Summer Days

Warm days in Vermont go by quickly and end all-too-soon, so we soak up every minute we can. In just the past 2 weeks of summer, we have already done so much. The kids ask every night, "What are we going to do tomorrow?" Days at home are rare, but I, for one, appreciate them. Here's a few things we've been up to, in no particular order:


Andrew is still doing his taekwando once a week, and he loves it. There was a special event in town a few weeks ago & Andrew's teacher invited any students who wanted to come and break a board. He did it well and felt so good about himself! (I'm pretty sure his teacher bent it a little to help it along, but don't tell him that.)

Jacob is sitting up well on his own now and can sit in the high chair at restaurants. He even enjoys a French fry here or there. He also enjoys eating anything he can find on the floor at home. 

When I'm cooking, the two babies are usually right underfoot. Jacob has discovered the joy of Tupperware & cooking spoons. Abi loves to sit right on the island counter where I'm working and help me stir or pour. Or tell me that she wants to use a spaghetti noodle to roast marshmallows, like this picture.

Abi has always been my amazing sleeper. She will often sleep in til 8am, then crash & burn about 1pm, sometimes earlier. If I don't wake her up from her nap, she'll sleep sometimes 2 or 3 hours! (Which makes it hard for her to get to sleep at night, of course. She is a night owl.) She sometimes willingly puts herself to bed. She gets pretty sassy if she doesn't get in her nap. And she rarely likes her picture taken.

Night time can be long when Daddy has a meeting. We have to eat dinner early many nights, so there's still several hours before bedtime.  Occasionally we'll play games, or the kids will go back outside to enjoy the long daylight. We love the sunsets at our house.

Leah and Andrew got to go see a movie in the theater. I don't think it was their first, but they don't really remember ever going. They saw Finding Dory with their Daddy and loved it!

And the other day it was so windy out we decided to fly a kite. We got that kite WAY WAY up high. It was hard to even hold it down! Abi loves her little brother and was holding his hand. He just loves the grass and could care less about kites and such.

Another thing we have enjoyed every summer is the library's Summer Reading Program. We actually go to 2 different libraries, both which offer story times, crafts, activities, and prizes for reading certain amounts of books. I love that the kids get excited about reading so they can put stickers on their charts. We've probably already read about 40 books so far.

Summer's only half over and who knows what else we'll find to get ourselves into?!

Lake Day

Last year we discovered this great lake pretty close to our house. There's not a LOT of beach space, but there is a lot of grassy area, some sand, and then a really great shallow entrance into the water. Since we don't live near the ocean, it's a great little "beach" spot for our little family. The kids loved it last year and this year was no different!

Jacob was quite a fish. I thought for sure he would hate the freezing cold water and the sand, but he sat down and immediately started splashing his hands in the water and did NOT want to get out. Two things he loves, put together-- baths & being outside! 

 Of course, all that sun & playing wore him out & he fell asleep for a good hour.

We built a sand town with a pretty cool moat with running water. The kids got in a physics lesson, learning how the water runs.

Before we left we played on the playground, and Jacob is finally interested in the playground kiddie swings. He had a blast.

And of course no lake day is complete without ice cream. 

Jacob @ 9 Months

Jacob has really started to turn into a big boy, not just my little baby. Last week (June 15th) he started crawling-- not with his tummy off the ground, but an army crawl, just like his brother and sisters all did. For awhile, he's been getting up on his hands and knees and rocking like he wants to go, but just can't get the movement. Now, finally he's started scooting and we can't get him to stop. He's all over the place, and now I have to keep my floor swept or he'll put all the crumbs in his mouth!

I'd still consider him easygoing and fun to be around, but he gets cranky a lot at home-- could be teeth coming in, could be boredom because he can't do everything he wants to do. At times I have to sneak around where he won't see me, because if he sees me, he'll start crying for me to pick him up. 

I couldn't get him to lay straight for his picture-- he just wanted to play with his toes the whole time. But I'll take what I can get at this age!

He also started sitting well this month. He can almost pull himself up to sitting, but can't get the one arm up on his own. But if I put him down sitting, he plays happily for quite awhile. He seems to enjoy the new view. And I just love a sitting baby.

He also loves to stand, although he can't do it on his own. He really just likes to be moving or doing anything but being still.

He has his 9-month check-up next week, so I'm not sure how much he weighs, but I don't think he's gained as much over the past few months. He's holding pretty steady at about 22 or 23 pounds, which is still pretty big, but he's also grown a lot in length. I don't get as many comments anymore about how huge he is, although he did have to move to a new car seat and I definitely don't carry that thing around anymore. 

I can barely make it through the grocery store with this dude in my cart without everyone ooing and aaahhing over how cute he is. He always gets all the attention, and he eats it up.

He's eating a few finger foods now, although he still doesn't have a single tooth and tends to gag a little on some things. He has a new love for the Gerber Puffs cereal and the Yogurt Melts. As soon as they get on his tray, he grabs them with his fat little fist and stuffs them in his mouth. There's 2 in his fist and 2 in his mouth before I can turn around. He almost doesn't really like his baby food much anymore. He'll tolerate a little-- fruits, mostly-- but never a whole jar anymore. He's actually the pickiest baby I've had and will NOT eat green veggies unless they're mixed with something else.

But he will eat his feet. Yum, yum.

He likes to be outside, now, for a little while, and is starting to tolerate the swing more. 

He loves to blow raspberries, like A LOT. He is always spitting or gurgling or making noise. He also loves to scream. He still resists naptime, screaming sometimes 5 to 10 minutes before crashing, but he will eventually sleep. He usually naps about an hour in the morning, then a good 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon (as long as we are home and not out and about), then will go to bed for the night around 7:30 or so. I wish he would be able to stay awake a little longer at night so he would sleep longer than 7am, but he just gets too cranky. Overall, he's a pretty good sleeper.

Summer Fun

Our summer is already off to a fun start and it's barely just started getting warm around here! We have a "bucket list" of things we really want to do while it's nice out and nothing's stopping us now!

Our little backyard swimming pool got a hole this year so we improvised. We made a slip 'n slide out of a tarp, a sprinkler, and some baby soap. The kids had a blast!

Jacob didn't get wet, but he is starting to enjoy being outside. He especially loves to sit in the grass and pull it out. He's only eaten a little. 

We were given one of those bubble machines that shoots out tons of bubbles at a time. Jacob was fascinated, Abi squeals at all of them, and even the big kids enjoy it!

And of course the playground has been on our list. Our favorite is at the school in town, so we can only go when school is out. We finally made it the other day, and little Miss Abigail was fearless. Last year I couldn't get her to leave my side-- this year she climbs everything she sees-- rock walls, monkey bars, everything! And she goes down the slide and back up again.

 

We've taken a trip to A&W, which is only open in the summer and has really great burgers & ice cream.

Of course, we've also enjoyed watermelon. Even Jacob. He ate a big chunk out of mine the first time. Since then, he's decided he doesn't like it.