Five Months

My favorite dinosaur foot jammies!

All you boys have worn these.

Testing out the Bumbo (with some assistance from Elise)

Passed out in Emma's arms.

She loves you almost as much as we do. 

Giant blue eyes!

We pulled out the Jumparoo for you.

Elise was a big fan.

You were a bit overwhelmed by all the stuff at first,

but quickly became a fan of all the lights and toys.

Looking deliciously chubby during our hike.

Love that you're old enough for stroller rides!

Aunt Lori sent you this crazy soft elephant.

You love to chew on its face.

First time trying food!

Very, very unsure...

Maybe...just one more bite?

I guess this stuff's okay!

Moving on to the good stuff: Veggie Straws!

Still can't decide if this is the month where teeth made you cranky and whiny, or if you're just letting your true personality shine through...we shall see!

To be fair, you have busted out two teeth (on the same day, no less) and started eating solid food this month. Those two things alone may account for all the crankiness (and the barfing. So. Much. Barfing).  Here's to hoping you'll be back to happy Elijah by six months!

Here's what you're up to at five months:

-finally trying out solid food! You just weren't interested for a long time. You definitely prefer savory foods like turkey and sweet potatoes over sweet things like fruits. That's my boy.

-back to waking up 2-3 times a night to nurse. Gah.

-consistently going to bed around 8 pm.

-naps are still not consistent, but neither is your life. You're lucky if we're actually home at naptime for you to sleep in your crib. Poor kid.

-we pulled up the Bumbo, Jumperoo and high chair. 

-you generally refuse to roll over during tummy time, but I know you can do it because I'll walk away and find you rolled over (either direction). Apparently you lack proper motivation during tummy time.

-we're at the scratching, hair-pulling, chew-on-everything phase of baby.

-trying really hard to sit up, but still totally failing.

-with all the running around we do, I finally invested in a decent baby carrier. Worth every penny! You don't love it, but it lets me use my hands when you want to be carried around. You also take fairly decent naps in it. Thank heaven it has great lumbar support since you're around 19 pounds...

-you still love people. You squeal and dance or blow raspberries to get our attention. Between me, Dad, Seth & Catherine you manage to get picked up almost every time you demand it.

Crazy to think we're almost to six months!

Bubbles for Lance

Blowing bubbles in memory of their cousin, Lance, who was born sleeping at 24 weeks. Can't wait until we get the chance to hold you in our arms, little guy. 

Creative Catherine

Catherine spends her days bouncing from project to project, making little (or not so little) messes of paper, tape, or cloth wherever she goes. My favorite times are when she involves her siblings. Elise and Aaron LOVE when Catherine makes up a game for them to play. This is no mere box: it's a SPY bus, which would oh-so-quietly move around the house with definitely-not-giggling girls inside it. 

Elise loves to match with Catherine and Catherine usually obliges.

This particular Sunday they even asked for matching pigtails:

She still loves bugs. After an initial bad experience that left her quite hesitant, Catherine is now an avid collector of cicada shells. This was in my kitchen for quite a while this summer. Even more fun were the actual dead cicadas she'd squirrel away in the backseat of the van or other unexpected places. There's nothing quite like feeling something odd while reaching into the back of the bookshelf, only to pull out a very dead cicada...

Catherine is also one of my best Elijah helpers. I'm still surprised that scrawny Catherine can carry around such a chubby guy, but she does! And he ADORES her:

I was ready to sell him this night, but Catherine saved the day!

For years, Catherine has been my kitchen buddy. Sometimes it was hard for me since it made everything take longer and generally left a bigger mess, but the payout finally came! I was teaching piano lessons one day and came into the kitchen to find these beautiful cookies, made 100% by Catherine!

As long as we keep her stocked with baking and craft supplies, we generally have a happy, helpful Catherine!

School Starts

We had one last, glorious hurrah with the cousins before school started. It was seriously the perfect end to summer: swimming, night games, and staying up too late chatting. My favorite part was how much Elise loved playing with Katie. She still talks about her months later. 

And then it was time for school. We're homeschooling again this year, but with some changes. Our old co-op fell apart sometime mid summer. It was really sad to see that community disintegrate, but really freeing to be able to make my own choices. I tried to really scale back and let the kids have more time for reading and playing. But they still have to do math, and apparently you can still throw fits about math even in middle school... 

Aaron is officially in kindergarten this year (although after he turned six he started telling everyone he was in first grade). Just to make the transition to 'real' school extra fun, he lost his first tooth on the first day of school! 

All grown up now!

As part of my 'make school hands-on and fun' philosophy, we attempted to make an aqueduct in our backyard. Of course it was blasting hot that day and our first couple of attempts failed, but we improvised and got it working in the end! 

(Less of an aqueduct, more of a tin foil river...)

Because our co-op fell apart and because I was worried about my kids having enough social interaction, we found a new co-op and joined last minute. It's 30 minutes away, which is rough. But it's much (MUCH) more relaxed than our last co-op. I love the women there and my kids have made some great friends already. 

K, 3rd, whiny baby, 3s, and 6th

Here's to another great school year!

August Activities

The boys were randomly matching this day, so we decided to take a picture.

Elise was NOT matching, but she still needed a picture.

The kids have been playing some really dumb game on Roblox that involves them 'exercising' and moving up in levels of strength. Aaron is super obsessed and will now do things like lift weights and do pushups so he can become a 'legendary' or 'behemoth.'  He took this picture himself and I can't even...

Catherine is still our resident artist. I found her a book on how to draw mermaids and she covered an entire wall with mermaid drawings. I am absolutely in love with her adorable style:

(Catherine & Elise)

I feel like our summer just zoomed by. I'll miss these relaxed days and the time with friends and family. 

Four Months

So charming!

And...possibly rolling over.

Sometimes.

I was greatly looking forward to the four month mark and it did not disappoint! Newborns are tiny and sweet, but I love when my babies get just a little older and more fun.

Here's what you're up to at four months old:

-Grabbing at stuff. You're still not super coordinated and it can take several attempts before you finally grasp the desired object, but you're getting better every day! Your favorite thing to grab is (naturally) hair.

-You were 25.75 inches and 18 lbs. 1 oz. at your appointment. Chub, chub. But your pediatrician was most worried about your giant head, which is off the chart and shows no signs of slowing. So we shall see about that one...

I am IN. LOVE. with your legs.

-Clothing ranges from 6-9 months to size 12 months. Not bad for a 4 month old!

-Biggest change this month: sleep training! I knew I needed you to be sleeping better before school started. You were also starting to get too wiggly to sleep in your swing (you'd squirm enough that I was worried about you falling out). Plus you had rolled over just enough times to make me worried about keeping you in a swaddle. I was dreading the process of weaning you off the swing, followed by the swaddle. I decided to just go cold turkey and do it all at once. It felt a little cruel at first, but once we realized you just needed a (breathable, too-tiny-to-choke you) blanket to chew on/snuggle with/rub on your face, it's been pretty easy to get you to sleep. Still up 1-2 times a night to nurse.

I made you these mini-blankets since you won't sleep without cloth on your face.

Maybe now you won't suffocate...hopefully...

-First nap is usually pretty good. Rest of the naps are 45-60 minutes. Which is fine, since our schedule rarely has us home all day for naps.

-We've tried giving you food a few times and you really don't seem to care yet.

-Teething. Gah.

Not a fan of your teething mitt.

It's scary. 

-At the pediatrician's recommendation we pulled out the Bumbo and the Jumperoo. Time to work on that core strength! Tummy time is still the worst and you rarely manage to roll over (but you have rolled both ways on several occasions).

-You spit up ALL THE TIME. I'm so done with it.

-You have two girls at church fighting over who gets to hold you. It's actually gotten a little out of control...

-As long as you are being carried around, you are perfectly content all the time. You love being talked to and are quickly bored when your siblings aren't around.

-Raspberries. Now you're always soaking wet from spit-up AND drool.

-You've discovered your own voice and LOVE to sing and talk to us.

Talking to Mommy

-At the distracted nurser stage. Meaning the pattern on my shirt was just TOO COOL and you could not handle it.

-Such a happy, sweet little guy. We went to the pool a week or so ago and Daddy was carrying you in the big pool. Aaron was trailing behind you, wearing (as always) his giant goggles. Not sure what it was about the goggles, but you starting laughing hysterically every time you saw Aaron. So adorable.

Love you, little bit!

While Mom (& Elijah) Are Away

While Elijah & I were running around Utah, Jon was taking crazy red-eye flights to Washington so he could be there for James and Samantha's wedding:

It was the first time the entire Blood clan had been together in many years:

All the original Bloods

Blood siblings, featuring Stephen's mountain man beard:

Definitely need to consider modelling careers:

I think he was there for maybe 24 hours total, then it was back home to play Daddy:

Good daddies take their kids bowling.

Excellent daddies let their youngest daughters wear dress-up clothes while bowling.

And then...ice cream!

I'm surprised they wanted me to come home at all! 

To Utah We Go

Probably around a year ago it was decided that there would be a Mikesell family (just our little clan) reunion in Utah in summer of 2019. Dates were chosen, flights were purchased, plans were solidifying...and then life got complicated. As in "Jon's brother is getting married in Washington state the exact same weekend" complicated. After some initial wavering, it was decided that Elijah & I would go to Utah, Jon would go to the wedding, and the rest of the kids would stay home and get babysat by some awesome teenagers in our ward. 

And so I loaded myself and a chubby baby onto an airplane and prayed for good naps and understanding seatmates. 

Airport baby

Thankfully everything went smoothly and we made it safely and happily to Salt Lake. Thanks to some unfortunate timing, I managed to miss seeing Dad entirely. But it was so fun to get to see Mom & my sisters! I was especially excited for Elijah to meet Audrey. I'd say the first meeting went very well:

"First, I crush you."

"Then I kiss your face."

"I love it!"

Aunt Marah got to (temporarily) trade one chubby baby for another.

Turns out her "putting babies to sleep" skills ARE transferable!

We headed to Logan to celebrate Austin's birthday.

Obviously our photogenic-ness comes from our grandparents:

(That's Jon on the phone with me, so it's almost a family photo...)

Stunning family photo outside our awesome rental home:

Letting Elijah & Audrey battle it out for the title of "cutest baby":

A trip to Hill AFB to see all the planes.

Elijah was super interested and totally didn't sleep the entire time.

More group photos, this time inside:

I don't know why my Mom even tries sometimes:

Breydon did a great job loving on Elijah:

"Balloon strings?! I can't even handle the excitement!"

Elijah meets Great-Grandma Jan:

Seriously: those balloon strings were the STUFF:

Although Audrey would disagree.

She thinks Elijah's eyeballs are the stuff:

After Kofords, Bubba & Brian took off, we headed up to Logan for a few days to visit. Our trip was extra exciting because on top of the standard 4 great-grandkids (Elijah + Kenna's three kids), we also brought along 7 great-grandpuppies (or great-great-grandpuppies, I guess?). 

The fattest and cutest of the puppies.

Mom is in her happy place surrounded by grandkids and puppies.

Two red-headed grandsons:

Elijah would have liked the puppies much better if they weren't so inclined to chew on his fingers and toes whenever they were available:

Meeting Great-Grandpa Scott:

I feel like we had a whirlwind tour of Utah: sneaking in a visit here, driving through our old neighborhood, eating delicious things... There's never enough time to do everything. But I was grateful for the time I had with family, and especially grateful that I was able to bring Elijah to meet his great-grandparents. Now I'm just in trouble for not bringing EVERYONE with me. Hopefully we can make the drive out there in the next year or two...

And then it was time to stuff a chubby baby in a carrier and fly back across the country:

By some miracle we ended up with an empty seat next to us on the long leg of the flight. It was greatly appreciated by everyone involved. Once again, Elijah was a champion and only fussed during taxi and takeoff:

I arrived home to this sweet Catherine art:

(don't miss the 'P.S. and Elijah' at the bottom)

I was also quickly attacked by this gremlin, who refused to let go:

It's sure nice to be home again!