It's summertime...

Last night we took our first family picnic of the summer. We picked up chicken burgers from P. Terry's and hung out at Auditorium Shores at Town Lake. Bear of course headed for the water- she loves to retrieve other dogs' toys- and we got to people watch to our heart's content. I was again reminded of why I love Austin so much. The breeze made the extreme heat actually bearable and there were tons of families and an eclectic mix of people running, playing and hanging out. We walked up the hill of the newest addition to the park and sat down to take in all of the sights. We watched as kids played in the new fountain park, bikers flew down the steep incline, and saw the sun set in its entirety. All of it was, in a word, beautiful.
That is what life is right now. Beautiful.
Emmy is growing like a champ. Here are a few highlights from the past few weeks:


Emmy is very happy at the park!

• She loves being outdoors. This has proven to be a natural antidote to her nighttime unpleasantries...fussiness and a general unhappiness. We will sit outside and watch Daddy mess around in the yard, we water the plants and she loves to hold her arm out in the stream of water from the hose. We have gone swimming twice and I was amazed by just how much water a diaper can hold!



Swimming at her friend Reese's house!

• She sits up on her own now, with a slight wobble.
  
• Her favorite activity in the morning is to "sing" with Mama (a serious of loud yelps and silly babbles). Her favorite songs are "This is the day the Lord has made" and "You are my sunshine." She just grins and grins.


• She is now eating solids, although I don't understand why watery rice cereal is considered a "solid." At any rate, this has caused her diaper changes to be most interesting (and stinky!). Who knew solids would cause her BM to look so different?!

• When I leave her on the floor, she now flip flops her way to whatever object has caught her interest.