First, Lauren has begun to "coo". She's been doing it for several weeks but her little noises just fill my heart with joy. Her whole face lights up when you talk to her and she just glows. She loves getting attention, and she isn't particular about who it comes from - Aaron, me, or Alyssa.
She's getting so strong. She loves to stand with you supporting her body and she's working on sitting on her own. I think she's going to hit some of the large motor milestones early like Alyssa did. She has rolled over (from back to tummy) a few times, but she often just can't seem to pull that last arm through. It's funny sometimes because her whole body will be flipped, and she'll be pushing her butt up in the air, but that one arm is pinned beneath her body. The other night when she woke up in the middle of the night wanting to eat, she was lying on her tummy in her crib. In the last post, I had Lauren was sleeping better and she is, but she's inconsistent. One night she'll sleep through the night and the next, we'll be up twice with her. Usually though she'll eat a little bit and then fall right back asleep. We're trying to figure out right now a new formula to give her to supplement the breast milk that she gets because the Similac that she had been eating was recalled due to beetles and their larvae being found in it (Don't get me started on how gross this is!). The recall says that it's not a health risk but may cause some babies GI discomfort, which Lauren has had of late - lots of gas and some spitting up and she had slowed down on her eating for a few days as well. So we'll see how she likes Enfamil - keep your fingers crossed!
Alyssa has been making lots of sweet noises as well. I've never tried to hide the fact that she's a daddy's girl at heart, and I love the fact that she adores him (and rightly so!), but sometimes it stings a little when she doesn't want you or when she always wakes up in the mornings screaming "Daddy". But there have been a few mornings as of late when she'll wake up and say "Mom" over and over. That brings joy to my heart. And it's funny because no matter which of us goes to get her out of bed, she'll always ask for the other, kind of like "Hey, where is Daddy?" or "Where is mom?" Aaron says she looks for me every morning when she gets up because I've already left for work. My favorite part of the day is walking in the door after work. Alyssa will say "Mom" and run over to give me a hug (the cutest little run ever) and Lauren will look for me when she hears my voice.
Alyssa has also begun to say more words. I keep posting about this because I think I want her to be able to express herself and show off her fun personality in words, plus I'm a language geek so it's fun watching what sounds develop in what order. She's trying to say more, but to most people it's probably somewhat unintelligible. But she's added lots of words to her vocabulary. My favorites are Lauren (which sounds like Lo), plane (main), puddle, Duke (the neighbor's dog), and bike (bi). Boy does she loves bikes and she wants one so much. She spots people on bikes that I don't even see until she points them out. At Babies 'R Us last night, she pulled the tricycle off the shelf and was trying to ride it. Aaron and I may have to get her one here for the fall (we were hoping to wait until next spring), but we'll see.Another of her favorite words is "dri" and she loves to drive the cars with the "geez" (keys). She'll put her seatbelt on, pull down the visor and look at herself in the mirror, turn the steering wheel, turn the radio up, put the windows up and down, etc.
She loves to do whatever mom and dad are doing these days. This also means she asserting more independence. She is fiercely independent right now, wanting to try to do everything herself (a good and a bad thing). She wanted to start potty training and we had some success but then as quick as she wanted to do it, she wanted to stop. And now she doesn't want anything to do with the "potty". It will come, right?
Living next to the high school, we also get lots of noises from that direction. We get the garbage trucks coming early in the mornings (not enough to wake Aaron up most days!), the squealing tires of teenage hot shot drivers, the PA system for football games, and the marching band. Alyssa loves the drums and her ears pick up on them the moment they start to play. Her eyes light up and she starts patting her legs which is her way of playing the drums. There's many a night that we take a walk over to see the drums play, but once we get there she often loses interest and just wants to climb on the bleachers.The new sounds that bring joy to Aaron's ears are the sounds that come from our new speaker system. The main level of the house and the deck were wired to have sound for each room on its own volume control, but we didn't have a receiver to distribute the sound to them until a few weeks ago. After a very long night at the store (that's a story for another day!), we bought the receiver and a TV and now Aaron can listen to his sports or music all throughout the main level of the house. This was all set up just in time for football season, so he's loving watching the games on the new TV, sitting in his new comfy chair (living room furniture was just delivered last week!). The only thing that could make him happier is a Vikings win (I keep telling him to cheer for the Steelers).
We're looking forward to a weekend full of nice weather which will allow us to check out ArtPrize in downtown Grand Rapids this weekend and host our first neighborhood barbecue. Aaron's parents spent a week with us at the beginning of September (which was a tremendous help because day care was closed for a week) and we're looking forward to another visit from them, my parents, and the Krautkremers during the month of October. We were able to see our friends Jen & Ellen over Labor Day when we attended out first U of M (Michigan, not Minnesota) football game. We love hearing from all of you - your voices too are music to our ears. I included a few videos below to let you hear the girls voices; we hope you enjoy them!
Just a photo of our latest visitors. They were here about 2 weeks ago and Alyssa still asks for them. We told her the baby deer are with their momma, so now she'll raise her hands and ask "Baby?" and then say "Mom." Too cute!
