Alaina's Best Friend

As Alaina gets older she is becoming more and more interested in Zoe. She is able to lift her head and watch Zoe run by. Today Alaina was enjoying some tummy time while Nate was playing fetch with Zoe. Alaina watched Zoe catch her ball and run down the hallway. As you can see from the video, she thought this was hilarious. Her little laugh is so adoarble. I can already tell that Alaina and Zoe are destined to be best friends.

Alaina's 4 Month Stats

Alaina had her four month check-up this week. She weighs 13.5 pounds and is 26 inches long. She has more than doubled her birth weight! The doctor told us that Alaina is ready to start eating rice cereal. The video above shows the first time we gave her some! It wasn't a huge hit, but we're hopeful that Alaina will learn to like it after a few more feedings. She wasn't too sure how to take food from a spoon. As you can see in the video slip, she spit out most of her cereal. After Alaina gets the hang of eating cereal, we will move on to fruits and veggies. We're so excited to watch Alaina try new foods. :)

Our friends Dana and Keven came from Phoenix a few weekends ago. Their son, Sanjai, is 8 months old. We had so much fun watching Alaina and Sanjai play together. It was intersting to see what Alaina will be able to do at 8 months. What a difference 6 months makes! Below are some pictures from our Alaina and Sanjai's play date.

Friends.

Nate and I met up with some friends in Chicago this afternoon. Eric and Aaron were in town to run the half marathon. We wanted to be there as they crossed the finish line, but got to the city a little too late. Instead, we went out to lunch together and hung out at Millenium Park. It was such a gorgeous day to walk around outside.. and it's always nice spending time with great friends!

Walking through the water at Millenium Park

Waiting for the faces to squirt water...
Lunch downtown

Friends. Jill, Aaron, Eric, Dan, Renee, Nate, Kalli

Alaina spent the day with my parents. We wanted to take her with, but decided traveling around the city would be too difficult with a baby. My parents were thrilled to babysit and Alaina always loves spending time with her yiayia and papou!

Labor Day Weekend

Nate's parents came to visit last weekend for Labor Day. We had a great weekend just hanging out at home together. Of course Nate's parents loved spending time with Alaina. I absolutely love the picture above of Grandma Jan holding Alaina. Nate's parents bought us the rose bush when Alaina was born. We planted it in our backyard and have been watching it grow as Alaina grows up. Alaina has had more control of her arms lately. She is starting to intentionally grab at objects. As you can see in the picture, she was trying to grab the rose. How cute! We'll have to take many more pictures of Alaina and her special rose bush in the future.

Alaina Will Be Crawling Soon...

Alaina is really moving around these days! She is a pro at rolling over. She constantly rolls back and forth when we lay her down, even when changing her diaper! Alaina loves to lay on her stomach, despite the doctor's suggestion for her to sleep on her back. Every morning when I go to get her out of her crib, she is sleeping on her stomach with her little butt straight up in the air. She's so cute. Recently she has discovered how to keep her head up as she plays on her stomach. At the same time she kicks her legs. It really won't be long before she's crawling. I love this video of her moving around. She is able to support her head for a long time! I also love her huge belch in the middle of the video. What a lady!

More Visitors!

Alaina met some more family members yesterday afternoon. My godmother came from Indiana with two of her children, Nick and Maria. It was so cute watching Nick and Maria hold Alaina. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was holding them as infants. Now they're all grown up and holding my own daughter.

Popi, Kalli, Maria, Nick

Nick holding Alaina

Maria was so good with the baby. Alaina fell asleep in her lap.

Please, summer, never go away!

Today was a beautiful summer day. I couldn't help but dress Alaina in her cute little swimsuit for a summer photo shoot. No, we didn't go swimming. We don't even have a kitty pool. I just felt like dressing her in a swimsuit and talking to her about the beach. She was just too cute. Later on, we took advantage of the nice day and went for a long walk. I absolutely love being at home with Alaina. We wish that summer would last forever, but unfortunately it will soon be over. I go back to work in only two more weeks! But until then, I'm taking advantage of each day with Alaina. :)