Two weekends in a row

We got to see Gwampah Bwisto Mingas two weekends in a row, which means that Lyla remembered him and was actually excited to see him!! We went down to his house to see my aunt Joy and uncle Ron, who were visiting from PA, and Lyla had a grand ol' time playing with Gwampah. So cute!!

Lyla Mae, 36 weeks old

Little Miss now has 2, count 'em, 2 teeth!! And she's all about playing.  And vocalizing.  A lot. 

Timothy's birthday, observed

We had a great time celebrating Timothy's birthday on Sunday! He chose a Thomas the Tank Engine theme (much to my surprise - I was expecting him to pick Toy Story.  Go figure!), and despite not having napped, he was as good a little host as a 3 year old can be.  He was oh-so-very excited about presents this year, so we actually let him open them during the party (he even opened the one from his friend Jack as soon as he walked through the door! hehe). 

"I can't see under this hat!"

"Look, papa!!"

Instead of a cake this year, we had some AMAZING cupcakes from Icing on the Cupcake.  They were SOOOOOO good (and yes, I had one of the few left-over ones for breakfast this morning. And no, I'm not ashamed! ;))

And what's a party without some funny (and cute) faces??

And our annual post-birthday bash self-portrait:

Happy birthday again, sweet boy!  We love you lots and lots!

Lyla has a tooth!!

Lyla's first tooth erupted sometime yesterday (we think it was while she was chewing on Billy's hat during Timothy's birthday party, hehe)!  It's the same one that Timothy first cut - the lower right central incisor (#10 on the chart below) - but she's about a month older than he was at the time.  All this time I've been thinking that he didn't have any teeth until much later, but in looking back through my old blog posts, I see that he was just past 7 months old when I blogged about his first tooth.  I guess I was just thinking there was less lag-time between the bottom and top teeth, since he only had about 1.5 of the top ones when he turned one. :)

Anyway, back to Lyla... we noticed that she had two little lumps on her bottom gums a couple of weeks ago, but other than waking up earlier in the morning, she hasn't been terribly fussy or drooly, so we didn't think the teeth would actually come through.  Then yesterday during the party, she grabbed my hand and started gnawing on my finger, and - holy moly! - there it was! I guess it's just par for the course with this amazingly easy-going little girl! I've decided to just enjoy her, instead of waiting for the other shoe to drop.  If/when she hits a tough phase, we'll just deal with it then!

Lyla Mae, 8 months old

Lyla has been doing all kinds of new stuff in the last month!! She's finally rolling around for locomotion, and she's also scooting a lot more.  She now will set her sights on something and make a concerted effort to get to it, whether it's nearby or across the room. :)  We knew this day would come, of course, but being wiser 2nd-time parents, were happy that it didn't come quite as early as it did with Timothy.

She's also started reaching her arms out to us when she wants to be picked up, and a couple of days after she did that she started waving!  The wave started out as just one arm going up and down, but she's added an open-close of the hand now, too.  It's so freakin' cute!  And of course this means that we're now working on some baby signs with her.  So fun!

She's also become quite adept at the pincer grasp.  She's very coordinated, and was able to master this fine motor skill almost as soon as she started working on it.   She especially likes picking up, and sometimes eating, Joe's O's (Trader Joe's version of Cheeri-O's).

She also cut her first tooth today!  Thankfully, other than a lot of chewing on pretty much anything she can get in her mouth, the teething doesn't really seem to be bothering her too much.

She continues to enjoy blowing raspberries and sticking out that cute little tongue, and she's also babbling a lot.  And loudly, at that!  I think this quiet little girl is finally finding her voice.  Heehee!

And lastly, she started clapping this week!!  

Timothy is 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy birthday to our sweet, handsome, smart, hilarious, loving, stubborn, inquisitive, adventurous, outgoing, and all-around adorable little boy!

 

Mommy and papa love you more than you'll ever know!  And sister thinks you're the bees' knees!