Our doodlebug is doing great! She is such a happy kid. She recently learned to shriek and is very proud of this skill, which she shows off frequently. She babbles a lot and has recently started to make some consonant/vowel sounds like "gagagaga" or "dadadada" and "blablabla". She loves to be talked or read to and studies your mouth intently as you speak.

She has also begun bearing some weight on her legs and loves to jump. This is a huge improvement because when we first brought her home she didn't bear weight at all. Now, less than a month later, you can barely get her to sit. She also borrowed her cousin Aurelia's jumper and she loves it - sometimes Mom is even allowed to get a little cooking or cleaning done while she is jumping. She still doesn't roll all the way over but sits like a pro with no support at all. She has also done a little frustrated "inching" on her belly to get a toy out of reach. She rolls herself on her side every night to fall asleep, just never all the way over. I have a feeling she might just skip rolling over altogether and move on to crawling.

Her sleep has improved somewhat. She still has some rough nights, but can sleep up to 6 hours at a time (unfortunately, that is generally 3:30 am until 9:30 am, not 12:00-6:00 or 1:00-7:00 which would be more convenient for Mom and Dad). She still typically fusses every two to three hours or so, but is getting easier to sooth and it rarely turns into full out crying. She has learned to take a pacifier which helped a lot in this area - although I guess that will be just another habit we have to help her break later.

She is still very attached to me and I am not allowed to be out of her sight at all. She loves Daddy too and beams and laughs at him when he comes home from work. She gets along great with all of the animals and is even a fairly gentle petter. All of the pets seem to like or at least tolerate her. Helen generally has an entourage of two big dogs following her wherever she goes. They sit outside the bedroom door when she naps. I have found what appear to be territorial markings near some of her things on at least two occasions (I have a suspect but no proof…), so it looks like we may have a bit of a dominance game going on, but I haven't seen any other behavior to concern me. The dogs also notify me immediately when she wakes up from her nap - Dex (ok, he's the suspect I alluded to earlier) will start crying outside the bedroom door. Overall, I think the four-legged members of our household are coping quite well. We just need to continue to reinforce that she is at the top of the dominance hierarchy.

Every day in our house is an adventure, but Jeremiah and I have had quite a week with animal issues. It started Thursday afternoon, when the roofer came over for our estimate. Our usually calm and friendly Buddy was unhappy to have a visitor who was not interested in acknowledging him, and barked incessantly. This is unusual behavior for him and I was surprised to be unable to quiet him. He eventually was sent to his room and he barked from there.

This must have riled the cats, because as our poor roofer tried explaining what our process/timeline would be, all three cats were suddenly lost in a screeching ball of flying fur about three feet from where we were sitting. Lulu was screaming bloody murder and there were large tufts of fur flying around. The roofer was very upset, “Oh my God, oh my God! Do they have claws? I can’t believe it! Is that cat ok?” Of course she was ok, just agitated and ever the drama queen. For the rest of the visit, he kept looking at the tufts of fur they left on the floor and said later, “I can’t believe the destruction. It’s like National Geographic in here!” I have never been so embarrassed by my pets, and told him, “I swear it isn’t usually like this.” Of course, I chose not to mention Dexter and the bunnies, which he never saw.

Later that evening, we were out in the patio area weeding and watering the perennial garden, and all of the neighborhood birds were screeching and carrying on. Jeremiah soon found the source of the problem: there was a large hawk on top of the utility post in the rear of our yard. She was sitting there with her most recent kill, which appeared to be a full grown rabbit. She sat there for several minutes as we watched, then flew off with her kill in her claws. Jeremiah and I were both amazed with the size of her kill and her strength to carry such a large animal.

On Saturday evening, Jeremiah and I returned from our family cookout just in time to avoid being caught in a torrential downpour. The rain didn’t last long, but came down very fast. About 20 minutes later, we heard squeaking and saw our Romey excitedly chasing a new toy: a little mouse. The mouse was scared to death and we quickly locked the cats in the bathroom so we could get him safely out of the house. We used a glass and a piece of cardboard to catch him. He was very cute and Jeremiah half seriously suggested keeping him. However, having attempted to keep a wild mouse as a pet once before and it ending disastrously (with a bite, a tetanus shot, a police report, and a poor dead mouse) we resisted the temptation. We set him free in the garden and sat down to finish our movie. Fifteen minutes later, we saw Romey trotting toward the spare room with what appeared to be a long tail hanging from his mouth. Sure enough, he had another one. Once again, we captured the interloper (who appeared to have no puncture wounds or other injuries) and set him free in the garden, now concerned that we were being invaded. We followed Romey to the basement and located to possible points of entry: the window to our crawlspace (which was cracked open) and the drain in the floor. We thought that the sudden downpour could have brought the little guys indoors seeking shelter. To be safe, we searched through the basement/storage area and kitchen cabinets for signs they had been setting up shop (AKA mouse droppings and chew marks) but were thankfully unable to find any. Hopefully, then this was a one time incident and our little hunter will keep them out. Our project for today is to replace the drain cover and fix the window so we can close it tightly and hopefully avoid incidents like this in the future.