Trip to Okoboji

We had our first summer family trip to Grandma Lori's place in Okoboji. It was a pretty low-key trip, but it was really nice just to get away.

Mila loved the large windows in the front of the house and was quick to discover the old popcorn tin. Who needs musical toys when you can make your own drum?!

  

Friday, we enjoyed beautiful weather while we ate our breakfast at Drydock. Then, we went over to Uncle Klaus and Aunt Peggy's for a boat ride. It was a nice sunny morning and the lake was still pretty quiet. Mila seemed to like the wind blowing in her face (and few strands of hair!) and did really well on the boat.

We had a great time and can't wait to get back!

Videos :: Shaking her head

Mila discovered that she could shake her head and has found a few uses for it: dancing and telling us no!

Video 1: Are we looking at a future DJ? Music provided by Mila, playing Mr. Lion's nose and the spinner on the exersaucer. Video 2: She may not understand when we tell her "no", but she's really good at telling us "no"!

Daddy's little firecracker

This is what happens when you leave dad in charge of Fourth of July photos. Luckily, the package served as just a prop!

Eight Months Old!

Mila is officially 2/3 of a year old!

The most common question is how many teeth does she have? Well, the tally is still at zero! But we think there's one on the bottom just begging to get out.

She's still crawling and getting into everything. She loves to stand against furniture, bodies, toys... anything she can use to get upright. Jens loves to test her balance and will let go while of her while she's standing against him. She'll stand for about 2-3 seconds at a time before she topples over.

She's getting more and more vocal. Her favorite words are da-da-da-da and bob-bob-bob. She still calls out for maaa-ma when she's sounding desperate though! She's also catching on to waving hello and goodbye. In fact, it sounds like she is repeating "hi"after us sometimes. But our favorite sounds out of her are her laughs. She is a big fan of peek-a-boo and let's out a big cackle whenever she is startled. What an amazingly refreshing sound! I can't help but smile or laugh along with her.

We took a trip to Cresco last week. This picture is from the Mighty Howard County Fair... so we can check that off our list! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera out to snap any photos while we were with the family. Aunt Jessie has some photos with our great-grandma, so we'll have to get those from her. It was a good trip home and it was nice to see everyone, but it'll be much better once Mila gets over her "stranger danger" phase (as Jens so likes to call it)!

  

On Saturday, we took our second trip to the zoo. I'm happy to report that she noticed the animals this time! We got in early, so there weren't as many kids to distract her (which was a big help!). She was much more attentive this go-round and we're excited to take her back to see how her reactions change.

Our final trip for the looong weekend was to Brayton for a family reunion. Grandma Lori bought Mila a new walker and her cousins (Madison & Peyton) had fun pushing her around the hall. She was a happy little camper in her mobile toy.