Evelyn - 7 months

Holy Cow. How is my baby 7 months old? And why is she crawling AND pulling up on things!? Yes, she is pulling up. The girl is determined and once she figures out how to do something she will do it again and again until she's got it down. 

She's also super smiley, easily laughs and has perfected her "stink face." She is a major mooch so if you happen to be eating while you're here, watch out! She eats what we eat most of the time including cheese quesadilla, cheese pizza, yogurt, muffins, eggs, black bean burgers - you name it, the girl will try it! Still no teeth but she's going on a week long snot nose "cold" so I'm hoping that's teething instead of allergies. 

She loves her sister and always smiles at her when Lily talks to her. She "smacks" everything and then sticks it in her mouth - Evie the explorer's way of investigating! 

She is so much fun to watch explore and smile and grow everyday. It's amazing!

Happy 7 months, little troublemaker :) 

Practicing pulling up - told her not to try it on that garage! The girl rolls with the punches at least!

Playing together - so much fun to watch :) 

Yep. That happened when she was supposed to be napping. 

And yes, she has perfected pulling up in her crib! (though she still takes a tumble every now and then!)

Lily's last first day of Pre-K

Lily started BIG preschool today. Before she was at Governor Morehead, a school for the visually impaired, which was based in a very small, old building with 3 teachers (1 teach and 2 TA's) and 9-10 kids. This year she is in an elementary school filled with students, there are 2 teachers and 19 kids! Yep, 19 kids! We are prepared to deal with a little transition time and are ready to adjust things as we go but we really think she is going to thrive here and this will be a huge stepping stone for kindergarten! 

Lily's first day breakfast and lunch - breakfast burrito and fresh blueberries. Lunch was leftover veggie pasta, carrots and hummus, watermelon and homemade fruit bars for a snack. Evelyn enjoyed some yogurt, which she shared with LB!

Lily was so excited! 

Big girl classroom! :) I'm so proud of her! 

The Last Weeks of Summer

We were fortunate enough to get LB into a regular preschool very close to our house through early intervention (I think this is called something else now but...whatever.) We found out she was accepted at the beginning of July and that she would start school at the beginning of August! I felt like we needed to enjoy every bit of summer that we could!

We enjoyed a few trips to Marbles - Even Evie got in on the fun a few times! 

Evie discovered that she enjoyed carrying things in her mouth like a little puppy. Super adorable! (And here she is crawling from her room to the bathroom as I ran water for her bath - smart baby!)

Evie is a MAJOR Explorer - Into everything! She puts everything in her mouth, then looks around to see what she can get into next. Right now she is practicing on pulling up on everything, of course.

We had play dates with friends and Lily Belle and Evie enjoyed a lot of play time together! They really do play fantastically together. LB is an awesome big sister.

It definitely wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. I certainly started counting down the days until school started because Lily was starting to throw a MAJOR tantrum almost every day. It was a rare day that we made it through without an "in room" time out, toys thrown (and thus taken by me) and lots of screaming and crying. I'm hopeful that the structure and schedule of school will help.

New (Vegetarian) Recipes

Here's the newest recipes I've tried out lately. I've been going vegetarian for a few months now and have been trying lots of new vegetarian recipes. Don't forget, you can find all the recipes I've tried and approved of here on my pinterest board.

Lentil-Mushroom Vegetarianballs - These were actually quite tasty! Evie and LB both loved them. Den, not so much. Perhaps it's because we have to top my Dad's famous meatballs. But since I'm going meat-free, these will have to do. I think I'll enjoy playing around with the spices and making them my own. 

Honey-Ginger Tofu stir fry was a big hit! I added a drop or two of sesame oil to enhance the flavor and it really made the dish pop. This will definitely be made again. 

Veggie Enchiladas - I LOVED this recipe. I really can't wait to make it again. The filling was so flavorful and delicious and the sauce - I will be using this sauce on every enchilada recipe I make. It's so easy and I can pronounce (and usually have) all the ingredients on hand! 

Evie the Explorer needs lots of food to keep so active! Here she is trying yogurt for the first time, eating potato spinach cakes, lentil-mushroom balls and Daddy's french toast. All Evie-approved! 

Letter N

This week Lily chose the letter "N" and I had to do some pinterest searching. I was not at all prepared to make anything but, that's kind of how it normally goes these days! I realized we could make a Noodle Necklace (two N's!) but again, wasn't really prepared - my noodles were pretty hard to put on but we accomplished it together. Then we made a nest. Overall it was actually fun! More crafty than learning, which is more up my alley :) 

Great hand-eye and fine motor workout for LB

The finished product

Our Nest with baby birds and momma bird feeding noodle worms ;-) 

Family Pictures

For my Mother's Day gift Den got me a family portrait package from Stephanie at Shutterbug. She did our last pictures, about 2 years or so ago. We love her and love the end results. Here are a few of my favorites!

Evie the explorer

Unlike Baby LB, Evelyn is into EVERYTHING. I really need to go through and baby proof the house because I never really had to with Lily. I could leave her in a room and she'd still be sitting there playing with the same toy I left her with. Not so much with Evie. The girl is always looking around to see what she can grab next. She never sits still! 

Exploring grass for the first time

She's obsessed with strings and will find them on anything!

Hundreds of toys and she is fascinated by a water bottle!

Yep. Pulled all those down.

Trying to get in on the leappad action.

Found her sisters library bag. It was a great crinkly distraction while I started dinner (Don't worry, I watched her the entire time!)

And this morning, on little sleep, Evie pulled out all the diapers and wipes and mouthed on them all. Luckily, they were clean. ;) (She looks so proud of herself too, huh?) 

Evelyn - 6 months

When we had Lily, the first year went by so slow because we struggled with so much - physically, emotionally, mentally. People would say "it goes by so fast, doesn't it!" and I would just burst into tears! This time I want to burst into tears again but for the opposite reason. It IS going by so fast. Evelyn refuses to be a baby. She wants to GO and she is determined to do just that. She keeps me on my toes!! 

Right now baby girl is rolling, army crawling, very close to regular crawling, sitting and almost able to get into a sitting position on her own. She laughs, is ticklish, says "MAMA" and is starting on her Ba's. She has tried a ton of food: sweet potatoes, avocado, apple, peaches, watermelon, corn, carrots, and rice crackers. She is in cloth diapers full time. Nurses about every 3-4 hours. Wakes about 2-3 times a night. Goes to sleep between 6-7 and sleeps until 5-6am (really!) She is almost outgrown her 6mo clothes! She loves her sister and constantly watches her with a big smile on her face. She is LOUD - happy loud with lots of screeching and just regular hollering ;) 

She is a JOY and such a happy addition to our family. I look at her and thank the heavens above for her.

Updated with 6 month stats:

15lbs 15.5oz (45%)

25.5in (30%)

Always ready with a smile

Fascinated by Layla. She loves to watch her and screech at her :) 

Loves to stick out that adorable tongue!

Sitting. And SO CLOSE to being able to get into a sitting position on her own.

Into EVERYTHING

My sunshine

Evie Eats

Most of you probably remember the struggles I had with LB when she started solids. There was a lot of wasted food, gagging, throwing up, tons of laundry and lots of tears. Turns out poor baby had reflux pretty bad and she got better after getting that and her diabetes insipidus under control. 

This go-round I decided to be more laid back about eating. I wanted to enjoy it. I wanted Evie to enjoy it. She didn't need the extra calories like LB did, so it was more a matter of experimenting and discovering food than counting what is going in her mouth. And it helps that this girl likes to eat! She is constantly trying to grab food off my plate or out of my hand (like the watermelon she jacked from me at the farmers market yesterday!) She will not do purees. She tolerates steamed veggies and fruit, loves avocado but she really enjoys to eat what we eat. I struggle with that because, c'mon, she's 6 months old! But again, laid back. It's been pleasantly surprising so far! 

Eating steamed carrots. I made purees the week before and she gagged and spit most of it out. I steamed these up and she immediately grabbed them and put them in her mouth. Little stinker.

All the carrots!

Avocado is the front runner right now! 

Enjoying the corn cakes

Letter O

This week LB chose the letter "O" to practice. So I decided to craft an orange octopus and make an ocean in a bottle. It was fun!

I attempted to let LB practice cutting with scissors. Mistake. That takes WAY more patience than I was capable of yesterday. (And those snowman scissors led to a big tantrum about watching "Frosty the snowman" on the 1st day of JULY!)

Gluing 8 legs

Lily's Orange Octopus

This is an activity I'd seen on pinterest a lot and something I'd been meaning to try. I thought it would give LB a little break after the frosty-trantrum. It wasn't as fun as she wanted it to be. In fact, she got frustrated that the colors weren't mixing more. 

LB has weaker hands so mashing these around was hard work. I think we'll try it again but hand it on the window. I hung it up during lunch time just to get it out of the way and the colors were SO pretty. I think it would be easier for her and a good OT exercise for her arms. 

Ocean in a bottle!

Making Waves