What We've Been Up To

Hello friends and family,

My posts for the month of May have all been about LL's early days, so I thought I would do a quick post on what we've been up to over the past few weeks (I'll bet you are all dying to know!) =)

May has been an absolutely WONDERFUL month so far, with beautiful weather (besides that patch of rainy days), stroller rides, running errands with baby, play dates with new friends, and learning new things every day. Again, I cannot express how excited I am that we can finally take her out of the house - goodbye cabin fever!

She is obsessed with walking around still, while holding our hands, and makes it very well-known that she isn't happy with just sitting or lying down anymore - only standing up for big girls! She can pull herself up (grabbing onto furniture) to standing, but only if she's sitting on my lap at this point, so she's a little off the ground to begin with. She will stand up, holding onto furniture for long periods of time and adjusts her feet and hands to stabilize herself and grab toys. Still no cruising along furniture but I think that is right around the corner, as she does move an inch or two sideways if she's trying to reach something. If I'm sitting on the floor next to her she will pull herself to my lap and get herself into a kneeling position and then, if I have my hands out for stability, she will push up from kneeling to standing.

She said "baa" and "daa" for the first time this past week. She didn't seem to be directing those sounds at anything in particular, so it was probably just experimenting with noises. She has been saying "mmmmmemmme" (short "e") for a while but, again, not directed at me as if she's truly saying "mama". Also, she clapped her hands together for the first time on Wednesday and has been doing that a lot lately.

We had our first visit yesterday from the Occupational Therapist who has been assigned to LL (from our county's school district). I'm not sure if I had mentioned that we were going to be taking advantage of this program, but basically it is for children who have any sort of delays or medical issues. She automatically qualifies for the program based on her birth weight (has to be below 3 lbs. 3 oz.) This first visit was mainly for her to do an observation of LL and go over what goals we want to set for her and decide how often to have these OT sessions. She will be coming by twice a month, at least to begin with. Our main goals are to get her crawling, to get her to sit from lying down, to get from sitting to standing, and then also to walk. I'll keep you posted on how things are going with those appointments.

Hubby took this past Friday (yesterday) off of work and this whole coming week. The main reason being turkey hunting, but also to spend time as a family around Little Lamb's birthday. We will have many family members coming in to town next weekend for the birthday party, so we're excited to spend time with them. Oh, I should mention that hubby did end up getting a turkey the very first morning he was out there. To say he is excited is putting it mildly. This is his favorite time of year and he gets ready for this week all year. I'm excited for him but don't fully "get it", as hunting would probably be 500th on my list of favorite activities (right above sky diving). =)

I will be spending this upcoming week planning out things for the birthday party and making sure the house is somewhat clean. Still to be decided: What kind of birthday cake should I make for LL? I've already decided on pink frosting (of course!) but the shape/theme is yet-to-be-determined. If anyone has suggestions, please suggest away.

Ok, this post has gotten WAY longer than I had intended (odd, I know, since I'm not much of a talker). ;) I'll end here so I can go wake baby up from her afternoon nap. I'm going out with my friends tonight to celebrate my birthday and one of my good friend's birthday, which I am very excited about. Daddy is excited to have an evening with his "little angel".

Lots of love from us to you!