Lauren is 10 months old! It's so hard to believe. She's very active and really enjoying exploring the world around her. She has officially graduated from her army crawl to crawling on her knees. (See her here.) I think she figured out that she can get where she needs to go a lot faster on her knees. She also just wants to stand all the time. In fact, we found her standing in her crib in the morning when we went to get her up. She loves pulling herself up on her toys as well. (Click here.) Lauren's top two teeth are finally poking through. We've been working on those for a long time now, so we're glad to finally see them. Lauren seems to be understanding a lot of what we say. She really enjoys playing peek-a-boo, reading stories, and playing with her blocks. See her showing you how big she is here. We're working on learning the word "no" now. She seems to think it is funny to open the drawers after Mommy tells her no.
Last weekend, we drove to Des Moines to visit Melissa, Jim, Nick, Steph, Mike and Maggie. It was a long drive but Lauren was able to take a few naps with Charlie the Bear, which definitely helped! We had a great time and got to watch Stephanie play soccer (sort of) and Nick star in his baseball game. He definitely is the star-- pitched 3 innin
gs and didn't allow any runs and was 4 for 4 hitting. It was a really cold weekend, but we had a great time. Melissa and I also had a great time at the Bon Jovi concert! 
This weekend has another long car trip ahead of us. We'll be driving 10 hours to Abingdon, Virginia to visit our friends Alex and Peg. Hopefully Lauren sleeps well in the car. It could be a crazy weekend if she doesn't. We're looking forward to the trip (and hopefully some warmer weather).
Thanks for checking in on us. Until next time--
