Over the River

Actually, we went over no rivers, which upset me.  Since we were going to visit M's great-grandmother, it seemed to me that there ought to be two rivers.  And to be fair, we probably could have arranged two rivers, but it would have meant a lot of extra driving.  We've had a lot of familial visiting this week.  On Monday, M spent time with a great aunt and two first cousins once removed.  (And I didn't get a picture of Caty; sorry!)

Here she is with Christy

The suspicious look is entirely normal.  Leo and I think that she's just cycling through possible expressions, and it has little to do with what she's actually thinking.  The other morning she was giving me a look that could only be described as one of consternation.  I ask you, what possible reason could she have for that emotion?  None.  We insist, however, that her smiles are real.  This may be inconsistent, but I can't make myself care.

Here she is with Aaron:

On Wednesday, we went to visit Leo's grandmother - across no rivers, as I mentioned - and she behaved very well.  I have this theory that she might be an extrovert.  She's always pretty calm and well-behaved out in the world, even if she's hungry and tired.  And even at home when she's cranky, she can be fooled into happiness by creating the impression that she's going somewhere to do something.  Perhaps she's not an extrovert, just someone who likes to be out and about.

On the other hand, perhaps it stretches the definition of well-behaved to include "taking a punch at your great-grandmother."

Perhaps not a very effective punch, but she's working on developing coordination.

Yesterday, she met an aunt, and got her cheeks properly pinched.*  I again forgot my camera, but if you were confronted with these cheeks, could you resist a pinch in passing?

I mean, really.  Look at them again from another angle.

They're just asking for it, aren't they?  When she's in a grocery cart or something, and we go over a bump, they jiggle.

*It's not that there wasn't cheek pinching going on before, but no one but an aunt can really do the job properly.  Some might argue that she has had her cheeks pinched by people who are aunts (myself among them), or even that great aunts are even better at cheek pinching, but those people are missing the point.  It's a trope, and I like it done properly.