Elizabeth Park

It was a beautiful weekend and we decided to head back to Elizabeth Park to see the rose garden.  The weather was lovely, perfect to stroll around admiring the beautiful flowers. We had gone a few weeks ago but it was too late in the day so hot and too sunny.  Ethan also ran us ragged chasing him around the flower beds.  This time we went as soon as we were done with breakfast and brought a secret weapon-my cell phone.  While Ryan and I tried to get pictures of Lillie, Ethan sat quietly with my phone.  He knows how to navigate it to look at the videos and pictures of himself.  He loves to watch the ones of him just learning to walk. 

It was impossible to get Ethan to sit longer than a minute for pictures.

We tried to have him sing songs in hopes of getting him to stay in the same spot longer.  It kind of worked and I'm sure everyone around us got a kick out of us singing the ABC song (the Super Why version) over and over again!

The only picture with Ryan, he was the photographer for a change and so behind the camera most of the time.

Ethan only wanted to look for bees.

Here is he telling us he touched a bee!

Ryan finally figured it would be better to get a shot from behind the roses so he could actually get his face, but by then Ethan was done looking at flowers and wanted to head home to play with his new digger.

Lillie in a teacup

I love to look at photography blogs and look for cute photo ideas.  When I saw this teacup at Walmart, I knew I had to try it out.  I think they came out cute!

The garden

We love having a garden. Here are some of what we have harvested so far.

We just started getting basil.  We made an awesome margherita pizza with it.  I can't wait to make pesto!

We have had so much lettuce, I feel like all we are eating is salad! It so easy to grill some chicken and pick some lettuce that we turn to it often.

The peas are just starting to be ready.  They are seriously so good, if I didn't make Ryan bring them in the house, he'd probably eat them all right in the garden.

Today Ryan picked a ton of swiss chard.  He made swiss chard patties with it.  I chose to have a cheeseburger instead. Thats one thing I won't be trying!

This mama turkey and her babies have made a home in our next door neighbors tree.  They come around our house several times a day. Yesterday I was reading the paper on the deck steps while Ethan played with his digger when I looked up to see them about 5 feet away from me! Ethan and I followed them all the way to our neighbors house two doors down.  She told us there used to be 6 (one is missing in this picture) but a fox got one.  We see the fox often too.  Between the turkeys and the chickens next door, the fox is usually camped out nearby.  Today Ethan ran over to our neighbors yard to watch the turkeys.  Apparently he got to close and the mama turkey charged after him! Hopefully that will teach him to stay back!

Lillie is 7 months

and has been for 2 weeks now.  I've just been slow on going through all the 7 month pictures I took to choose the best ones.  She went in for a weight check this week since the pediatrician is concerned with her being so tiny. She now weighs 15 lbs 2 oz so she gained a pound in 6 weeks. She is happy so we are not worried.  She is still nursing every couple of hours during the day and likes to play with any food we give her rather than actually eat it.

She is all over the place when it comes to sleeping at night. She has slept from 7pm-5am a few times but usually she wakes up at least twice.  And unfortunately there are nights where she wakes up every two hours.  Ryan has one more week of school and then there will be some sleep training going on here! She has done better with naps. However, Ethan is determined to destroy his room during his afternoon nap and will sometimes wake her up. He likes to throw things over the double gates and hit our bedroom door. Today he took his mattress off his bed and was banging the toddler bed on the floor.  Pretty soon he will have nothing more than the mattress in there. Lillie is definitely not as flexible when it comes to sleeping as Ethan and is not happy when she is woken up too early.

Lillie loves to laugh, just about anything will get her started. I think one of the best sounds in the world is a baby's laugh. One guaranteed way to make her laugh is to hold her so she is standing.  She does a little butt wiggle and then laughs. She has started to make the sounds, dada, mama, and baba.  Ryan is convinced she said dada first, but since she is not actually directing it at him, I say it doesn't count!  She is a mama's girl, sometimes she doesn't even want Ryan to hold her.  I am enjoying it, since Ethan wanted Ryan more than me.  She loves to chew on electronics, my cell phone is her favorite. The shrieks that come out of Lillie when I take it away are amazingly loud. She already knows what she wants and is determined to get it!

For the last couple of weeks she has been getting on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth.  Crawling can't be too much longer. Just last night as I was looking at her pictures on the laptop, I had her on the floor next to me and when I looked up she was sitting on the other side of the room! She scooted on her bum over to a pile of books to chew.  She hasn't mastered pulling herself up to a sitting position yet but she tries hard.  When I have her sitting on the floor, I always place the boppy pillow behind her because Ethan has a tendency to knock her over.  Or she gets so excited, like when Ryan comes home, that she falls over.  Ethan has taken it upon himself to put a throw pillow behind her when she is on the floor now.  Its cute to see him help his sister, except for the fact that with in minutes of placing the pillow there, he takes another one and and uses it as a battering ram to get her to fall into the pillow behind her. Most of the time she thinks its funny, which doesn't help stop Ethan from doing it again!

Our own beach

When its nice outside Ethan, Lillie and I head down to the little beach on the lake about 5 minutes away.  I love going there, Lillie is happy being outside, Ethan is mostly contained to one area and there is usually no one else there. Yesterday was perfect weather, sunny, 70's and a slight breeze.  So after Lillie's nap we headed out. 

I think its much easier to carry Lillie on my back then try to get a double stroller.  There is a steep hill that we go up on the way home, its hard enough to push Ethan in that stroller, I don't want anything heavier! Ethan was anxious to go and refused to look at the camera.

Ethan plays in the sand.  He really wants to go in the water, but I'm not going in that lake water!He gets as close as he can to the water and usually ends up putting his feet in.  He does not like when I spray him down the the cold garden hose when we get back home! A couple of weeks ago we were down there when it was really hot.  A guy came, took of his shirt, jumped in, went under water, walked back out, put his shirt on and left all in less than 5 minutes.  Ethan watched and as soon as the guy left, he jumped in as well (he probably would have taken off his shirt if he knew how to!) When he came up from underwater he was sputtering and trying tiowipe the water off his face, you could tell he didn't like it. He ran back out (I'm glad I didn't have to jump in after him) and since then as not tried to go back in.  I'm hoping that keeps him from trying again for a long time.  I'd much rather take him swimming in the neighbors pool.

Lillie and I hang out on a blanket and enjoy the nice weather.

She loves to watch her brother!

There is even this small swing set to play on

Ethan loves to throw rocks in the water, there is a rule posted that says no throwing rocks so we are trying to get him to throw sticks instead.

After Ethan threw sand at Lillie twice, I strapped him in the stroller for a time out. I came back to see that she had scooted to the edge of the blanket and was playing it in. She even ate a fistful! Gross! I'll have to find a bigger blanket for next time.

Today was a rainy day but hopefully it will be nice enough to go back tomorrow!

Ethan time

Here are some more pictures of Ethan when we go outside.  Lillie has been doing great with her morning naps so we've been enjoying the weather before it gets too hot out. 

He loves his digger and digging in the mulch pile.

Its hard work moving the digger and so a break was needed!

We have a toad living in the garden that Ethan likes to look for everyday.

He loves to smell the flowers...right before plowing into them. 

We had the tree cut down in the fall and Ryan has yet to cut it up so it makes a perfect balance beam.

Got to check out the ants along the driveway.

The water table will continue to get a lot of use as the temperatures climb.

When Lillie wakes up, I spray Ethan with the garden hose (he doesn't always like that!) get his clothes for the day and then he does puzzles while Lillie nurses. Depending on how long she sleeps, we sometimes head to the little beach to play in the sand.  I like our little routine we have going.  But it will be even more fun when Ryan finishes school in two weeks!