Carrots

I think it is safe to say the carrots are a hit.  I'm glad she was a winter baby that is learning to eat in the summer time when I can strip her down to her diaper....especially since I thought it would be a good idea to make her carrots with a mix of purple & orange carrots!

Fountian Park Fun

 Summer is officially here...we had our first trip to the local fountain park!  This sequence of pictures cracks me up...we start out with only Bekah smiling (and Allison being quite grumpy)...

 Then Allison smiles but Logan is still holding out...

And there we go, all three of them smiling at once!

 

And check out Little Miss Lauren who is 'SOOOO BIG!' She had fun in the fountain park, too!

Allison's Point of View

 Allison got a kids' digital camera for her birthday from Nana & Papa.  I love downloading the pictures and seeing what strikes her as interesting.  We'll need to keep working on including people's heads......

 Mark loading her into the car in the morning

 Me driving to school in the morning.

 The street where we turn to go to school.

 Their caterpillar numbers for lining up at school.

 She brought her camera to school....she must have been sharing (her teachers tell us she is really good at sharing!)

 Tables & chairs...

 One of the dragonflies from her birthday cupcakes at school.

 A parking lot on our Seattle trip (I think this was where we were waiting for Grammy)

 Heidi on the Seattle trip.

 Mark & I on the Seattle trip.

 Taking a picture of our first peas!

 Her room.

 Road trip with Bekah!

Lunch with me!

The Bib Obesession

 We keep letting Heidi practice eating solid food.  Her favorite part, though, seems to be playing with her bib.  She loves the crinkly feel and stuffing it in her mouth.  Sweet, silly girl!

Tough Girl's Hike

 Jodi & I have very sweet girls, but probably not the toughest girls in the world.  Actually, definitely not the toughest.  So, we decided to take them on a little hike and challenge them.  We had a fun day up at Silver Falls, starting with a picnic lunch (in which Jodi & I had our own 'toughness' challenged when a spider kept trying to join us!).

 Then we hiked behind the South Falls.  the girls thought it was pretty cool to walk behind the water fall.

At the bottom of the Upper South Falls Heidi was fast asleep so we decided to go the additional 0.8 miles to the Lower South falls.  We had to stop for a water break before we headed out.  She sure looks like a tough girl with all that jewelry on, doesn't she?  I'm a little bummed - all of the foliage makes her skin tone look a little funny in this picture!  Anyhow - we made it almost to the Lower South Falls - then I refused to walk the bazillion steps to the bottom with Heidi on my back.  We gave the girls some animal crackers for an energy boost to get back.  Heidi woke up shortly after so I walked back as fast as I could - with her screaming in the pack the whole way until we got to car & I could feed her.  Jodi & the big girls followed shortly after.  All the way back up.  I think the whole hike was just under 3 miles, which is actually quite a bit for our girls (or at least mine!).  To wrap up the day we stopped for frozen yogurt - we were HOT!  Can't wait for our next hiking adventure with the Wagner ladies!

Mary's Peak Birthday Hike

 Hiking Mary's Peak around my birthday is one of my favorite things to do; there are tons of fabulous wildflowers at the top.  We didn't make it up on my birthday but we did go shortly after, late in the afternoon.  Allison was able to try out her new Camelback (we copied her cousin Savannah's birthday present - thanks for the idea Rachel!).

 The flowers did not disappoint!  Nothing in Oregon quite matches Hatcher Pass (in Alaska) but this is the closest I've found yet.

 Allison, of course, had a snack at the top.  And we learned we don't need to FILL her Camelback; we emptied some out to make it lighter for her.

 I carried Heidi in the Beco carrier.  She had a grand time.

A storm was moving in on our way down so things were getting darker fast.  Allison still wanted to stop & get a picture with the wildflowers on this hillside.  I love my little birthday hike every year!

Family Clown

 Someone is getting into making funny faces when I ask to take her picture...

 But she eventually comes around....she seems to be glowing on these warm summer evenings!

Heidi at 5 Months

 Our little Heidi-bug turned 5-months old last weekend.  I managed to take pictures but it has taken me awhile to get a post together.  We do have some stats on her this month....because she had to go to the doctor with her first stomach virus.  That was not the most pleasant experience but she weathered it pretty well and we learned she is 15 lbs and 12 oz.  We have also learned that she is one determined little girl.  She loves to roll over on her tummy and is trying hard to move forward.  Unfortunately that usually means moving in a slightly backwards circle.  I've learned to mitigate her frustration by putting interesting toys where I know she will move including in front of her.

 She still eats like a champ.  We've just started solids and so far the only food she's tasted is peas.  Next up will be carrots later today.  (Oh, except for that little taste of ice cream her father gave her!).  And we've started letting her use her sippy cup with water in it.  It is her new favorite dinner-time toy while she sits with us at the table.  The side effect of this is that she has now decided she wants to hold her bottle herself at daycare (which she can't really do!).  They were confused on Monday morning when she was so insistent upon doing this and were telling me about it not realizing she had started using a sippy cup at home!

 Her sleeping isn't bad but it also isn't fabulous.  On days at home she usually takes really good naps and is on a 4-hour feeding routine.  At daycare there is just so much going on she usually has one long nap (sometimes even over 2-hours but usually less) and then 2 shorter naps.  At night she is up for one feeding but does a good job going back to sleep after eating.  We do have to get up occasionally to give her a pacifier and we're thinking we need to break her of that soon (or I'm hoping she'll get to the point where she can find it herself sooner!

She is constantly putting things in her mouth and trying to move, hence her 5 month photo shoot was one of the more challenging ones to date (and I'm sure it will only get more challenging).  I provided some outtakes because they show exactly what she is into right now...

 

5 MONTH PHOTO SHOOT OUTTAKES:

 She does not want to lie back - she arches her back, strains to sit-up or rolls over.

 She loves to try to sit up but can't quite do it.  But that is okay, she loves to play with her feet! 

And her hand is constantly in her mouth!

Heidi's First Taste

 Now that Heidi is 5 Months Old (Yikes!) and very interested in food we decided to let her try some.  I cooked up some sugar snap peas from the farmers market and she gave them a try.

 

She wasn't quite sure what to think of the peas but she had a good time.  After a couple of bites she acted like she was done so then we just made faces...ending her first eating session on a happy note, of course!  We've been trying peas every day ever since and she seems to be enjoying them more and more each time she tries them.  And she loves her sippy cup (from the first picture).  According to her teachers at daycare, though, she is now wanting to handle her own bottle and she isn't quite ready for that!