Katharine Lange: Arwyn Week 10: First Tears and First Jumps

A bunch of firsts for Arwyn this week. She had her first time bouncing in the jumpy, which she loved instantly. First time sitting up solo in the bumbo, which she tolerated. She's getting really strong at doing her stand ups, which is just about her favorite thing of all...always laughing and smiling when she gets to stand! She also started laughing and smiling during diaper changes. It's so weird, you lie her down for a change and she just loves it. Same thing with Leia at that age, and I have no idea why?! She's starting to eat faster and play more during her hour and fifteen minutes of awake time, so that's been fun for us. She loves grabbing and hitting all the hanging stuff in her play gym, like really loves wrestling with the stuff, it's so cute to watch. She can grab and wave her crinkle paper all around, which is one of the best forms of entertainment for her these days. And of, biggest of all...first real tears this week! So sad when you have to see tears!

Leia had a pretty hilarious and eventful week as well. She and Josh are clearly the singers of the house, and she loves to listen to her Daddy sing all the time. Except for when she doesn't! "Daddy, don't sing!!" Then she belts out the lyrics on her own and wants Daddy to listen to her solo. Then it's back to "Daddy, sing!" We had a funny incident with a frog this week. I was sitting on the couch feeding Arwyn, when all of a sudden Leia points up at the window blinds above my head and asks, "Mommy, what's that?" I look up and see a blob, and assume it's a dust ball. But all of a sudden Josh looks more closely and it turns out it's a frog! Arwyn and I leap up, just in the nick of time, because then the thing falls down right where we had been sitting; it would have landed on my head! We got some pictures and trapped it in a cup to get it out of the house, but not before it peed on the couch! And then Leia got so fired up and went on a rant about "Why is the frog in my house?!" She just kept saying it over and over, finally we realized this was amazing footage that needed to be documented. To this day, she still can't get over it and absolutely loves talking about "why the frog is in my house!"

Leia made huge leaps and bounds with swimming in her puddle jumper floaty this week. She finally went into the deep part of the pond and swam on her tummy and back, doing her kicks and scoopers, all by herself without needing me to hold on to her. We've been trying to get her to do it, but she wouldn't until she decided on her own that she wanted to. It's also so cute because she's constantly explaining everything that's going on around her to Arwyn, trying to help her to understand all this new stuff. "That's your Daddy." "That's a ball." "That's a frog in my house." It's so cute how she wants to help her learn!