Joy had her first trip to the zoo today! We took advantage of the nice day, and visited the Lincoln Park Zoo.

(See the Giraffe WAY in the distance?)

I wish I could say she was looking at an animal, but she is not. We can pretend, though, right? Yeah, in this picture, she’s totally looking at a big, giant elephant!

Gosh, she’s cute!

So, the zoo was okay. After we were done checking out the animals, we ventured into a garden that’s adjacent to the zoo. This was MY favorite part! Sitting with Joy, surrounded by flowers, was very nice.

Here’s an idea of the area:

There was nice grass to lay her down on, there was a fountain with splashing water, and everything was just peaceful. This gave me a much-needed little dose of nature, and it calmed my spirit. We also had a great photo shoot! (See previous post)

Today Joy and I had a peaceful, fun, and productive photo shoot at the Lincoln Park Formal Garden. Check it out:

I have mentioned before that I really wanted to get some smiling pictures of Joy before her teeth come in. Well, one sure-fire way to get her laughing and smiling is what I call “the Attack of the Kisses.” Basically, I give her a lot of kisses on her cheeks really, really fast and I’m really dramatic about it. So, that’s what I did for the following pictures:

Here’s a little maneuver that I’ve witnessed twice now, once yesterday and once today:

I lean Joy into a corner of the couch to sit while I sit right with her. Then she:

1) pulls herself from a semi-recline into a straight-up sitting position. She holds it there for 5-10 seconds.

2) Then she starts leaning forward really slowly. When she used to do this, I would straighten her up, but now I’ve discovered it’s more interesting NOT to straighten her, but just watch.

3) Next she flips forward onto her stomach and flips her legs behind her.

4) This is where she gets a little stuck. Her arms are pinned underneath her torso. The first time I saw this, I watched her struggle for a couple of minutes until she fussed, then I unpinned her arms for her. This is what she looked like then:

Today, however, when I just let her lie there, with her arms pinned, she did manage to unpin one of them herself. I still had to free the other one.

Yesterday, that’s about as far as it went. She did her normal rocking motion for a little while.

Last night, during another tummy time, she started trying to get up on her knees.

Today, during the couch maneuver, she again tried to get up on her knees, and I noticed her butt rising in the air. It didn’t get very high, but she did manage to lift it about an inch up several times in a row!!!

Do you know what this means, folks??? She is trying to figure out how to crawl!!! She’s heading that way! Wow!!! How crazy and exciting!!! I will definitely keep you posted!!