Midwest Choppers

Even though quality-wise it’s a terrible picture, I’ve finally captured N’s two newest additions—her new teeth!They’re super-cute—and super-sharp!  Don’t let her gnaw on your finger: it used to be fun, but now it’s painful.

Daddy Smooches

Full of Hot Air

K. is always interested in hot air balloons (“hot air bloon!”) and we tend to see them often near our house.  She keeps requesting to ride in the basket of one, which would not be impossible but would likely be terrifying for her.  As a compromise, I created a balloon that her little bear could ride in.

Stand By Me

The N. has added pulling up to her bag of tricks, and in typical N. fashion quickly went from trying it to mastering it.  She was crawling around the kitchen and the next thing I knew, she had pulled herself up on the back door.  And stood up one-handed.  (Or looking at the first picture, you can pretend she’s just standing on her own). 

“Look, Ma, one hand!”

Not Just Man’s Best Friend

Perhaps N. will be a vet when she grows up?  She’s really interested in the dogs and crawls over to them whenever they’re nearby.  (Don’t worry—we’re always right there too). Such a good and tolerant dog! Hey, what does this tag say?

For the Album

I hear continual stories of the “second child and his/her lack of any photos in the album”—children who, because they weren’t born first, don’t exist in many photographs.  First children have albums and albums of photos of themselves, but their younger siblings are lucky to have the random snapshot.

Because I’ve heard of this happening, I feel like I’ve almost swayed too much the other way and overcompensate with an alarming number of photographs of the younger daughter.  When I look at the pictures I’ve taken over the course of a month, more of them are of N. than of K.This could, however, be a result of the girls’ personalities at the moment.  If I point the camera at N. and make any sort of funny face or sound or even smile, I get this:And when I come in the vicinity of K. with the camera, I get this:   No kidding.  She was playing with the card she’s holding and used it to obstruct her face, a move she inherited directly from her maternal grandmother.  I don’t even think she’s seen someone do it before.

But, on rare occasion, I can get both sweet girls and their sweet smiles.  And what a happy day that is for Mom!   These girls are so precious to me!

In unrelated news, but without accompanying photos, N. has had a big week—she got her first two teeth (on the same day!) *and* she started crawling!  Look out, this girl has places to go!

Little Bit Crazy

We purchased a new toy from a garage sale, and I brought it home to let N. play with it.  I thought it would be something interesting she could pull herself up on.  She can!  She had just, um, required a change of clothes so I cleaned her up but hadn’t gotten a fresh outfit yet.  The same afternoon, K. wanted to put on her new swim floaty suit—a swimsuit with a built-in inflatable ring.  So she did.  The result is a couple of girls in pretty questionable attire—but they’re standing and playing together!A glimpse of what is to come (but hopefully with a cuter wardrobe).

Strawberry Fields Forever

We went strawberry picking this past Tuesday as a fun outing during our regularly-scheduled playgroup time.  K. likes strawberries, and I like field trips, so we went.  I didn’t get enough child labor to make jam or anything exciting, but we did pick several berries. She picked for a few minutes, then made me do the rest, but she carried the box and put the berries in the box. “I’m holding up the strawberry like you wanted me to for the photo.”“One for the box; one for K.”  “Oh, so yummy!” The little N. came along too, to investigate. And K. was cooperative in sitting by her sister.    Happiness is a little face smeared with strawberry juice! I think we all had a good time.  We picked with my friend S. and her kids (the baby didn’t pick, but the other two did).  She and I took turns—one would sit in the car and nurse their baby while the other picked strawberries with the older kids.  It wasn’t ideal, but it worked, and we were able to leave our houses!

In a Pod

Aren’t the girls are just two peas in a pod? 

Well, they’re peas for sure.

And suspicious peas at that.

(Do you, gentle reader, know which pea is which?  Interesting note about the size difference—the K. pea is 4 months in the photo; the N. pea is 7 months)

Sweet Pastel Sunday

The girls were wearing their matching Easter dresses again this past Sunday, but N. had an, um, incident in hers before church.  She wore her pink dress instead, which is the same design as the aqua ones.  The girls looked darling and pastel, and I wanted a cute picture of the two of them coordinating.That’s as close as I came.  I guess I should be excited (and I am), that the girls have started to interact more.  K. can always make N. laugh—today (as I write this), K. was pretending to be a dog and N. was in hysterics.  It was amazingly cute.  Anyway, the girls had a hard time being serious for the picture to be taken—I seem to recall my own sister and I having difficulty with this, and that was only a few months ago.  (Seriously—my mom tried to get a good picture of my sister and I when she visited just after N. was born.  It didn’t happen, but we both laughed so hard we cried.  I have the pictures but you haven’t seen them.  They didn’t make it on to the blog). K. would sit, then I would set N. next to her and try to snap a picture.  N’s in a phase where she lunges often, and would usually start to lunge for K. before I got the picture.  Sorry these are blurry, but the glimpses of the girls you get are worth overlooking the blur.    Love it!

Pulling Up

Randomly today, while we were visiting some friends, N. grabbed a hold of a Bumbo seat and pulled herself up to stand.  I didn’t even realize this was on the horizon for her, but there she is.  When we got home, I, of course, grabbed our seat and put it temptingly close to her, and she obliged by pulling up again…and again…and again.

I’m pretty proud of her.  She’s also good at scooting, then sitting, then scooting.

“Guess what I’m about to do with the help of this blue seat?”

“Oof…here goes!”“Pretty proud of myself!” P.S. This sweet girl is *seven* months old now!