Six Months with Edith

Edith turned 6 months old on Saturday! I'm not sure where the time is going, but the older I get the faster it seems to go there. Yeah, I know I say this every month...


Edith continues to be the most patient and laid-back baby we've ever had. I mean, look what I did to the poor girl:

I was squashing her ears, and the goggles left an enormous indentation in her forehead (she's probably plotting some kind of dastardly revenge for the teenage years). Thanks for playing with me, Edith!

The girl loves to suck on her toes now, but has given up on sucking her thumb for the most part (hooray!). Now she just shoves her thumb way deep into the left side of her mouth and munches on it. It's what she's gotta do, since none of her teething rings reach back to the molar she's getting. Yup. A molar. Edith shows no signs of any teeth in front, but has a huge bulge where her upper left molar will be. Definitely unexpected, but I guess it explains all of the drooling.

Edith is super expressive and has learned to smile for the camera. It makes my job of capturing her easier (and more entertaining!). She has quite the personality.

I think the funniest thing Edith has been doing lately is sneezing with a flourish. She still loves to do raspberries and has decided to tack one on the end of her sneezes. It makes sneezing much more fancy and fun. 

Edith started on baby food a little over a week ago. She hates it. She opens her mouth wide when she sees the adult food we're eating pass by, but whenever the spoon approaches with baby food on it her lips are sealed tight. I think she's getting more into it finally, but I'm pretty sure the kid still just wants a piece of pizza. I guess that's where those early molars might come in handy.

She was pretty excited about eating at the beginning, but it quickly lost its luster...

Edith may not love baby food, but she absolutely loves it when her daddy bestie flies her to her mommy for kisses. She feels like a superhero. Her mommy loves it, too.

Our baby girl really is getting so old! I know this because Edith can now sit up for as long as she wants without falling over, and can even reach for stuff behind her without toppling. She loves to play her little piano and gnaw on her favorite teething ring, but her favorite things continue to be books. Pretty cool, I think.

Edith loves to sit up in her little bathtub, too. She puts her hands below the surface of the water and moves them around while she stares at them intently. She seems fascinated by the water and how it feels and makes her hands look. It's fun to watch her.

Okay, so now for the stats. I took Edith in for her appointment today and it went about as expected. The doctor is as impressed with her as we are. Edith hasn't quite kept up the pace with her weight gain, but I'm not surprised. That's what tends to happen when you'd rather play than eat. She's still super tall, though.


Height: 28 1/2" (99.71 %)
Weight: 18.87 lb (93.19 %)
Head: 17 1/2" (93.18 %)


No matter what her size is, we think she's a dang cute package. Happy six month, Edith!

Friday Favorites

1. The three older kids started school this week. They seem to all like their teachers and classes, so that's good. The best part is, they're all happier. I think they were getting tired of each other and were ready for the summer to end. Big starts preschool right after Labor Day. It should be great. I'm looking forward to the kids having a fantastic year.


2. Rophone is beginning to feel better-- enough that he has played a little basketball with the kids and played a lot more with Edith. They have missed their daddy. All is starting to feel right in the world again.


3. Our garden is way behind, thanks to the long, wet and cool spring we had this year. We finally harvested our first zucchini and I had it sliced thinly on some homemade pizza with some other veggies. Absolutely heavenly.

Again?

I'm having a hard time believing that it's time for school again, but it's true. Ginger and Bud started on Monday, and Pen started on Tuesday. So far, they all like their teachers and classes. I'm excited about Bud's teacher because she assured me that she'll find ways to challenge him, and I believe her. Ginger does well with any teacher and in pretty much any situation, so I know she'll have a great year. Pen has some fun classes that I think she'll enjoy. I just can't believe she's an eighth grader! Ginger will be rocking the 5th grade and Bud the 1st. I mean, look at them. Of course they'll rock it.

Big will start preschool after Labor Day. Not quite the same as having a full-time job, but it will have to do. I can't wait. I mean, I'm excited for him. Happy school year, people!

Friday Favorites, Again

1. As I posted a few days ago, I took the kids on vacation over the weekend. We missed Rophone, but managed to have ourselves a good time anyway. Edith even swam for the first time!


2. We bought the kids all of their school supplies. I can't believe school starts again on Monday, but it's nice to know that the kids will be going well prepared. Although, I just realized we missed back to school night tonight... oops.


3. I got to have lunch with a fabulous friend today. It was so great to see her, and I loved finally meeting her cute little boy. I can't wait to do it again.

Big's Dream Vacation

We were invited by my folks to go on a quick last-of-summer vacation to their timeshare. So, I headed out, sans Rophone (he felt his 'roid rage agitation shouldn't be confined to a hotel room for the weekend), for a weekend of fun with the kids. At least, I hoped it would be fun.


Swimming was the first thing on the agenda when we got there on Saturday. All the kids had a blast. Well, except Edith. Pen didn't know that when you're taking a baby into a pool for the first time it needs to be done gradually. Oops.

It didn't help that Edith managed to rub sunscreen in her eyes. My poor, poor baby!

She managed a little binky smile, anyway. What a little trooper! 


When we got back to the hotel room, the boys discovered that people watching can be quite entertaining. 

They only made nice observations, I was glad to hear.


I was a little worried about how Big would do with what we had planned for Sunday, which was nothing, really. We had planned to just hang out in the hotel room, playing games for the majority of the day, with maybe a walk and a nice drive up into the mountains on the agenda. Not a whole lot to entertain a 4 year old. 


Then, we woke up to this:

It was an excavator ripping up the asphalt to prepare for some new asphalt to be laid. The excavator driver was also the dump truck driver, so he traded off between the two. Big was in heaven. Now our problem wasn't keeping Big occupied, it was trying to get him away from the window. We even resorted to placing some of his meals and snacks on the windowsill so he wouldn't have to miss any of the action. 


I tried all morning to get Big to join us for a family walk, but he didn't want to go. Finally after much begging and pleading (and, I admit, threatening) I convinced him to join us for a little jaunt outdoors. 


You can see his enthusiasm about joining us in this picture I took of the kids:

A little more threatening...

That kid's quite the actor! A little while later, his grandpa came downstairs and volunteered to take him back up to the room so he could watch the work. My dad said it was the perfect babysitter. Big was happy as a clam, that's for sure.

I took a few more pictures of the other kids while we were out.

Sunday afternoon, when the excavator had stopped its work for the day, we took a lovely drive up into the mountains. This photo is neither in focus nor very good of anyone, but here we are:

We didn't get to stay long because of mosquitos, so we'll have to make a trek up there again at an earlier time in the day. Big claims that he has 30 mosquito bites. When I asked him why I can't see them he told me they're invisible. Thank goodness the invisible variety don't seem to itch. 


Monday morning, we woke up to this:

A backhoe to get into the spots the excavator couldn't, 2 dump trucks (two!!), a paver and a roller. A dream come true for Big, that's for sure. A dream come true for me, too, to be truthful. Being on vacation with all 5 kids and no Rophone... well, let's just say I was glad that Big was so well occupied.


Luckily, Big was really excited for the things we had planned for the day. Each kid got to pick one morning activity, and he couldn't wait to take a ride on the airplanes.

He grinned the entire time. The whole 5 minutes. Bud loved the activity that he chose, too. He, perhaps more wisely, chose to play miniature golf with his grandpa-- it took a looong time. It took even longer to play the 18 holes of mini golf than it did for the girls to ride up the chairlift and come back down on the alpine slide. I'm not sure, but it may have something to do with the fact that on one hole he scored a 34. 


Maybe if he hadn't used a full golf swing...

Plus, it was rather breezy so I don't think he could see what he was doing.

And this one I just love:

Fantastic form, Bud!


In between taking pictures of Bud, I hustled on over to the alpine slide track to take pictures of the girls as they arrived at the finish. Pen was the first to come into view. One of the biggest letdowns when riding an alpine slide (besides crashing and getting torn up by the track) is getting stuck behind a slowpoke. I was happy to see that Pen only kinda slowed one guy down.

Then, many, many minutes later, Ginger came into view and I saw this:

Oooh, total bummer! If I had a lot of money, I seriously would have offered to buy all those folks another ride. It was Ginger's first time going it alone, and I guess she didn't have enough upper body strength to keep the lever pushed forward very far. So, so sorry, people.


Here. I'll just zoom in so you can't tell.

After lunch, we headed to the pool for one more swim before going home. I took a few photos of the kids before I jumped in.

Then, once I was in the water, my dad took a bunch (thanks, Dad!). Edith joined in, and this time she loved it! She even kicked her legs!

Great shot, Dad! 


Thanks for the invite, Mom and Dad, we had a fantastic time!