Leila's New Doll

As Leila gets older, she is getting better at letting us put her down for short periods of time while she stays content. She is also getting better about where she allows us to put her down.
I recently started reading a book on sleep training so that we get Leila off to a good start when it comes to sleeping on her own. In the book, it says that many kids struggle with falling asleep when they are put in bed because they were put down after they've become too tired. The book says that kids should be put down when they're getting tired but are still in a good mood.
Well, Leila started yawning yesterday morning, but was still in a great mood. She has trouble napping without being held, so I thought I'd give it a try and put her in her hushamok. (The book does say these ideas should be applied to babies 4 months and older, but I figured it was worth a shot.) She didn't fall asleep, but she didn't cry right away either. In fact, she decided to have a nice conversation with her sleep sheep. I didn't get the first half of it, but you can check out the part I did record here...

Leila also had some tummy time, which she tires of very quickly, so we spent some additional time with her on her tummy mat playing with the toys that hang over the mat.
You can see a bit of that here and here.

Last night, when Ryan came home, he was hanging out with Leila. She started to get hungry and thought his nose would make a tasty snack.

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Today, Leila came with me and her Aunt Rebecca on her first visit to the Galleria mall. We, of course, had to pay a visit to the Baby Gap store, where Rebecca found a cute little pig doll named Olivia. Rebecca showed the doll to Leila, who got wide-eyed and grinned and kicked excitedly. Being the loving aunt that she is, Rebecca felt compelled to buy the doll... and one of the Olivia books that the doll character comes from. How lucky is Leila?!

She even took a swing at it.

And these weren't even the biggest smiles! Is it any wonder Aunt Rebecca bought the doll?