7 Months

My little man is 7 months old now!  A lot of things happened this month... including sitting up and rolling over.  He has also gotten better at entertaining himself for a little bit of time and he loves going on walks in the stroller. :)  As far as sleeping goes... well... we try not to think about it because it has not gotten better at all... one day... one day. :)

So I was terrible and didn't get around to taking OFFICIAL 7 month pictures... but here are some that we took during the month:

Walter was so kind to help me with the laundry one day. :)  I think he lasted long enough for me to fold a whole load of laundry. :)

This was one of the very first times that Walter sat up on his own for more than like five seconds!  In fact, I think he may have been tipping over as I was taking the picture. :)

AND on the same day he started sitting up, he ALSO rolled over from back to front for this fancy life saver can. :)

Photo shoot with Lena!  He is holding one of the plastic candles that go to her tea set... she likes to sing happy birthday to anyone who will listen and let them blow it out.  She also wraps countless things in blankets, towels or dishcloths and sings happy birthday to you so that you can open your special present. :)

And of course we can't go more than 20 seconds without giving Walter kisses... no literally, I try to make her count to 20 before she kisses him again and she won't.

So one day I put Walter under his little toy thing so I could try to get some housework done, like maybe quickly unloading the dishwasher... well, I think I unloaded a couple then went to check on him and this is what I saw. :)  He had scooted himself down into that position!  

Canning weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. :)  

His first time wearing jeans!  Doesn't he just look so grown up?

And again with the kisses... 

Here's my cutie pie sleeping in the car on the way back from our Half Marathon.

Here's my pro at sitting up!  Lena is ALWAYS so kind to grab pillows for him to put behind him for the times he loses his balance.  Sometimes he ends up with a whole circle of pillows around him... almost every pillow that can be found in the house is often surrounding this little boy.

There's a friend to play with. :)  Mostly though, Walter ends up scaring Colt with one of his excited squeels... or maybe it's those razor blade finger nails of his... 

6 Months

I totally missed posting about his five month mark so we'll try to make up for it with a really good six month post. 

Walter is still a happy boy as long as he's fed and rested.  He LOVES being outside and watching Lena run around. 

He knows that his hands are his and also that everything within reach is his...or at least he thinks it is.  He gets so frustrated when I have to take something away from him or if he can't reach something.

He is SO close to rolling from back to front and mostly tries doing this on his changing table.. the one place he's not allowed to.

He can still fit into some 3 month clothes but for the most part is wearing the 6 month stuff.

He's still up about every two to three hours at night. And takes two one to two hour naps...on good normal days.

We just started introducing foods and the first one he's really liked is bananas.  He also likes pears and peaches.

At his six month Dr. App his stats were:

14 lbs 11 oz (7th percentile)
26.5" which we're pretty sure is wrong since that's what he was last time.

Here are some pictures from this month:

Official 6 Month Pictures

Pre-School

Can you believe that Lena is now old enough to go to pre-school!  I can't believe how much she's grown up just since she turned three.  It was like she got put in warp mode as far as growing goes.  She just seems so much more mature now... not only is she potty-trained, but she's been going to sleep all by herself and staying in her own bed for the whole night.  I'll have to admit I kind of miss that cutie pie carrying her two blankets and three stuffed animals into my room and chucking them onto our bed before climbing up herself to snuggle in and fall back asleep.  But I think it's a good thing that she's learned how to stay in her own bed.  Now we just have to wean her off of having her lamp on all night long. ;)

So yes, in addition to these very grown up things, Lena has started going to school and she LOVES it.  She's never ready to go back home when I pick her up.  All morning, EVERY morning she asks to go to "her teacher's house".   She also has been coming home with something about what she's learning about every day... in fact I think I may start a separate pre-school blog to post all of her pictures and crafts in.  Her favorite part so far is feeding the Chickens.  On the second day I was there a little bit early and got to witness her singing a fun song with her class and participating in the actions and everything.  She loves to sing those songs when she's at home too.  :)

Here are some pictures of her on her first day of school:

   

When we got there all she wanted to do was pick up the little rocks in the "drive-way"

Making the trek up the stairs to school.

When she got inside, all she cared about was seeing the kitty. :)

Photo Shoot With Sam

If there's one thing that Sam really loves, it's "his" babies.  He loves it even more when they will willingly give him hugs and kisses.  Well, that happened one day with Lena and Sam caught some of that action on my phone.  

First Food

This is Walter eating  peaches, which he didn't like this time but we had to get the picture!  The first food he really likes was bananas and after that it was easier to convince him to eat other things. :)  I traumatized him with rice cereal so he doesn't like that any more.  (I accidentally gave him some gas drops that I hadn't realized had been sitting in the car in 100+ degree weather... which apparently made them bad... he was throwing up rice cereal that next night... which would make me not want to eat it ever again either... poor thing!)

Potty Trained

Oh how long have I anticipated writing this post?  Much too long.  We did have Lena potty trained back around Christmas time, or so we thought... she never really went by herself... we would always have to watch for her "dancing" and it was a fight to get her to actually go to the bathroom each time... she also never really figured out the pooping thing.  When Walter was born she completely reverted and it was just two much work to keep track of her potty-training and take care of a fussy baby at the same time.  So we put her back in diapers until now.  With pre-school starting in less than two weeks we had planned to bite the bullet and take away the diapers again.  She had already been going ALL by herself here and there (i.e. going into the bathroom, getting her stool and potty seat set up, taking off her pants/pajamas and diaper and going all by herself) which amazed me.  One day (August 16 ish) we had her in a swim diaper to swim in her pool in the backyard. When she came in she said she still wasn't done swimming so she didn't want to change yet... I told her not to go pee in her swim diaper since we all know they don't ever hold any pee... well, of course she did and it was just a big mess (Randy was with her) and both just had it... we grabbed the underwear and put away the diapers and brought out the sticker charts and treats and told Lena that the diapers were all gone... the first time she had to go after that she said "I want a diaper" so we knew she had to go and ran her to the bathroom... since then she's only had one "pee" accident and she can go ALL by herself... no help necessary... unless she's feeling lazy.  It took a couple of days for her to figure out the "poop" thing but now she can do that too. :)  She even stays dry at night!  I'm so proud of my big girl for figuring this out and I'm SO glad it's not a fight every time she has to go potty. :)

I wrote this post back in February when I thought we had her potty trained:

I've been saving this picture for quite a while now... waiting to post it when I really and truly feel like this girl is OFFICIALLY potty trained... well... knock on wood... I think I can finally claim that she is.  We started this long hard process during our Christmas break.  She was immediately able to "hold it" for quite a while... the problem was getting her to UNhold it in the potty... then when we finally got that down it felt like a constant battle to get her to sit on the toilet when she was "dancing around"... she would always say "I'm not dancin' around, I was just moving for fun" or "I just have tutes coming" or "The pees aren't coming".   Well, after a few more accidents here and there I feel like she finally understands "I don't want to pee in my pants... I pee in the potty because I'm a BIG girl".