josh + kati + marion

A few weeks ago Marion and I met up with our friends Robin and Anastasia for some more bluebonnet pictures

And I realized I never posted them!

The girls always have a fun time together

Minus a few flower eating incidents!

Hey, am I looking into a mirror?

Anastasia is a whole four days older than Marion and Robin and I often forget what they must look like to others when we’re out together!

We get very confused looks and a long drawn out question of “twins?”

We think it’s funny to watch people do double takes as they walk by

I think the bluebonnets were even pretty this time around

She’s such a sweet little girl

I guess

And I took the puppies too!

We tried to take Easter pictures

Which was a pretty big failure

But they had fun

Maybe

My sweet baby

I took some videos of Mar recently because sometimes, pictures just don’t do her justice

The first one is for my friend Lauren

Lauren, it’s because eventually all babies figure out how to undo velcro!

This is her new trick – the forward lunge. Maybe she’ll be a gymnast!

And this may be our favorite video yet – she absolutely love the puppies

Even if all they do is just hit her in the face with their tails! Nothing makes her laugh like these guys do. (And excuse the dorky voice.)

Seven months old already!

It seems just impossible, doesn’t it?

Each month, it gets harder and harder to keep her still long enough to take a picture!

Look at those chunky monkey thighs!

Josh and I joke that she’s putting on her winter weight before she starts crawling.

And of course, everything still goes straight in the mouth.

Please stop growing up now, m’kay?

New trick this month, the forward lunge!

I also found out an almost crawling baby and a dog are next to impossible to photograph together

Not us!

Letters to my daughter, month seven

This week’s new food was yellow squash. A lot of people start out with the winter squashes, but yellow squash are just coming into season here, so we went with that instead.

The jury is still out on likeability. Which is mostly my fault.

Yellow squash would make a most excellent very first baby food. It has a really high water content, and as such, pureed down to nothing. Marion definitely prefers texture to her food, so by itself, she really doesn’t like the squash. Now, she does like it mixed with her peas and with yogurt, so she is eating it.

I peeled this squash, boiled it until fork tender, then put it in the food processor. When I make the next batch, I’m going to leave the skin on and see if that doesn’t help to chunk it up some. I didn’t do anything with the seeds either, just left them in and the mighty mighty Kitchen Aid took care of them.

In big girl news, none of Marion’s foods (except her oatmeal) contain any additional water or formula! And her avocado and sweet potatoes are all fork mashed. I’d just fork mash her peas, but the skins are still to much for her to chew, so they still go in the food processor. She’s also showing so, so much interest in finger foods, so we’re playing around with those as well.

New food for next week, carrots!

I thought I’d share some of the pictures we took that didn’t quite make the cut for the official Easter picture

Could they all three look more bored?

Gracie is always more fascinating than the camera

She couldn’t make up her mind who to look at

So she looks at the grass

Gracie is clearly not a team player

Show me how you really feel Nanuq

She’s a very suspicious rabbit

Her silly rabbit face

Pouty rabbit

We also tried for pictures in the bluebonnets…

Fail.

They all three have their tongues hanging out

I’m not sure what Gracie sees, but it’s not pleasant!

No explanation needed as to why this wasn’t chosen

If Nanuq could only accessorize correctly….

Maybe if Gracie were actually in this picture

Oh wait, there she is.

Well, you can’t say we didn’t try!

We had an absolutely wonderful Easter (long) weekend – it’s so good to get to spend time with family! It was a great time to show Marion off as she’s sprouting two new bottom teeth and starting to crawl! She hooks her toes into the carpet, locks her legs, shoots her bottom up into the air, and scoots on her face. Not very efficient, but she can move! She also began pulling herself up, although so far, her favorite way to do it is to grab the neck of a shirt I’m wearing. She was also big enough (even though she’s the smallest) to enjoy being around her cousins and generally adored by all the other members of the family.

Digging into her Easter basket

Trying to decide which toy to play with first

And she settles on eating the book

Go figure.

Our first family picture on Easter

We must have taken 50 pictures like this and only this one turned out half way decent. It’s what happens when your baby is a widget.

Isabella – she wasn’t quite sure enough of Uncle Josh to give him a big smile

Andrew and Isabella

Marion gets to sit with the big kids

Isabella “loves” on Marion

Marion is not such a fan

Not at all

But Belle made it up to her by showing her how to play with the toys

Andrew is just a blur in the background

And this is how you play with Sophie….

See?

Once Lauren woke up, we tried to get a picture of all three girls in their matching dresses

This was as good as we got. I think Lauren feels left out as she’s the only one without something in her mouth.

The cousins (I never knew how hard it was to get a picture of four kids under four to turn out halfway decent!)

Andrew goes in for the kiss

And the resulting mayhem!

It’s okay, Marion gets comfort from Papaw

My brother Al and his baby girl

Darren, Isabella and my sister Amanda. Not pictured, the new baby due in October!

Oh, the boundless energy of a three year old boy!

Mamaw, Marion and I

Four generations

I finished Marion’s sweater in time for her to actually wear it!

I’m pretty proud of that accomplishment. I’m not so good at getting things done on time.

Easter really wears a girl out!

Just kidding!

(Kinda. They just aren’t food for Marion.)

Happy Easter!

She was fascinated by the planes! (And the windows the on the floor. She’d like some of those in our house I think.)

She practiced her new trick of standing by herself – what a big girl!

I think she may have gotten a little bit nervous

But that’s why we brought along Mr Brown Dog

She checked out the people sitting behind us (and flirted a little bit.)

Mr Brown Dog is safely stowed for takeoff and landing

And then she just passed out

It makes me happy to say she stayed that way until we began our descent! She didn’t fuss once and never gave any indication that her ears ever bothered her or felt funny, so all in all, our first flight was an absolute success!

It’s opening day – for baseball fans everywhere, this is the official start of spring!

This is our year

I just know it!

(Somehow I remember saying that last year too…)