Kendall is sitting up! . . .

. . . for short periods of time anyways. Right now she stays vertical for a minute or less, but I think if she just weren't so wiggly and busy reaching for things she could actually stay up longer. I honestly think that she's going to skip right over the sitting up and playing in one spot stage and just go straight to crawling. The girl is BUSY! Since she is sitting up some now, we decided to let her try out the highchair and join us for dinner the other night. She had a great time watching Avery and playing w/ her toys while we ate, and then she gobbled up some rice cereal and carrots. She likes to suck her thumb (horror of horrors for her speech pathologist and periodontist parents!) between bites, so sometimes it's a messy affair. But so far she has loved everything she's tried-- sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, carrots, pears. She has finally dropped the 5 AM feeding, which I am loving! It is so nice to crawl in my bed at night and stay there until morning-- except on the occasional night that she wakes up crying or sometimes just to talk and play. But I guess nobody (or no baby) is perfect, right?

my carrot-nose thumb sucker

"Look at me! I get to sit at the table!"

"Thank you God for God"

Over the past couple of months, Avery has gotten really good at saying the prayer at dinner time. She always reminds us to do it and always volunteers to say it. Sometimes she switches it up and throws in a few new lines like thanking God for each family member specifically, but most of the time, her prayer goes like this:

"Thank you God for Jesus,
and our friends,
and thank you God for our family,
and thank you God for God.
In His name we pray, Amen."

Too bad you can't hear Scott's imitation of Avery saying this prayer at bedtime with her paci in! But in all seriousness, we are very proud of her and lucky to have such a sweet-spirited little girl.

Kendall- 5 months old

Well, another month has flown by and Kendall is 5 months old now. She is becoming so curious about the world around her and tries to get ahold of anything in her reach. Tonight as I was starting dinner I was toting her around, and every time I walked past the fridge she would try to grab something off of it. Then she watched very intently as the microwave door swung open when I put some meat in to defrost and she started trying to play with the door. I have a feeling that she is going to be a mess when she becomes mobile! As you can see from the pics she is enjoying playing in the exersaucer now and sits in the Bumbo seat quite a bit. I am so looking forward to the day when she can sit up by herself and I can plop her down on the floor when I need to run do something instead of having to grab the Bumbo, strapping her in the bouncy seat, etc. That will be especially handy when running to the potty with Avery (by the way, she is doing great with pottying lately!). Kendall was on a really good schedule, but now that she has started cereal, she has switched to nursing 5 times a day instead of 6. Plus, she has been going to bed earlier and ,therefore, waking up a little earlier, which is throwing her previous 10:00, 1:00 and 5:00 naptimes off a bit. Hopefully we'll have it all worked out in a few weeks. Reflux wise, she is better, but it still rares its ugly head at least once or twice a week. Every once in a while she still pulls off and cries when nursing or cries and refuses to eat her cereal. Even when she is having reflux, it doesn't seem to bother her near as much as it used to though. The biggest problem she is having right now is constipation from the rice cereal. Luckily, a little apple-prune juice usually does the trick:) She'll probably kill me one day for talking about her poop on the blog for everyone in the world to read! This past Sunday she went to Bible class for the first time and her teachers said she did great. I really wanted to stay and watch her, but of course I just let her teachers do their thing in peace. Here's one more picture of her adorable smile (I'm not biased or anything) that she shares so freely with anyone who pays attention.

Forf of Juwy (according to Avery)

Hope everyone had a Happy "Forf of Juwy" yesterday. We just hung out around the house most of the day and then headed over to my parents' house for barbecue and homemade ice cream last night. Avery enjoyed playing with all the "different" toys at my parents house. As usual she was the center of attention as she and my Dad played in the little kiddie pool and sprinkler toy in the backyard while it rained. Kendall enjoyed being passed around and playing with a fish bowl toy and toy phone. It's funny how just all of a sudden she is actively reaching for toys and really playing with them. It is truly amazing how quickly they grow and learn and change in the first year! Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend!

Playing doctor, dress-up, and Kendall eats from a spoon!

I'm sure everybody else is as tired of the picture-less post as I am, so here's a hodge-podge post with some random pictures to entertain you until something better comes along. One of Avery's favorite things to play is doctor, which of course Scott loves. She crawls up on the ottoman (aka operating table) and Scott proceeds to examine her, start an IV, and perform surgery. He even pretends to come in and out the door as both the nurse and the doctor. It's pretty humorous to watch really. The nurse's voice is my favorite part personally. Sometimes Avery wants Kendall to lay by her, which was the case in this picture.


And here we have Mommy playing dress-up with Avery last Monday morning. Don't look too closely or I might frighten you with my lack of make-up. Avery is getting quite good at pretending lately. Her latest concoctions are pretending that her name is "Wora" (Laura), that Miss Kelly is her mommy, and that she is going to the pretend lake, the beach, or her work. And we always get there by driving the bus, which is made up of two dining room chairs that she pulls together.

And last but not least, we have Kendall eating cereal from a spoon! No more cereal bottles for this girl. I tried the spoon again Tues night and she was grabbing my hand to put the spoon in her mouth on every bite. This girl is ready to do everything by herself. Watch out world!