Happy Independence Day!

For the fourth my mom and Bill came up for a visit.  In reality it is to see A, but we'll take it, it is always nice to see family and get a little bit of help doing stuff around the house.  A continues to nap well as long as she is cuddling with someone.  She seems to be an equal opportunity cuddler as well, so if you need a napping buddy, she's your girl.  Here is a picture of Chris and me hanging out on the couch one day. 

Today we went to the MSI and saw the Body World exhibit.  It was Mom's first time to see the bodies, and A's first time to not be in utero to visit the museum.  A was very patient and hung out in her sling, while mom read all of the different placard throughout.  The coolest things from this body worlds were the animal plastinates.  I'd never seen any of them before and they are just interesting to me.  My zoo girls would understand the fascination, but they had a plastinate giraffe in the entry way to the museum.  We didn't really have time to see much else at the museum, but that's why we're members -- so we can go for free and not feel pressured to see it all in one day. :)  Here are a few pictures though:

Other than that we just did house improvement things for the fourth, oh and we watched some fireworks from our balcony.  I actually made some slings to carry A in while Chris and Bill worked on the UV tinting for the door and mom occupied A.  They are GREAT and much more comfortable for me than the backpack carrier we got.  I switch sides every so often, and at the end of the day my back doesn't hurt.  Everyone always asks me if carrying A in either the backpack or slings is a comfortable thing, my response has become, "Well, I carried her there for about nine months, at least this way its only a few hours," and we both laugh and go about our separate business.  The other really cool thing with the sling though is that I can nurse A in public without much exposure of me (provided she cooperates) to the general public, so I don't really need a nursing cover if I've got her in the sling.  I found that out today at the museum. 

In terms of A: we're getting a lot more noises out of her for simple things.  She makes different sounds and is smiling a lot.  She has her toothless smiles that do brighten up the day and make changing that dirty diaper not so bad, though occasionally if she's worked really hard, she kind of gets upset that we change the diaper.  Cloth diapers are still going well.  She really really loathes the heat, so we're running our AC more than we ever have, at least since we've been here in Chicago.  Really we need a dehumidifier more than an AC sometimes, but that's not really a good idea for our place.  A didn't really seem to mind the fireworks until we got several from several locations.  She still likes to look at stuff with lots of contrast, so I think she enjoyed the museum.  She isn't sleeping as much, so we're able to read more and play a bit more. We have more good days in a week than bad ones (days when she is inconsolably cranky, but most of the time turning on the air helps the crankiness exponentially), so that's encouraging.  Hopefully June will be the hottest month of the summer, but I won't hold my breath about that. 

As always it seems, I'm cutting in to my sleep time, but think it is worth it to kind of keep a record of A this week so that I can look back on it and see things.