A New Tooth!

Lolli woke up with a new tooth this morning! She is Bat Baby no more! Her front top middle left tooth has totally pushed its way through her little baby gums. She handled it pretty well. She's been fussier than normal in the car for a few days but other than that she showed no signs of teething, besides excessive drool. What a trooper! Lauren and Zach sure are glad teething doesn't interfere with her sleep (knock on wood)!

*Lolli's First Steps*

Lolli took her first 2 unassisted steps today!

Lauren was sitting in the chair near the couch and Lolli came over and pulled upon her legs. Then Lolli decided she wanted to move over to the couch, but couldn't quite reach it. So, instead of sitting down and crawling over, she tried to walk! She turned her body towards the couch, let me of Lauren's legs, took 2 steps (which actually got her far enough for her to get her hand on the couch) and then fell over :)

While today's efforts certainly wouldn't be considered "walking", she definitely took her first steps! WOW!!!

Lolli & The Watermelon Queen

Lauren and Lolli went Krogering today. They were prusing the organic produce when a woman dressed in a tiara and sash approached the cart and asked if Lolli could have a sticker. Lauren said yes, and Lolli was very proud to wear her watermelon sticker. The lady then asked if Lolli could have a sample of watermelon. Of course that thrilled Lolli - she loves all types of melon! She munched and slurped and chewed on the watermelon until her little chin was covered in yummy red juice.

Upon further inspection, Lauren discovered that the tiara-clad woman was the National Watermelon Queen, out promoting her fruit. She even had a photographer with her who asked if she could take pictures of Lolli eating the watermelon and also pictures of Lolli and the Queen. Lolli was very obliging and she drew quite a crowd of on-lookers! Maybe her picture will be used to promote watermelon somewhere, LOL!

"Standing" on her knees

Lolli was over at Gma Great's house today when she figured out how to "stand" on her knees without holding onto anything. Now her favorite thing to do is crawl around chasing a big ball. Every now and then she "stands" up on her knees and pushes the ball away, so she can drop back down to all 4s and chase it again. It's oh so entertaining for her, and fun for Zach and Lauren to watch, too!

Pacifier for Mommy

Lauren and Lolli were lazying around in bed this morning when Lolli took her pacifier out of her own mouth and popped it right in Lauren's mouth! Lauren gave it back to Lolli, and she did it again! Apparently Lolli thinks she's Lauren's mommy now!

10 month update

Lauren has been such a slacker about updating lately, so here's an eclectic post about all the new things Lolli can do!

She's crawling on her hands and knees, and has been since shortly before she turned 9 months old. She's pulling up on everything, from furniture to doors to walls to her jumperoo - seriously, everything! She started doing that a couple of weeks after she crawled. She's now working on perfecting her balance. She pulls up on something and then lets go, so she's standing all by herself. She did it for about 10 seconds yesterday, and about 30 seconds today, so she's really getting better at it quickly! She cruises all over the place, walking around and holding onto the furniture or walls. Lauren and Zach are optimistic that she'll walk around her first birthday, but only time will tell!

Lolli waves when she hears "hi" or "bye", she blows a kiss if someone blows her one. She lays her head down when she hears, "Awwww" and she gives a high five when someone asks for one. When she hears, "Lolli is sooooo big" she raises her hands over her head. Lauren and Zach usually take advantage of that great opportunity to tickler her armpits, so now she only raises her hand a little bit. She still plays peek-a-boo by holding a blankie over her face while someone says, "Where's Lolli?" She claps when she hears, "Yeaaaa!" and she just started repeating "La La La" when she hears it. She can shake her hear "no" and does so if she doesn't want something to happen.

She's around 28 inches tall and around 19 pounds, by Lauren's best estimate. She still wears most of her 6-9 month clothes but can wear 12 month stuff, too. She is in size 3 disposible diapers and her cloth prefolds and covers are mediums. She has her 2 bottom middle teeth and her top 2 fangs. She eats pretty much everything, with the exception of honey, peanut things and drinking milk. Lauren and Zach are pretty strict about limiting her sweets although she gets a bite of ice cream from time to time. No cake or other baked goods yet - she's waiting until her birthday! Her favorite foods are =cantoulope, raspberries, noodles, yogurt bites, peas, and pretty much anything else she can pick up herself. She's eating a lot more solid foods lately but is still nursing all night long. Lauren has a hard time getting her to nurse during the day when Lolli is busy exploring.

Lolli still sleeps in bed with Lauren and Zach. She sleeps in her boppy and cuddles with her little pink blankie. She takes a pacifier at night, in the car, and during the day if she is fussy and tired. She is starting to take naps in her crib because Lauren is worried she'll wake up and crawl off the bed someday. Lolli's favorite thing to do around the house is chase the cats (especially Bud) and pull their tails. She finally learned how to "pet gently" but she optentimes chooses to grab and pull anyway. She likes it when the cats whine and meow at her. Lolli loves to swim and play in the bathtub. She loves to dump the cat and dog food and water bowls if the gate is down and she can get to them. She still rides rear-facing in her Chicco infant car seat in the car.

Lolli's eyes are still blue and her hair is still white-blonde. It's getting longer all the time and now she sort of almost has bangs. Her crable cap is slowling going away. Lolli takes baths by herself or sometimes she takes showers with Lauren or Zach. She's pretty brave about putting her head under the shower water. And that's 10-month old Lolli in a nutshell!

Marion County Fair Baby Contest

Lolli entered the contest in the "Prettiest Baby Girl 6-9 Months" category. She and Lauren spent several hours in the days before the contest shopping all over Indy to find the perfect dress. They finally decided on a pink dress with spaghetti straps. The dress had a lace look to it, with eyelets and a few ruffles. It was very tight around Lolli's torso and floofed out quite a bit below the waist. It made her looks like a model ;)

So, on Saturday morning Lolli woke up waaaay to early (and btw, she stayed up waaaaay too late on Friday night) so Lauren and Zach were really worried. Lolli played for a little bit and then ate a banana and some raspberries for breakfast. Then she took a bath (raspberries are insanely messy!) and thankfully took a 30 minute nap. When she woke up it was time to head to the fairgrounds (a 3 minute drive).

When they got there, Lolli was excited to see that Gpa Swain, Kim, and Gma Swain were already there. The group staked their claim on several seats and Lolli changed into her pink dress. Then Gma and Gpa Great showed up, along with Great Aunt Jodi. Then Lolli's friends Ava and Will, who were also competing, showed up with their parents. Then the last of Lolli's fan section showed up, Gpa Pucillo, Aunt Kim, and Cousin Paige. Lolli had the most fans out of any baby there!

Lolli's category got to go first and she had 1 minute each in front of 4 sets of 2 judges. Did she smile? NOPE! Did she blow kisses? NOPE! Did she wave? NOPE! She just stared at the judges with her pretty big blue eyes, trying to take everything in. Lauren and Zach weren't really surprised, since Lolli is always a very busy baby and has no time for blankly smiling at people, LOL.

While everyone was eagerly awaiting the results, Lolli played with all of her relatives. Her favorite things were putting her feet in the creek with the help of Gpa Great, and eating some Pineapple Whip that Zach bought her. It was really hot outside so Lolli tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. Finally the contest ended and it was time for the results. Did Lolli get 1st runner up? NOPE! Did Lolli win Grand Champion? NOPE! She got shut out :( So did Will and Ava, so that was just further affirmation that the judges must be blind ;) But Lolli had a lot of fun and got a green ribbon just for participating! She also got a stuffed panda. How exciting!

After the contest, Lauren, Lolli and Zach walked around the fair for a little bit. Zach played a game where he had to break beer bottles by throwing baseballs at them. He broke one, so Lolli got a big stuffed turtle! She was very impressed by her Daddy's game-playing! On the way back to the car, they stopped by the pony rides and Lolli rode a little horse named Hank. She really liked it and loked super cute riding around in her pink dress! She was not at all upset to not have won the contest, she just enjoyed getting to try!

Pulling up!

Lolli crawled herself over to the couch today, and pulled herself right up onto her feet! She didn't seem to hesitate at all, just up she went! Lauren was pretty amazed, although Lolli didn't seem overly impressed with herself. She even took a few steps while holding onto the couch, which means she started pulling up and cruising all at once! She's growing up fast!!!

Lolli's First Fourth of July

Lolli's bedtime is before dark, so she didn't get to go see any fireworks this year. Instead, she, Lauren, and Zach went to Greg and Yvette's to hang out with Aaron, Annie, Bryan and Ashley. Lolli had fun watching everyone play volleyball and going swimming in the pool. She went to sleep in her pack n play and slept until it was time to leave, even though the neighbors were shooting off fireworks!

A day with cousin Paige!

Paige came over this morning to spend the day with the Pucillos. She and Lauren played while Zach and Lolli slept in. When Lolli finally got up, she and Paige had a lot of fun plahying with all of Lolli's toys. Paige was very good about sharing with Lolli and showibng her how things work. Lolli was in awe of her big cousin and loved having somoene to look up to!

For lunch, they all went to Eli Lily downtown and had lunch with Great Aunt Jodi. Paige had fun walking around and playing in the cool spining chairs. She and Lolli shared a turkey sandwich for lunch and Paige also had an apple and some chocolate milk. After that, they headed to the Children's Museum for some fun! Paige ran around with Zach while Lauren played with Lolli. Finally, Paige wanted to ride the carousel, so Zach took her. She got to ride a jumping horse, even though she was techinically too young (uncle Zach is so sneaky!).

Both girls slept all the way home!

Lolli's head dent and first prescription

Zach was carrying Lolli into the bedroom today to change her diaper. He had Lolli over his shoulder and right as he was entering the bedroom, she turned her head. Lauren was in the other room and heard "WHACK!" Lolli started screaming and Zach ran her back out to the living room. Lauren took her and examined her head. There was a HUGE dent in her forehead from where it hit the door frame. She tried to calm Lolli down while Zach called the doctor. The nurse said it would be ok and that as long as Lolli acted normal (she had stopped crying, whew!) then there was no need to go to the hospital.

Loli recovered quite nicely and even went over to Gpa's to play. Her dent turned into a bump which turned into a purple spot and then disappeared. Crisis averted!

However, Lolli's developed a case of thrush. Dr. Roscoe called her in a presciription for Nystatin. Lolli hates it because it's a liquid and she doesn't like the taste, but hopefully it'll clear up her poor little mouth before Lauren catches it!

Lolli's First Vacation!

Zach, Lauren and Lolli left on Monday and headed to Cincinnati. They stopped at Burger King in Shelbyville and Lolli wore her BK crown and a bib that said "Future Whopper Eater." It was hilarious! From there they went to the Cincinnati Museum Center to go to the Children's Museum. First they decided to go to the Bodies the Exhibition exhibit. It was very cool but Lolli was way too hyper and loud for everyone to really enjoy themselves. The Chidlren's Museum was kind of neat, but the kids there were so wild and unruly that Lauren was afriad to set Lolli down. It was more of a play place than a museum - very different than the Indy one!

After the museums, they headed to the hotel in West Chester. They used Zach's Priority Club points to stay at a Staybridge Suites for free. Their room had a microwave, oven, stove, sink and fridge! Also, the bedroom was a separate room from the living room. Nice! They unpacked and head down the road to Ikea for dinner. Zach and Lauren had Swedish meatballs while Lolli ate mac n cheese and bread. She loved Ikea because they had lots of fun things for her to look at, AND the cart could move from side to side, not just back n forth. lauren and Zach were impressed, too. They ended up buying Lolli a wooden table and 2 chairs for only $20! After Ikea everyone went swimming in the hotel pool. Lolli loved it! Bedtime was a little rough because the room only had a queen sized bed. Lauren, Zach and Lolli all fit nicely int heir king bed at home but this was a different story! Zach ended up sleeping on the pull out couch bed in the living room.

On Tuesday they got up and headed to the Cincinnati Zoo. It was pretty hot outside and the parking situation was very ghetto, but the zoo itself was nice. Lolli was pretty grumpy because she got some sunscreen in her eyes, but she managed to last longer than they thoght she would. She liked riding the Zoo train and especially the carousel! She got to go on a jumper horse (well, ostrich) which was pretty cool. The zoo was so big that they didn't even get to see all of it, but that's ok.

After the zoo it was time for more swimming and then dinner at Bravo. Lolli had grilled chicken, fettucini noodles, and bread. Yum! They had the front office bring a crib for Lolli and she slept in it for most of the night.

Wednesday they got up, went to breakfast, went swimming, and then headed home. They stopped at Ikea again on their way out of town, just for fun. Lolli's first vacation was a successful one and it didn't even mess up her sleep or eating patterns! Woohoo!