5/1/02 - Leah's first studio portraits are in! These were taken three weeks ago when she turned six months old.

5/4/02 - Leah's first bottom tooth is in. The second is half way through. Within the past few days, Leah has started to make more complex sounds. In addition to vowels, she's now combining consonants to make words such as "ma," "mum," "ba," and "beh." She is also becoming quite interested in the piano. Mom lets her play almost every day. It sounds great!

5/7/02 - Leah is on the move! At nearly seven months old, Leah is now crawling. It's not a sloppy, floppy crawl, but real hands and knees stuff. She has also mastered the art of going from her tummy to a full sit up! As with most new skills she learns, Leah is repeating them every chance she gets.

5/16/02 - Leah no longer likes baby food. Rather than struggle with her, we have encouraged her independence and moved her onto finger foods. In addition to breast milk, Leah now enjoys a variety of fruits, grains and meats. For breakfast, Leah has Cheerios with chopped banana or strawberries. For lunch and dinner, Leah eats cheese, deli meats, hot-dogs, noodles, and whatever else we try. So far, she loves it all. Leah has also become increasingly mobile. She can crawl across the room pretty fast, and is trying to pull herself up. To protect her, we started childproofing the house. We installed electrical outlet covers, solid doorstops, and a mounted gate over the stairs. We also got a few small garbage cans with lids. We've got a second gate for the bottom of the stairs, plus a ton of latches and straps for drawers, cabinets, doors, appliances, cords and toilets. We hope to install all of these things shortly. Leah's talking much more these days-- mama, baba, dada, ah, eh, etc. She particularly likes to sing!

5/19/02 - Leah's got teeth! Only a few weeks after receiving her two bottom teeth, Leah's teething again. Even though mom gives Tylenol and teething toys, it doesn't stop Leah from biting while nursing, particularly at night when she's sleepy. Tonight, after 45 minutes of frustration, Leah became so hungry and tired that she started to scream. Mom decided to offer Leah her first bottle of formula. To our surprise, Leah happily sucked it down. Maybe she couldn't tell the difference, or perhaps she was just THAT hungry. By the end of the bottle, Leah had fallen asleep. Once we see how Leah's tummy feels tomorrow, we'll decide whether to include formula on an occasional, part-time or full-time basis. No worries about weight. Leah's now 19.5 pounds!

5/21/02 - Leah has stopped biting for the moment. Hopefully we're past this difficulty, because mom didn't like the idea of giving her formula. It was depressing. Leah hasn't taken another bottle of formula since.

5/24/02 - Leah stands! Leah has been pulling herself up on everything, including her crib rails. We plan to lower her crib mattress over the weekend so she doesn't topple out.

5/31/02 - Leah and her friend Caitlyn (6 months)

6/1/02 - Leah got together with her friends Caitlyn (in the swing), 8-month-old Stephanie (in the pink shirt), 8-month-old Katherine (in the green dress) and 5-month-old Nicholas (in the red shirt). Only Leah's head is visible in this photo. She's next to the table.

6/5/02 - Kilroy was here!

6/9/02 - Leah (almost eight months old) enjoys some fresh air and sunshine with Aunt Naomi.

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6/3/02 - Leah cruises! Now that Leah has discovered standing, she pulls herself up on everything she can find, as often as she can. She's become quite good at it! Not only does she pull herself up quickly and stand steadily, she often takes one hand away (like in this picture) or travels across things, which is known as "cruising." We're not sure if Leah's progress means she'll be an early walker or not. We'll keep you posted!