I could eat you up...

I don't have anything new to report or say, but here's some pictures of my kiddos because they're cute.

Caroline loves this new game with Miles. She holds him up in front of her and he automatically leans forward and tries to eat her face! It's so funny!

He's ferocious!

Taken Over

When I was pregnant with Miles I did my fair share of worrying. I worried a lot about how a new baby would change the comfortable groove our family of three was in. I know it sounds silly, but I worried he would hold us back from going out and doing things and that we might resent him for changing the ease at which we had become accustom to. I groaned at the thought of having my usually clean, non-baby-proofed house taken over by baby stuff and all the mess that comes with them. I know, I sound like a horrible snob, but remember all the silly stuff you used to think about when you were pregnant?

Yes, it is harder to go places. Do we resent him for it? Of course not! (Although, I am looking forward to finally going out with my husband baby-less for the first time in 5 months)

And I looked around the other day and realized, yes, my house has been completely taken over - just as I feared. But know what? I love it. It doesn't bother me at all like I thought it would. In the lower level of our house we have...

An Exersaucer

A Playmat,

A Swing,

A Jumper,

A Bumbo Seat,

A Booster/High Chair, Carseat, Changing Table, all of those random burp clothes, blankets, toys, a boppy and everything else you can think of. Total takeover. And still, I don't mind. I get sad at the thought that he will soon grow out of some of these things and I'll have to pack them up! They stand as a constant reminder that we were blessed with a baby.

Speaking of the baby...

He's loving solid foods right now,

But he spends half of feeding time in this position:

Put a spoonful in the mouth, he swallows most of it and immediately puts his thumb in before you can spoon some more food in! This of course makes a giant mess because his thumb is then covered in pureed carrots and he rubs his hands all over his face and hair. *sigh* Still, he's the cutest mess ever.

End of Summer

Caroline spent her last day of summer vacation just how one should: in a swimsuit and face covered in chocolate!

And here's our Kindergartener on her first day of school!!!

I feel like having a kid in school changes so much around here. There's lunches, school supplies, homework, policies and paperwork, being up and ready and out the door early each day, pick-up and drop-off... phew! It's a whole new world for us. In fact, getting her off on her first day was such a hassle and so hectic that I didn't have time to be sentimental or emotional!

Caroline is definately ready for this next step and I think she's going to be a great student. Her teacher has been teaching kindergarten for 30 years so she's got pleanty of experience and I like that her class size is small - only 17 kids! So I'm excited for Caroline and I can't wait to see what this new school year brings.

Lizard-sitting

Meet Russell:

Russell is our friend's bearded dragon. Caroline has loved him since she first met him last year. Every time we visit our friend's home, she asks to hold Russell. So she was very excited when they asked us to lizard-sit for a few days while they went out of town.

Twice a day we went over to feed and hold Russell. He is such a good pet! If I could do it all over, I might have skipped the whole dog/cat thing and just gotten a bearded dragon! He's perfectly content with her holding him in her hands or on her chest and he just stays and rests there. She loves it!

MILEStones

Miles has changed so much lately! He's sleeping much better and is much happier (think maybe those two things are related?!) He loves his exersaucer and playing peek-a-boo. He is so ticklish and talkative and it's been so fun lately to make him smile and laugh.

We tried giving him rice cereal a couple of weeks ago, but he just didn't know what to do with it. So we dropped it and tried again recently and he took to it immediately! It's amazing what a difference a few weeks can make developmentally.

So I'm excited to break out his high chair and the food processor and start making some baby food!

I love this one! Caroline was so happy to feed her little brother and she did a great job.

Animal Day at the Library

Every year for our library's summer program, a wildlife biologist comes and shows us the new and unusual animals he's acquired over the year. It's our favorite activity and we look forward to it every summer!

He had two little hedgehogs that were sooo cute!
This is a "silky chicken" - it looked like it had fur! He said they were really great pets, and while zoning doesn't allow you to raise chickens in the city in the farming sense, you can have silky chickens and call them pets - they just happen to be pets that lay eggs!

I love this picture! You can see how incredibly uncomfortable Caroline is with the "legless lizard" so close to her. The animal handler walks around with the animals so that you can see them closely, which is fun (most of the time!)

His last animal was a baby Kangaroo!!! It was SO cool! This kangaroo actually lives in his house!

I'm so glad that we live somewhere that has fun things to do for kids in the summer. We've done library activities, gone to museums, the sprinkler park, and the movies. After living in small towns for so long before we moved here, I really appreciate the variety.