Her Mother's Child

I have always been a night owl, from since I can remember.  I was the kid who had to be woken up on Christmas Day to come open presents because my siblings were up and ready to go!  In fact, I write this at 9:30 pm with pork chops cooking that will be done at 10 pm :) (for tomorrow's lunch of course....I don't eat dinner THAT late!!)  When I got older and got a job, I was forced to become more of a morning person, just so I could get to work on time.  Not my first nature though.

Kara seems to be following in my footsteps.  Sunday, she didn't take her normal long naps but instead took several catnaps.  She slept about 1.5 hours versus her normal 4 hours or so total.  Then we took bluebonnet pictures that evening so she didn't get into bed until about 8 pm, about an hour later than usual.  We generally watch her on the monitor until she drifts off to sleep, which is usually pretty quick.  However, Sunday night she was ready for play.... 

....and rolling over!!  She has been trying for a little while now - maybe a couple of weeks or so.  Sunday night she started off by rolling to her side, which is where she has been sleeping here lately.  But then she started throwing her feet over so that her hips were face down but her shoulders were still not all the way over.  She would get almost rolled over, but her shoulders weren't quite there and she would find her right arm pinned under her left armpit.  So she would roll back onto her back and try again.  At last she got completely rolled over with only her arm pinned under her armpit.  She layed there for a little while presumably thinking this over, contemplating how to get the stuck arm unstuck.  She must've finally come to a good conclusion because next thing you know she was shrieking with excitement, up high on her hands, looking around as if to say, "did you see that?! Did you see that?! I rolled over!! Wow!!!"  It was now 8:30 pm. And she has now rolled over for the first time. In her bed of all places.  And she was now hungry again :~)  So, after a little milk, she finally went to sleep for the evening.  (OK a few hours...)

She loves her newfound trick by the way!  Here's a video from yesterday.  After I picked her up after work and we got home, I couldn't keep her on her back.  Every time she would immediately roll onto her tummy.  Practice, practice, practice!!

Texas Bluebonnets

This year the Texas state flower, the bluebonnet, has come out early and strong.  This due to a very warm and early spring accompanied with good rains coming at just the right time.  We wanted to get some pictures in the bluebonnets, as is a pretty standard family/kids picture around these parts and today I scoped out and found some really nice spots not too far from the house.  So, we set out to get some pictures late this afternoon.  The spot we found turned out even better than I expected!  Of course, as is expected with kids, babies in particular, it was a bit difficult to get Kara to smile.  In fact, just getting her to look at us, with all these neat flowers in sight was a challenge! 

The flowers smelled wonderful and Kara was just completely enamored with them.  She couldn't stop looking at them the entire time we were out there and kept wanting to pick them and look at them.  A child after my own heart I tell ya!

 I laid Kara down in the flowers and she immediately starting checking them out :)

 ....and then decided to test their culinary abilities (don't worry, she didn't eat any!!)

 Still checking them out.....

 Oh, you want me to look at you??

 Kara tells us, "Have you seen these things? They are awesome!!"

 Well, Kara wouldn't play along so I just chose the best one of Mark and I :)  Funny, at home she stares and the camera everytime it is out, but here, she just wanted to look at the flowers!