St. Louis or bust!

Bust it is. Our perfectly planned and scheduled vacation-- complete with lactation areas at the zoo and maps to each restaurant we wanted to try-- fell through. Royally. I started throwing up about 8 hours before we were planning to hit the road; fever and chills and the whole nine yards. No one hates being taken care of more than a nurse... except for a mother! I hadn't imagined before what it might be like to hold a bucket in one arm and breastfeed my baby with the other. (And actually, I am hoping that memory fades as quickly as childbirth seems to!) I was worried every time I fed her that I was breathing in her face and had to catch myself from giving her sweet little face slobbery kisses. It is a terrible feeling to feel like you can't give your baby what she needs. Thank goodness for my husband who was willing to bring her to me when she was hungry and let me sleep it off the rest of the time!

We are nearing a new month, and Annie has a new bag of tricks. Annie sits up on all fours and rocks back and forth, but hasn't figured out crawling just yet. In fact, she gets quite frustrated when trying to reach her toys because she pushes with her arms instead of her legs, forcing herself in the opposite direction that she is trying to go. She is an expert at rolling from her back to her belly. Unfortunately, she hates to be on her belly and she does not know how to roll to her back. We will often hear a spiteful cry about 3 minutes after I have laid her down for a nap. I will go in and sure as daylight, she is on her stomach and mad about it. I wonder who she thinks comes in and flips her over because she certainly doesn't think she did it!

Annie has always been a very vocal child and now she is starting to make some noises that sound like words. In a disturbing development, whenever she is getting laid down or rocked for a nap, getting her diaper changed, or not allowed to tip over the shiny glass of water, she lets out an exasperated "mamamamama!" Oh dear. So now I am associated with all things uncomfortable! We'll need to work on that I think. She loves other babies! I laid her on the blanket next to a baby at church whose mom was also in the nursing room and they cooed and reached for each other and laughed and played. It was pretty adorable if I don't say so myself.

We are hoping to do a local trip to the zoo today to replace our would-be trip to the zoo in St. Louis. We'll see how it goes!