How is it June already???

June has begun and I can hardly believe it! Our recent excitement is that we'll be moving soon - yes, it was something of a surprise to us, too - and despite the moving-associated headaches and our sadness at leaving our current place, it will be exciting once we've moved. We found a place with another bedroom walking distance from where we live now - just what we were hoping for! It was something of a whirlwind - we saw the listing on Sunday or Monday, viewed the place Tuesday, signed the lease the day after that. Whoa! At least they didn't need us to move in right away - that would have been a bit too crazy.

Aside from collecting moving boxes, I've been chasing after Laurna, per usual - she's getting increasingly opinionated and is definitely asserting her independence, as expected, which can result in impatience and hissy-fit-throwing when she doesn't get her way immediately. All part of the territory, but being annoyed with her is taking some getting used to! Overall she's still loads of fun, and despite the trying moments it's so interesting to watch her exploring her world.

She hasn't expanded her vocabulary too much yet, though (somewhat hilariously) she identifies bananas as "na" or "na-na" while all other fruits are "apple." If you try to tell her the actual name of the fruit, she says "ap-ple" back to you as if you're a bit dim. Ha!

She's still not walking on her own yet, and will not be rushed - if we try to get her to walk to us, she just continues to reach out her hands for support, or eventually gives up and crawls. Take that, mom and dad!

I have managed to post some more pictures (from December 09, ha!) - my uploader appears to be working again, so hopefully January will be soon to follow! (A girl can dream, right?)

Another milestone!

Laurna is officially weaned as of Monday, so that's something of a big deal! It came about rather by accident - I was expecting she'd be nursing once a day for a bit longer - but there you go! She's indicated a couple of times that she has noticed, but she also hasn't been overly upset by it. Since I know this can be a difficult transition for some babies, I'm very grateful! She also hasn't gotten a bottle in months, so it's nice to not have to worry about weaning her from bottles in the future.

She's still not walking on her own yet, but is in that holding pattern where it could be a matter of days, weeks, or months. She seems pretty cautious about it, and since she gets around really well without walking, I don't think she feels the need to rush it. She definitely likes to zoom around while leaning on her baby walker or while holding someone's hands. Recently she's also started trying to climb up things, which so far has not resulted in any mishaps - we'll have to be even more watchful, though, I'm sure!

Over a year!

I let Laurna's first birthday pass without mention, shame on me! She's a year old now, is getting more opinionated about things, and is walking along everything in sight, though still not on her own. She's talking in her own language but we can't quite understand it yet. Things are staying interesting!

The last time I tried to upload some more photos I had problems...I know, a likely excuse, but it's true! I'll try again soon.

Photos!

All right, I managed to post the photos from November '09, ha! Well, it's something!

Click here to skip to the relevant page!

First word!!

Baby girl has been saying "mom" and "dada" discriminately for about a month or possibly two, but because this was so gradual they didn't seem to really count as her first words (she started with syllables, and over time started discriminately using them - it was hard to really pinpoint a day when it happened).

Today she definitively said her first understandable word besides those two! It was "up." Not too surprising, since we've been trying to teach it to her when she wants to be picked up, but still!

She's also raring to walk but can't quite yet - she's a pro at pulling herself up and likes to practice getting up and sitting down again (carefully). She's also walking along the furniture and with assistance, but thankfully hasn't tried to jaunt off on her own (she tried that a few months ago when she was first pulling herself up, and fell straight down on her face - ouch!).

Now, if only I could get around to posting some more pictures...

Baby's latest developments:

1. She evidently thinks limes, lemons, and dill pickles are super tasty. Weird.

2. She can triumphantly pull herself up to a standing position.

3. Her first tooth is verrrryyy slllooowly millimetering itself up from gum level.

4. She's getting more fine muscle control, including poking everything for examination with her index finger.

5. She's developed a new game in her doorway jumper - put something on the floor, and she'll kick it just out of reach and then swing and stick out her foot to get it back. Repeat.

6. She's more regularly only waking once at night again, which is great for me and sleep!

7. Just in the last few days she has started actually stepping (i.e. trying to walk, rather than jumping or stumbling), hilariously by lifting up her left foot very high in the air and sticking it out straight before bringing it down again.

5 years together, and 8 month old baby!

Brandon and I have been together 5 years tomorrow, and baby girl's 8 months old today! What a month!

We still haven't picked up our Christmas tree, but we're planning to do it tomorrow when we have use of Brandon's mom's larger vehicle. Ah, logistics.

The baby's vocabulary has expanded from "ba ba ba" to "na na" and "ma ma" with an occasional "la" and an even more rare "daddy." Who cares if it's accidental? She's also crawling, though haltingly - I'm sure she's preparing to wreak havoc on everything in sight!

Time for me to go clean up the kitchen...we made waffles today and made a big mess in the process. (New waffle iron - haven't gotten the recipe and amount quite figured out yet.)