Hi sweetie,

You’ve had such a big month. It has been a whirlwind June of physical developments: standing, sitting, rolling over, and crawling. You chat nonstop to Dad and I and have just recently started talking to other people too. You smile at everyone and love being out and about. Your hands are constantly in your mouth and you love sucking on your toes (sometimes both big toes at once). You are so much fun. We love you so much!

It’s amazing that you are five months old! Keep growing healthy and strong. We are here loving and supporting you.

Love, Mama

Wow, has it really been almost four weeks since I last updated?! Where has June gone?!

Here’s what we’ve been up to.

We went on vacation to New Mexico (first flights for Miss Leyba — she traveled beautifully!):

We saw family and friends:

We practiced standing:

and breastfeeding in public:

We celebrated Father’s Day and Grandma’s birthday:

and the arrival of our daughter with a gigantic tea party:

We also had massages, ate lots of gelato, took baths over at Gram Gram’s house, and hung out at Grandma and Grandpa’s store:

It was a great trip.

What we haven’t been doing:

Spending time online.

Right now I am feeling like every moment spent on the phone, answering email, or puttering online is a moment away from my daughter, so I apologize for basically dropping off the planet. My priorities keep shifting more and more towards family and things like updating this website are falling by the wayside. While I will continue to try to update here, for regular updates follow along to my thread on Twitter (also available through my Facebook profile). And I’ll try to get back to you soon. Thank you for your wonderful messages!

Dear daughter,

Here are some things I forgot to mention last week.

You love to grab hair, noses, eyebrows, mouths, clothing. You are very into sticking your fingers in our mouths.

You are constantly sticking out your tongue! It’s adorable.

You’ve found your voice. Oh, you love to shout! You are amazingly loud. Lots of shrieking going on over at our house. You are so proud of yourself and we are proud of you too.

You love Shrek. When it’s late and you’re very over tired and your gums are hurting and you’re completely inconsolable, we’ll turn on a children’s movie. So far Shrek is the only one you’ve been interested in (though you seem somewhat interested in ballet, as well as the documentary Coral Reef Adventure). Dad and I aren’t thrilled about the movie choice (and we’re getting awfully tired of it), but we’re glad it distracts you enough to stop the hysterical crying and get you to sleep. Everything in moderation.

Your new activity: climb across, over and down us. You just love to wiggle and look around. You move towards and reach for your toys now too. Touching, banging books and turning pages is especially fun and fascinating to you.

You love it when we hold you facing outward. So much to see! We need to break out the Moby Wrap and try tying you in so you face outwards. I think it will be a big hit.

You like seeing all the mamas and babies at our yoga class. On Tuesday you spent most of the class on your tummy (or wanting me to hold you) watching everyone and everything. You were captivated. We’ll have to keep going for the social time (since Mama is now starting her running training and thinking about taking an Ashtanga yoga class rather than the more slow paced Iyengar)…

More soon!

Love, Mama