eating

Lincoln has started eating rice cereal and he loves it! He doesn't eat it every day, but he is really starting to get the hang of it. These photos are from his very first "meal."

sitting up

Lincoln has done some sitting up. He also gets on his hands and knees like he is about to crawl. We've got the baby gates ready anytime he is!

the kids

We are trying to get a settled into our house. It's been exciting to get all our furniture and stuff back, but a little overwhelming to unpack and find a place for everything. But, it's been fantastic. Joseph and the kids got me a surprise patio swing for my birthday. As Joseph was assembling it, Isabel was playing around outside near him. He put the bench swing onto the base and Isabel said, "dad, i think you put it on backwards." He took a closer look and saw that the support bar which goes behind the swing was in the front. He chuckled and had to thank Isabel for her help. We thought that was so funny!

Ansel is such a good big brother. I was in my room getting something and Lincoln started to cry out in the living room. Ansel says, "Oh no! It's Lincoln, I better go make him happy." He runs out there and starts jumping around in front of him. Lincoln LOVES to watch Ansel dance/jump around. And no one can do it quite like Ansel does. Joseph, Isabel and I have tried to soothe Lincoln with this same technique, but Lincoln will continue to cry until Ansel comes to do it. It's nice to have him around and wanting to help.

Lincoln is getting so old. He is six months now and loves to lay on his stomach. He will get up on his knees sometimes too and we're tell him: no, don't crawl yet, it's too soon! But, he absolutely LOVES his tummy time. Lincoln will always smile back at you when you smile at him (and he's in an okay mood). He likes grabbing his toys and shaking them them and putting them in his mouth.

Well, I better get going now, but I'll try to post some photos soon!

reading

I was just reading a book with the kids (curious george at the aquarium). As we read it the first time Isabel named some sea animals in the tanks: these are goldfish and these are just green fish. Ansel wanted to read the book again and this time he named the animals: these are goldfish crackers and these are green goldfish crackers. I thought that was pretty funny. Goldfish crackers are a popular snack at our house.

the joy of siblings

I asked Ansel to play with Lincoln while Isabel and I did some reading and I was very impressed. The boys just laid on their stomachs playing with the house. Well, Lincoln was watching Ansel play with the house. I love it when my kids play nicely with each other!



About a week ago Isabel and Ansel were playing outside and Isabel had lots of great ideas to catch things. For example, she got the kite tail that Ansel ripped off our kite and tied it like a "leash" so when a bird landed near her she could slip the leash around his neck and we've got a new pet bird.

She tied the kite string to the end of a long stick and now she had a "real" fishing pole to catch fish (in the "ponds" in our driveway). Usually she used a pretend fishing rod which was just a stick. She attached a rock to the bottom of the line, so it would go down to where the fish were.

Then, she wanted to catch insects in this clear bucket we have. She was deciding what food to put in and how to do a water dish. Anyway, today they were outside playing and she got a ladybug on her finger and gave it to Ansel. Then, she came in to get her bucket. She was ecstatic the whole time that she actually "caught" something real to have as a pet. I looked up online how to take care of ladybugs. We've got some raisins in there and now we are good to go!

the big slide

we had a fun family night with the air mattress slide. the kids LOVED it and never wanted to stop.

isabel's elephant

I had to put her elephant at an angle to make it fit in the scanner. I came out of my room from feeding Lincoln and Isabel said she was making an elephant. She asked me to cut out the circle for her. But she did all the rest of the cutting and taping. I thought this was a fun idea.