Rachel's Got Talent

Professional Pics

 

Any grandparent who would like a printed copy of Miss Rachel can leave a comment and I'll order some for you... :)

6 months

Ian is 6 months old today. Andy and I have often said that we'd probably have a lot more kids if we didn't have to do the 0-6 month age range. Well, that's not the case with this little one. I would do these 6 months over in a heartbeat. I can't believe he's ready to start solids. Before we know it he'll be crawling and talking and eating big people food. Craziness!

Ian had a check-up with the doc this morning and all is well. He's 16 pounds, 5 ounces and is 27.5 inches tall. He's right were he needs to be and doing all the things he needs to be doing. He's getting better each day at sitting up. I think tomorrow morning he's going to have a lot of fun with his first taste of rice cereal! For several weeks he has been watching us eat with quite a bit of interest. And if he happens to be sitting on my lap while I'm eating he's a bit disappointed that the food doesn't make a pit stop at him. We'll see how tomorrow goes... Ian only has a few 6 month outfits that fit him. He's mostly wearing 9 month clothes. There have been a few outfits that I have waited too long to pull out and he wasn't able to wear them for long. I've had to shop the clearance racks for 9 month outfits - definitely a bonus of living where it stays warm through November and they still put all the summer stuff on clearance quite early.

This little guy knows how to get around when he wants to. He kind of drags himself or rolls when he wants to get to something. It's not like he's getting across the room, but we definitely have to be more cautious of what we leave laying around. Just the other night he had found a piece of paper (I promise I had only left him for about 5 minutes) and had a pretty big wad of paper chewed up and stuck to the roof of his mouth. Thank heavens it was stuck up there and not down his throat! Anyhow, we are all going to have to be more careful of what we leave accessible to him.

He still loves his bath. As a matter of fact, as soon as he hears the water running he gets all excited and starts kicking like crazy. Sometimes he's a bit disappointed to find out his sisters are taking a bath before he is... Luckily he's a pretty good sport about it though. I've been a bit surprised at how casual his is about the pool, since he likes his bath so much. He doesn't hate the pool, but he doesn't love it either. Although when we went last week he really enjoyed trying to grab bubbles as he sat up in the really shallow part. So maybe we're already done with the baby float...

Ian is still taking 3 naps a day. He is sleeping through the night. He usually goes to sleep around 8:30 pm, wakes up around 7 am, takes his first nap around 9 am, another nap around 1 pm, and the a final one around 5 pm. His schedule is flexible since we are on the go quite a bit. Once he's been up for about 2-2.5 hours, he's ready for a nap or to go to bed. And you just put him down and he goes to sleep with some minor moaning and groaning. He eats usually 5 times a day, every 3-4.5 hours (just depends on how long he naps).  

We certainly enjoy our little boy and are so grateful that he's healthy and growing and happy!

4th of July

We had a very busy, fun-filled 4th of July this year. We had so many different activities to do. And instead of picking and choosing, we just did them all... We are usually out of town on the 4th, so it was fun to be in town and be able to do some of the local activities. We started off the morning by Andy taking the girls to a 4th of July activity that our neighborhood puts on every year. Ian was still sleeping, so they went on without me. The girls were definitely excited to show their patriotic spirit and join the parade:

They were pretty proud of their unicorn and flower:

  

As they did the parade around our neighborhood, Andy cut out by our house and by that time Ian was awake, so we all loaded into the car to head to the church for a 4th of July breakfast. We all enjoyed seeing friends and eating pancakes. The children even performed a patriotic number and our girls were very serious about waving their paper flags...

 

After the breakfast we met up with some friends at one of your neighborhood pools. The kids enjoyed themselves!

  

The best part  of all came later in the afternoon when Papa and Grandma Michaelson arrived! We enjoyed a yummy dinner and then had to celebrate Papa's 70th, since it was only 3 days away. The girls were thrilled to help him blow out his candles. 

 

 After dessert we passed time by playing games until it got dark...

Once it was dark we went outside and did some sparklers. Rachel was quite brave and Audrey warmed up to them with the help of Grandma.

 

We definitely enjoyed our 4th of July with many friends and family. It's always fun to spend holidays with those whom you enjoy!

The Joy of Bubble Wrap

Ian was introduced to bubble wrap today and enjoyed playing in it! The girls and I recently read a book where fireworks were rained out so they popped bubble wrap to make the noise of fireworks. Well, we may just do that tomorrow night so we can avoid the mosquitoes... :)