Surprise!

This weekend, the family converged on "the other Rochester," heading to upstate New York to celebrate Alex's mom's birthday. Dad, Brynna, Jasper and I weathered a total of about 17 hours in the car, and Alex flew in from Minnesota.

This was all TOTALLY worth it, as the surprise was perfectly planned and executed by Kate and Art, and tons of fun to boot!

Denny was shocked when Alex wandered into the house on Friday afternoon.

Then she was astonished when Brynna, Dad and I showed up at the door that evening.

Then we went out for a celebratory dinner on Saturday night, and she was amazed to find a group of friends waiting to eat with us, along with Big Surprise Number Three, her best friend Sue, who flew in from the DC area.

Brynna loved having the time with her dad and grandparents, of course. It was a mini-birthday for her, too: seven months! Here she is celebrating with Grandma:



In other news, Jasper is doing great. He is starting back on kibble (sorry, Clara, I'm not ready for the raw food dog diet quite yet...) and we went for a run on Saturday.

Brynna, however, has regressed a bit in the food department. She is showing very little interest in the oatmeal now...perhaps the mashed banana that I have also been offering her over the last week has turned her off solid food entirely! I am trying to relax about it. She's nursing like a champ, so it's not like she's going to starve. Eventually, she will start eating solids, and pretty soon she'll be coordinated enough to pick up little pieces of food and stuff them in her own mouth. That may be what she is waiting for.

The other possibility is that she is really, truly, actually, finally teething this time, and it is making her mouth feel funny. The drooling has picked up again, she keeps chomping on her pacifiers rather than chewing on them, and she has been making funny tongue-thrusting motions.

I'll believe it when I see a little tooth poking out.