Going bananas

Alyssa goes bananas over the splash pad at the end of our street. She thinks it's pretty cool how she can stick her hand in the water stream and water sprays everywhere. We visited the park today with Auntie Stacy and she loved it. She was the only kid there, so she was able to play with whatever sprinkler she was interested in. She even squatted over one of the jets at one point and thought it was funny that she was getting sprayed in the butt.

Alyssa goes bananas for new foods. She is trying all sorts of new things each day. She has now started to eat meats which has opened a whole new world up to her; she's enjoying meals such as chicken noodle and macaroni and cheese (made with squash and sweet potato!). She's also started feeding herself finger foods; she really enjoys puffs, graham crackers, cheddar cheese, cantaloupe, and honeydew. By far, her favorite is still bananas. We didn't realize just how much Alyssa enjoyed bananas until I was eating a banana one morning this week in the living room. She crawled as fast as she could over to me to have some...without me even asking her if she wanted any. She now wants to try everything!

Alyssa now has two teeth, both on the bottom. We think some of her top teeth are beginning to poke through, but it's really hard to tell. She doesn't let you see that upper gum very often. We'll keep you posted on when they do show themselves!

Alyssa goes bananas over walking. She's now able to walk holding on with only one hand. She thinks she one cool cat when she's doing it. She laughs and giggles the whole time. She's also started standing for about 10 seconds at a time without holding on to anything. It's fun to watch her as she's playing because she'll have a hold of something and lift it up, thus letting go of her grip on the table. She's getting pretty good at it. If she realizes she's not holding on to something though, she either sits or reaches out for something to hold on to.

Alyssa also loves to be chased. If she's crawling, and you approach from behind on your hands and knees and tell her "I'm going to get you," she'll take off at full speed ahead. Again, she'll giggle and laugh, but she'll crawl away as fast as she can. She loves to be chased!

Alyssa goes bananas over camping. Last weekend we traveled about 2 hours southeast to a campground with some friends. The weather was cool, but we enjoyed being outdoors for the weekend. Alyssa loved exploring the grass, dried up leaves, and everything else. She sat around her first campfire, slept in a tent and tried to play fetch with the dog. The dog kept bringing her the ball, but Alyssa wasn't real good about throwing it to him; the poor pup couldn't figure out why she wouldn't throw it for him. The poor little thing had a runny nose from the moment we got there, but she did great with the cool evening temperatures.

Alyssa also goes bananas over music. She loves her CDs, she'll bounce when they play, and just this weekend, she started clapping her hands. It's too cute!

Alyssa has her 9 month check up on Tuesday afternoon, so we'll finally know if she's still big for her age. We think she's getting taller and thinning out a bit, but we'll know for sure this week. We'll try to give you an update on her appointment as soon as we can! In the meantime, we hope that you're enjoying some of the summer heat and sunshine that has finally made an appearance here in Minnesota. love to you all-