Gwen at 10 Months

Double digits, baby! Now Gwen can officially say that she's been out of the womb longer than she was in it.

This month, Gwen sprouted 4 new teeth on top. Not coincidentally, she has gotten much better at eating solid foods. So far, carrots, bananas and yogurt melts are her favorites. This week, she also starting using the sign language for "more" when she's eating, which is something they've been teaching her at daycare.

Gwen is also getting closer and closer to sleeping through the night consistently. We're down to one wake-up (max), and are in the process of weening her off the late-night bottle. (Keep your fingers crossed, please.)

Gwen is crawling really fast now. She gets into cupboards and drawers (both in Morgan's toy kitchen as well as Ariella's real kitchen.) She is fascinated with the stairs, and can crawl up both flights with ease when we let her.

Last week, Gwen started cruising from couch to table to chair. And, just today, she figured out how to push the shopping cart/walker by herself (see video below.) At this rate, she could be walking on her own in another month or so.

Here are some photos from this month...

If there's a remote control within reach, Gwen is on it instantly.

Now that Gwen is more mobile, she and Morgan can play together more and more. Morgan is very excited to have a little playmate to bond with.

As we mentioned, Gwen gets into everything now -- REALLY FAST. Want proof? The next four photos were taken within 3 minutes of each other.

Gwen took another big step toward taking her first step today. She successfully pushed the shopping cart/walker through the dining room and into the living by herself.

Like we said, she really gets around.

Time to Climb

Last weekend, Morgan wanted to go play in the attic. When Ariella opened up the door for her to go upstairs, Gwen decided to follow right behind Morgan.

The good news: she made it up the stairs with no problem. The bad news: she wants to climb the stairs all the time now.

No cameras, please!

Gwen was supposed to be taking a nap. But then she discovered a camera-looking thing hanging on the wall above her crib. And finally, she ended up filming a sequel to the Blair Witch Project.

You can check out the video below (assuming I've figured out how to post videos from YouTube.)

Mother's Day Weekend

This year, Mother's Day weekend was chock full of Moms. In fact, we had 4 generations of Sakraida, Riley and Saucier gals together on Saturday when we travelled to Amityville, Long Island to visit Ariella's grandmother -- known to our girls as "G.G." (Great Grandma.)





Morgan was fascinated with the river that runs through G.G.'s back yard but, thankfully, resisted the urge to jump in. Meanwhile, Gwen was fascinated with having a new place to explore, and made sure she got herself into, onto and under everything in G.G.'s apartment.





On Sunday morning, Ariella, Nanna and the girls spent some time gardening. After a couple hours of digging and weeding, all the seeds that Morgan planted in March finally have a permanent home. Morgan really enjoyed spraying the hose -- but she REALLY enjoyed running away from the "Water Monster" (Ariella) who kept squirting her with the hose.







Speaking of water monsters, in the afternoon, we set up the water table and unleashed the girls to wreck havoc with water and sand. While Gwen is still pretty content to splash in the cool, clean water, Morgan is all about dumping sandbox sand into the water to create a murky mess.

Morgan's 3rd Birthday!

We say this every year, but it's hard to believe how much Morgan has changed in a year.

This year, Morgan transitioned from her crib to a big girl bed, from diapers to undies, and from being an only child to being a fantastic big sister to Gwen. But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her growth. Morgan's vocabulary and memory never cease to amaze us. She has learned all of her numbers and letters (upper and lower case), and even knows what sound each letter makes. She sings. She dances. She bakes. She plays board games. She also won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. (Okay, I made that last one up, but you get the point...)

At her 3-year checkup, Morgan was 27.5 pounds (10th percentile) and 37 inches (2nd percentile). Since last year, she has grown 4 inches. But, medically speaking, she's still our little peanut.

Morgan's birthday party happened on the Saturday before her actual birthday. But that didn't stop us from making her 3rd birthday special. On Monday night, Mom and Dad huffed and puffed and blew up 75 balloons to scatter all over Morgan's bedroom for when she woke up on her birthday.

Everyone took the day off from work (and school) so we could go to the Phildelphia Zoo with Nanna and Grandpa. Morgan was especially exited to go see the monkeys and gorillas (including the tiny baby baboon pictured below.)

All the excitement of going to the zoo (not to mention leftover exhaustion from Saturday's birthday party) wiped Morgan out, so we left the zoo a little earlier than planned and headed home. (Gwen, on the other hand, was wide awake and ready to play.)

After lunch, we opened birthday presents from Mom and Dad, and Nanna and Grandpa.

Morgan got a basketball hoop from Nanna and Grandpa, a bunch of sand and water toys, and her very own radio/MP3 player with a microphone that lets her sing along with her favorite tunes. ("Ooga-shaka, ooga-shaka, ooga-ooga..")

It was a hot, sunny day in South Jersey, so we headed out back to splash around with Morgan's new toys in her water table.

After a huge spaghetti dinner (Morgan's choice), we topped-off Morgan's big day with a big ice cream sundae (chocolate ice cream, of course.)