Miss Gloria Grace: So much... (part 2)

Last Friday, Gloria, Rob, and I went to the Olive Garden to eat. Gloria spent a bit of the time in her stroller, but the majority was spent in our arms trying to grab anything and everything off of the table. Afterwards, we went to Toys R Us to buy a swim floatie for our weekend trip up north and a booster seat for Gloria to sit in at restaurants. (Aunt Karen had given us one at the shower but it was ridiculously hard to snap the tray on (probably a manufacturing defect) so we just swapped it for a different chair.)

Gloria's been practicing sitting up while leaning against us or a pillow and has gotten pretty good at it. She'll even reach forward to grab toys and play and then sit right back up. However, she can't quite do it on her own for very long before leaning over and falling. We figured since she was doing so well with sitting and the fact that she likes to be right at the table with us, a booster seat was just what we needed. As soon as we got home, Gloria tried out her new seat and loved it!

"Look at me in my new chair!"

"I'm a big girl!"

Since Gloria was a few months old, we've been showing her an Elmo balloon that I had given Rob for his birthday. She likes to play with it and looks for it whenever she goes into Rob's office. I found some hard books at a garage sale with the Sesame Street characters as babies - including Elmo - and those are now books that we read before bed every night. Gloria especially loves the one called "Bubbles, Bubbles." When she sees Elmo, whether it's on the balloon, a book, or somewhere else, she gets a big smile on her face and gets excited. Last week I was at a garage sale and they had a big stuffed Elmo that talks when you press it's tummy. I debated it for a minute but after I held it up so Gloria could see and she smiled her huge smile I knew it was worth the three dollars. It's just about as tall as she is - maybe an inch taller. Rob makes him dance and walk around and makes Gloria laugh.

"I'd like you to meet my best friend, Elmo!"

Gloria has been doing great with her cereal. I've given it to her in the morning a few times and she eats it as well then as she has been doing at night. I don't think I'm going to be giving it to her every morning as her nursing throughout the day has gotten a bit worse. She's been very fussy and nursing for only a few minutes. We don't want Gloria to think that she doesn't need to nurse well and still gets cereal. Her main nutrition is still from the milk. However, Rob and I are starting to think she might be teething. She's been running a slight fever and has just been out of sorts for a few days. Hopefully it doesn't last too long and she's back to her happy-all-the-time self.