And now for a few updates:
My previously self-declared breastmilk snob has now decided food is pretty fun (as long as she feeds herself). Those of you who have been following the blog may be a bit confused. Yes, I did post months ago that she loved bananna, and I also posted at some point not long after that she had tried sweet potatoes. However, at some point after that, she decided solids were for the birds, and only breastmilk would do for her. This lasted a month or two. She did enjoy a slice of apple in her little mesh feeder, but nothing else. Well, now she has become a little gourmand. She adores nibbling on good french bread (inferior bread will not do) with some particularly tasty string cheese. Apples are still a favorite (but none of the mushy pureed stuff), as well as good quality crackers. Here she is enjoying a particularly yummy meal of baguette, string cheese and grated apple:

In other news, Last weekend Sage attended her second orchestra concert (at 8 months of age!). We went to see the McLains perform with the Oak Ridge Symphony. Sage slept through almost the entire concert snuggled in mommy's sling, and Mommy was able to enjoy the music. Daddy, sadly was not able to go because he had to study for a test. :-( Poor daddy!

Just cause I can...

Well, since blogger has a new video option, I figured, why not put in a video of my girl crawling . It seemed like Sage's far away Grandma, grandpa and uncle... as well as other family and friends might enjoy seeing how grown up she is. So without further ado, here's our adorable baby girl crawling to mama:

Levi Jackson Fun!

Mommy and Sage spent last weekend at Levi Jackson for a dance weekend. It was a lot of fun despite a few hang-ups: we got somewhat less sleep than usual (Sage and mommy shared a sleeping bag on a dusty mattress), and mommy managed to leave Sage's baby carriers at home, so it was off to Walmart to buy a swath of fabric. Good thing we've been working on using wraps as baby carriers recently!! 4.5 yards of flannel ripped in half lengthwise worked great all weekend! It was especially supportive and cozy for dancing!


Sage got to spend lots of quality time with her grandparents!

She absolutely loves to swing with Grandma.


And Aunt Rachael always gets the best smiles. :-D


Levi Jackson has a new playground this year with awesome baby swings that go pretty high. The higher the better for this little daredevil! She is definitely her father's daughter. :-)


But the best part of the weekend is that we got to see out wonderful friends Katy and Samuel!! We hiked down to the duck pond and both the baby and the big boy got a ride!


Thanks to Grandma Alice for taking (most of) these great pictures!

More gratuitous cuteness

Sage got a little hand-me-down baby bathrobe from a friend, and daddy thought it was so cute after her bath a couple days ago, he wanted a picture of it. So here she is, looking quite adorable, I must say.

Since I'm posting, I thought I'd add that her crawling has gotten much smoother and quicker since last weekend. She no longer does the cute leg tuck thing, which helps her move much more efficiently. I have found a new heart-meltingly sweet, repeatable moment, which is holding my arms out to her and watching her crawl to me with a huge, radiant smile on her face. There's just nothing better than that.

Sadly though, she's been having a rough few days, because her top right front tooth is trying to come in, and it's hurting her pretty badly. She wouldn't even let me put her down while I took a shower today, so we showered together, after which we looked smashing in our matching pink bathrobes. :-)

Did you say crawling??

Ok, so these are pretty much just gratuitous cuteness pics to go along with the statement that SAGE IS CRAWLING!! She wasn't actually crawling in the pictures (they are from yesterday afternoon, and she didn't crawl until last night pretty much at bedtime) but she was thinking about it pretty hard here. So far, she isn't crawling very vast. She does this cute thing, where she tucks her right leg under her as if she's sitting indian style, and it prevents her from crawling in a very efficient manner. But she can get where she needs to go... which is pretty much wherever her ball has rolled. Anyway, mommy and daddy couldn't be more proud. If you think about it, crawling is perhaps an even more important step than walking, because it is the start of locomotion. Walking is just an increase in efficiency.

Various sweet baby pictures

Here are a few more pictures just to show interested parties what Sage has been up to recently.

She loves reading her favorite book, Usborne Touchy Feely Puppies!


She also thinks her newfound skill of walking (while holding mommy's hands) is fantastic! Mommy agrees. :-)


And Swinging is perhaps the most fun activity around. I didn't get a huge grin in this picture, but she often squeals with delight as she swings back and forth and mommy gets her feet!!

Sage and I went to a protest on Saturday at Applebees. Local folks may have heard about it. Applebees told a breastfeeding mom she had to either cover up or get out, and it sparked lots of controversy. We had fun at the protest, and we got a pretty good response, judging from all the honking and thumbs up signs from passers-by. It felt really good to get involved! It was pretty hot, but sage did just fine. She just snuggled down in the sling and took a nap. :-)