What has Lena been up to lately?

Okay, so I've had a lot of pictures to document that tell a lot of the story, but there is also a lot that happens behind the pictures. I want to remember them and write them down before I forget.

What Lena has been saying lately:
- Wa! (Walk)
- Bub-bo (Bubble)
- Bob-bo (Bottle)
- ish (Fish)
- Up
- Gone! (with both hands up)
- Done! (with both hands up)
- Go! (while nudging Jimmy or someone else to move) :)
- Wa, wa, wa, wa (while reading a book)
- Ba! (Bath)
- Coo-kie
- Cah-coh (Cracker)
- Mm (while nodding, when asked "is that good?"
- Appy (Happy)
- Ap- po (Apple)
- Woof, Woof (when asked "what does the doggy say?")
- Pup-py (puppy)
- Dog-gy (Doggy)
- Meow (when she sees a picture of a kitty)

What Lena has been doing lately:
- She has been reading a lot by herself lately (out loud)
- She licks pictures of food in her books
- She climbs into her love sac to read a book
- She jumps! :)
- She feeds bottles to Jimmy
- She stroked Jimmy's hair the other day while he was eating his bottle
- She shares her binky with her Teddy Bears while making a slurping sound
- She "blows her nose" by holding the tissue up to her mouth and blowing from her mouth
- She blows when things are HOT
- She is feeding herself really well with a spoon and fork
- She can stack blocks three or more high
- She likes to cook with me
- She tries on everyone's shoes
- She brushes her teeth (mostly)
- She brushes her hair
- She gives daddy kisses and says "bye bye" while waving
- She blows kisses. :)
- She likes to be chased in order to get kisses from her :)
- She teases, pretending to come give you a kiss than stop and run the other direction when she's right next to you :)
- She entertains herself in her carseat :)

Blocks and Names :)

Here is one of the fun things that Sam did with the babies while we were playing at my moms house one day. :)

And of course my camera did the funky thing where the pictures are sideways... so sorry!

Enjoying Fall :)

Here's a small example of how much fun Lena had playing in the leaves:

The Babies Can't Get Enough of Nonna.

My mom is an amazing woman!!! And she LOVES her grandbabies! She is so nice to watch them every Thursday when Rosie and I are at work. She has so much fun with them and teaches them so much! They both like to crawl up on her lap to read with her. I saw them doing this the other day and was able to get some pictures!

Lena Lovin' Pictures of Herself :)

Lena really loves her time with books. She likes reading them with us and lately she has even been taking them and reading them too herself. It is so cute to hear her little voice make noises as though she were reading the books. :) She has also taken a liking to looking at pictures of herself when she was a baby. It was fun to watch her recognize all of the friends and family in her life when looking at the pictures.

Music by Sam :)

My brother Sam is an AMAZING guitar player. I remember times when I was younger when my whole family would just sit around some evenings and listen to him play his guitar. He has written a lot of really good songs that I love to hear and could listen to them over and over. He pulled his guitar out the other day when I was over at the house with Lena. Lena had a ball dancing to his music. :) Here are a couple of pictures of him playing:

Shoe Obsession!

From the fact that Lena would kick off her shoes every time I put them on her when she was an infant, I would never guess that she would be OBSESSED with wearing them later in life. Lena LOVES shoes. And they don't have to be her own shoes. She will put on any shoes that she can get her hands on, or should I say feet. ;) The ONLY time Lena will for sure sit down for me is if it means she gets to put some shoes on. I think she first found this love when she figured out that putting shoes on means going outside (her first love). :) Here are a couple picture of her trying on some "bigger" shoes.

I was so surprised when she got these shoes on BY HERSELF and started walking around in them. They are like six inches tall and even I have a hard time walking in them. :P

While she was able to get them on by herself the first time, she never turned down help from her Zio Sam. :)

Here's a picture from a different day of her wearing my shoes.