Baby-Palooza

I just spent a wonderful weekend at Baby-Palooza.  Most of my family converged in the Pittsburgh area for a summer visit.  We had a very busy weekend consisting of a hockey game on TV (Penguins won the Stanley Cup!!!), a trip to the zoo, a night making s’mores, a big family picnic, a puzzle-thon, a baptism, and a lunch at Applebees.  The most exciting part of the weekend though was all the babies.  There were three babies to be exact.  I had my fill of feeding, playing, rocking, holding, and cuddling.  Now I am going to indulge in a little bragging to end the experience.

The first baby in attendance was CP.  I wrote a blog about his struggle with NF1 and cancer in December.  CP is a little over two years old.  Age-wise this makes him more a toddler than a baby, but the illness has delayed his development so he is still very baby-like in some ways.  The good news is that CP seems to be doing better with stable results from the latest round of testing.  CP has a good amount of energy and is making progress in his various physical and occupational therapies.  He loves to go walking, but he needs some help navigating unfamiliar territory.  His favorite game is to tell people “Boo” and have them respond “Oh you scared me”.  I was his special buddy this weekend, and he let me have several opportunities to walk and play games with him.  His smile and laughter will just brighten up anybody’s day.  I really hope that the treatments work their magic so we can enjoy CP’s company for many years to come.

The second baby that visited was PR.  PR is my cousin’s new baby.  She is seven months old.  This is the first time I have ever met her.  She was one of the happiest, cutest babies I have ever known.  The whole weekend she was in a good mood.  She loved all the attention, even by all these people she did not know.  She is a big fan of being in her bouncy chair and in her walker.  She is probably teething soon as she constantly drooled and chewed on anything in her reach.  She had a weird fascination with toes; you could actually see her face brighten whenever she got close to someone’s feet.  The cutest thing about her though was when she got excited about something.  She would shake her fists, peddle her legs, and rock her whole body.  She literally danced until she got whatever had brought on the excitement.

The final baby was my niece T.  This is my second time seeing T.  The first was back in April when she was almost a month old.  As a newborn, she of course did not do much but eat and sleep, so interacting with her on that trip was not much fun.  Now she is three months old, and so much cuter.  She is a fairly happy baby, who likes to smile at people who are paying attention to her.  Her favorite pastime seems to be waving her arms and kicking her legs.  She really liked the little pink Taggie blanket I bought her and attempted to chew on several of the tags the whole time.  When T is unhappy she likes to make this pouty face that looks just like her mom; they have the same wrinkly chin when they pout.  It was T’s baptism we all attended this weekend.  T was a beautiful baby in a ruffled gown that made her looks like a giant peach puffball.  I am so excited to see T get older and become even more interactive.  I just wish I would be around to see more of it.  For now, I am enjoying all the shopping in the baby section I can do.  One last thing, I am happy to report that my sister seems to be accepting motherhood more now than when I first wrote about baby T a couple months ago.

I think I am done talking about babies for the week.  My mind has just been preoccupied with babies though, so naturally I had to share them with everyone else.  Babies are so exciting for our family, because it has been a while since we have had any young ones around.  Being able to see all of them, especially the two from so far away, was a great way to spend a weekend.  I cannot wait for my next trip to see a baby, probably T but you never know.

See you next week!