My Attempts At Writing Often Fail

Last week we did a few exciting things together, the girls and I. It was fortunately a cooler week last week, so we spent a lot of time outside. We went to the zoo one day for a couple of hours, we went to the park a couple of days in the morning, and one day Maelee and Eli came to spend some time with us. We took them to the pool for a day of swimming, and had a great time with them. Brooke loved playing with Eli, and I think he loved playing with her as well.

Some fun things the girls have been up to:

• I've been sleep training the littlest cherub the past week or so, for naps. She's doing beautifully. She tends to cry and fuss right when I put her in the crib; but usually once I leave, she quiets down and either falls right to sleep, or talks to herself for a while before falling asleep. The only unfortunate thing is that when we swaddled her for naps, she would sleep for hours at a time. But since I've stopped swaddling her and started letting her learn to fall asleep on her own, she sleeps for 45 minutes, and that's it. It's fine, really. That's what Brooke used to do. But ... it would be nice if she would sleep for longer periods, especially when Brooke has her nap. Then I could have a solid block of time to get some things done. I probably shouldn't even be thinking this ... but, Camille is currently taking her morning nap, and she has been sleeping for at least an hour and a half. ... Wait ... she may be waking up.
• I weighed Camille the other day on our bathroom scale. She weighs (according to that scale) exactly 14 pounds. At 8 1/2 months. The little peanut!
• Brooke has been having some fun with language lately. She makes up words all the time, which has me chuckling. 
• Camille is oh, so close to crawling on hands and knees. And last night, she even crawled over to the kitchen cabinet and pulled herself up to standing! Daniel was cooking in the kitchen at the time, and he told me to come see quick. When I saw her, I gasped and I think I scared her a bit, and she fell onto her bum and gave me this look, like, "What just happened? And what should I do now? Should I cry?" So I clapped and cheered for her, and she broke out into the most joyous smile. It was about the cutest thing I'd ever seen. She looked pretty pleased with herself. :)
• Brooke is becoming quite the water baby. When we go to the pool, we put her in a little puddle-jumper, and she swims around all on her own. I think she really likes that.
• Camille is a little water baby, too. She loves going swimming with us, and she's even happy when we put her in a little baby raft. She likes to splash with her hands.
• The girls also love bathing together. Up until a few weeks ago, I would fill the tub up and put a little pink bathing stand in the tub where I would sit Camille. Then I would put Brooke in with her. And they loved bathing like that. But ... Camille is such a wriggly worm that she started rolling and wiggling right out of that bathing stand. Now, I fill the tub with just a few inches of water and have them both just sit and play in the tub. I have to watch them pretty closely this way, because Camille often loses her balance and slips. I think they like it, though.
• My girls love each other. It's so fun and cute to watch. Brooke is always wanting to play with Camille in the loft and read to her. And Camille likes to watch Brooke being a crazy 2 year old. She smiles and laughs at her. I sure like them!

 *Somehow, during one of Camille's naps, she managed to get both of her legs into one of the legs of her little sleepers. Silly girl!*

Can you tell I like my baby? Just a bit.