She Walks!

September 8, a few days before she turned 11 months old, Lauren took her first steps. She walked three paces from the ottoman in the living room to me sitting on the floor. She didn't walk more than one or two steps for another few days, but it didn't take her long after that to really get moving.


Here's the first walking shots I got on camera, taken on the day she turned 11th months.


Over the last week, she's gotten better and better every day. This past weekend we spent a few days with my parents at the beach, and she went from walking 5 or 6 steps at a time to walking across the room by the end of the trip.

By yesterday, she's walking more than she's crawling and even turning corners without falling.

I don't really remember Mason picking it up so quickly. And it wasn't until his first birthday that he took his first steps. I guess it's true that girls really do walk faster than boys - in this family it is anyway.

10 Months

I can't believe my baby is 10 months old today! The time certainly does go by even faster with the second child. Here's her 10 month Pooh picture

These days all Lauren seems to want to do is walk behind her push toys. I don't know how many times we walk around the circle of the bottom floor of our house with her little push wagon and airplane each day. She and Mason have gotten pretty good at doing it together...

She's also gotten pretty good at giving kisses and will usually do it when I ask. But watch out, she likes to slip you the tongue!

Nine and a Half Months

I took Lauren for her 9 month well-check (a couple of weeks late) at Dr. Smoak's office on Monday. Her latest stats are: 28in (75th percentile) and 19lbs, 12 oz (60th percentile). It looks like her height is picking up while her weight is slowing down a little bit. The weight part is a bit of a surprise to me since this girl seems to eat any and everything within reach.

Recently, I showed Mason some of the little videos I took of him as a baby, and then I started to feel bad when I realized that I don't have as many of Lauren. So I've been on a video recording kick lately. Here's one of her walking with her little wagon - the same wagon Mason learned how to walk behind.

Like a Weed

Lauren is growing more and more every day. I can't stop her. Dave often comes home and says that she got bigger since he left for work. She's outgrown her baby acne so she is looking less and less newborn. She's also sleeping better (knock on wood) and for the past two night has had a 7-hour stretch before she wanted to eat. I was able to sleep from 10:30-5:00 twice in a row - woo-hoo!

She's such a good-natured baby. Quite the opposite of how Mason was. She will sit in her bouncy seat or swing way longer than Mason ever would. She likes riding in the car and will usually fall asleep. She rarely gets upset unless she's gassy (which happens once in awhile since she's still a once-a-week pooper) or Mason bonks her head. Most of the time she's just content to just sit and watch what's going on.

My new favorite thing is that she's starting to laugh. I've been trying to capture it on video, but I can't seem to get the best of it in time. Here's what I've gotten so far.

Ready for Preschool?

I can't believe that I'm about to send my baby off to preschool next week. I hadn't planned for Mason to go this year originally, but with the new baby coming soon, it would be a good chance for him to have some fun interaction while I'm sure to be housebound for awhile. Plus, I think he's ready. He loves going in the nursery when we go to church (which is where his preschool will be) and seems to enjoy being around other kids. And he already knows things like letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc.

Here's a little video of Mason singing his ABCs and 123s (up to about 23). It was taken back in July, so he was around 27 months old.

What I'm hoping for most is that he learns a little about sitting still, paying attention during something like story time, and playing independently.