Mary's 7-Month Update

Mary turned 7-months old on Easter, and here is her monthly photo in her cute Spring-time cardigan :).

This photo is from a couple weeks prior, and her smile is hilarious to me.  She's such a little ham.

I took this photo this morning, but it was too cute not to post.  

 

Both boys love their little sister and are really great with her.  Jack shows a little bit more interest just because he's older, but Owen is really cute with her too.  Hearing Owen say her name is extra adorable.  Just today they both wanted to hold her.  Jack asked if he could hold Mary first, and they both were so relaxed with each other.  Owen said he wanted to "feed Mary" since Jack was using the boppy pillow, so he got to hold her too.  

They both like to join her on the floor, and Mary loves the company.  She's always very interested in what they're doing.  

We went to the park last week, and I tried to put Mary in the swing for the first time.  She just kind of slumped to the side and showed very little emotion.  So she's not really impressed with the park yet.

I've been super slow about starting solids this go around, but we have started letting her join in on dinner.  She loves sitting at the table with us and trying new foods.  She'll eat just about anything so far, and she's pretty straight-faced when she tries things.  She's never made a disgusted face, but she has gotten extra excited about a few things.  She's loved strawberries and egg yolks the most so far, but she's also liked mango, pear, apple, banana, and sweet potato.  She ate avocado but didn't show much emotion over it.  She liked chewing on a steamed green bean, but she wasn't really able to eat much of it.  I gave her a taste of cod the other night, and she seemed to like it.  I also gave her a chicken bone to gnaw on a few nights ago, and she was super excited about that:   

I gave her a piece of chicken, which she sucked on for a second, but she was more interested in the bone.

Here she is with avocado:

Baby led weaning is great, because I can just let her try things.  She also gets used to feeding herself from the get go.  It seems like she's been swallowing some of what she's been eating, but a lot of it gets chewed up and comes back out as she gets the hang of the whole eating thing.  I ordered these spoons called Num Num Spoons where she can dip it into things like yogurt, pudding, etc., and there are special grippers that help the food cling to it so she can start learning to use a spoon while feeding herself.  Those should be here tomorrow, so I'm excited to try it out with her.

On March 20th I noticed that her bottom front right tooth was breaking through the gums.  About a week or so later the other bottom front tooth started breaking through the gums.  So she has the top part of both bottom front teeth now.  Besides her always chewing on things, you wouldn't know that she's teething at all, so that's good she doesn't seem to be having any pain.

She continues to be a great sleeper.  She sleeps from about 8:15pm-7:30am (give or take 30 minutes on both ends).  She's generally up chatting still around 5:30 or 6am, but she will usually go back to sleep for a little while longer.    She was really grumpy and fought nursing on an every 3 hour schedule, so I spread them out to every 4 hours now and it has made it much easier.  She'll be hungry after 3 hours occasionally, but 4 hours is working well overall.

Mary is about as easy going of a baby as anyone could ask for.  The only thing that is somewhat challenging is that she just wants to be held constantly.  She doesn't like being on the floor for long with toys, and she doesn't like to be put in the bouncer or her bouncy seat for more than a few minutes either.  I usually try to do most of our dinner prep during her second nap, because she'll just cry wanting to be picked up the whole time I'm trying to make dinner if she's awake.  My lower back and neck have been hurting pretty badly this week, and my wrist was hurting on the arm I hold her on just from holding her so much.   

Easter and the Beginning of Spring Weather

We had a pretty casual Easter this year, but we wanted to make it a fun day for the boys.  A couple days before Easter we decorated bunnies and hung them on our back door.  This was a great craft for Owen, because it was easy to put all the stickers on to decorate the bunny.

Jack had an Easter egg hunt at preschool, and each kid in his class brought 6 filled eggs.  Jack was super excited to open up the 6 eggs he came home with that afternoon.

I was busy doing something in the other room, and he snuck his basket off the counter and hid in a different room.  I was calling out for him and he wasn't answering.  When he finally responded he was finishing up chewing something.  I asked him what he was eating, and he told me he was eating an apple.  Seeing as I had not given him an apple I had to question his story :).  I smelled his mouth, and the look on his face when he realized he was about to be found out was priceless.  He had eaten one of the chocolates from his basket while in hiding.  I had to turn around to hide my smile at how funny he was, and we discussed how it's not good to lie.  

On Easter morning the boys painted Easter eggs instead of dying them.  Owen was interested for about 1.5 eggs, but Jack really enjoyed it.

 

It was wet and a little rainy on Easter, so we did an Easter egg hunt in our house instead of outside as planned.  We filled a bunch of eggs with small toys, candy, stamps, and coins.  They had a great time running from room to room looking for the eggs.

The past month has given us some better weather overall for getting outside more often.  We've taken a few trips to the neighborhood parks.  

The boys built some houses out of sticks.  Jack said he was building a house for worms.  I asked what animal Owen was making a house for, and he said a cow.

When Jack is at school and Mary's napping Owen and I have fun in the backyard.  We kick around soccer balls and practice t-ball.  He looks like a natural in this photo:

 

Jack has started showing interest in making his lunch for school.  I set everything out for him last week, and he got it all organized in his lunchbox.  

The grass is turning green and the birds are always chirping, so we're looking forward to some great days outside trying to get out all of the energy that these two little boys have.