Renee Stelle: Cutie Pie

It's amazing how everything my baby does is cute! Every movement, from the wave of her hand to the wiggling of her toes, is cute and fun to watch. I love how much she uses her legs too when playing with toys. She puts her hands and feet on the toys...even the toys hanging from the arch of the playgym overhead!

Every sound she makes is cute or hilarious. I check on her often during naps and after she's gone to bed because I just love looking at her.

Her personality is starting to show now. She's a bit shy at times, especially when she just wakes up. She has started to really watch me when I eat and drink while holding her and she tries to grab my food or glass. Her mouth has been producing more drool than ever and she has taken to doing what I call "spit talking." She spits as she makes noises and moves her tongue and lips. If you watch closely it really looks like she's trying to form words as the spit bubbles at her lips and drips out. It's different than her other types of talking in the way it sounds...also, it's quieter and her mouth doesn't open as much. It's very cute, but messy!

Alisa and Minga are already good buddies. Minga is gentle with Alisa as Alisa reaches out to grab her when she's near. It's cute to hear Alisa make noises to try to get Minga's attention when she's across the room. When Minga goes near Alisa she is always on the lookout for spit-up to lick up. Alisa thinks Minga is sooooo funny. When Minga bounces and rolls around while playing with her toys, Alisa watches and laughs. She also laughs when Minga licks her feet. Craig sometimes puts Minga's toy bone in her collar and we watch as she jumps around while batting at it with her paw and shaking her head trying to get it out. It takes her awhile to succeed so we laugh a lot while watching her. Alisa really likes that game.

Minga is hoping to catch some spit-up soon:

I usually take the girls outside for a walk before Alisa's afternoon nap. Minga gets really excited when she sees me put on the baby carrier because she knows it's time to play outside. Alisa gets excited when I put her in the carrier because she loves riding in it. She makes happy noises and kicks her legs repeatedly during our walk. It's so great! She also likes watching Minga fetch sticks & frisbees and splash in the creek. And she laughs the most when I spray Minga with the hose to clean her off before going back inside. Minga absolutely loves the hose so she jumps around like crazy trying to catch the spray in her mouth.

Walking in our yard on 9-08-07:

Unfortunately, I have to bring a spit rag with me everywhere Alisa goes...you can see Minga waiting for us in the background (9-16-07):

One good thing about the fact that Alisa didn't gain a lot of weight until this past month is that she was able to wear her clothes longer. At 5 1/2 months, she just now outgrew some of the 3-month-old sized clothes. She just started wearing size 3 diapers this week. It's funny how big those diapers seem to me right now. Whenever she goes up a size in diapers it takes a little while for me to see them as the new norm and not as large. She is just over 16 lbs (over the 50 percentile for weight) and has almost caught up to her buddy Benjamin in weight.