Peter // 8 Months

This has been such a big month for Peter! This month he started officially crawling, AND he has two tiny teeth coming in on the bottom. He is now eating a bunch of solid food: bananas, pears, sweet potatoes, mango, and peaches. He will not touch avocado, and I don't blame him. :P He's outgrown all his 6-month stuff, and some of the 9-month stuff. So he's wearing 9-12 months size and I'm scrambling to find stuff to keep him cool and happy. 

As you can see from the picture above, he just graduated from his (way too small) bath chair to his inflatable ducky tub! This thing is awesome and Peter loves it! Bath time is now splash time as well. :) This month he started his first mimicking thing: he'll start slapping the table if we do. :P (Yeah, I know. So productive and educational.) The magic of Sinead O'Connor's "Only You" no longer works when he's inconsolable. :( Now he likes Birdy's "All You Never Say." Whatever. If it makes him stop crying.

We just booked our anniversary trip to Sanibel Island, FL - where we honeymooned - and we're bringing Peter with us! It'll be his second time in Florida, and we are super excited to be able to show him the very unit we rented three years ago. So much fun ahead!

more Peter pics

Two of our friends captured these pictures on their nice cameras. I'm always thankful for higher resolution pics of my little guy! ;P

Laura's Shower

A few weeks ago, my best friend Meghan and I had the honor of hosting our best friend Laura's wedding shower. It was my first time putting something that big together, so I definitely learned a lot about list-making and organization, but it was SO fun to work with Meghan and pull it off. Pardon the phone quality (or lack of). I was just glad I remembered to get a couple pics before it was all over.

Thank God for Pinterest. 'S all I'm gonna say. 

I also learned a lot about burlap. A lot. For instance, did you know that burlap stinks??? Or that it makes you itchy? Or that it shreds and keeps on shredding if you let it? And that it's barely ironable? 

She got a LOT more than that, I promise. 

Best friends for 20+ years! 

Brookfield Zoo

For Peter's Christmas present, my mom gave us an Unlimited Family Membership to the Brookfield Zoo. Yesterday was the first day we got out there, and we were so glad the weather was perfect! It was Peter's first zoo trip, and even though he fell asleep half-way through, I think it was still a pretty momentous occasion. :)

Sibling Photoshoot

For Father's Day, my dad requested we kids give him a big canvas of a pic of all of us. This prompted us to schedule a photoshoot with one of our friends so we could choose from some actually nice photos. Here are several of my faves! A big thank-you to Faith Linell Photography!

My thoughts at this moment: "Oh my word oh my word oh my word my hand is in an ant pile!!!"

Char couldn't stay serious to save her life.

What's a professional photoshoot without a dead gosling?

Peter and dinner

Instagram unfortunately has kind of taken the place of my blog. It's just so easy to post straight from my phone without having to come up with, you know, a whole blog post. But I want to try to share everything here as well so at least those of you that faithfully read this can stay up-to-date. ;)

Here is a picture of Peter that I took last night. I was feeding him pears and had looked down to get another spoonful, and out of the corner of my eye I see his face break into the biggest grin I've seen in a while. He makes me laugh with his random and unabashed joy. :)

And another, because that face.

And this is the dinner I made last night, pre-cooking. ;) I have been making a lot of new recipes lately so I feel a cooking post coming soon, but I loved that all the color in my crockpot got captured on my phone. 

Peter // 6 & 7 Months

Poor little Peter. He has been on many major trips since his birth 7 months ago! He has been such a trooper with all the traveling. I am very thankful for a nice car seat, toys to distract, music to calm, and family to help. :P The top picture was taken on Peter's 6-month birthday, as we were on our way to South Dakota. Bottom picture is the only semi-decent one I got on his 7-month birthday on the 16th of this month. 

He is now able to sit up unassisted, with only occasional fall-overs. :) We've started some solid foods, and he LOVES it! So far we've done bananas and sweet potatoes, and they are major hits. Soon we will start something new! He is just beginning to figure out the whole crawling thing. Chris and I have caught him getting up on all fours for a few moments before collapsing again. :) I'll put him down on one end of the bed, and when I come back, he's scooted/rolled himself all the way to the far corner. The days of hanging out on the bed are swiftly passing. :( He weighs 19 lbs. 5 oz., and is 27 3/4" long. We still haven't seen a real tooth yet, but I thought the drool was bad a month ago......OOOOOH boy! Poor kid is drenched at the end of the day. He's in Size 4 diapers, and I was happy to find that Aldi diapers work just as well as any others, and are way better a price! Peter still loves his trips to the doctor, We figured out that my little guy was blessed with the same thorn in the flesh that I was - ingrown toenails. They sound like no big deal, but let me tell you, they are a constant annoyance and can get very, very painful. We can't do much about Peter's right now, but as he gets older we will be looking into some sort of operation so he doesn't have to live with that. 

Well, adios for now. Sure do miss blogging. I've actually had things to do lately which is good, but I get full of words and need to put them somewhere. :)