Late December update

Ginger will be four months old this Saturday.

We're getting ready to drive to Southern California for a few days with the Loy clan. And we know it will be a very different trip from the last one.

In late September, we four (Ross, Ginger, Spider and I) drove to So.Cal for my sister's marriage celebration. It was a very long and strange drive. We wanted to drive when she was asleep, but after Bay Area traffic. We tried to leave at 7. We made it to the highway at 9.

The first time Ginger woke up I was driving. She cried. I floored it until we got to the next offramp and kept flooring it until Ross not-so-calmly told me to slow down for the light.

She screamed. We stopped. I fed her. We bought fast food. Spider Peed. Ross peed.

This must have happened again because we didn't arrive in Ojai until 3am. I was wired on crappy coffee. With the help of a beer, I slept sometime after 4am.

This time, we're getting up, getting things done and getting going. On the highway before 3pm, or else.

And this time the drive should be different.

Ginger is still not a huge fan of a pacifier, and she'll suck on one of our fingers if she has to, but she's become quite the self-soother. Her hands, her clothes, the blanket we give her, the toy she grabs, all end up in her mouth. Also, this week she likes to suck on her bottom lip.

Other month four/this week updates include:
--Spider is fascinating to her. She watches his every move, squawks at him, and she she can, hits and kicks him.

--She hits and kicks whatever she can get her tiny parts to. She does things now just to see how she is affecting the world around her.

--Call and response, but LOUD. She demands we mimic her and she changes the tones and volume of her squawking. I'm sure she thinks we're having quite a conversation.

--She is mobile. Mostly into scooting on her back by kicking her legs.

--She sucks in air to laugh/giggle/chortle.