Small Accomplishments.

Oh, look who thinks he's people!

He is drooling like crazy lately, possibly because of teeth (they can start breaking through as early as 4 months. Ellie got her first two right at the six month mark.) He is also SO LOUD when he talks. I fear that I may have another early talker on my hands. There will be so many Muppet voices in my car!

He still hasn't rolled over back to belly, but he can go belly to back, and while on his back, he can pivot himself around. A couple of times I've gone to get him out of his crib and found him 180 degrees from where I put him. I guess a lot can happen when you're sleeping 9pm to 7am (best baby ever!)

We continue to prep for our trip. I probably won't pack until Friday night, but I have a packing list made. The nice thing is that we're mostly staying with family so I don't feel like I have to haul everything, and I can always run out and buy something if I forget it. Plus we can do laundry, so no need to pack the entire closet (now the question is how many striped shirts do I need to bring.) The biggest hassle is bringing car seats, and worrying about how we will ferry everyone through the airport. I'm sure it'll all be easier in a year or two when Adam can walk and Ellie can walk a little faster. Right now we're bringing both baby carriers so that I can wear Adam in the Moby and Tim can strap Ellie into the Ergo. We'll curb side check our bags and then just hope for the best. And maybe when we get to Lisa's house, I will go hide in the bathroom and cry for awhile. WHATEVER WORKS!

Thanks to her new owl suitcase, she's ready to go!

Nothing Much.

Sorry I've been a bad blogger - not much exciting has been going on lately, and I've hardly taken any pictures. Just our usual routine - preschool, music class, play dates, hanging out with Gigi and Grizz and Sara in the afternoons, and beginning to mentally prepare for our trip to Wisconsin and Baja Wisconsin next week.

Adam's hair is starting to grow back in on top, and it's still brown. Hopefully by the time we get to Wisconsin, he'll have as much hair as Grandpa Howie again. He continues to be a generally sweet, mild mannered little guy. He keeps trying to roll but hasn't made it over yet, but he sure does love to lay around and chat with his toys. He is also IN LOVE with his sister and will gaze adoringly at her when she's around. I'm still his favorite though (as well I should be, with all of the eating he does.) He has gotten SO BIG! Today he was in the ergo and was sort of grousing and trying to stand up because his legs were tucked underneath him, and so I took him and put his legs out of the carrier, on either side of me, and he happily snuggled in and fell asleep. Ellie wasn't big enough to fit like that until she was seven months old or so. He's really not a newborn any more.

Ellie continues to be obsessed with him. She is seriously the sweetest big sister. In the morning, she wants to hold him first thing, and she likes to make sure to give him goodnight kisses. The only time it gets dicey is when she wants to hold his hand in the stroller, especially if he's already sleeping. However, when he wakes up and cries, she will sometimes put her fingers in her ears and complain to me about how loud he is. She is such a funny little thing - I don't know how the jealousy is going to go when he can actually compete with her for everyone's attention. She loves to tell us what we're all going to do and then end her tirade with "okay?" in this chipper little voice. Today she was trying to get everyone to take a turn reading her a Biscuit book and she told me "I can read it next, but I'm just going to look at the pages because I can't read yet. I'm too little." The other day when she was playing with her farm set I asked if I could have Farmer Grizz and she said "no, Grizz has to have him. You can't have him. It's Farmer Grizz, not Farmer Mommy." Her favorite thing lately is to practice cooking, and she's been asking me every morning if we can make pancakes. Making oatmeal is just not the same! We both wear our aprons, she stirs the batter and repeats after me when I tell her what we're adding "one cup of milk... now we need one cup of flour..." She is a great sous chef.

"I used to get to sit in her lap. Now there is no room for me, and no one reads me stories."

Her art is shrouded in mystery (har har har.)

"Yes, hello, I am a bald, drooly delight!"

Rolly Poly

I had a fabulous today with my funny swimmy fish girl, and then tonight while he was playing in his play mat, I realized that Adam is alllllllmost able to roll over. So please enjoy this long video of him not actually rolling. He is however, chatting up a storm. And he's wearing one of the first outfits I received when I got pregnant with Ellie - a cute French onesie from Mimi. It looks adorable on both baby girls and baby boys!

Beansers, back in the day.

Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

In recent weeks Ellie has begun discussing how we're going to the zoo. I have no idea where she came up with that theory, given that we've never discussed the zoo with her. I blame that rat Elmo. Who knows what he's filling her head with when I leave him to babysit so I can shower! In recent weeks she's also been a whiny pain in the butt most times, so I thought perhaps she could use a mommy and Ellie date, like old times. Now that Adam is a little bigger and goes longer between feeds I felt like I could leave him for a few hours and not be a worried mess.

So yesterday morning we headed up to the Santa Ana Zoo, which I had heard was small but good. Good if you like monkeys, it turns out. They have a million kind of monkeys, and then we saw one camel, two anteaters, some emus and farm animals. Not really a huge selection of animals, and none of the lions that Ellie wanted to see. But you know, we had a good time. They have a little train, so we rode on that, and we wandered through the barn to talk to the farm animals (while I informed E that she didn't to stick her fingers in near the ducks) and then we rode on the carousel. They didn't have any bunnies, but they had a lot of beautifully painted animals. I tried to convince her to ride the hummingbird, but she wanted to sit in the birds nest, which turned like a Disneyland tea cup. So of course, I rode in it with her and spun it until I was sure we'd both barf. Then we ate lunch, what more could you want! They also had a nice play ground for some climbing and sliding. Having mom and Ellie time hasn't diffused Ellie's hideous whining tendencies, but it made me feel better.

Then last night we met up with friends for Dana Point's first summer concert in the park. Last year we had a hard time cobbling ourselves together, but this year we arrived with a cooler, some chairs and a blanket. Ellie, Lexi and Whitney went in a bounce house and danced like mad women, the boys ate and napped in their wraps, and the adults had a good time. It was a very full, very fun weekend. Onward to the rest of a fun summer!

Baby Fish Mouth.

Since Tim has the day off today, and Sara had a late start to work, we were invited to go over to mom and dad's for an early morning swim (10am!) Sadly, it's not terribly warm out today, but mom fired up the spa (aka Gigi's pool) and we decided to see how Adam did in his first real dip.

I bought him a suit when he was a few weeks old, thinking that he'd wear it closer to the end of the summer. It's six month sized, and the truth is he'll probably outgrow it before the pool closes for the season. BEEFCAKE. Maybe I should check to see what size Ellie's bear suit is, ha.

He was a gem in the water, liked splashing around and kicked his legs when we put him on his tummy. His favorite though seemed to be laying on his back. Observe:

Everyone floating!

Ellie was very enthralled by having a swim buddy. Perhaps a little too enthralled at points, as she wanted to hold him and have him swim with her.

He is not 100% on the idea!

Overall, he was a great little fish, and should be jumping off the back wall of the pool with Ellie before we know it. He got a quick sink bath and then passed out for a cat nap in the fun cage. When he woke up, I fixed what little hair he has left into a fetching style.

He is welcome.

Fourth of July.

As is well documented, the Fourth of July is just simply not as fun if we're not in Wisconsin, but we made the best of it! We decided to have friends over to BBQ and hang out, and it was great! Lots of food, lots of good friends, and the evening got cool enough that we could sit comfortably outside. Plus on my way home from a trip to the gym yesterday I trashed picked some perfectly good plastic chairs, so we had seating for everyone. Plus I made this awesome strawberry pie.

The only bummer was Ellie touching the hot end of her sparkler. She'd been having a great time with her sparkler up until then, but it was over at that point. It's a tiny mark and nothing to be worried about, but it was past her bed time and she'd had a crappy nap, so there was a larger melt down than expected. Thankfully after some whipped cream and a band aid, she went to bed easily and woke up feeling fine.

Adam was a dream during the party, sitting with our friends and sleeping in the Moby wrap. We got our first genuine giggle out of him this week (choppy video below. I cannot wait to get a new phone so my cell phone camera isn't such a piece of junk.)

Randoms.

The other night driving home from Mimi's, Ellie started doing some storytelling in the car, describing how the Big Mac Woof had gone to a slide, and there was a bunny, and the bunny had to TAKE. At first we didn't understand what she was saying, and then when I figured out she was pronouncing "big bad wolf" as Big Mac Woof, we kept asking her to say it over and over again, while we silently died with laughter. Her speech gets better every day, and it's sort of sad to hear her learn how to pronounce words. Gone are the days of oh-gir-duh, for sure. The thing that makes me laugh most now is how she sometimes says "beautiful" as bew-dee-ful. Especially when she talks about herself, and how bew-dee-ful she is with her pigtails or her tutu skirt. And I love the random stories she tells. She's prone to a little fibbing now and then to try to get her way - she'll tell me that Gigi lets her walk in the street at the YMCA, and she's told Gigi that her mommy needs her to do something (like eat candy) that Gigi knows is untrue. She loves to test boundaries, that kid!

Adam has been sleeping well in his crib at night, though day time naps are still hit or miss. It's just frustrating when he won't stay asleep for more than 20 minutes, but I am told that it can be common for breastfed babies who sleep through the night to cat nap during the day, basically so they can keep their eating on schedule. I also suspect that we are having a growth spurt right now. He's in mostly 6 month clothes, which amazes me. Ellie was always big, but she was never that far ahead in terms of her wardrobe sizes. She wasn't in six month stuff until she was almost six months! What can I say, he's a fatty! I just live in terror of having another baby who only wants to nap while being held, though I know I won't let that happen a second time. Even if I spend an hour rocking him and putting him back down, he WILL sleep in his damn bed! And on some level, I can't complain about his desire to sleep in the moby wrap - it means I can get out and do so much more.

It's amazing though how much I can love a fat bald guy who sucks his thumb.