I have been successful at parking the bus so far. . . that is if you consider “successful” to be that I haven’t hit anything. If you consider it to be parking within the lines without my tail end hanging out. . . then, never mind. I have to admit it has served its purpose so far. A couple of days after we bought it, I had Mallory, the dogs and boxes for FedEx all at the same time. We went tailgating for Kylie’s band competition this weekend and even had enough room to carry Mallory’s exercise saucer. Tonight, I picked up a ton of stuff at UPS, and it all fit in the back end. I can’t wait to load it down and take it to visit dad. Kylie gets to have the whole backseat to herself.
Mallory had a stomach virus a couple of weeks ago. That was fun. There’s nothing like wondering if your 4 ½ month old is going to have to go the hospital for IV fluids. My friend Terri said her daughter had it twice. She ended up giving her Pedialyte with a syringe. We didn’t have to resort to that. Mallory would drink it mixed in with her formula (took a couple of days and a couple of conversations with the “advice nurse” to figure that one out). But I have to say that Johnathan and I are very blessed that we work for people that are so understanding. We were able to trade off working from home (along with some help from Lindsey). She never acted like she felt bad. She just had it coming out of both ends. She would puke her guts up and then give you the biggest cheesiest smile. . . with milk still running out of her nose. Crack me up. On a positive note, her face cleared up because of the lack of slobber. ;)
Now to the fun stuff. Mallory has learned how to laugh! Well, “learned” may be a bit strong. We were sitting in the office, and Johnathan started making faces at her. She started making this noise until it suddenly came out as a laugh. I think it startled her as much as it startled us. I looked at Johnathan and said, “Where’s the camera?” He said, “I don’t know” and went back to making faces with her steadily laughing. So I asked again, “Johnathan, where is the camera?” He said, “I don’t know” and went back to making faces. I finally looked him in the eyes and said, “Dude. Go get the camera!” I was actually blinded by the light that came on over his head before he darted out of the room. You have to understand that this man has been waiting for months to hear her laugh (I’ll refer you to the video on his blog from 11/3/06). Tearing himself away from that moment was hard. . . but I was holding her so he didn’t have a choice. We do have video. . . but he took the camera to Seattle with him so you’ll have to wait a few days. (sorry, don’t complain to me. . . I looked all over the house for it before I realized) But it’s the cutest thing. She’s not real great at duplicating it yet. She gets it every once in a while and just keeps going, but for the most part, she chokes herself and ends up with the hiccups.
On another note, last Wednesday night, I decided to put her on her tummy in the kitchen to see how she was doing with tummy time. I had no sooner laid her down than she rolled right over! I squealed. . . she cried. I’m not sure if I scared her or if rolling over scared her. To me, she seemed like “an old pro” at it. I was able to get her to do it about 4 times, and then 2 more times when Johnathan and Kylie got home. It was so exciting! My problem is that she did it so quickly I’m convinced that she has been doing it at day care, and they haven’t told me. Of course, I asked. Her teacher said she hadn’t, but she also said that they can’t tell us when a “first” happens (too depressing I guess). She just smiled this big smile and said, “I’m so glad she did it at home for you before doing it here.” What a crock. I just know she’s been doing it since she was 3 months old and nobody told us. I wrote October 23rd in her baby book. . . but it will forever have an asterisk beside it.