Graham Family Update

Sara wrote:
Emily had her 4-month check-up on June 24 - hard to believe it has already been four months. She was 16.25 pounds and 25.5 inches (90-95 percentile for both)! Course, when I weighed her a week later, she had gained around another four ounces, to be up to 16.5 pounds. She carries on long conversations with us, or with the animals on her crib bumper, or with the animals hanging from her activity gym, or with whomever is around. Emily is generally happy and greets us with big smiles in the morning (and throughout the day) and has recently started laughing, which is one of the most wonderful sounds ever! As long as we hold her steady, she supports her weight and loves standing - I won't be surprised if she walks before she crawls...
Another big development is that Emily started eating rice cereal last week. The Dr. suggested that Emily might be ready for solids (based on her weight, head control, and other such factors), so when she wanted more and more milk, we decided to try supplementing with some cereal. Really it's mostly milk with a little bit of the rice flakes mixed in, but she eats it from a spoon and most of it goes into her mouth. It takes a lot of patience on our part, but she seems to be doing alright with it. Next month - vegetables...
My mom got back out here a couple weeks ago and will be staying with us till school starts again the end of August! So, Emily said goodbye to her tearful daycare teachers (she's breaking hearts already) and has been staying home with "Grandma Nanny". Mom is also playing chauffer and brings Emily out to Pasadena to meet me for Mommy & Me and other such fun activities, so I get to spend more time with Emily feel more content with my work situation.
We seem to be getting back into a groove of normalcy (though quite a different normalcy from before Emily was born).
Work is keeping Sean and me quite busy. I'm not doing anything high profile (or all that exciting) right now, but Sean did some work on the website for the Cassini mission which just entered orbit around Saturn (among many other projects he's involved with). If you're interested in his handiwork, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm and click on "FLASH" or "HTML" next to the "Spotlight - Why Go To Saturn" on the right side. When we're not working at the office, we're still working on various projects around the house to occupy our weekends (when Emily is sleeping or otherwise entertained).
As for the other children, Wally developed basically a heat rash on his face, and so is suffering the indignity of wearing one of those lampshade things around his neck to keep from scratching it. Other than that, as long as he gets some attention (Emily can't have it all), he seems to be doing fine. Alpha has learned she can use the doggie door to get outside too, so when she tires of her kitty condo, she patrols the backyard (luckily it's enclosed). And the fish just swim around...