That said, Corinne is making some changes of her own. She is very audible and likes to make herself heard; her communication with high fives and shaking her head back and forth is so fun to watch. Most notably, she is standing. Yes, she is standing. Today more than ever, she seemed incredibly close to taking a first step, but none just yet. Her control and ease with standing is fun and cute. We find ourselves on the edge of our seats watching each time she stands knowing that first step is just around the corner.

Still, Corinne is a super fast crawler. She zooms past us down the hall and in and out of rooms. She likes to sit on the bed or sofa for a minute and then fly off the edge giving us a heart attack as we catch a foot or leg to soften the landing. She giggles and laughs like it’s a game.

Corinne likes to “boss” us around. She has started yelling lots of syllabi and likes to yell, “Dah!” and point to tell daddy what to do. We still haven’t figured out what she wants us to do, but it is quite humerous to watch.

I made a bin of books by the rocker since that is where we often read to her and throw down the books on the floor. It was become one of Corinne’s favorite places to play. She takes the books out and puts them back in the bin. She turns the pages and opens and closes the books. She looks at the pages and says “Dah….Mah….Dah…..Bah…..DAH!….Dah…..Doy-Doy-Doy…..Dah…..” and so on. She loves to show off her books and her teeth. We have cracked up at these pictures of our girl tossing her head back and smiling the middle of a bunch of books…like a bookworm glamour girl.

Since Corinne has found a love for things with buttons like remotes and cell phones, we got her a little cell phone of her own. She loves it and carries it around for hours. She just started handing it to us to “answer” the phone and give it to her to “talk.”

Corinne is still a super eater…sometimes more super than others.

In the morning, when we get ready, Corinne helps mommy with her makeup if she gets up early enough.

We had the special privilege of hosting cousin Benjamin while his mommy and daddy welcomed a new member to the family, Rebecca Ruth Anne. We’ll have pictures of her coming soon, but we had a blast with Benjamin…he is so good at showing Corinne the ropes of toddler-hood. Luckily, we had a ukulele that was just his size.

We took Benjamin with us over to celebrate our friend Miriam’s birthday. While we were hanging out, I snapped this little pic of Corinne hanging out with Miriam’s husband…also known as Pastor Rossow. We are so blessed with such cool friends.

This past month, Daddy has cared for Corinne full time while in between semesters. These two have bonded quite closely. She has learned quite a bit while having been having lots of fun. His influence is evident in her growing interest in musical instruments strategically placed around our home. “If they’re out, they’ll get played,” says Daddy. As you can see, it seems he is right….

Monday, Corinne will start back up to school with her new teachers Miss Mimi and Miss Brittany. She will be with many of her old friends and we’re sure they will be teaching each other new tricks. Josh/Daddy will also be starting at a new school studying to become a speech pathologist.  Thanks for working so hard and being such an awesome daddy and husband. We love you!

First off, quiet little Corinne is starting to get more vocal. “Da Da” is starting to turn to “Doy Doy.” We don’t know what it means, but it is fun to hear a little variety and wonder what will come next.

Corinne’s crawling has started to speed up a little bit, and she is pulling up on everything. Click here for crawling.

Overnight it seems like she is discovering more and more how much her little body can do. Luckily Granddad and Grammy came into town. Granddad helped us baby proof all of our cabinets…a much needed support. We rearranged a few cabinets, too.

Click here to see why.

Probably the biggest change is that Corinne is officially feeding herself finger foods. She feeds herself just about everything…and has very little baby food. Carrots, sweet potatoes, zucchini, squash, chicken, bananas, tofu and just about anything.

Finally, Corinne got a new carseat this month. Her big girl carseat that she’ll be in until around age 5 was installed. She is very cute and loving it more than we thought…in just a few months, we’ll be turning it around to face forward on her birthday.

Here are a few pictures from the month. Grammy and Granddad came to visit and play. Click here to see Corinne playing.

We went to Uncle Russ and Aunt Joy’s for July 4th.

Corinne showed off her taste in German beverages for Uncle Jeremiah.

Corinne got lots of TLC with Grammy and Granddad.

When we got back home, Corinne pulled herself up on the coffee table and got ahold of Daddy’s wallet. She was so proud of herself.

Uncle David came over to visit one evening and Corinne gave him a little TLC.

Mama got a little TLC from Corinne, too. It’s crazy to go back and look at pictures from a few short months ago.

She gets us every time with her cuteness and her new skills. She really has the sweetest temperment. We are so blessed to have her as our daughter!

Corinne’s two top teeth came in this past week. Between crawling or pulling herself up on things, she will have her hand or another toy in her mouth trying to make those gums feel better.

This past month, we have been busy and have traveled to North Carolina for a family reunion. Cici broke her poor knee so we made a few unplanned trips to San Antonio to help out. Corinne helped bring cheer and love and lots of smiles to Cici and aunts and uncles and cousins she hadn’t met before.

Cousins Sara and Margie…

Play time…

Aunt Cathy and cousin Benjamin…

Aunt Vicki and Aunt Mary…

Wright Brothers Museum of Flight….

Uncle David and Aunt Tiffany…

First trip to an aquarium….

Elizabethan Gardens…

Water time!

The Dyers, Gordners and Kesteds….

When we got back, we had the opportunity to go to see some horses.

Corinne is learning all kinds of new tricks and talents. She loves to feed herself and even gets a little miffed if you eat in front of her without sharing with her. She will eat just about anything you put in front of her. And over the past few weeks, she is starting to use a sippy cup. She has an infectious smile that brings joy to so many people. We love our girl!!!

Our girl is starting to change in lightning speed. We turn around and she has learned a new trick. This month, she has started bouncing, and not just in her bouncer. She loved to bounce she just started to rock and scoot backward a little bit.

VIDEO???

Her looks have even started to change as her little teeth emerge making the cutest smile ever. And she also has started growing a little more hair which looks to be straight and light brown (similar to how mommy’s hair was as a little girl).

With her new teeth comes learning how to use a toothbrush and Corinne has taken to it quite well. She is teething almost all of the time right now and we think the bristles of the toothbrush probably feel good on her gums.

Corinne can mostly hold her bottle on her own. She is starting to slowly pick up Cheerios between her thumb and index finger slowly putting them in her mouth. We think it won’t be long before she is feeding herself. One of her more funny tricks is that she loves to chew on and grab tags on dolls and shirts and anything really. Those poor gums.

We got to see both Cici and Grammy this month. We had lots of fun with bathtime and bubbles and bedtime stories. We even got a picture of all of us together.

We met up with Uncle David and Aunt Tiffany for breakfast at Central Market one day and snapped a few photos. She loved to pull their hair and laugh at Uncle David’s funny noises…he is hilarious.

One day this last month, daddy brought Corinne up to mommy’s work for lunch. We walked over to the Kimbel and had a picnic by the fountains. I think it may have been the best work day I’ve ever had. We had a little fun with our camera and here’s what we got.

Corinne gives us so much joy in her smiles and her sweetness. We are blessed beyond belief with her and are enjoying these sweet moments.

She can now use the big girl stroller since she is mostly sitting up on her own.

And, she can sit in the grocery carts without falling over.

She is also sleeping through the night again. Bless her heart with all of the transition to daycare and other kids’ germs, it took her a little bit to get over a few bugs and growth spurts. We worked with her last month and the beginning of this 7th month. She now sleeps from about 8-8:30 until about 6-6:30. If she does wake up in between that, she usually just talks to herself for a few minutes and falls back to sleep. It did take a few weeks to get to that point, but she transitioned like a champ!

Corinne is just under 21 pounds and about 28 inches long. With her two new teeth that came in this month, she is now eating three “meals” a day at home and at school. She eats baby cereals and all kinds of yummy homemade veggies and fruits from home. Carrots, peas, butternut squash, pears, applesauce, green beans, and sweet potatoes are staples at this point. She is a champ and seems to be transitioning well to her new foods.

She is a squirmy wormy. She rolls and contorts her body to see us or see things behind her. She can sit without falling over. She grabs anything in her site to try to pull herself up; sometimes she makes it, sometimes she doesn’t. She also grabs anything just to grab it. Her favorite is still mommy’s hair.

Corinne’s “talking” is really coming along, too. She has begun more and more to do some ba-ba-ba’s and da-da-da’s. Her squeals, giggles, yells, and bubble blowing are music to our ears. She is a pretty quiet baby, but in the morning and when she is playing, she has all kinds of things to say. Sometimes we even think she is singing.

This month the weather finally warmed up and allowed us more time to walk. We spent several Saturdays at the park.

We celebrated Easter with John, Amber and Benjamin.

The Bulls drove through on Easter Sunday and Audrey, Claire and Corinne were able to play for a bit.

Kisses for future best friends!

What fun! Wished we lived closer.

Probably the most fun thing we have to share is this little video. We’ve had little tastes of what Corinne’s laugh might sound like, but one night, she got so tickled that she just couldn’t stop laughing. Watch this video and just try not to giggle!

We love you girl. Happy seven months!

Mama’s goal was to get Corinne to the 6 month mark without a drop of formula or other supplementation, and this goal has been reached. Woo Hoo. We have been playing in the evening with some solid foods and cereal to just see how she would do and get her used to spoons and booster seats and such. Towards the end of this month, Corinne has been more and more excited about solid foods and almost attacks it.

One night, Corinne tore through almost an entire banana. I ate half of one and mashed up the other half for her, and she was clearly not finished. So I ate a half of another banana and mashed up another half. She just about polished it off before our walk to Chipotle for dinner. She loved the walk and then got a kick out of looking out of the Chipotle windows at the cars driving by. Her head went back and forth like she was watching a tennis match. (Back to the banana thing…watch out if you are ever holding her and peeling a banana. She will sneeky lean forward, mouth open wide, and all of the sudden become suctioned to the banana sucking and “gumming” it like you wouldn’t believe. It’s hilarious.)

At school, Corinne moved up to the next baby classroom at “school” for the in between sitting and crawling stage babies. She spent time in both classrooms for a week or so to help her transition. She is not quite sitting completely on her own yet like the other babies, but the new room is quieter and a little more calm than the previous one. Four new six week olds arrived to her first classroom making it a little chaotic. Those babies need a lot more attention than Corinne at this point. Miss Erin is her new teacher; she is a really sweet young lady. The babies that are in the new room are the ones Corinne started out with a few months ago. Also, it has windows! She can see outside to the playground where the big kids play. The old classroom has no windows which is great when you’re trying to keep the lights dim for babies to sleep, but not for little girls who are fascinated by everything going on around them like Corinne.

Corinne has been very healthy this month compared to the last. She did have one little bout of fever and cough, but mommy and daddy could handle it this time (although this time daddy was the one who wanted the baby monitor on and the door to Corinne’s room open at night this time around).

After all of that, we decided to work on helping our girl get to sleeping through the night again. Ever since RSV, colds, daycare and growth spurts, Corinne has had trouble sleeping through the night. She is almost there. When she does wake up, she cries for a bit but is starting to go to sleep on her own. And we’ve gone from 3-4 times a night to 2-3 times a night. We feel we are almost there.

She continues to try to roll over and new this month, she can sit for a few seconds at a time without any help. We put pillows or boppy’s all around her so she has a soft landing. But she looks so grown up when she gets it. According to her pediatrician’s office, she is officially 19 pounds and 10 ounces (95th percentile) and 29 inches long (off the charts above 100th percentile). In the words of our pediatrician, she is as big as an 11th month old and a “giant.” We add that she is amazing!

Her new toy this month was an exersaucer. She is hilarious in it talking with her toys and grabbing anything she can get to her mouth.

Corinne got some time with her Uncle David…

We went to San Antonio this month to catch up with friends and family. Gigi got Corinne a much needed chew toy named Sophie.

Cici liked to feed Corinne bananas for a snack. She loved them!

Corinne got some time with Uncle Jeremiah while DD barbequed…

Daddy also got some great pics with his girl…

Corinne and Uncle Stephen hung out and smiled together and showed off their eyebrows and Corinne slobbered all over Uncle Stephen….

No really….look closer.

Cici got some great 6 month pictures of Corinne (the one posted at the top of this post is hers of course). Here are some more.

The winner….

This week Stephanie and Isaac came back to see family and made some time to hang out with us again. This time we went to Tom’s Burgers since our Lebanese selection of restaurants was closed. We enjoyed some greasy fries, onion rings and burgers. It was wild to see how much Isaac has grown and see him together with Corinne.

As you can see, we may need to teach Corinne not to be so forward with the boys (pulling their hair and drooling all over them is usually not well received in my limited experience). But, we so enjoyed getting to see these guys for a bit today!

Stephanie’s hubbie, Keith, is in PA school up in Connecticut. We have missed them tremendously, but they are almost finished and planning on moving back to DFW this summer. I can’t believe it’s been almost two years since they moved. Looking at these pictures, Stephanie is right; the time seems to have flown by and it also seems like forever ago when you think about the fact that we are now parents and talking about things like having more kids and price per square foot of houses. Hmmm.

Well, we look forward to hanging out some more and being colleagues very very soon! Can’t wait.

We went a little early, so we went to Barnes and Noble to get Corinne take a look as some new books. What’s funny is Corinne seems mesmerized by Big Bird. She stares and stares at the Big Bird dolls they have. She also loves books. She is getting to where she loves to either look at or eat the pages.

We had our favorite appetizers: the tenderloin tamales, the smoked quail with jalapeno cheddar grits, and the wild boar ribs. So Good!

And we got some great pictures with our girl. Happy birthday to me…with my sweet little family!

The winner…happy birthday, mama!