Big Day For Brenna

Today the three of us, with Grandma and Grandpa H, drove down to Tucson to see cousin Melanie and her husband Darrick. We woke this morning to a dense fog, caused from the rain we had the prior day (see the Addicted to Hoes blog for pictures... shameless plug), and drove through it until we neared Florence, about a half an hour down the road from our house. Brenna did very well on the two hour plus drive, until we reached Tucson. We stopped briefly to refuel her, but were rewarded by being able to eat a peaceful lunch with our family. Below is a picture (the only one) of everyone together (except me). Melanie is about a month out from her due date, and is glowing. We're all very excited about the arrival of Alexander Sean and look forward to meeting him sometime in February. Hopefully by then Brenna will be able to withstand a 4-5 hour roundtrip drive, strapped into a car seat (we had a "slight" meltdown on the way home that told us she's not quite ready for that long a period of confinement/containment).
















We later attempted to give our daughter a break from the car seat on the way home, stopping at Target to pick up a Bumbo for her. What is a Bumbo (sp?) you may ask? See below and be amazed by Brenna's abililty to hold up her head in this contraption all by herself. I took three pictures of her, trying to capture a smile, and came up with a wide variety of expressions, none of which I'd consider to be what I was looking for, but amusing just the same.

In this first picture, she seems to be figuring out what to do in it, holding onto the crotch rod (well, what would you call it?) for support.
















Here, she seems to have gotten the hang of sitting (somewhat) upright on her own, preparing to stuff as many fingers in her mouth as she can handle. She hasn't quite figured out what she has five individual fingers on each hand, but one day that thumb will break free and find itself in her mouth.
















This was the closest I got to a smile, um, sure. This is the classic deer-in-the-headlights shot.