Baby G at 6 Months

Sometimes you can catch him sucking his toes.

Truly a bundle of joy. Baby G has smiles to melt the orneriest. He is rolling, squirming, trying to sit, and babbling lots (especially "ma ma mama"). He really is aware of when I leave and enter the room -- that can be problematic, but I sure feel loved! We've started to let him experiment with food -- he's been lunging at our plates for a while. Right now his favorite thing is my water bottle. I got him his own sippy and he's been fairly content to drink water out of that for a while -- but I see in his eyes that my bottle will not be safe for long.

July 4th

There are LOTS of parades around the Columbus area and we chose based on schedule. So we ended up at the Upper Arlington parade again. It was a no-candy event (much to the kids' disappointment) and very community oriented. Most of the entries were high-school class reunions, streets (the streets would get together to make a float), and cars that well-to-do men spent lots of time and money to fix-up and show-off. But, there was a very patriotic beginning to the parade. Veterans passed by with signs showing what war they served in or what honors they had received. The words, "Lest we forget, lest we forget..." kept running through my mind. Life is so good that it is hard to connect it all to the sacrifices of others. It was a good reminder that we're not celebrating that we are bigger and better than everyone else, but that we are blessed to live with so many privileges and freedoms.

L enjoying the parade

I don't know that we'll ever again be in a place so fiercely connected to their university football. This float was quite the example -- notice the priest and nun at the end. I wish you could have seen the shorts he was sporting and watched them groove to some rockin' music. It was very entertaining. I couldn't figure out if they were dressed up like clergy or if they were just living the moment.

Happy 4th!

Water Party

L has been wanting to invite all of her preschool classmates over to the house for months. With our house size, a new baby, etc I have been side-stepping and dodging the requests for quite a while. But I realized that I could have a SHORT water party in the backyard and let her invite all of the school kids over without too much effort or stress on my part.

So, on our 2nd try (the 1st canceled due to an erroneous severe weather warning), we got wet and had a blast. Some of the games were:

Ice Cube Relay (freeze black/pinto beans in ice trays and then have the 2 teams relay with slotted spoons to fish out their beans and bring them back to their bucket)

Duck, Duck, Dump (Instead of calling "Goose!" the kids had a leaking cup that showered as they walked around the circle until they dumped on someone and ran)

Balloon Toss (This one was probably better suited for an older group with better large motor skills)

Fill 'Er Up Relay (Use punctured cups that the teams have to fill and then carry back on their heads to dump into their buckets at the other end)

And of course there was a little pool, water table, sprinklers, and balloon throwing.

It turned out great. We might have to make this an end-of-the-school-year tradition.

L had a great time.

C ate his weight in Goldfish (why will he not eat real food?!)