We went to the fair today. I love the fair.

I was so looking forward to it, and I really wanted Veronica to meet the animals. But I was nervous; she’s never done anything this adventurous. She’s only 8 months old, and want to make sure I don’t ask more of her than she can do.

There was a missed nap we’d have to negotiate, not to mention the huge amount of overstimulation that is the essence of the fair.

Long story short, we went for 3 hours. She was great!

She pet a lot of critters, including an alligator:

I got to visit the pigs:

We also visited a dinosaur exhibit. It was pretty realistic for a county fair. Some kids were brought in and started screaming.

Veronica was cool with it:

In fact, she was pretty cool with almost everything. She had big huge eyes and wanted to see everything. She did want to be held pretty often, but she was cheerful.

She slept in the car on the way home, but when we got home, she had a lot of thoughts to think.

For her, the thinking had to do with jumping up and down and playing with a lot of toys.  I could just see those new ideas marching across her little baby brain.

“There is such a thing as a goat. I must jump! There is such a thing as a sheep. I must kick!”

The world had gotten bigger for her. When she was seeing all the new stuff, she took it calmly with big eyes. But coming home, she cut loose and got all excited.

There will be more adventures.

It’s been hot, and it keeps being hot. Yesterday, V wouldn’t eat very much.

But I gave her a sippy cut with some water in it. She LOVES to drink water from her own hands with her own cup. And since her hands and her cup are a little messy, I only give her water.

It’s hot and the radio is telling everyone to drink a lot of water, so I thought water was a good idea. But her daddy says that water makes her throw up.

well, URP.

It does, I have to admit. Then again, so does formula. And baby food. And…well, this is a time in her life when the valve pretty much goes both ways, up and down. And she loves her sippy. So I give it to her.

She’s gaining independence. She is good at sitting up now, and enjoys her tv shows greatly. We just have to stay out of her way

This week we’ve been trying to teach Veronica sleep independence. We started last thursday, and used the methods explained by Weissbluth. A lot of people have had success with it.

The idea is that babies need to learn to put themselves to sleep, not to be soothed and rocked and patted. So, parents should put the little one to bed before she is asleep and let her fall asleep without help.

Which means letting her cry it out.

That’s hard. Veronica has spent a lot of hours crying alone in her room this week. And I have had to steel myself not to go in there and pick her up. She’s little! She needs me! But she needs to learn.

She is learning. I can hear her wake up sometimes, and she puts herself back to sleep without crying. WONDERFUL.

She doesn’t hold it against us in the morning, either. We’ve all been getting more sleep as a result, which makes it worthwhile.

Doesn’t she look more independent?

went out to do some laundry. i’d just gotten home, and husband was wrung out from childcare.

he asked me to do the laundry ’cause v had peed all over things

twice

so i changed from my work clothes and took the laundry to the garage whereupon

i encountered the LARGEST SCARIEST OF THE SCARY I’M NOT EVEN KIDDING SCARY spider. right by the washer and everything. it was magnificent in it’s horrifaction. i looked at it closer and saw the dreaded red hourglass. i had to get datagraphic evidence

i ran inside to get my videocamera and told chris about it

“I need your help! I’m starving and I have to pee!”

well i knew that feeling. My artistic impulses would have to be put aside to take over the bottle feeding. Chris went to go look. He came back “It’s a black widow. It has to be killed now. Before it gets away.”

He found the Raid and dispatched of the Shelob. Now I only have the memory and no evidence. That always happens!