International Baby of Mystery

Lots of things going on in Annika's world these days -- major improvement in her unassisted-sitting skills, increasing mobility (turn your back on her, and she's scooched five feet at lightning speed!), a brand-new awareness of how to touch your face without smacking it openhanded, and the ability to sleep without her arms being pinned in the swaddler (plus she has now decided to sleep on her stomach, and THERE AIN'T NO STOPPING HER -- oh well, she's strong enough to turn back over if she wants to!). She spent last weekend with us and her Sauce friends down at M&H's in the Santa Cruz mountains, rockin all day and sleepin all night (seriously -- she'd go down at around 7:30 and be out like a light till after 7:30 the next morning, even while the band was playing at top volume in a room not six feet away from her head!). As it's only April, the pool was too cold for babies, but the next time we're down there, she's going to give a couple of her incredibly cute new swimsuits a good workout. There will, of course, be pictures and video!*

Today we went to apply for a passport -- both mom and dad have to be there when the applicant is a minor, so we went while Dad is still on leave. She was ready for a nap before we even started, but held it together during the whole process and the photo session, and now that it's all over, she'll be good to go anywhere in the world!

*(Well, assuming we get a new camera; our digital more or less done up and died on us this weekend, after a protracted camera-illness, so we're in the market for another one asap. Also she's almost too big for her carseat, so I guess we've got to get a new one of those, too ... arrg!)