1st Steps!

This evening, Arden took her first official steps (unassisted)! We believe it was about 5 of them from Daddy to Mommy. We'll try to get video soon!

10 Months

Arden turned 10 months on last Saturday! She has officially been outside of Mommy longer than inside :)

Arden has really taken off over the last couple of months. She is now an expert crawler having mastered the "cross crawl" technique. She has also learned how to sit down making her movements around the apartment much faster. She may be standing at a particular point, lower herself down, and crawl to the next point of interest with relative ease. As a result, we have child proofed our apartment with electrical socket plugs, a child gate to block off the kitchen, a toilet seat lock, and cardboard barriers to keep Arden away from wiring. Hopefully that will be enough! One of her favorite activities is being walked around the apartment. She would walk all day if our backs could take it! She can walk fairly well with one of us only holding one of her hands, and can stand by herself unassisted for 10 seconds at a time.

Today we went in for Arden's 9 month well visit (it was hard to schedule a time, thus we where in at 10 months). We where excited that this visit wouldn't have any vaccines. We where not informed, however, that though there where no vaccines, there was a blood draw and TB test. It was not fun holding Arden down while the doctor fished around in her arm for a vein. Arden cried alot. No fun. Hopefully the results will all come back normal.

Here are Arden's specs (all in the average range)...

19.5 lbs

28.25 inches long

7 teeth

Now knows titles associated with things (Mommy, Daddy, Penny, Cheerios, Up, No)

She loves to read all of her books and turns pages by herself!

Post Cleveland Trip

Help! Arden's development is accelerating! We are now officially having trouble keeping up with her. In the last couple of weeks she has learned how to crawl, and now especially loves being walked around the apartment. She can also pull herself up and cruise around tables and chairs. When she doesn't get help walking around....she fusses. And so it begins...

We had a great trip to Cleveland to visit Amber's family. It was Amber's sisters birthday so it was a happy time! Arden got to meet her Great Grandfather Don Bookatz as well as many aunts and uncles.

Arden also has more teeth now - we're officially up to 7! Oh - and she's 20 lbs.

Eating up a storm!

Just a quick update with a fun video of Arden eating a banana. She's getting pretty good at it!

Just the facts

Just a quick update for now. Arden has learned to push herself up into a sitting position! This is significant because she could already pull herself up to a standing position in the crib, but not without our help in getting her into a sitting position first. Now, she can stand in the crib all on her own! (We have witnessed this during nap time.) Teething continues, but no new pearly whites to report. We're coming up on 9 months!

Let's get ready to rumble!

Arden turns 8 months old in 4 days!

It's been a rather tough couple of months dealing with various ailments and teething for Arden. She's been a real trooper through it all, still smiling and engaging us even though she has been in obvious discomfort. The big news is that Arden now has 4 teeth and is teething on 4 MORE teeth that seem to bemaking their move! Before long, she will have 6 teeth up top, and...two on bottom :)

In other news, Arden isn't quite crawling yet but she loves to stand in her crib (with help getting stood up). She is also really enjoying solid food as is evident by the fact that she now weighs 18 lbs! That's just about average for her age. Arden is also babbling now! She loves experimenting with volume (ouch) and can say ba, ma, da, fa, and likes to vibrate her tongue.

Kyle's sister, Corrie, came for a visit last week flying all the way from Alaska! Arden loved spending time with her Auntie, and Corrie made a couple cute hats for Arden to wear.

Grammie's Visit

Kyle's mom came to visit Arden last week! Arden had a great time reading, and playing, and eating with Grammie!

Arden loves eating solid food. She now eats pears, applesauce, banana, sweet potato, and rice cereal. After a week of solid food three times a day, Arden gained over a pound! According to our pediatrician, who we saw last week, Arden is doing great!

While Grammie was visiting, Kyle's cousin Carol and partner Chris came by for a visit too!