Nathan's Family Portrait

drawn on 8/31/2011.  We are delighted to see his progress and love for family!

On the eve of 6 months

Life is busy, busy, busy but quite wonderful on the home front.  We feel lucky to have our two kids.  Nathan continues to grow, learn, play, and enjoy being a big brother.  He has learned how to play Angry Birds...  Not sure what this says about our parenting, but it's something that we all have fun with.  Julia continues to be a happy baby, growing quickly as well, and learning new tricks.  Tonight is the eve of her six-month birthday, believe it or not!  We all celebrated by feeding her some oatmeal for the first time.  Daddy has been watching football a little bit with Nathan, and Julia likes to hang out while they watch.

Sibling Similarity?

Something about these pictures of Julia... 

...reminded me of some days in June and July, 2007

That prompted me to look for other similar photos of the kids around 5 months old.

Nathan top, Julia below

                                       

Nathan top, Julia below

Julia top, Nathan below.

Julia top, Nathan below

After all this fun, I think they look similar at times though mostly in passing expressions.  They are really their own wonderful selves :)

The Big Switcharoo and Other Happenings

There have been big happenings these days!  Nathan officially moved out of his room into the guest room.  He's got a big new bed as we're keeping the guest bed in there for visitors (hint, hint!), and more play space.  He's spent about as many nights on the floor in his tent as in the big bed.

Julia has moved out of the guest room into Nathan's old room and also out of her bassinet!  The transition to crib sleeping has been seamless, much to our delight.  She's doing quite well at night, knock on wood.

This girl has started daycare 3 days a week, with two weeks under our belts.  After Julia and I both put a lot of effort into learning how to nurse in the early days, she gave everyone a run for their money in bottle rejection her first few days away from me.  She had been taking bottles before this!  About 5 types of bottles later, she has decided that the Nuk bottle is acceptable and is doing fine now.  Her caregivers have remarked that she seems settled and happy most of the time, and I have to agree that she is her usual self when I pick her up.  These special days of time with both kids are hard to give up, but it's good for me to be back at work, too.  I *think* I am actually looking forward to the semester starting up.

Serious about tummy time.  So much to see and do!

On a couple of our "home" days, we have been berry picking.  Daddy joined us on the latest adventure which included both blackberries and raspberries.  Nathan probably ate as many as he put in the container.  Check out the size of those blackberries!  They are amazing!

"Daily" Double

Can't leave out the little one now, can we?  Wow, two posts in one day.  It certainly won't happen again soon but we'll try for more updates.

Julia is approaching 4 months and is a delightful baby.  She's quite easy-going except that she doesn't like to nap.  But, she's generally happy when she is awake and sleeping decently at night, so we're definitely not complaining (very loudly).

 happy girl!

 busy girl, exploring with hands (and mouth)

silly sweetheart

and finally, the sibs together

The Many Faces of Nathan

This guy is VERY expressive!  Here he is, modeling some of his moods for the camera.

Vocalization

So much has happened since our last post and we are far behind in documenting/sharing.  For now, here is Julia showing off the new sounds she can make.  This morning we woke up to a happy baby making these sounds!

Late Spring Happenings

Nathan is quite particular about the seasons.  It is definitely not summer yet, and you better not say it is, even though we have hit 90 degrees a few times.  Here's what we've been up to this late spring.

These two are delightful together!

Nathan has been playing soccer on Saturdays:

Nathan is enjoying his new guitar:

Julia turned two months old on 5/30/11.  She is delightful with her smiles and cooing.

Julia is interested in toys in her advanced age!  Nathan is a great big brother- he likes to show her things.

Julia contemplates Mr. Frog: