Talkin' & Playin'

FINALLY! Lauren rigged up the video camera (a little crooked...oops) without Blake seeing it. So instead of getting all serious and staring at the camera, we finally caught Blake talkin' & playin'. She's pretty funny! The coughing sound that you hear is usually what she does when she's getting ready to laugh...it's somewhat of a half-hearted laugh, not a cough. ENJOY!!!

Hangin' with Mom

Blake usually gets to spend all day on Fridays with Lauren, who has been working 4 - 10's for the most part. They spent most of yesterday playing, eating, and sleeping...and we got some more video footage of all the fun. Blake is doing much better playing on her tummy. She used to throw such a fit if you put her on her belly. But, she's finally gotten used to it. She's also started grabbing everything she can - the TV remote is one of her favorites...she's definetly Bob's child. She has also started the phase where everything that she grabs goes straight into her mouth. On that note, she also feeds herself snacks now. And, she can throw things around. Copa has figured out that it only benefits to hang out around the high chair when Blake is getting fed...who needs a vaccuum?! In fact, yesterday Blake threw a piece of rice rusk that was covered with squash right on top of Copa. The poor dog had a hard time finding it because it was just stuck to her...it was pretty funny. Otherwise, she's still a little more fussy than normal with the whole teething process. Yesterday she let out a few yelps like something had hit a nerve. She seems to be much better today, though. We'll probably be posting another video sometime today. So, stay tuned for more!

St. Patty's Day Tooth

HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY TO EVERYONE!!! Little Miss Blake had her first tooth pop through today! It seemed like it must have been pretty tough work, though. She was pretty fussy at bedtime last night and has been a little fussier than normal the past couple weeks. Well, here are a couple pictures from the past week. Blake likes to play with our kitchen utensils.
LOOK...a measuring cup...She likes to reach for the puppies when she's in her high chair.

All Bundled Up

It was a wonderful 0 degrees when Lauren headed to work this morning, but thankfully, it has warmed up to 10...hey, it's better than 0, right?! It has started snowing again and doesn't seem to be looking any warmer until closer to the weekend. But, on a much brighter note, here are couple pictures from this evening. We just couldn't resist posting these pictures of our little sweetie! She fell asleep on the way home from her caretaker's house today. As you can see, she is about ready to ditch the infant car seat.

She did finally wake up for dinner. She had green beans for the first time, and she really seemed to like them. She doesn't really seem to be very picky lately. She is also starting to mimic noises. Lauren kept saying/singing the words green beans, and Blake would make a "g" sound and then a "b" sound. She did it several times repeating after Lauren. We quickly figured out that singing/talking/eating create quite the mess, but we had fun. Later, when we were changing her diaper, she was making the same voice fluctuations that Lauren was making in a little diaper changing song. YES, we do realize that it is very scary to imagine Blake having to listen to Lauren sing, and even more scary that she is trying to imitate it. She will have her mom to blame later for this.

Ready for Spring

We are ready for Spring! It has snowed here the last two days, and Lauren is SICK of the cold weather. It was only 8 degrees this morning, and the roads were really crappy. Here's a picture from Sunday...And, here's what it looked like today after Lauren shovelled the front walk. But, at least the sun is finally shining :o)
YUCK!!! It'll be nice when we can finally wear t-shirts and shorts. Heck, it'll be nice when we can just wear a long sleeve t-shirt at this point. Our time will come, but it always seems like our winters last forever.

Otherwise, much hasn't happened here since the last post. We did finally move the spare bed out of the living room. Yes, it WAS in the living room. We didn't really have any other place to put it, but we finally got it all wrapped up and stored in the garage. So, Blake will have a nice little play area behind the couch in the living room. She's getting a little too mobile to be putting her to sleep on the bed anymore anyway. Here are a few more pictures of Blake sitting up playing with her toys and stuffed animals.

There's just so many to choose from that it's hard to pick which one to play with next.We hope everyone is staying warm (not so much of a problem for you southerners) and healthy. Our good friend, Kyle, recently came down with pneumonia on top of having torn ligaments in his ankle (he rolled it), so we are sure thinking of Jess and the kiddos and wish Kyle a speedy recovery; and, we hope he gets released from the hospital soon (if he's not already). Best wishes to all!

Such A Big Girl

We've been letting Blake play with a sippy cup. We've tried getting her to drink from it, but she doesn't quite get the sipping vs. the sucking thing.But, she loves to hold it, put it up to her mouth, and throw it around the kitchen. So, that's good enough for now. Here's our baby playing in her high chair at lunch.Lauren has started giving Blake a little bit of juice in a dixie cup to try to get her used to drinking from a cup (sipping) versus drinking from the bottle. She seems to be catching on, but of course, it is much more fun to spill the dixie cup full of juice than it is to actually succeed at getting it in the mouth. And, it's even more fun to get a mouthful of juice and talk at the same time. You can imagine how much fun that would be, right?! Here's another video of Blake. She sits up and plays with her toys quite a bit now. She doesn't tip over very often, but every once in a while...like today when she sneezed...she just gets going too far one direction and can't recover. It's too bad we didn't get it on tape.

Our poor kiddo is still having trouble pooping...we've been putting Karo syrup in about 1 bottle a day since she started formula. She is actually starting to thin out a little bit. She seemed to be growing more in weight than in height, but we're pretty sure she's gotten a little longer without much more weight gain. You sure wouldn't notice it in the video, though. Blake hadn't pooped in almost 2 days when the video was taken, so her poor little belly was just bulging. She seems to be back on track now, and the doctor is still recommending that she stay on the Karo syrup schedule until the 9 month checkup. It just seems like a lot of sugar, but I guess the doctor did get more medical school than I did ;) Hope everyone else is doing fine and staying regular :o)

7 Months Old

Blake turned 7 months old yesterday! She has almost mastered sitting up by herself. She does really well, but she still tips over every once in a while...it's pretty funny. Her favorite foods so far are bananas, squash, peaches, and carrotts. She had applesauce for the first time today, but she really didn't seem to be overly impressed. We haven't given her pears yet, so that'll be next. Otherwise, there's not too much going on in our neck of the woods. Blake had to go get her flu booster shot this morning, so we were forced to go out in the fridged temps. It was in the teens, and we had a few snow flurries throughout the day. We did manage to get some more video footage...posted below. Blake really laughs when you do most of the things you'll see in the video, but everytime we turn the camera on she gets all serious and doesn't give the big laughs. We tried. Here's the video: