Angel Baby

4 Months

Lorelei is 4 months old and is a very busy girl. She loves jumping in her jump-a-roo and is getting very strong! She loves to sit up with some help or in the Bumbo, and really enjoys standing while holding our hands so she can think about how awesome walking will be when she's a little bigger. She is 14 pounds and still in the 97th percentile for length; she's grown 4 inches in 4 months! We think she's starting to get some teeth as she's gnawing on everything and has a steady stream of drool spilling from her mouth all day, but there's nothing to see or feel in there yet. Lorelei is great at blowing raspberries, which helps spread that drool around, and now she reaches for and grabs everything to really make sure we have an adequate layer of slime on all surfaces. She is also starting to belly laugh, especially when Daddy sings silly songs. Occasionally she will randomly laugh just looking at our faces, which makes us self-conscious.

Lorelei is now sleeping in her own room but we bring her into our bed when she wakes up around 3 or 4am. She snuggles up and goes back to sleep for a couple hours, but squeals and screams and kicks, (poor Greta has gotten clobbered a few times) to let us know she is AWAKE around 5 or 6am. One of my favorite things about waking up with her each morning is the way she coos and carries on, and then takes a break to look up at my face to see if my eyes are open. She giggles and gets the biggest grin on her face when I finally come-to and make eye-contact.  Hard not to smile with that kind of greeting each morning!

Here's our sweet baby:

Laughing at Daddy

Gimme that!

Long Overdue

This post should have been written a couple months ago, but we've been enjoying a very busy summer! Luckily, we've taken lots of pictures, so I'll just post the highlights and spare you my long-winded writing.

At the Illinois River in Havana in June. We went there with our neighbors Tom and Ashley. It was Lorelei's first weekend away from home and was a fantastic way to kick off the summer!

LOVES the jumper. This was the first time we put her in to play. Her legs were a little short still, so we used an old album. This was about a month ago, and now her little tippy toes can touch the ground!

She's never done this for us, but she zonked out IN the jumper when Grandma was babysitting one morning. It's hard work being a baby!

 

Backyard before.

Back yard after. Our new patio was installed in the middle of June. We are so excited to finally have some usable outdoor space!

Todd's parents gave us some patio furniture that was headed for the garbage because some of their friends were downsizing, so I made new covers for the cushions that gave the entire set a much-needed makeover. It took a while, but I finally finished all 6 cushions and we are enjoying dining al-fresco in the evenings when it's not 100 degrees! 

Lorelei made her first trip up to the lake house in June as well. Uncle Brad, Aunt Amy, and Zachary came too. Lots of fun, except the weather was a little stinky. She did roll from her back to her belly, and then from her belly to her back that weekend!

I love this picture of my little lady. Hard to believe how much she has changed in a just a couple months! 

Lorelei was NOT interested in having her picture taken this day. It was one of those blistering hot days, and even though we had the AC pumping, everyone was a little crabby. She refused to smile, and finally scrunched down in the chair and decided she was done! 

She LOVES Grandma and Grandpa's pool! We spent several of those triple-digit days floating around to keep cool. Check out those chins!  

Lorelei prefers playing on her belly now and rolls immediately when we put her down. She gets a little mad when things she wants are out of reach and doesn't hesitate to let us know! :-)

When we cant make it to Grandma & Grandpa's pool, we have a little plastic pool that works well in the backyard. She is definitely a water baby! 

Garden update: Lots of things are doing well! While not a full peck, I'm looking forward to harvesting my single purple pepper! We are going to have tomatoes and bell peppers coming out of ears in a few weeks, and the cucumbers are coming in fast, but are still very prickly. I have only one zucchini, I'm worried the other plants weren't pollinated because I had lots of flowers, but nothing more has grown. The leaf lettuce is doing great, but only one Swiss chard plant came up and no spinach ever germinated.  The chives and carrots are coming along slowly, will be great in a month or so. 

THIS IS SO EXCITING!!! My first little watermelon. This guy is now about the size of a squash ball and I have 4 more on the same plant! I hope they turn out to taste as good as I'm hoping so all of this anticipation isn't for dud melons! 

We visited Great Grandma again and she got some smiles from Lorelei. I think Lorelei isn't as happy as usual when we make that trip because she doesn't especially enjoy riding in the car. 

I remember when my grandma used to rub my back and play with my hair. It really does feel that good! :)

Loving on Great Auntie

Fletch and Greta enjoying the yard. Our grass is so dry and dead now, poor Greta really dislikes going out to go to the bathroom because it pokes her belly. It's hard being a wiener.