Laurel is definitely in the babbling stage. Her highness prefers an audience, but if one is not to be found, she is quite content to chat up her toys, the cats, the walls...you get the point. For about a month now she has been saying "Dada" (or some variation of it). A couple weeks ago she started with "Nana." Through all of this I've cheered and grinned and encouraged, patiently waiting for my own time in the spotlight.

And finally last night she walked up to the couch I was sitting on, looked up at me, and very clearly said, "Mom."

It was worth the wait.

We've been absolutely amazed at how quickly Laurel has seemed to improve with walking. Now she's all but running!

We had a great Thanksgiving and hope you did, too!

Laurel hasn't felt very good since Saturday. She just cut a top tooth, so we thought that was it. Sleep has been elusive for all of us, and she started running a low grade fever and resisting nursing. When we took her to the pediatrician today we got our answer - a sore throat. She's taking antibiotics and will hopefully be able to join in the Thanksgiving festivities tomorrow.

This week Laurel took her first steps. Considering that she only started crawling ten days before that, we were a little surprised. However, she's loved standing since she was about three months old.

In addition to her first steps, she's also gotten her first bruises (and even a little bump on her forehead). I think our sweet baby girl is going to be quite the daredevil, we're already telling her "Slow down! Walk, don't run!"

Edited to add - No babies were hurt during the filming of this video. (And yes, it does look like she took quite a spill, but she just went down on her hands.)

For Laurel's first Halloween, she dressed up as a Garden Gnome. After a battle at first, she even kept her hat on for awhile. The weather was cold and drizzly, so we didn't get to do much Trick-or-Treating, but she did visit the grandparents and some friends.

This past week she turned nine months. She had her doctors appointment and was 27 1/2 inches long and 18 pounds, 14 ounces (in the 50th percentile for both).

Developmentally she's doing great. She's crawling a lot now and pulling up on everything. She is getting really good at mimicking sounds and actions (like clapping and waving bye-bye). Here are some shots of her demonstrating those new-found skills.

When Tim and I decided to do cloth diapers, we also chose to start making our own laundry soap to clean them with because we knew we would be doing a lot more laundry. The cost of making your own soap is just a fraction of the cost of buying detergent, and we’ve found that it works just as well. Soon after we started using our cloth diaper soap recipe, we tried making liquid laundry detergent for the rest of our clothes. So far, so good.

A few of our friends have asked for our tips and recipes, so here they are:

Cloth diaper soap recipe:
1 cup Borax
1 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda
1 cup Oxyclean (original)

Cloth diaper laundering:
-Store soiled diapers in a dry pail (shaking out any solids if necessary)
-Wash every 2 – 3 days
-Run diapers on a rinse cycle on large load setting
-Wash diapers on hot cycle with 1 tablespoon laundry soap
-Add ½ - 1 cup vinegar to the rinse cycle
-Dry diapers

Liquid laundry soap recipe:
4 cups hot water
1 bar Fels Naptha soap (finely grated)
1 cup Arm & Hammer washing soda
½ cup Borax
-Add grated soap to saucepan with 4 cups water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted (will take awhile).
-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken (will look kind of like snot).
-OPTIONAL - you can add 10-15 drops of an essential oil per 2 gallons to scent the soap (I've not tried this yet because I'm still trying to figure out what I want our clothes to smell like).
-When you’re ready to use the soap, fill a laundry detergent container half with laundry soap and half with water. Shake before each use. Use a half cup to 5/8 cup of soap for each load. Use ½ - 1 cup vinegar in rinse cycle.

Making your own laundry soap sounds like a huge hassle, but it has really not been a big deal. You make such a big batch at a time that it lasts for months. I would recommend it to anyone looking to trim their household budget a little or trying to be a little greener (we use the same laundry detergent container over and over).

We just got back from a great trip to Florida for our good friend Tommy's wedding. Laurel got to experience her first plane ride, and she did fantastic! She once again amazed us with her great behavior all weekend. Here's her outfit for the wedding rehearsal and dinner.

We also spent a lot of time at the pool and in the ocean. She's such a water baby.

Tim was one of Tommy's groomsmen. Doesn't he look handsome?

And despite the fact that she'd had a really long weekend and was exhausted, Laurel saved enough energy to party it up at the reception!

Towards the end of the reception I put her back in the sling so that we could start saying bye to everyone. Within minutes she was out like a light.

Best wishes to Tommy and Alli for a wonderful future together!