Isaac 6 months

Hard to believe it's been 6 months since little man entered our lives! On November 20th, he was 13 pounds 9 ounces (< 3% for weight), 25.3 inches long (12%) and 42.4 cm head circumference (19%). I tried to find Mara's comparable stats at that age but couldn't locate her sheet easily. Sorry! So in 6 months, Isaac has gained 7 pounds 7 ounces in weight, 5.3 inches in height, and 9.5 cm in head circumference.

 It's a contest for who has more hair...

He says lots of vowels and has gotten out plenty of "dadadadada's." We're still working on the mamama sound...

He seems so frustrated that he can't go anywhere by himself, yet. He is wiggling and wiggling on his belly, so I doubt crawling will be TOO far off. He loves watching his older sister do anything and everything. Just watching her breathe reduces him to bashful smiles and giggles. When she hugs him, he sometimes squeals in delight.

 

 

 He gets way higher than this picture, but he was about to start crying. I was lucky to get these few 6 month shots before we left for the doctor, where he got 3 shots, poor man.

 

  We had a great Thanksgiving with the Dardens and here's a family shot:

Mara enjoyed Cherry's huge bathtub!

I have pictures from Mara attending Blake's 3rd birthday party in Colfax (near Greensboro), playing with Olen Ray, my friend Heidi's little man, and pics of Elam, Ocie Belle and Isaac together. But it's almost 10 pm on a weeknight and I've gotta get my beauty rest.

My favorite Mara quote from today, while I hugged and squeezed her - "We got in love."

I also asked her on the phone at lunchtime if she told everyone she had adventures (aka treks through the woods with Grahampa) over Thanksgiving. She goes "Hold on a second, okay? Heyyyyyy, I had ADVENTURES!" she screamed to the classroom.

Musings

Today, 2 or 3 people at daycare commented on how Mara had dressed herself and did such a good job... because she was wearing polka dot pants, a striped shirt, and sandals. How much longer do you think I can get away with the fact that IIIII dressed her and was simply out of clean matching clothes? Granted, she chose the sandals... but the rest of it was me. Am I a bad mother?

We enjoyed a visit from the Long family last weekend. Eight kids is a lot to fathom! But they were wonderful and made me wish that we had more family, any relation of family, closer to us so that my kids could play with cousins, second cousins, third cousins, etc.

Little Isaac cut a tooth today! He has been off for about a week now, waking about 3x a night to eat but not eating very well and we're all exhausted from our midnight rendezvous. I was stoked to finally discover a bottom tooth cutting this morning as it's justification for my baggy eyes and caffeine IV drip all week. This was our trip to the park on Sunday - Mara is off playing with Daddy somewhere and Mr. I-won't-sleep-at-night-but-will-pass-out-in-this-awkward-position was content to be jostled around the playground. SIGH!

He also learned to stick out his tongue the other day. It cracked me up! He would sort of do this blowing raspberries, but now it was a very deliberate tongue face. The reason I do not have any pictures of Mara here is because I'll ask to take her picture and she thinks about it and says no. She wouldn't come behind his head here for me to get them both in, but you can see her ARM.

 This was me, trying to keep teething baby happy on the bathroom mat (which he loves b/c it's so fuzzy) and he totally stole and ate the back page of my L.L.Bean catalogue.

So, since I'm on my lunch break here at work, I'll make this quick.

Recent Mara musings:

• When discussing the recent TINY amount of snowflakes that fell the other evening (you had to be in front of the floodlight outside at night to really see them) - "It was snowflaking!"
• Humming this morning on the way to daycare and moving her jaw side to side (I had to look in the mirror as she instructed so I could see) - she randomly states "My teeth are getting exercise!"
• When playing on the school playground with her new best buddy Wyatt and a girl friend asked to hold her hand - "I can't hold your hand because I'm holding hands with Wyatt" - which she and Wyatt did a LOT that day.
• I accidentally left Pooh Bear at daycare yesterday and told her that he was going to play with all the toys all night. She started to cry (no tears) but said "I'm crying because I really miss Pooh Bear. I'll have to choose another lovey." So we went upstairs to choose a pink elephant lovey and she states "We should call her Ella."
• She saw me preparing a bagel thin and asked "Why is there a hole in the middle?" - I had to google it!
• She now comes out of her bedroom all by herself in the mornings, and after we put her to bed. I hear someone struggling with the door, so I go to the base of the stairs to watch and she comes out and says "I'm gonna try to poop" and sure enough, she goes. She used to just call for us from her bed. She's growing up!
• She is also starting to get good at counting... and her learning method? Counting her poops. Yup. "Mommy, I made THREE poops, so I get THREE yogurt drops!" Hahaha.
• She also totally gets when I'm making jokes. I asked her what she did on the playground the other day and she said "I played." I said oh how I wish I could play at work. Do you want to go to work and I'll go to school? She BURST out laughing "HAHAHAHAHA" This kid makes me smile.