6 Months and 2 Years

Kate is now 6 months old. She went in for her check-up today. She is 22 pounds, 11 ounces (99%ile), 28 inches long (98%ile) and her head is 17.5 inches around (92%ile). She is learning and growing so quickly. She is able to roll from her stomach to her back. She is a food critic, using her tongue to see what we are having her try before she will open up and eat. Kate does not have any teeth, but I believe she is working on them now. She loves her brother, Max. She watches him and plays with him. She rarely cries if he bumps, pulls, or tries anything with her. She is sitting fairly well. She still goes in for therapy a couple of times a month. Kate likes to watch TV. She loves her blanket. She grabs her toes with her hands all the time. She is beautiful, and we love her so much.

Max went in for his 2 year appointment today. He was very excited to see the doctor. Max is 27 pounds (38%ile), 35 inches long (70%ile), and his head is 19 inches around (39%ile). He is learning so much every day. He loves tractors, cranes, fire trucks, ambulances, garbage trucks, balls, books, Curious George, Signing Time, and swimming. He is a great eater. He loves oatmeal pancakes, waffles, tomatoes, avocados, berries, bananas, and fresh baked bread (to name a few things). His favorite dessert (aka "special") is fruit snacks. We cut his pacifiers in half today, as he is getting a bit old to have one. He loves his blanket, and puts the tag in his ear. Max loves his little sister, Kate, and will tell her to "be happy" when she is crying/sad. He can play independently, but loves to play with someone as well. We love our handsome boy.

Happenings

Life has been busy around here. I find that life is just that way. There is always something to be done. Today has been extremely productive for me. I got up at 4:30 this morning, nursed Kate, and headed out the door for an 8 mile run. Rob has been appointed my "coach". On Sunday, we figure out what my running schedule will be for the week, and then I have a goal and am able to do the runs. I am really trying to drop my weight. Since being pregnant with Kate, I have lost 60 pounds! Yeah, I was fat. I still have 18 pounds to go to get to my goal weight. I am feeling like it is a doable goal. Anyways, after the run, I was able to get the bathrooms cleaned, and the main floor dusted and polished. Max was awake when I got back, but he is a great helper. Eventually Kate woke up, I got laundry started, I fed the kids, we went to the doctor for Kate (she has thrush... again... so we had to go see a doctor to get her a stronger prescription), went to the grocery store, finished cleaning the house, made bread, browned meat, unloaded the dishwasher, and started preparations for dinner. While I was changing Kate's diaper, Max got really quiet. As a mother, I am always suspicious of what is going on when things are quiet. When I found Max, this is what I saw. I am guessing he tried the salt, didn't like it, so he moved onto the sugar! He told me, "Yummy Mommy!"

On May 26, Rob had his birthday. Max was fascinated by the candles, and would smile for the picture, but wouldn't look at the camera. He couldn't look away!

It has been super hot outside lately- like high 90's with 85% humidity. When we aren't at the pool, I have to find things for the kids to do indoors. Max has always loved playing in the beans, and now Kate does too! Kate hated the beans for a long time. We were told to get them as part of her physical therapy. You see, Kate hated taking baths (which she doesn't anymore!). The temperature change on her arm would make her cry and cry. We would rub the beans all over Kate, especially her arm, to overstimulate her. Then when she got in the bath, she wouldn't scream so much. I haven't used the beans for a long time with Kate, but I thought I would let her try them again. She LOVES them! She would try and "splash" them with her hand (only her right, not her left). It was fun for the kids to play in them.

I was invited to play on a 3v3 soccer league this summer. It is a short season, only 4 weeks long. Each week I have a couple of games, and then the last week we play a tournament. It has been a lot of fun. Rob, Max, and Kate have been great to come and cheer me on. Last week was so hot, but we had still had a great time. Max loves to "dribble, dribble, dribble, pass" the "yah-ko" ball with me.

Kate loves to grab her toes. I usually help her get her left ones, but then she will just hang out, holding her toes, for quite some time. I think it is pretty dang cute. Love this girl!

I think those are all the major happenings around here. Life is busy.

New Things

I am having Kate try to eat baby food. So far, it has not been a positive experience for her. However, Kate is thrilled to sit in her high chair.

She is even happy to hit a teething biscuit on her tray.

But try and feed her, and she gives you a puzzled look and immediately turns away and spits out the food. She hates it! She also hates bottles. I had an episode last week where I wanted her to bottle feed as I had a lot of medicine in my system, and she wouldn't even try it!

Kate has been fussy lately due to her lack of mobility. The rolling has helped, but she really wants to stand up and see all around. We had an excellent exersaucer with Max, but unfortunately it didn't survive the move (a part was misplaced). Yesterday we found this on Craig's list. I picked it up in the afternoon, and Kate has been thrilled.

She liked the Johnny Jump-Up for about 5 minutes. She wanted to play with something, not just bounce.

My "little" girl is growing up quick! I am amazed at how time flies.

Rolling

Kate is rolling! We have been working on it for some time in physical therapy, and it finally clicked for her! She is not a consistent roller, but she will get there. Max is always happy to show her just how to do it.

Last week I was really sick. I had Rob stay home from work on Thursday to take care of me. Kate had an ear infection too. Max was just getting over his sickness. I am finally feeling better. I think I will even work out tomorrow! Yay!

Our garden is growing. I had to replant some corn, but other than that everything is popping up. Hopefully we will have an abundant harvest.

I will sync my pictures to the computer for tomorrow's post. No pictures tonight.

All Boy

Max is the very definition of boy. He loves:

Tractors (Little Rock Garden Expo)

Dirt (Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum)

Trains (Amy and Casey Foote's House)

Balls (Discovery Gateway in SLC)

Drums (Discovery Gateway in SLC)

Helicopters (Discovery Gateway in SLC)

Water (Discovery Gateway in SLC)

Goats (Mary and Jeff's house in Alpine)

Drilling with Grandpa (in South Jordan)

Pliers with Grandpa (in South Jordan)

Deer (in Alpine)

Buffalo (in Alpine)

Horses (in Alpine)

Mowing with Daddy (in Little Rock)

Watching Curious George the Movie and Eating Popcorn

Hammering at Home

More Tractors (He really cannot get enough of these)

Lions (at Little Rock Zoo)

Firetrucks (in Memphis, TN)

Hiking (at Pinnacle Mountain)

Max has been talking more and more each day. He uses 2-3 word phrases, and we are amazed at how much he understands. The first 2 word phrase he used was when we were staying with my sister, Mary. Max found a cookie downstairs one morning quickly ate it. He then came and asked me, "More cookie?" It was pretty cute. Max is sleeping on a twin bed now in his "new" room. He usually has his striped blanket and 2 blue blankets each night, a stuffed cow, and a stuffed dog. He still has his binky, but hopefully we can break him of the binky soon. He is wearing size 4 diapers, but fits into size 3 too. Max is growing up so quick. We love watching him learn and progress.

Bread Day

From 6:30 to 10:00 this morning, I made 2 loaves of wheat bread, 2 loaves of French bread, and 4 loaves of braided bread.

I wrapped up 2 loaves of braided bread and 1 loaf of French bread to auction off tonight for a church fundraiser for the youth.

Garden

When we moved to Arkansas, one of the things we were really excited about was our backyard. It is huge! Max and Kate have a playset, a trampoline and plenty of space to kick a ball around. The previous owners had a fenced in dog run, but we saw it as a perfect place for our vegetable garden. Here is the space:

As soon as the weather was nice enough, we started to work. We didn't like the bush outside the fence, so we took it out.

Max was a good helper.

Next, we had to remove the grass. Rob rented a sod-cutter from Home Depot and whipped it out.

While he had the sod cutter, he cut an area on the side of our house so we could put berry bushes in.

After taking the dog house and cement pavers out, we put boards around the fence to keep the dirt from washing out.

I turned all the soil with a shovel.

We had a dump truck of supersoil delivered to our driveway to add to the garden.

Rob was up before 6 am one Saturday to start moving the soil to the back. Max was eager to help him when we woke up.

All the soil is now back, and the last board is screwed into place.

We put weed paper down, so we wouldn't have to do extra weeding, and then started planting. We have corn, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, garlic, shallots, onions, peas, beans, eggplant, pumpkins, watermelons, zucchini, and cucumbers all in the ground.

Rob designed a drip system for watering. He found a piece that will allow six drip lines to be connected at one spot.

I mentioned earlier that Rob cut the grass out on the side of the house so we could put berry plants in. Here is the area now. Raspberry, blackberry and blueberry (pots) bushes are in the ground and doing well.

This picture shows a contraption hooked to our facet. It will allow us to put the drip lines on a timer to water. It should work wonders!

I did not take a picture of my herb containers, but I have cilantro, oregano, basil and parsley growing in pots on the deck. They are doing excellent. We hope the garden really thrives. It is our first year trying a garden, so we recognize we may have over/under planted certain things. We are excited to be following the prophets advice and sowing seeds of self-reliance.