evan, lindsay, nina, elena and esther

Just picture Nina sitting happily in her bumbo chair yesterday evening. (notice those arms sticking straight out? That's what she's like in her chair the whole time she's eating hahaaa it's so cute)



Now imagine the contents of her diaper spilling out the left leg opening like very slowly flowing lava.

Meanwhile we were eating a fine dinner at Emily & Joe's table. Us the Davises and the Niemans. I think Nina's lack of propriety may have changed Vaughn's mind about going steady with Nina later in life. haha jk He was asleep. So I dashed to the paper towels and got back in time before the gook reached the table. Safe! Trying to avoid contact we picked her up, chair and all, and moved her into their shower. I think she was a little bewildered, poor sweetie. We had a heck of a time cleaning her up. I love the Davis' handheld shower spray unit thingy. It was perfect. Then I cleaned the shower and the bumbo for them. Earlier today our friends had told us about this happening to them on a road trip while they were in the middle of nowhere in Oregon. I'm sure they didn't have access to a shower spray unit thingy. We were lucky!

I LOVE how Nina has been wrapping her arms around my neck when I pick her up and hold her. She'll burrow her head into my neck. She did this to Aunt Ann the other day when we met them and Jesse & Karen for lunch. Sometimes that's just convenient because she's teething and she wants to gnaw on my collarbone! It doesn't hurt and I don't mind it at all. She does have a pretty hard clamp with her jaws lately though, and her hands can grip like a sticky anaconda onto my hair. I love how she smiles at us without holding back her excitement. I love hearing a squeal or laugh from her room telling me she just woke up from a nap and going in to see her grinning for no reason at all other than being awake and wanting to see us. Nina is teaching us what Janine Hogan from my parent's ward in Kenmore says about babies - Babies don't wait for a reason to love people. They don't love you because of something you did. They just love you because you're you, just the way you are. They just love you completely. They love the same way God loves us. The scriptures tell us to be like children. I think this is what God meant by this.

I want to do that better. I've been praying to be able to develop that type of pure unrestrained love for people regardless of circumstance.


Some of Nina's current favorites:

Going to the park and sitting on a blanket

Drinking fountains

Holding Nibs' or Vaughn's hands

The swings at Porter Park

The little stuffed rabbit

Sitting in her bumbo with us in the kitchen

Drinking from a glass. hahahaa it's so funny. Her tongue will either be beneath the rim or above it. She gets so excited to drink from a glass and make noises into it. Fun acoustics.

Reaching her arms out for my face and the bringing her head in. She'll slobber all over my face trying to chew on my cheeks or my chin. She'll be making noises that sometimes I can feel vibrating against my skin and if I dare to open my eyes all I see is her enormous face smashed against mine and gums and huge blue eyes.

Trying to eat books