Georgie- a month retrospective- mama.

Well, seeing as I'm so far behind (again), it's more like 6 weeks retrospective.

Here's Georgiana on her two month day. I've got to say, things certainly have improved now that we've made it two months.

How could you not love this smily kid? Here's a week by week breakdown:

5 weeks: Georgie starts looking around instead of staring cross-eyed randomly at things. Her eyes dart, but still don't focus too long on one thing.

6 weeks: She starts focusing on one thing for longer than a moment, like our faces!

7 weeks: George starts smiling in response to seeing someone.

8 weeks: This is the week we were at home in Ney. Thanks to Grandma Seibert, this is the week Georgie really started taking a nuk. We said at 4 weeks she could take a nuk. but that was only if she was really tired and we held it in there for 15 minutes first. Luckily, Grandma had the patience to keep offering Goergie her nuk and she started to get the hang of it. When we got to Marion, Dash let Georgie borrow one of his nuks and she sucked on it all night long. We were so excited that we instantly got on Amazon and order 5 of them. And now she doesn't like them. You've got some new orange nukies coming, Dashie-boy. The good news is that she is taking the first nuk we got her. (It only took 6 different kinds of nuks and over $40 to get here.)

9 weeks: This is when things start getting good. We came home from our long vacation and this girl REFUSED to be put down. Grandmas and aunts, you did your job spoiling Georgie. After a few days of constant fussing, George started giving us a few minutes here and there laying on the floor. Heaven! Then even better- she started napping on her own. In a bed, and for a couple hours at a time during June's afternoon nap! Hooray!

Week 10: Georgie seems to have discovered her hands. She likes to have them out (not covered up by sleeves) so she can hold them together and maybe even chew on them a little. She's also taken to holding on to our hands when she's being held, which is pretty nice.

We did some reminiscing and decided that Georgie has definitely been our most demanding child. Not that she's been terrible, but she has required much more attention than the other two. Henry was a very content baby,plus he was the first, so he got everything he wanted instantly. We don't even remember much about June being a baby- mostly because she was so easygoing, you could set her down for hours at a time and she'd never make a peep. Georgie doesn't like being in a car seat, doesn't like her swing, tolerates her bouncy seat and hates having a dirty diaper.

But we seem to have turned a corner. Now that she's on the nuk, she gives us a lot more time on the ground. She takes a great afternoon nap and (I hate to jinx this), she's slept 8-10 hours straight 4 nights this week. I think this directly related to the long afternoon naps. Sleeps begets sleep, as I always say, and Georgie is proof of that.

Finally, I feel like 10 weeks is old enough to declare that George has made it through the newborn stage with no baby acne or cradle cap. And that makes her the prettiest baby yet.

We visited the doctor for her 2 month checkup and here are her stats:

11 pounds 2 ounces- 50th percentile

23.5 inches long- 90th percentile!!!

15.25 inches head circumference- 35th percentile

Looks like we might have a tall kid after all.

Georgiana's photo shoot.

Aunt Kate, Uncle Adam, Grams, PawPaw and GG and GG were nice enough to all go together and book a photo session with a local photographer.

Jacob Dean- who coincidentally lives right down the street from us- came over and spent 2 hours taking pictures of our sweet baby George. Being a model sure is rough. To get these shots, we actually had to turn on the heat for the first time this season so the little naked baby could fall asleep. And I hope Jacob was able to salvage some of his blankets after the inevitable consequences of leaving a 7 week old naked too long.

We were super excited with the results of the photo shoot. Check out some of the best shots!

If you want to see the rest of the photos, check out the online gallery. Password: Turner

Now we just have to decide which pictures to print and which to make into a book.

The drive home- June.

To get to our cabin, we have to drive across the dam at Summersville Lake.

See those cars at the top of the dam? That's the road we take. We never thought to go down to the bottom to see how it looks from below.

Here's the view from up top. We love seeing the low river on one side and the full lake on the other side of the road. We especially like the signs that warn about the quickly rising river when the sirens sound.

We can't wait until we're all old enough to start renting boats to go out on the lake or maybe even brave the rapids.

Have we talked about Henry's new National Parks Passport book? You go to different national parks and collect the stamps? We got three stamps at the New River Gorge visitors center. That takes us up to 4 stamps. You can see the passport book in this picture as Henry takes a look at the Bridge. As soon as mama took this picture, he dropped the book off the edge.

Lucky for Henry, it was only about a 25 foot drop and papa was able to climb off the wooden walkway to the next lookout and retrieve it.

I'm pretty sure Henry is getting a stern talking to as papa made his was back onto the stairs. Thanks, papa!

Someone offered to take our picture, but we forgot to pay attention that we weren't standing in front of the bridge. This is definitely, the "We're all tired, dirty, and sweaty, you just dropped an irreplacable book off the edge of a cliff, June is whining and the baby is crying." shot. Sounds like the result of a good weekend. We went back up to the van and headed for home. The great part about the drive home was that the baby slept for 5 hours straight! We only stopped once and that was at CookOut (The best NC fast food joint ever!). We went through the drive through so as not to wake the baby. We got to watch "How to Train your Dragon" twice and eat hush puppies, so we were happy.

Before they dragged us back up the 150 steps to the parking lot, mama got one last shot of the bridge. Only 350 days left to psych herself up for the 3/4 mile walk across the underbelly. Gulp.

At the cabin- Georgie.

This is what it's like to be a baby in this family. You just get thrown on a coffee table and they expect you not to go anywhere. One of these days, I'm going to start rolling people! I think at this point, mama was a little mad at me because everyone was outside at the campfire, but I didn't like being out in the cold, even though I was bundled up. So she was stuck inside by herself watching the OSU-Wisconsin game. (But they kept showing shots of the lakes, the Farmer's Market and the Capitol all lit up at night, so she was feeling pretty melancholy about that too.)

Luckily, everyone started drifting back in before mama could feel too bad. (Though the Badger win felt good!) After a few rowdy rounds of Pit, everyone was feeling good.

We forgot to take a picture of the cabin we stay in, but mama did get this picture of a crisp, foggy fall morning from the porch. She loved it up there, especially because it is 85 degrees, muggy and overcast in SC today. (When is fall going to come???)

We love this picture! This is how Henry and June pay attention to me. Perched precariously over me, inches away from a knee to the belly.

When it warmed up a bit, we sent Sadie and Henry on a garbage run.

After we checked out of the cabin, no one much felt like heading home, so we went over to the Carnifex Ferry Battlefield next door and spent the afternoon playing. Throw me the ball, Pikes!

Isn't Aunt Girl pretty?

The big kids decided that the sand volleyball court would be the most fun.

Check out how filthy Henry is. Yuck. It should be noted that the entire weekend was punctuated by June and Sadie fighting. Sadie just wanted to be close to June and June just wanted to be left alone. Those two can really go at it. Luckily, once Henry showed up, Sadie's attention drifted to him and he actually wanted to play with other kids. The best part is that June spent 3 days asking for Sadie after we got home.

The view from on top of the mountain. Mama was a little bummed she didn't get to run the trails this year, but she was constantly attached to me and papa laid down some big threats after she ran in the rain last year, fell down a hill and came limping back to the cabin with bloody knees and a twisted ankle. We're happy to report that mama made it threw this vacation with no injuries.

That's a good looking family.

June didn't want to be a part of this shot.

And here's the whole group! I'm going to go ahead and call Cooper Bridge Day 3 a huge success! See you again next year!

Bridge Day!- Henry.

On Saturday, it was time for the big event.

Last year, it rained and was only 45 degrees. This year was sunny and mid-60s. Perfect weather!

Here's the view from 876 feet up. Like we said, one time a year, they block traffic across the longest single span bridge on the western hemisphere and the third highest bridge in America (ousted from 2nd place by the new Pat Tillman Bridge over Hoover Dam). That little white dot to the right of the river is a parachute.

And a view of the bridge itself. Mama wasn't nearly as uptight as she normally is. Normally she hugs the barrier in the middle and hyperventilates for most of the 970 meters of the bridge.

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We got across the bridge and set up a camp so everyone could go get there favorite fair food.

I wanted a funnel cake, so mama and I set out to find one. That is, until I saw this bounce house. I told mama I wanted to use my funnel cake money to jump instead. I didn't try any big jumps, just steady little jumps the whole five minutes. When I got out, I told mama it wasn't any fun. Sigh. Lucky for me, mama was in a good mood and got me a funnel cake anyway. (I didn't even ask for one! Maybe that's why she got it for me...) Karma must have rewarded mama because somehow Aunt Girl ended up with a free plate of ribbon fries and gave them to mama! Hooray!

I think we might be outgrowing Bridge Day. There are just too many kids to keep track of and the event itself is really getting to be too big. Georgie cried the whole way across the bridge so mama didn't get to see anything. So she dumped everyone and walked back over early by herself (well she did have a baby). With no kids to keep from falling over the side, it was pretty fun!

Mama waited and got a pretty good spot close to the platform to watch people jump. That groan toward the end of the video is the jumper missing the circle that everyone aims for (but few actually hit).

Look close at the right side of the picture and you can see a zipliner descending from the bridge.

A shot from the side. There's tentative talk of skipping Bridge Day next year. The new talk is of taking a Catwalk tour on the tressels under the bridge. Attached only by a rope. Mama's feet get sweaty and her head gets light every time she thinks about it.

Safe on land again, Georgie was allowed out of the pouch.

Aunt Girl lined up for a photo op.

Then mama let me carry the camera on the mile walk back to the car. Mama asked Aunt Girl how she got the beads and Aunt Girl replied "You know how girls get beads."

Wait a minute...

There are about 200 pictures of all the motorcycles we walked by. This trike is the best.

And many self portraits.

When we got in the van, I turned it over to the video setting and took some good videos of myself making funny faces.

What a goofball.