Mamaw Sally Comes To Visit

Mamaw Sally flew out to visit us on August 18, right before my birthday. She stayed for two weeks and we loved every minute! Sadly, Mr. A had a cold and shared it with her -- when she gets sick she gets really sick, so she didn't feel very well for the second week and we didn't do much, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

We took her to Ocean City and walked up and down the boardwalk a little bit, and had seafood for dinner. It was Mr. A's first trip to the shore.

 She walked miles with Mr. A (maybe a slight exaggeration, but they did walk around a lot!)

She read stories to the girls, played games with them, and took them for walks.

We took her to our favorite diner for breakfast.

 
She rocked this boy to sleep more times than I can count. She certainly had the magic touch with him!

I think it was really good for her to come -- I know it was really good for us to have her here! We're hoping to do it again and again for as long as she is able.

Mr. A is Six Months Old

Look at this fine fat fellow. Isn't he delicious?

I tell him all the time, "You are so cute. I'm going to eat your face!" And then I nibble his cheeks and kiss his neck and make him laugh.

He's generally kind of serious but lately we've been getting more chuckles out of him.

He is getting very grabby and of course everything goes to his mouth. He likes to hold my face with both hands and try to eat it.

He rolls all over the place, and when he's on our bed he puts his head down and pushes himself around with his legs. We call him bulldozer baby when he does that. He does it a little bit at the beginning of this video, but sometimes he bulldozes all over the bed!

The last couple of days he has been pushing up on his hands and knees so we'll see where that goes -- the Boogie started crawling around 8 months, I think, but Peabody was about 6.5 months when she started.

I'm so not ready for crawling! Ack!

He's starting to sit up for a few minutes at a time without toppling over. He's kind of wobbly but does pretty well until he notices his toes and leans over to get them in his mouth.

He cut his first bottom tooth a few weeks ago, and the second one last week.

He is starting to eat baby food. Avocado was first, and he's also had sweet potato, squash, applesauce, bananas, and oatmeal. He had his first food while Mrs. Specktacular was here. When I commented that he seemed to like it she replied, "I think he's going to like everything." She's been mostly right -- while he doesn't refuse it, I don't think he cares much for the squash. *sigh* Apparently I'm the only person in this family who likes that.

He had his six-month well-check last week. He was 18 lbs 6 oz. & 26 inches long.

From about the time he was 3 months old when people ask how old he is and I tell them, the response is always, "He's so big!" But he doesn't seem that big to me, and he fits in age-appropriate clothes for the most part. I began to suspect it was the size of his head and sure enough at his 4-month-well-check his head measured in at the ninetieth percentile. Well. That explains it. 

He is nice and solid. Someone told my mom that picking him up is like picking up a bowling ball. "Then," she continued, "he starts to flap his arms." Which is true. He flaps his arms and squeals and grunts when he is excited. Lela gave him a new nickname, Redondo, because it sounds like a nice round bowling ball baby!

We sure like this boy.

Summer-ness

Hiya. It's been a long time. Hopefully a few of these ...

courtesy of a diligent iPhoto-taking-Poppop

... will make you more inclined to forgive me for my blog neglect.

I did find a post that I started but never published which you can read here.

We are two-thirds of the way through our summer break. June was pretty laid-back -- we finished school at the end of May, and the girls had swim lessons for 3 weeks. They went with cousins and friends and had a lot of fun, though I don't know that they really learned all that much. Eric's sister and her baby arrived mid-month (BIL came over from Scotland a couple of weeks later.) We got pictures like this one of the newest cousins meeting

and of all the cousins together.

O-nee, Peabody, DR, Boogie, HE, EK, HJ, IM, and Mr. A

I heard a couple of comments about IM being a Jersey Girl but, since she was not born nor does she live in Jersey, I protest that she has no claim to that title and is actually a Wee Scottish Lassie.

I also heard a couple of comments about how these two look just alike but truly, I don't see it at all. The only resemblance I can see are fair skin and limited quantities of dark hair. Also I would like to point out that this picture pretty much sums them up: IM is happy and smiley, while Mr. A is much more serious.

July started off awesomely with the arrival of a brand new Washington cousin! Isn't he adorable? I sooooooo badly want to get my hands on him! (These photos are courtesy of Uncle Furry.)

I can hardly stand that I haven't gotten to see him in person. Also, I can hardly believe that my BABY brother is now a dad.

Then the month ramped up with a week of VBS at another church immediately followed by a week of VBS at our church immediately followed by almost a week of a family conference at church immediately followed by almost a week of Mrs. Specktacular visiting.

I wrote about VBS here but feel free to skip that post (I promise my feelings won't be hurt) because it is a pretty boring post and mostly for my own reference.

The family conference was preached by an evangelist whose family has been friends with my family for many years. Seeing him and his lovely wife was almost like spending time with my own folks! We had them over for dinner one evening, and I offered use of our washer and dryer (since they live in an RV) so got to spend a few more hours with the missus. It was very, very nice!

Mrs. S went to Pittsburgh for a work conference and when it was over instead of flying home she flew to Philly. It was her fifth visit to NJ! She was here 7/25-7/31 and spent lots of time snuggling and playing with Mr. A, and entertaining the big sisters. One afternoon we were able to go on a "mom date" of shopping and dinner together to celebrate ten years of friendship (we met in July 2004 when she was hired on by the bank I worked for.) I think she had a relaxing time but was happy to get home to her own family.

Now we have a couple of weeks to prep for and have a yard sale, do some stuff around the house, and get ready for my Mamaw to come! We're super excited about that -- it will be her first visit and we can't wait for her to meet Mr. A and local family and church family, and see our little house and area where we live.

In other less exciting news that I simply want to have some record of, the ugly shed in the back yard is gone gone gone, I bought a tomato plant and managed to keep it alive long enough to produce a few tomatoes, and I cleaned the living room carpet very thoroughly after Mama Dog jumped the gate and came looking for us in the middle of the night because she needed to go out but we didn't hear her so she left us lots of presents in the living room. And by presents I mean something awful. I am not overly fond of her at the best of times and truly, if it were not for my children and my conviction that we don't get rid of pets simply because they are inconvenient, that episode would have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. As it is she is spending every dry day outside and is absolutely positively NOT ALLOWED IN THE LIVING ROOM ANYMORE. Also I am super careful to block the gate so she can't jump over it in the middle of the night. And if it is a sin to hate an animal I hope someone points it out to me so that I can repent.

I think that just about sums up our summer so far so without further ado I give you some pictures:

Batbaby!

Batdaddy and his little side-kick

Big sisters put tiaras on baby brothers

Cousins singing in church

Sad crabby baby

Blue eyeshadow. So classy.

Look at this boy!

This is one goofy kid