First Steps

No joke... Morgan took her first few steps on April Fool's Day!

(Gotta love the comic timing on this kid!)

Morgan will not be outdone!

Morgan heard that Cooper was strutting around with his walker and already practicing standing. So Morgan insisted that her mommy use her Toys R Us coupon to get her her very own walker.

Thanks to her new little shopping cart (and a little peer pressure), Morgan is now strutting her stuff. (Take that, Cooper! What'chu got now, sucka!)

Crawling & Cooper

By Sunday after Christmas, Morgan had gotten over her cold and was ready to practice her crawling skills. After all, her pal Cooper was coming over to visit -- and he's a got a reputation in baby circles for being a very fast crawler.



Now that she's more mobile, Morgan is discovering all sorts of new places to explore. Underneath the dining room table is one of her favorites.



When Cooper showed up, he and Morgan discovered that they both got toy giraffes for Christmas.



Morgan: "Hey, Cooper which giraffe leg do you like to chew on?" Cooper: "I'm a fan of the back left leg." Morgan: "No kidding! Me too!"


Morgan: "Umm... excuse me, Cooper... that's MY dad you're crawling on! Hands off, bub."



After playing for a while, Morgan and Cooper got to open a few presents. The presents were great, but ripping up all the tissue paper was definitely the highlight.

Here She Comes...

Morgan's crawling skills took a big step in the right direction this weekend (pun intended.)

She's still doing "the worm" a little, but she's getting the hang of pushing with her knees -- just in time to get her little hands on whatever Santa leaves under the Christmas tree.



Even though Andy is coaching her in this video, Morgan gives a shout-out to Momma at the end. (Thanks, kid.)

Morgan's First Tastes

Morgan has gone from sleeping through the night to waking up again in the early early morning. So Sunday we decided to see how she would do with some rice cereal.


She did fairly well for her first taste of rice cereal. She, of course, got it all over her face but what baby doesn't?


She was very intrested in holding the spoon. Ariella thinks it had more to do with just wanting to put everything in her mouth and less with actually eating.


She seemed to like it.

Morgan's First Photo Shoot

Last weekend we took Morgan for her first set of professional photos. She smiled for the photographer but sometimes, her smiles were almost too big.




This was one of the last photos they took. Right after this, she tried to eat the bear.


The photographer asked if she could kneel on her own. We didn't know if she could or not. She didn't have any problem keeping her balance.


She also positioned her hands like this by herself. So proper!


She is getting much better at sitting by herself. She was a little distracted by everything going on around her, but she is sitting all by herself here.

Mmmm ... feet!

And for her next trick....

Take a look at what Andy captured on video last night. She has only done it once or twice but she is on her way!

Morgan's first trip to the Lake

Last week, we took Morgan up to Connecticut to see Andy's parents, and meet the rest of the Saucier and Truax clans.

On Saturday, Morgan took her first official dip in the lake...





On Sunday, Morgan had time to hang out with Henry and Alex...





On Sunday afternoon, Morgan put on her yellow party dress and got ready to meet our extended family and friends.







Meeting and greeting is a lot for a little girl to take. So by mid-afternoon, Morgan was ready for a nap, and Ruth was more than happy to take a break from catering duty to try rocking-the-baby duty.



After a quick nap, Morgan was ready for one last family photo...



The rest of the week at the Lake was spent relaxing, enjoying the nice weather, and taking a whole bunch more photos...

Morgan's big week

Morgan had a very exciting week. This week, she started smiling more and more often (sorry, no great photos of that yet -- she doesn't smile on command yet). She's getting much better at grabbing objects, and discovered that playing with her dolly is a pretty good time.



And she figured out that shaking her lamb rattle is also a pretty good time.



Morgan's vision and observation skills also continue to improve. This week, she finally noticed the toy fish that rotate around over her head when she's in her swing. Now she's absolutely fascinated watching them go round and round.



On Friday afternoon, Dad took advantage of his summer hours at work, so Morgan took advantage of having a nice place to nap that afternoon...



Aunt Lindsay came for a visit this weekend. With her new observation skills, Morgan had a "Holy crap, you look like my Mom" moment.



On Saturday, Morgan put on her cute party dress and went to Katie's 5th birthday party...









At the party, Morgan took a whack at her first pinata...



After a few hours, though, Morgan was all partied out...



So we packed her up in her car seat and headed back home (making sure not to forget our mini-maraca from inside the pinata... look in her left hand)



By the time we got home, Morgan had taken a nap and was excited to hold the balloon Katie sent home with us.

Baby's First Bath

We gave Morgan a sponge-bath last night. Ariella's baby book says a sponge bath is a great way to calm the baby down before bed time.

Looking at the pictures below, you'll see that the book is obviously very, very wrong. :-)