Peek-a-boo, shell game and a peg leg

Everyone says that it takes a long time for the babies to open up and bond. We are seeing that with Elizabeth. She makes such progress, but yet is still holding back so much. Each day she breaks through that shell, but it is still pretty thick. I seem glimpses behind the shell and then all of a sudden she realizes she let her guard down and quickly puts it back up. I have been taking her swimming while Sam has swimming class. I put her on the side of the pool and pull her into my arms and the water. She loves it and just laughs and laughs. One time she actually leaned in and fell into my arms. I was so excited. Then she would not do it again. She would rock and look like she really wanted to, but was not going to. She loves the pool and the water though.

Our other big break though is peek-a-boo! She has started playing with us. She will initiate it, cover her eyes and just laughs and laughs. It is great that she wants to play with us and and knows how to engage us. She learned really quick that if everyone else is laughing, she should laugh too. Also, if she starts laughing, we will laugh with her.

"Peg leg?" you ask. So Elizabeth has a club foot and on Monday we went to see the orthopedic doctor. He put her in a cast to correct the foot. She will be in a cast for 5 weeks. Every week I have to take her back to have them readjust her foot and recast. The good news is that she does not seem to mind it. I think she is young enough that she does not realize how annoying it is. She can still sit up and crawl around. Most of all she can still sit in her high chair and eat (her favorite activity).

Monday was Grammy's Birthday. We went out for lunch and she had guacamole and loved it. She also liked the chips. The pictures are from Monday.

This is a common expression for her. It is accompanied by an "OOOOO" sound and a fake sort of cry or whine. It cracks us up!
This is a milestone picture! It is the first picture of her smiling! All other pictures she looks sad and or scared. We were playing peek-a-boo, a guaranteed way to get her to smile. It is also the before picture........

This is the after picture. She is eating string cheese, thanks to Carmen for introducing it to her! She loves it. The cast is hot pink with a sock thing over it to protect her other leg from getting scratched up.