Lura can push up on her hands now, and she can rotate her body around if she wants to reach something off to the side; she has almost mastered the backwards scooting that's the immediate prelude to crawling, so we're working on baby-proofing the house right now!
She enjoys sitting up much more, though, since it leaves her hands free to grab things!
And mostly she wants to grab things to put them in her mouth and chew on them. She's been teething for a couple of months, and her first two lower incisors appeared in early April. (At least, we felt them starting then when she chewed on our fingers!) Lura's almost eight months old in this picture.
She actually hasn't been extremely fussy during the teething process, at least most of the time, though there have been a few bad days. Mostly she has just been drooling a lot (Mark had to touch up a few of these photos to eliminate reflections), and chewing on whatever she can reach, especially a chilled teething ring (they really work!).
Now that Lura can sit upright comfortably, Mark got out this little pony that was given to him at Cheryl's baby shower by our friend Rick from the church choir (an experienced daddy). Mark drapes it over his knee like a saddle, and Lura sits on it; the mane is crinkly, and there are chimes and a squeaker, as well as teething rings on the bridle. Plenty to entertain a little cowgirl!
That's not the only thing for Lura to ride! Last August, Mark came across a half-price deal on a factory demo eGO Cycle electric moped; we figured that it would pay for itself in fuel savings within two or three years, even with Mark's short commute, so we bought it and now he rides it to work, choir practice, etc. On Sundays he rides it to church early to warm up with the choir, and Cheryl brings Lura to join him (usually in the choir ready room, which has a video feed, in case Lura gets fussy) later. Here we are out on the patio after the service on Mothers' Day.
This was Cheryl's first Mothers' Day; it was also the first for Mark's coworker Susan, whom we visited at lunchtime a couple of days later. Here are Susan's husband Bill (also a coworker of Mark's) and Emma, who's a month older than Lura. It looks like Lura has just told Emma something mildly scandalous...
On Saturday, 15 May 2004, we finally got a chance to go out to a belated Mothers' Day dinner for Cheryl, at the Cheesecake Factory. We used a very generous gift certificate given to Cheryl earlier by her sister Judy; many thanks! This is another of our designated "family friendly" restaurants (noisy enough that a baby's crying wouldn't disturb other patrons). Lura learned to say "Mama" just in time for Mothers' Day; she also says "Dada," and Mark will swear in a court of law that the day before we took this photo she said "kitty" clear as a bell, while he was talking to her about one of our kitties. At eight and a half months! Yes, he's proud.
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