Swimming in the Lake

I never ventured in the lake over the 4th...it was a bit too chilly for me. 

 

But the kids enjoyed the water with dad.

My Serious Face

We can never get them all to smile at the same time, but when it comes to the serious face, they can do it no problem. 

4 and 5 Months

So I think I missed documenting a 4 month post for Ellis.  Oops.  Poor third child.  This doubles as my baby book, so bear with me as I jot down all the details.

 

Here is Smiley, Happy Ellis at 4 months.

He was drooling like a champ, had 2 teeth visible under the skin and was reaching such a content stage!

 

 

At 4 months Ellis ate about 6 ounces every 3 hours and was sleeping from about 8:30 pm until 6ish in the morning.  We were still going in his room a lot at night to put his nuk in his mouth and he had successfully transitioned from his swaddle.  His sleep digressed a bit during that week or two, but all was back to good by the 4 month mark. 

 

His gas drops and reflux meds still keep him very comfortable. He can roll over, but really seems to prefer to wiggle his way all over the place on his back without even needing to roll.  At 4 months, he weighed in just under 14 lbs which is still on the small end of the spectrum so he got to start solids a little earlier than planned.

At 4.5 months, Ellis took his first stab at rice cereal

(Insert predictable and overdone adorable first solids photo here)

 

I feel like it is taking him forever to get the hang of eating.  Maybe it was that way with my other kids, but we are now almost a month into solids and are just finally starting to make progress.  Finally he opens his mouth and actually swallows the food.  Whew...I thought we might never get there.  Now he actually waves and pants for the food.  It just happened overnight.  At a little over 5 months now, he gets VERY excited when it is time to eat his delicious meal of rice cereal.  He still loves his bottle and drinks 7 or 8 ounces every three hours.

 

When I feed Ellis, Bennett and Tatum feed their doll, Sally.  Poor Sally falls out of the highchair a lot during mealtime.  All in all, Sally's meal time really looks rough.  But I digress....

 

We had a couple of weddings in May/June so here is Ellis dressed in his Sunday best and sporting his little poof of hair.  One of these days the rest of his hair will fill in, but for now we love his little poof.

 

2 teeth still visible under the skin...still have not popped through.

 

And with that we are to the 5 month mark.  Ellis is weighing a bit over 14 lbs and is babbling up a storm.  We get a lot of the back of the throat GGGhh sound and we get lots of smiles. 

 

He sleeps through the night but we still make lots of trips in there on NUK patrol.  I really hope we get beyond this soon as everytime I start to feel like I might be sleeping a little deeper, up I go.  I swear I haven't hit the REM cycle in 4 years.  But sleep is sleep and I can't complain because it's a blessing that he is a sleeper.

 

Ellis often has his toes in the curled up position.  It's his thing. 

And his sweet birthmother told us in the hospital that one of the things her and her daughter both do is curl their toes.  So its very sweet for us to see Ellis has this small and precious little piece of her.  A gentle reminder of what an important piece of his story she will always be.

 

 

He still has his big brown eyes and is rolling all over.  When on his tummy he has even scooted a bit.

 

  Benny makes him laugh at the dinner table by waving and making funny faces and I can already see what having middle school boys at the dinner table will one day bring.  These two partnering up will make for one crazy meal!

 

 

 

Ellis you melt me every morning when I walk into your room. 

You couldn't be any sweeter if you tried and I would literally eat you up if that were possible and/or not weird.  You are a blessing from the Lord, God is so good.

Play Ball

Bennett was so excited to start T-Ball last night. 

He proudly sported his team Loggers tshirt and hat and wanted to wear it again today. He was very shy when the team did their introductions, he looked to me and Pat to speak for him.  But when it came time to dive into the activities at practice, he had no hesitation.  The coach asked him to help put the bases out and he was so proud to be her helper. 

He had a blast and a certain little sister followed him around throughout the practice.  She cried when we had to leave and told me many times last night that she wants to play t-ball too.  I told her daddy and I could take her over to the field and have our own little practice, given she misses the age cutoff to actually be a part of the team, and she cried no!  She knows the difference between the real deal and some fake, made up practice with mom and dad.

Oh Tatum, you are already wanting to be older than you are.  Don''t grow up too fast!

Testing the waters

Ellis took his first swim on Saturday in the hotel pool.

He didn't smile and he didn't cry. Just kind of looked a little apprehensive.

The men of the garage sale

A few friends and I had a garage sale on Friday. 

The sun was out, the weather was beautiful and we got rid of a lot of stuff. 

I am always shocked to see the random mix of folks that come out for garage sales.  We had our share of retired old guys stopping by and commenting on all the baby stuff......I don't think our sale was quite what they were looking for.

We saw a lot of people in fanny packs....these were the die hard garage salers.

And then there were those people that just bought one very random thing.  Like the woman that bought one of my old EY backpacks.  Or the woman that bought a placemat.  HMMM really...of all the things at the sale, that is not the item I would have picked:)

We had a couple token people ask us to hold stuff for them, and of course they never came back.  So that stuff found its way to goodwill with the rest of the leftovers.

And we saw lots of drive bys.  Usually they were men in trucks that were probably looking for sales with tools or furniture and again our onesies and jumparoos were not even worth their stopping the car.

But we got lots of chit chat in and had a good time hanging out for the day.

And a couple handsome gentlemen spent the day with us too.

Are we there yet?

Took a trip to Chip this weekend. 

In the 90 minute car ride, I bet Tatum asked 50 times if we were there yet. 

Do the math, carry the one. That is more than once every other minute.

And every time she asked, she asked like it was the first time she had ever asked the question. "Mom, mom, mom are we there yet?"

I totally pulled out the "if we were there we would be stopped" line.  She didn't get it but it made me feel better.

Oh Taters.