Brianna at Four Months and Counting (not her!)

Brianna Mae Talbert is now more than four months old, and she is developing new skills with every passing week. Recently she practiced flying (well, soaring, at least) with Mommy (Amanda).

She's also becoming quite proficient at inserting most of her fist into her mouth. Hmm. . . . Now that I think of it, she was also making that hand-to-mouth move in the picture above. Could this be related to her ability to fly?

Grandpa Ken found that Brianna can be quite content just lying on the couch communing (okay, staring).

Well, let's be honest. Who's having more fun here?

Grandpa is notorious for clumsily allowing Brianna's pacifier to fall to the floor, so Bri finds that his ring finger is a succulent substitute that can't be dropped.

Grandma introduces an attentive Brianna to a girl's best friend.

"No, not the puppy dog-- that's man's best friend. It's the TELEPHONE, of course!"

Naturally, we don't know how humans will be communicating by the time Bri says her first words. But somebody has to teach this younger generation about rotary phones (so they'll understand old movies).

After us BIG people enjoyed a wonderful lunch, and Brianna had a snack, Amanda set the stage for Brianna's new trick-- rolling from back to tummy.

Step 1: Begin reading "The Eency Weency Spider" (or is "Itsy Bitsy")

Step 2: Continue reading, moving to the side. Baby's eyes will follow.

Step 3: Continue to engage baby laterally.

"Forget the book. What's Grandpa doing behind me with that little metallic object that occasionally makes a bright flash?"

Step 4: Voila!

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but Brianna's investigation just results in a harmless reversal of position-- to her tummy. How long will she stay there?

"Listen folks, it's not easy to do this move gracefully. Now I'll nonchalantly study the quilt pattern while I try to figure how to get out of this awkward situation."

"Well, lo and behold. There's that spider book. How does it keep moving from place to place. For that matter, how do I?"

By no means was this the end of today's explorations.

"Hmm. I've heard of Bigfoot, but didn't know he was a relative."

"Maybe, just maybe, this is an escape route. Now, if I just knew how to crawl."

"Excuse me Mr. Puppy Dog, but is this Oz, Wonderland, or Narnia?"

It's hard to let Amanda and Brianna leave today. Judy and I try every trick to extend the visit. We are successful.

"Let's have one more good slurp on that finger, Grandpa."

"We are not picking my nose, no matter what is looks like."

"As far as I can tell, they're all the same flavor."

Now, take a couple of minutes to see Brianna in action. First view "Brianna enjoys a Slurpee," then "What to Do AFTER a Successful Roll-over."

In my next blog post, cousin Claire Devon Kirby gets equal time. See you then!