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At the beginning of November we headed down to Va. to get Lauren baptized at St. Paul’s Episcopal, the same church where we got married and Sophie was baptized. Lauren was great. She cried for just a few seconds when the minister put water on her head, but then quieted down for the rest of the ceremony. She even let the minister walk with her up and down the isle.

The whole Coughlin-Sharp crew

Lauren in her gown and bonnet, the same one Becky and I wore, as well as Sophie. 

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We had a beautiful Halloween in Philly. Nice and warm and lots and lots of kids. Sophie of course went trick or treating with Claire, who was Ariel. They made out like bandits… now we just need to discreetly lose most of the candy.

The infamous duo
On Sunday there was a Halloween parade in the neighborhood. The kids paraded up a few of the streets, where neighbors went all out with cupcakes, candy and ice cream. It was a sugar free-for-all.

Claire (Ariel), Liora (a flapper), Sophie (purple princess), Ilan (clown), Emma (crab)
And Lauren went as a Cabbage Patch kid. She didn’t love the wig, but tolerated it long enough to get a few good pictures. 

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Last weekend Aleen and I went up to Boston to visit Sallie, Andy and their new baby Langston (who is 4 months now, so I guess not that new). We spent a few days just catching up and hanging out. It was excellent.

Sallie, me and Aleen

And I also got to see Sallie when we were down in Virginia (what a treat!). Here are us with the kiddos. 

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On Friday, October 4th my grandma died. Her health had been in decline for a several months, and one morning she just stopped living, sitting at the breakfast table. We went down to Virginia for the weekend to spend time with family and have a service. Although an emotional weekend, we got to see family that we hadn’t seen for a long time. My cousin Lisa and her family came in from Illinois, and my cousins Brittany and Brandon came down from NY.

The first cousins: Lisa, Becky, Brandon, me, Brittany

The Coughlin Crew: Stephen, Lisa, Becky, Brandon, me, Lauren Dad, Brittany, Jessica, Sophie

I’m thankful Grandma got to meet Lauren before her memory was really lost. Here she is with them at the beginning of the summer. 

Grandma and me, June 2013

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Lauren has started to pull herself up, shuffle along just a bit, and I’ve even caught her standing without holding on to anything for a few seconds. We’re definitely getting ready for some walking. She’s also babbling a lot, and has said her first few words. So far we’ve hear “hi” “all done” and “dada.”

Lauren pulling herself up

 Sophie & Lauren both working in the kitchen…
 Hard to believe that this was Sophie just 3 years ago. The kitchen was a first birthday present. It’s certainly gotten some good use over the years. 
 She now has the “so big” down pat. That and clapping are her two tricks right now. If no one is paying attention to her, she’ll pull one of them out, just to make sure we know she’s fabulous…which we do.
Lauren wants to be doing whatever Sophie is doing. Wherever Sophie is, Lauren is not far behind. The charm of being followed is starting to wear a little thin for Soph. Oh, what she’s in for… 

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Lauren is definitely getting better at getting mobile. She’s not crawling yet, but can get around pretty well, mostly backwards.

Here’s how I found her the other morning. She’s pretty good at backing herself around the house. 
And here’s a video of her doing all of the right moves… except for the forward one: http://youtu.be/trdEosCS3eA
And who knows, she may decide to walk before she crawls. She loves to stand and “walk” around with someone holding her hands. Here she is with Dave today: http://youtu.be/D9KPPbwjxXo
And it’s official, she’s got four teeth! The two front teeth came in about two weeks ago, and the second bottom one came in last week. It also looks like she might have the Rainer space between the top two. The most important thing we’re going to do is try to hang on to them…
You can see the top two teeth here, thanks to a little girl who’s always willing to give us a smile.

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Today Sophie started at the primary school! After two years at the Toddler House she is now with the “big kids.” Greene Towne opened up a new classroom this year for the ADM kids (Add Day Montessori), and it’s beautiful. Huge, with a separate eating area, practical life area, and movement room. She’s also with some friends that were with her the first year of the Toddler House.

Here’s her first day outfit, picked out without any help from mom….

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Sadly, summer has come to an end… But we got in as much as we could the last few weeks.

We met up with Sophie’s friend Liam from school to fly a kit in Washington Square. They were both pretty good at keeping it up. And Dave got pretty good at detangling the string.
We went to the Philadelphia Folk Festival. This was the first time that we’ve been and it was a lot of fun. Very family-friendly. We hit the kid’s stage (which is where this picture was taken). It took her a few minutes to warm up, but once she was Sophie was a dancing maniac. 

We went to the zoo with Nana and Pap Pap when they were here last weekend. We checked out the new kids zoo, where Sophie pet some goats. She also chased around some chickens (but luckily didn’t catch any). 

And on the last day before school started, we hit the Camden aquarium
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I mentioned in the previous post that Lauren loves the water. Bath time is a highlight of her day, especially now that she doesn’t have to sit in the bath seat for it. She loves to reach for the water coming out of the faucet (and is fascinated when her hand goes through it), and splash her hands around like crazy, getting water everywhere. Here’s a video: http://youtu.be/yVEKKRzJvDs

Post-bath butterfly

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