The Lives of Lauren and Nick +

Professional Photos: Almost 10 months

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:43:00 +0000

We recently got some professional pictures taken of Aurora from a Groupon Lauren bought when Aurora was a few days old. These were taken March 25th by Brooke Bready at Meadowbrook Stables in Maryland.

9 months

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:24:00 +0000

This post is a little belated, but wanted to share pictures. Aurora at 9 moths is still very talkative and observant. She has a big toothy smile for everyone! Our favorite is when she squinches up her nose, squints her eyes and gives the smile. She claps all the time, bounces and dances to music, laughs when we laugh so she can be part of the fun, and shares her food with Mom and Dad. She learns how to stand on her own from a sitting position, which is a precursor to the walking coming soon!

With Grandpa Hector and Nana Marjorie at Huntley Meadows Park

We love baby cardigans!

Playing with her sorting blocks with Grandpa and Nana

Aurora's first ice cream try was at Dairy Godmother, and she loved it. This her second try at McDonald's at the Udvar Hazey Space Center. She loves it.

Examining a hamantashen on Purim

Because 2 sippy cups are better than one, and even better is when one of them is covered in cottage cheese

Toothy smile before going to a birthday party

Cuddled up in one of our recent purchases, the Ergo, at Meadowlark Gardens in Vienna

Daddy converted the carseat box into a temporary tunnel

Aurora loves the wings!

Hi Mom and Dad!

Toothy smile example

Hanging out at the Cherry Blossom Kite Festival (100th year) with Mommy while Daddy flies kites

Daddy flying his kite

Aurora recently discovered the great outdoors and loves it or at least grabbing blades of grass

Aurora stands on her own

Fun with Bubbles

Clapping and laughing

Laughing some more

8 months

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 02:13:00 +0000

In February, Aurora boasts her bottom two teeth almost fully in and sports an adorable squinty nose toothy smile. We tried to catch it in some of these photos. She perfects her pincer grasp and tries lots of new foods. With a few exceptions, she eats what we eat and likes most foods. Emerging favorites are cheese, quesadilla, all fruits, and broccoli. She loves vegetables, which is good news for a vegetarian baby! Very soon after she can feed herself, she is not interested in being fed with a spoon. This makes giving her oatmeal and yogurt a little challenging, but we are happy she likes to eat independently. She also figures out how to use her sippy cup and then throw it on the floor when she is done drinking her water. She continues to babble and chatter and seems to say Mama with meaning, usually in the middle of the night or when she's hungry. She says ba-ba and starts to wave goodbye. She pulls up on items, but then lets go and stands on her own. At the end of the month, she figures out she can crawl under things and tables become new fun toys!

We think that's macaroni and cheese with maybe a cheerio

Aurora loves to share her food. Sharing a graham cracker with Mommy

Pretty in pink

Standing by the stairs

More swimming. She isn't thrilled to swim on her back, but loves to be on her belly.

We love this cardigan!

Aurora reaches for one of her two favorite toys...the remote control. She doesn't watch tv, but it doesn't stop her from pressing the buttons.

Aurora with her other favorite toy, the telephone. She loves to talk on the phone and will protest if you have a conversation with including her. We now talk almost exclusively on speaker phone in this house.

Hanging with Daddy

Reading with Mommy. As you can may see in this photo, the headboard of our bed is now used as a toy repository. Not quite the use we had in mind when picking out this bed, but indeed very convenient. Aurora loves to pull herself up on the headboard, grab some toys and books, examine the buttons, and jump up and down.

Besitos!

I think this is lentils, rice, and kale. She loves kale along with most vegetables. Broccoli is a favorite.


Naptime with Daddy

Aurora standing and talking and going from the ottoman to the couch. She takes a fall at the end, but quite gracefully.

Seven Months

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 02:46:00 +0000

Aurora's seventh month was indeed filled with lots of new experiences that start with the letter S. Here are some highlights and photos below:

Swimming lessons started in the new year. Aurora likes swimming, but likes checking out all the other babies even more.
Separation anxiety as she started daycare four days a week. This was a tough one for about 4 week,s but fortunately is now much much better
Swinging for the first time in a safe baby swing at a nearby playground. She loved it! We can't wait until it gets warmer, and we can take her more often.
Saying "mamama", "bababa". Not sure if she know what these mean, but we do think she gets what mama means. She also says "ha" for hello.
Snowing for the first time.
Lots of gesturing. She gestures and understands ours including pick me up and come here
Crawling all over the place and climbing up on everything. She'll go off into a room to explore for a minute and then comes crawling back to us. She lets go when she climbs up now and then to practice standing by herself
Solid foods have taken on new meaning with a pincer grasp as she tries lots of foods. She first fed herself graham crackers by herself, followed closely by a french fry. (We do mix in lots of healthy foods as well. They are just coincidentally harder to hold with baby hands)
Talking on the phone...all phones, house phone, cell phones, make believe phones. If you are talking on the phone, she must be part of the conversation.
Visits from Grandma, Grandpa, and Mimah

Swimming Outfit

Mastering the stairs

First snow

Not so thrilled about being in the snow or maybe being stuffed in her snowsuit

Sledding

Again, sledding not so fun when stuffed in a snowsuit

Standing in her crib

Teething on her crib (which is now decorated with assorted toothmarks)

Standing and playing with Mimah

Swimming

Don't bother me, I'm eating

At Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on MLK Day

Closeup of MLK Memorial with Mimah

First time eating graham cracker by myself

I'm going to get you and that camera too!

One of our favorite expressions, sticking out her bottom lip

Big smile

More teething on wooden furniture...the coffee table

Reading The Very Busy Spider

Greek yogurt is the new baby facial moisturizer

I am just 8 months old!

Short video of Aurora babbling

Stairclimber

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:08:00 +0000

Aurora started climbing stairs for the first time yesterday. Previously, she was content to just pull herself up oin the stairs and stand there. Now she's climbing.

Notice that her onesie is not fully closed and her diaper is hanging out. This is because she is officially an acrobutt, a kitschy but accurate term coined by Huggies (if you watch the video, note that we are not using slip-ons and are a Pampers family anyways). You are lucky enough to get the new diaper on her, an extra point if you can get her onesie on, and jackpot if you manage the whole outfit.

Chanukah and the New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:05:00 +0000

Staring at the Chanukiyah with Daddy

Yes, these are all presents for Aurora. Thanks to everyone who thought of her this Chanukah!

No chanukah relation, just cute.

Aurora loves having toys that she can play with while standing. This one is from Great-Grandma.

At Shira and Ben's Chanukah party

with Shira and Ben

Mommy and Aurora tired out from the Chanukah party. (We both had stomach bugs the week before. Rather Aurora got a stomach bug, gave it to Mommy, and then repeat with a cold. Both of our immune systems will be stronger after daycare.)

7 months old on New Year's Day, standing tall, and proud of it! We spent the evening before with friends Apoorva, Josh, and Anjali. Aurora partied until about 10:30 when we went home to go to sleep.

Aurora and friend Jeremiah playing on New Year's Day

Crawling and Climbing Through November and December

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:00:00 +0000

As you can see, the blogging has slowed down with Mommy's return to work. Here is a montage of Aurora's end of November and December. Most notable is that she is now crawling and climbing on everything, which happened very quickly. At around 24 weeks, her hand-eye coordination improved greatly and she started really playing with her toys and picking up everything. She had been practicing crawling for weeks, but suddenly was on the move. About 2 weeks after, she started experimenting with climbing. At first it was on the back of the couch, the coffee table, and in her crib, but now everything is fair game!

6 months old on December 1

Visiting with college friends Noel and Pratibha and baby friend Maya

Reading (and ripping) the holiday catalogs, now up there on the list of favorite toys

Standing on the ottoman with another one of her favorite toys, the remote control

Aurora on video crawling towards her toy. She now crawls everywhere - to her favorite toys to play, to Mommy and Daddy when she wants a hug, and away from Mommy and Daddy into the hallway or bathroom when we are trying to change her clothes.

Just a cutie photo

Aurora loves drinking water from a camelbak so much that we bought her a kiddie version. This is her drinking from Mommy's.

Video of Aurora climbing on our coffee table and trying to reach one of our mugs. We moved it out of the way. This gives you an idea of how we spend much of our days now.

Aurora's First Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:55:00 +0000

We celebrated Aurora's first Thanksgiving with Grandma Beverly, Grandpa Nathan, and Uncles Steven and Jon. Thanksgiving day was at cousins Asher and Sharon. See below for some snapshots!

Aurora went to dinner the night before Thanksgiving day with the parents and uncles to an Ethiopian restaurant. She LOVED playing with Injera, the Ethiopian bread. We think it's because of the spongy texture.

Eating a mix of sweet potatoes and butternut squash on Thanksgiving Day

Aurora loved watching cousins Dylan and Zach play pile-on in the living room. They loved it too...until one of them got hurt :)

End of my leave

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:52:00 +0000

I can hardly believe that 24 weeks went by so quickly and am grateful that I had this time with Aurora. Here are a few photos from our last days of leave together and a few reflections.

Aurora moved on from Mommy's leave to Daddy's pseudo leave as Nick worked part-time from mid-November through the beginning of January. In the New Year, Aurora is in home care 4 days a week, as I am still working at 80%.

Voting in the local elections

With Daddy at the National Zoo, end of leave trip

With Mommy and the pandas at the National Zoo, end of leave trip. Aurora was more interested in the other people at the zoo than the animals.

Some reflections on my leave....
Did the time go by quickly?
Yes, but it covered two seasons and a baby who is now sitting and crawling and climbing. Of course she decided to complete some major milestones right before I went back to work like sitting up by herself from all fours and playing with her toys (hand eye coordination all of a sudden got much better!).

What did we do with our time together?
It feels like we spent much of that time breastfeeding. Since she is now a pretty quick and efficient eater, that's time I feel was well spent and I miss. The rest of the time we spent playing and talking and going places and walks when she would tolerate the car (see below). We also spent lots of time with family.

Any regrets?
I do wish we went out more, but this was difficult along the 24 weeks for various reasons. First, I needed to get the breastfeeding in public down. It was at first painful, required superwoman coordination, and we were doing it every other hour. Now, it's much much easier. Then Aurora decided she was not a fan of the car seat, a situation which has improved greatly as she gets older (although still not her favorite place). We did make it out quite a bit considering, to the mall, to see friends, to Target, CVS, and other places and spent lots of quality time together at home.

What did you like the best?
Spending the time with Aurora. It also taught me to spend time in a way that I have never done before. Raising a child is of course not a vacation, but very different from being on the laptop with a task list all day. It was a good lesson for me.

Will I miss it?
Very much. I will miss being with her all the time. It will be hard to be away and navigate the balancing act of work and family. I do enjoy work though and am trying to focus on all the positives of our work and family situation!

Six (5.5) Month Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 23:26:00 +0000

We recently went to get photos of Aurora at around her 6 month mark. We decided to go back to Carla Whitaker, who did our newborn photos. Please see below for some of the results. Carla managed to capture the full range of Aurora's personality and expressions!

Five Months and First Food

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:46:00 +0000

We realized that Aurora follows a certain thought process everytime she grabs something, someone puts an item in her hand, or an item is anywhere near the vicinity of her mouth. Here's how it goes:
Can I fit this into my mouth?
If yes....How much of this can I fit into my mouth?
If no....How much saliva can I drool on it?

On that note, now that Aurora is 5 months old, we knew it was time to start solid foods. She has been showing all the signs of being ready for solid foods for about a month now, sitting up on her own, showing interest in our food, and grabbing at our food. We wanted to delay to as close to 6 months as possible, because of all the supposed health benefits of waiting. Our Dr. suggested starting her at 5.5 months, so we are about a week shy. As we soon found out though, she was more than ready to eat.

See below for two videos of her eating for the first time. We began with rice cereal and oatmeal. Today we actually did pears and will soon progerss to other fruits and vegetables. Needless to say from the videos, Aurora loves eating. She opens her mouth wide for the spoon. She becomes impatient and shouts out if we take too long to get the next spoonful in her mouth. This is going to be fun now that she can take a seat at the dinner table!

First bite

Last Bite

5 months old!

Classic Aurora, rolling around, holding onto her pants and feet, drooling, generally having a good time

First taste of rice cereal. Finally, these people are feeding me food!

She requested that we ditch the bib, but not the cereal. Still wanting more.

Aurora gets the giggles on Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:55:00 +0000

Aurora's first Halloween was fun, but largely uneventful. We had planned on going to some kid's Halloween events around town that weekend, but the weather was not cooperative, cold and rainy. On Halloween Day, we dressed up in two different outfits (see below), greeted tricker treaters, and had a mini photo shoot with our friends Josh and Apoorva and their baby Anjali.

First see Aurora getting the giggles on Halloween. The ha-has started with a witch figurine we have that cackles ha-ha-ha when you make a loud noise in front of her. We brought it out for Halloween to see how Aurora would react. She thought the noise was funny, so of course we kept repeating it.

Aurora is ready for the tricker treaters holding a pumpkin full of candy

Outfit #1, Daddy's under my spell

Acting out outfit #1 (note Daddy is dressed up in his costume shirt)

Still acting out Outfit #1. Hopefully Daddy is also under my spell

Aurora in Outfit #2, a ladybug sleeper courtesy of Uncle Ben and Wendy with her friend Anjali in a pumpkin costume

Photo shoot gone wrong when Anjali and Aurora lose their balance. Aurora at least is amused

Take 2 is more successful

End of October

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 14:31:00 +0000

After a busy trip to Miami, we spent the rest of October hanging out. We got to meet two new friends, Amelia and Maya both born in October! We also selected a pumpking for Halloween. Aurora was not amused by the trip, but hopefully will like the carved pumpkin!

20 weeks old

Aurora and Mommy at the Pumpkin Patch to select a pumpkin for Daddy to carve. Aurora had just woken up from a nap, and is clearly not amused.

21 weeks

In her new activity center

Who does she look like?

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:42:00 +0000

Everyone speculates who a baby looks like, but it's hard to compare your baby to adult mommy and daddy who have since lost the chubby cheeks and short haircut.

Several people suggested we take a look at our baby photos taken around the same age as Aurora. Here I am on the left and Nick on the right. I am sorry for the size discrepancy, but it's just the size of the photos we happened to have. We think she is a combination, but I'm sure the speculation will continue as she grows!

Trip to Miami October 13-17

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 01:39:00 +0000

Aurora took her first trip to Miami in the middle of October. She was an excellent plane passenger, very amused and entertained by all of her fellow passengers. In fact, on the evening flight back, she was quite disappointed that everyone preferred to sleep instead of playing with her. We had a great time visiting everyone and introducing friends to Aurora!

19 weeks old, right before we leave to Miami

With Grandpa in the Sukkah outside our home for the holiday.

With Grandparents waving the lulav for the first time for the Sukkot holiday

Aurora has a firm grip on the Lulav and loved the smell of the etrog

Aurora meets all of Nick's former co-workers from HRD

Aurora sitting with Shirley and Luis and playing with Peter

Aurora hanging with cousins Jake and Addison

Having fun with her cousins

At Mimah Lulu's house with Daddy and Mike

Spending time with Uncle Ben

Laughing with Mimah Lulu

Enjoying all of the attention

Tired from playing host to all of her visitors

Wrapped in Grandpa's Tallit (prayer shawl)

Closeup in the Tallit

Aurora's victory pose while nursing at a restaurant. She refuses to stay entirely undercover.

In the plane on the way home. It has been a good trip!

Happy New Year and Four monthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:40:00 +0000

Aurora turned four months old just a few days after Rosh Hashanah. Grandma Beverly and Grandpa Nathan came to town to celebrate the New Year with Aurora

Aurora on the New Year. Now that she is mastering the use of her hands, she grabs her top and shows off her belly button.

A more serene New Year's picture

Mommy and Aurora with a big smile

Mommy and Aurora with a megawatt smile

Staring off into the distance, wondering about this first year or maybe when she will be eating next

Official 4 month birthday

Aurora's first outing in coldish weather all bundled up. We took the metro to the National Portrait Gallery. She didn't seem to mind the clouds or the cloudy drizzling weather.

On her hands and knees, trying to figure out crawling

18 weeks old!

Now that Aurora can sit up on her own for short periods of time, she is trying to get up on her own. When she is lying down, she often flexes her stomach muscle and does a half sit-up. She can get up if we give her something to hold onto, like our hands, but can't do it on her own yet. Here's a video of her trying and talking at the same time.

Just a quick video of Aurora laughing wiht Mommy on Yom Kippur Day (we were not fasting).

Sitting and Crawling

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:43:00 +0000

At the end of September, when she was 16.5 weeks, Aurora started sitting up on her own. Soon after, she started getting up on her hands and knees and trying to crawl! Now she spends much of her day trying to practice and perfect these skills.

This is Aurora on October 1st, sitting up by herself. She is half dressed I'm sure because she decided to practice sitting in the midst of changing her diaper. We can stop her long enough to get the diaper on, but sometimes it's not worth holding her back just to button up her sleeper.

In the video, just as Grandma says that she is advanced, Aurora loses her balance and falls backwards! She won't stand for any hyperparenting, or hypergrandparenting.

This is Aurora getting up on her hands and knees the next day. She gets up and then kind of lunges forward or moves her knees a crawl or two. She hasn't yet mastered the whole coordination of hand and knee, but she's on her way!

15-17 weeks

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:40:00 +0000

Here are a few pics of Aurora from 15-17 weeks old!

In her jeans outfit

Needed a shot of the back pocket detailing

Another Jeans outfit

Official 15 week photo

Practicing airplane

16 weeks

16 weeks serious face

curling up with Daddy

Visit with Alyssa on September 24th, 16.5 weeks

With Alyssa and Mommy

Look Ma, no hands! First time Aurora sits up on her own! She has been doing the tripod sit for awhile, and that day she suddenly lifted her hands up for a few seconds. We are still working on our balance, but she can sit up on her own for a few seconds and now longer

Yes, I just sat up on my own. It's going to go in the blog, isn't it.

Special polaroid shot, courtesy of Alyssa.

Aurora is truly Daddy's girl here, diving into a bag of corn chips. You can even see the drool coming down her chin. While she may come to love corn chips in the near future, right now she loves the sound of the bag crinkling.

Car seats, Traffic, and Public Restrooms. What do these things have to do with each other?

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:22:00 +0000

These are all of Aurora's major dislikes. She is a pretty fun and active little girl, but these items rank high on her lists of things to avoid.

We are not sure what the connection is between these dislikes, if any. Perhaps she doesn't like to be confined in tight quarters or small spaces?

She doesn't dislike the car or motion and actually loves going out places and seeing new things. She just doesn't like being strapped in the car seat. This dislike is exacerbated by traffic. Most of the time Aurora can do anything for 10-15 minutes, sometimes even be in the car seat, but after that time is up and the screaming begins. Sometimes the screaming begins from the moment we place her in the seat though, it just depends. The worst experience we have had thus far was last week when I was alone with her in the car on the way to meet Nick for lunch at work. We were on 495 and got stuck in traffic from a multi-vehicle accident. We were in bumper to bumper traffic for about 25 minutes, and we couldn't go onto the shoulder because it was being used by emergency vehicles. Aurora screamed the whole time.

We have tried a myriad of fixes including sticking an electric toothbrush in the seat, using fun mirrors in front of the seat, using a pacifier in the car (which she promptly spits out), putting a variety of toys on her car seat bar, and trying out the larger Britax car seat. Some of these work for the blessed 10-15 minutes, some of them don't work at all. She is no fool, and our attempts do not distract her from screaming to be removed from the seat. The one successful solution we came up with is to take her on the metro, which she loves. She doesn't mind being strapped in the stroller, because she can look around at us, all the people, and out the window. Good think we live across the street from the metro.

The public restrooms we think is because it's also pretty small spaces with no windows and lots of strange loud noises like people slamming the stalls or the loud dryer. She is more tolerant of the restrooms that are larger.

What do you think is the connection? Or do you know of any magic car seat solutions?

Talking to Lion, September 16 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:51:00 +0000

Usually about once or twice a day Aurora has a talking streak with lots of vowels and hahs. I love this, because she sounds so cute and expressive. It has been hard to catch her doing it on camera, but I finally got it! Here she is talking to the Lion on her playmat.

Jumperoo, September 10, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:34:00 +0000

Here is Aurora at14.5 weeks in the doorway jumperoo for the first time. She was a little hesitant at first, but then got the hang of it!

Now she sits there, bounces for awhile, and then gnaws on the front of the cloth chair, so the tray collects her drool. We think this is the beginning of teething.

Three Months - September 1st

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 19:15:00 +0000

Aurora is three months old!

August 29th, lifting up my head and smiling!

Later that day reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar with Daddy.....

...Until I decided that pulling his hair was more fun

August 30th, hanging out with my favorite stuffed animals, Perro Rojo and Perro Taggie. I recognize and smile at them every morning. Sometimes I even grab Perro Rojo's ear and chew on it.

September 1st, Officially three months old!

Didn't you take enough pictures Mom?

Seriously enough.

September 4th, Now that I can hold myself up, I get to ride on Daddy's shoulders

September 5th, At the Air and Space Museum in Dulles with Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa

Hanging with Grandma Beverly

September 6th, In case you can' see this one, my onesie says "My Daddy is a Better Programmer Than Your Daddy"

Playing with Grandpa Nathan in the morning

Getting my daily exercise with Mommy doing Ride a Train to Boston

And then walking on Mommy

September 7th, I am 14 weeks old!

I can see you taking that picture!

September 8th, It was a busy Labor Day weekend. Let's chill out for awhile.

September 9th, Look Mom! I can almost sit up! I call this one my tripod move.

Subtitles Needed - September 2nd

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:38:00 +0000

Aurora has no problem getting her message across most of the time (I'm hungry, I want to cuddle, I'm tired, I'm tired but don't to sleep, I want to play, Do that again, etc...). She babbles, squeals, shouts, screeches, and laughs. There are times though, where I really would like to know what she is saying.

We are having a conversation, but I have no idea what she is saying. Please add your own subtitles to this one.

Aurora goes for a roll again - August 30th

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 18:35:00 +0000

Just shy of her three month mark, Aurora learned how to roll from her back to belly. As we blogged about in a previous post, she had already figured out how to roll belly to back. See below for Aurora's new skill in action. Once she figured out how to roll on her belly, she practiced again and again, and subsequently stopped rolling from her belly to her back. Apparently being on your belly is much more exciting than lying on your back. She now rolls probably about 10-20 times a day. If you lie her down on her back, she doesn't stay there for very long. We can imagine that it must change a baby's world to suddenly be mobile!

Rolling onto her belly led to two other new developments. The first is rolling in her sleep. Aurora practices rolling ALL the time, awake and asleep. The first time she rolled in her sleep was on September 2nd. Nick and I stayed up watching her sleep on her stomach on the monitor to make sure she was breathing. She was absolutely fine, but all the SIDS precautions made us a little nervous. Now she prefers to sleep on her stomach. Although we still set her down on her back, she doesn't stay there for very long. Sometimes she wakes herself up in her sleep when she rolls, which has made for an interesting week :).

See below for Aurora waking up from her nap on her stomach.

The second development was her attempt to crawl. We know, she is too young to crawl, but we promise she is trying. This little girl wants to move! She can turn herself around on her stomach 360 in about 2 minutes, and cover about a foot in distance front and back. Aurora's practicing every day, but needs a little more strength to more effectively do the belly slither and then crawl. Here is a video of her trying. You have to play close attention, but she does a little back slither and then scoots forward.

Nick and I are preparing to get the house babyproof soon!

The latest update is that on Friday (9/9), she did roll on her stomach and then a minute later onto her back again. She scared herself though and started crying. Hopefully she will practice more this week!

I can hold my toys! - August 27th

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:10:00 +0000

Aurora has officially discovered her hands and is learning how to use them. She can now can hold hand toys and grasp dangling objects as part of her three month milestones!
Here's a video of Aurora really holding and shaking a toy for the first time on August 27th. This is called a Squish, basically a geekified rattle that we love!

Here's another one of Aurora grabbing an owl chime decoration that we have on the wall on September 8th. She has always loved this owl, but only gets to spend time with him when she is being held by Uncle Steven or Grandpa Nathan as they are tall enough for her to see the owl up close. Here Aurora is being held by Uncle Steven while she plays with the owl.