Busy, busy, busy

As you may have guessed by the lack of postings, we've been pretty busy the past month. Since Alyssa has started crawling, we've got to keep our eyes on her constantly, and we laugh because she doesn't stop moving. If she's not crawling from one spot to the next, she's pulling herself up to standing or bouncing while sitting. She's loving her new found independence. She continues to torment Roni on occasion and find things that she shouldn't have.

We just got home from Pennsylvania where we enjoyed visiting with many of you. Alyssa flew just as well this time as she did the last, but she wasn't sure what to think about some people at first. I think she saw Grandpap Fleming as a scary person during the first few days as she would scream if he just walked into the room. Over the course of the first 5 days and daily breakfast feedings of bananas, she began to realize that he wasn't quite so scary. By the end of the week, she was walking around with him, sitting on his lap, and letting him hold her. She clung to Nana during those first few days, never letting her out of his sight.

While we were home, we made a trip out to Philadelphia with Wally & Dena (Alyssa stayed with Nana and Grandpap). We saw all the historic sites, took in a parade, a strongman competition and fireworks. Aaorn & I then made a trip to Niagara Falls; we had a wonderful time and were quite amazed by the falls.

We also enjoyed lots of time with the Fleming clan while we were home, which was lots of fun, especially since we were all celebrating Stephanie & Chris's wedding. There were lots of opportunities to catch up with everyone. Alyssa loved all of her cousins that were there; we're quickly learning how much she enjoys other kids and puppies. She lets out a squeal and heads toward them almost immediately when either are around.

Alyssa is now eating three meals a day. We're starting to run into a few foods she doesn't like. While Alyssa will eat lentils, they're definitely not her favorite and must be mixed with another vegetable or fruit. Someday she'll think the lentil-mango mix is gross, but for now, she loves it. And we recently tried ham; she hated it (can't say I blame her as it smelled pretty gross), but when mixed with sweet potatos, she'll gobble it up. Alyssa had the opportunity to try several new foods while we were in Pennsylvania - whipped cream, pumpkin pie, jello, cheese curls, baked beans, and who knows what else! Thanks to all of you who are broadening her culinary repetoire :)

We were also fortunate enough to get to meet Mitchell Andrew Rend while we were home. He arrived on July 11, so we were able to visit with him and Mark & Lisa before we headed back to Minnesota. He's a cutie and we laugh because he already has more hair than Alyssa! Congratulations to the new parents and grandparents!

Since we've been home, we're all getting back into a routine. We celebrated Grandpa Menke's birthday as soon as we got home and Alyssa is back with her buddies at day care. She'll start going to day care everyday as of next week; I'm excited about the time to work, but sad about missing our time together. I might have to keep her home every once in a while for some mother-daughter time! Alyssa has also taken to her walker toy; she thinks it pretty cool how she can walk on her own. I think we better start lacing up our running shoes!

Thanks to all of you for making our time at home so much fun; there really is no place like home. We're already looking forward to our next trip home at Christmas! many hugs-