One Small Step for Gwen

On Saturday, June 25th, Gwen officially took her first steps.

They were just 3-4 little ones. But, hey, you gotta start somewhere. She repeated her historic feat again in the back yard on Sunday (this time it was 5-6 steps). And then, we finally caught her on tape taking a few steps.

She still prefers crawling. But she's walked a bit a school this week, and every day she takes another step toward taking more steps.

Roller Coaster Girl

A few weeks ago, we made our first trip to Sesame Place for the season. As usual, Morgan was excited to ride the carousel, go down the slide, and fly in Elmo's flying fish.

But unlike last Fall, now Morgan is 3 years old. And she's 36 inches tall (give or take). And that means she's finally big enough to ride on Super Grover's Vapor Trail -- Sesame Place's big kid roller coaster.

We're not sure she completely understood what a roller coaster was when she got on it the first time. But we knew she liked it when she begged to go on a second time. And then a third time.

Gwen at 11 months

We can't decide if 11 months have flown by or if they've take forever. Either way, we're very glad that we only have to do one more "chair portrait" because it took over 60 shots and 2 wardrobe changes to get one good picture of our wiggly little soon-to-be-1-year old.

This month, Gwen added yet another tooth to her growing collection (she has 7 now, for those of you keeping track).

Every day, she gets closer and closer to taking her first steps. She'll stand up by herself, flap her arms with excitement like she is ready to go... and then drop down to her knees to crawl. Close, but not quite.

We're still waiting for Gwen to say her first "official" word. She says "ba-ba" for "bottle" or "bye-bye," depending on the situation. And she says "ba" for "ball" of "balloon". Again: close, but not quite.

But, hey, she's only 11 months. Or she's already 11 months old. We can't decide.

Here are some photos from month 11...

There are plenty of benefits of becoming a big girl. Now Gwen gets to do fun stuff like ride in the 2-seater cart, play in the sandbox with Morgan, and take her first ride on the carousel at Sesame Place.

A few weeks ago, Gwen thought she was big enough to play Uno.

During Memorial Day weekend, we visited the Chiaverinis. Morgan and Gwen enjoyed playing with Lucas, and then waited at the window for Ariella and Lina to return from their shopping trip.

This month, Gwen really discovered the joy of the ball pit. Every night before bed time, she dives in and rolls around. This has become one of Morgan's favorite parts of the day, too.

As we mentioned earlier, Gwen is getting VERY close to walking. She's got her balance figured out. She knows how to move her feet. She just needs to take that first step and she'll be off to the races.

Ooga Chaka!

For Morgan's birthday, she got a music player with a microphone, so she can sing along with her favorite songs. Lately, her favorite is Blue Swede's version of "Hooked on a Feeling"... or, as she calls it, "Ooga-Chaka!"

Morgan was belting out the tune the other day when Gwen decided to make it a duet. Morgan wasn't so keen on that idea. Gwen's reaction is priceless.

Dollhouse

Before Gwen could crawl, she would just stare longingly at Morgan's dollhouse from across the room. You could tell that she was just itching to play with it. Now that she's on the move, she's finally getting her chance. And Morgan is more than happy to show her how it's done.