As far as we can tell, the cute quotient continues to rise around here.   Belle has started eating solid food, and spends most of her days sitting up. She still only rolls over in one direction but is getting more wiggly; though she has yet to figure out that things not only come to her but she can also come to them. She loves sitting in front of the mirror on her play mat, watching college football (woot), standing (with support), and eating fruity things (of which we have many in Taiwan). The only food she’s rejected so far are peas, a distaste for which she seems to have interited from her mother.

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I made a couple of videos – one of her very first bites of food, and volume 2 of the “skill” videos.

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12 hours from now I’ll be at back work after a month off for bonding leave.   Most of that time was spent in our RV travelling up and down the west coast seeing friends and family.  I’ll just cut to the chase:

California Friends:

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Cynthia’s mom’s family in Angels Camp:

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Cynthia’s dad’s family and the Oregon coast:

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You should check out the professional pictures Megan took while we were in Davis.

I also made this time lapse video of the Halloween Party:

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Time is flying.   Belle still smiles all the time, assuming we maintain her routine and she gets enough sleep (she is like her mother in this regard).  Pictures and videos from the last few weeks below.

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We’ve made it back safe from the best trip home I’ve ever had.  It was very special and gratifying to introduce Belle to a huge chunk of my family: grandparents, uncles and aunts, great-grandparents, cousins and friends.  We also packed in an incredible amount of stuff over two weeks without the pace feeling frantic.  I took too many pictures, which have taken us days to edit, upload and caption.  They are divided into sections in case you don’t want to look at 400 pictures at once.

• Belle cried the last hour of the flight but otherwise acclimated to 12 hours of jet lag much better than we expected.  Cynthia did not have it so easy, as Belle’s sole food supply she foreswore pharmaceutical sleep aids.  Belle showed off her newest skills to everyone – she has control of her lower back and can stand up for long periods now, she holds her head up during tummy time and she can roll over (clockwise only) from front to back.  Everyone was charmed by her smile.
• My cousin Lauren got married in Traverse city.   We stayed with at Aunt Ellene’s with my family which was great.

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• I got to see all of my brothers.   Paul and Rachael drove over from Minneapolis to the wedding and so we got to spend a day or so all together.  Sean, Dave and Louis were all on summer break from school during the whole of the trip.  I went to the junkyard with my brother Sean and my dad to retrieve a power antenna for a 95 Probe and battle a wasp’s nest (it was a draw).  David drove up with us to Traverse City.  We also went to see the documentary Senna together which I highly recommend you catch at your own local quirky art theater.
• On the way back from the wedding we went to Grand Rapids to visit my Aunt/Uncle/Cousins and spend a last night in Spring Lake at the cottage which is about to be sold.

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• Michelle and Mia came from California for the final weekend to surprise Cynthia.  This made Cynthia cry, in a good way.

• I went to the Selfridge Air Show to see my cousin Rick jump as part of the Wings of Blue Air Force Academy jump team.  After landing on target, Rick came out into the crowd and folded his parachute right in front of us which was cool.

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• Belle was baptized at the same church Cynthia and I were married in (I was also baptized there 33 years ago).

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• There were plenty of pics that didn’t fit into these other categories.  This “dual raised eyebrow” one  maybe my favorite of the all the pictures we got, but Godfather Sean and Belle were especially photogenic together in a lot of different shots.

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• Our return flight to Taipei got cancelled on Monday, and we were forced to tack an extra day on, which also yielded better seats for the new return flight.   We were hoping this extra time would help Belle fight off her first cold, but she still has it so I guess not.
• Also, I posted a regular update for Belle from the two weeks before our trip.  Cuteness abounds.

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The picture below is blurry, because you only have one second to capture this face before the bawling starts. Even so, it’s my favorite expression. There are many smiley faces as well in the latest pics . . .

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Belle hasn’t really developed any awesome skills since my last post , though she continues to polish her existing stuff. She still doesn’t really know she has arms and legs attached, though she does flail them with a lot more force than she used to. She also will carry on a conversation of coos and gurgles if you parrot them back at her. Overall, she’s a very happy baby who’s growing fast at over 14 pounds (93rd percentile!).

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