkey toes. This morning Alley Cat peed on The Arch not once but twice. "Message received," Alley.

Grandma also read a book to Little Miss Vanessa every day, and supervised the purchase of her first high chair, rice cereal, and baby food. Daddio gave her a first taste of solid food today - pears.

Between chores, my mother kept asking about giving the baby a bath. Nessa has had three official baths... two with us and one with Auntie Anne. There was so much screaming and crying that I've resorted to damp-mopping her each day instead. This is not consistent with my mother's understanding of clean, apparently, since she made me ask our pediatrician how often the baby should be bathed and whether or not we should use soap.

What? So I am, as Maribeth says, a bit European when it comes to bathing.

Today Jack put both Nessers and mama into the bathtub. Instead of using the plastic molded infant tub perched on the counter in the bathroom, we made use of our 1978 soaking tub in the master bath. It was a hot day here so Daddy poured luke-warm water gently over baby Vannerkins like a waterfall while I held her. She didn't cry, she didn't scream: she liked it. It was delightful! Sorry, no photos of this, but here is the end result - can you hear the Monkey screeches?

Later we went to the pier to get shrimp tacos, watch the surfers, then finished up with ice cream cones. What a wonderful day - just the kind Grandma Patty loves!