Sofi's first time on a plane

Everything went smoothly on Sofia's first flight. Three hours and nine minutes from Atlanta to Denver for Chris's family reunion. (And no, that was not a typo...that's how we are spelling Sofi. I think it's Greek.) I packed several toys, including one new one, and we made sure NOT to give her anti-gas medicine. This is a mistake we made on Lucas's first flight when he was around the same age. (No naps & five dirty diapers with no changing table on a 5+ hour flight. Poor first child!)

This go around Lucas was excited to learn that the airport bathrooms double as a tornado shelter!

Lucas has milestones too!

I don't want to leave Lucas behind. It seems with him we hit a new milestone every day so it's hard to keep up. But here are a few of the recent ones:

At the beginning of summer Lucas learned how to pump on the swings!

He's going underwater more (still as little as possible, but more than never) and jumping off the side of the pool by himself.

Despite being potty trained since he was two years old, Lucas has always slept in "night underpants" (aka pull-ups.) But yesterday we had a getting-rid-of-night-underpants-Axel F-dance party and the first night went well! He's sleeping on a flat waterproof sheet thing (soft on one side, vinyl on the other) just in case.

He is saying his S's clearly and getting better with the "sh" and "th" sounds.

Lucas loves art now and is getting much better at drawing.

He also loves writing letters although he writes the "C" and "S" in his name backwards and refuses to try and change that. He can also spell Paul and probably a few other words or names. But mostly he likes to copy a word he sees written down.

He has recently been into climbing trees. I didn't think we had a good one in the yard (and really, we don't) but the Crepe Myrtle in front is perfectly fine according to Lucas.

He recently went through a folding clothes phase. For weeks he dutifully folded his pjs and put them back in the drawer with care every morning. But this routine seems to be going on vacation for the summer.

Sofia, Five Months

I guess my blogging of Sofia's milestones is going to be as erratic as life itself.

Our little Prakasnitza (Russian for rascal) and Julik (bandit, lawbreaker) has been mobile for as long as I can remember. And last week, at five and a half months, while at a family reunion in Colorado (posts to come) she started crawling. What is fascinating about her is that she never seems to doubt herself. I want it, I'm going to get it. Even at five months, if you put something interesting halfway across the room, she steadily worked her way towards it (with several breaks to play with her feet or to flash a smile at her audience.)

I thought I felt a tooth coming through three months ago, but it only emerged last Friday. It's the bottom right as I expected to I must have felt something. She is fine during the day, but not sleeping well at night. It's some combo of crawling, teething, the chaos of summer, the time change from Colorado, and becoming more resolute in her preference to sleep next to mommy.

She is a chunky, slobbering, sweet as pie joy and there is nothing I did to deserve this. Just a blessing dropped from the sky.

What I love Wednesday...

Sara, thanks for spurring me on to write this today!

I LOVE my friend Sara Skurky and wouldn't trade our high school (and beyond) memories for a million dollars.

I love wading in creeks, climbing trees barefoot and doing silly dances to Axel F (all of which I got to do or watch Lucas do today.)

I love that Sofia always has a smile for me.

I love that at this moment I am deep into a book (The Help.)

I love that I have always been blessed with amazing friends. And right now, those friends include all the amazing moms in my life who inspire me and challenge me daily. (Lucas and Sofia thank you too!)

I really loved the bath I just took. After a long rough night and a looong, fun day my body felt like it had been in a train wreck before my muscles melted in the warm water. Plus, that creek water film had to go!

I love the Whole Foods $1 pastry/coffee deal despite it's effect on my waistline.

I love the amazing seniors (saints really) at my church.

I love that my children have a zest for life.

I love that my prayers have never gone unanswered. God may take his sweet, perfect time but He has never forsaken me. Funny that I often still have doubts, but when I flounder through them I emerge on the other side so blessed. Thank you, God!

Happy Belly

Our pediatrician recommends trying solids around four months. Between this and the motherly intuition that her belly was feeling a bit hollow, we gave her some rice cereal just after she turned four months. From the first feeding she was grabbing the spoon in hopes that this would speed along the process. And now, 3 weeks later and just shy of five months old, she's eating two substantial portions each day. She got stuck on apples for a while (pretty much all Lucas was ever interested in as an infant) but we've really branched out recently. She even goes for a bit of texture (peas ground in the food mill, bananas mashed with my fingers...) So far, we've tried:

-Apples
-Bananas
-Bananas/Avocados
-Peas/Apples/Rice
-Apples/Carrots (not a huge fan of carrots)
-Sweet Potatoes

Lucas's First Big Purchase

We planted the concept of saving into Lucas's mind a few months ago. So he began diligently saving any money given to him by his grandparents and even earning some on the side. He washed his sister's toys for $2 and pureed her zucchini for $1. The $10 end-of-school-year present from us got him two his goal of $22.58 for a Bruder backhoe loader. To extend the lesson in patience, we ordered it from Amazon. Today it arrived and it is AWESOME!

Salad People

After a brief transition period, we are on our summer roll. Wednesday we started our day at Whole Foods for their $1 pasty and coffee deal. A habit that is sure to snowball now that we have nowhere to be in the mornings! Then we burned some energy at Mason Mill Park before going to the library where we picked up "Salad People and More Real Recipes" by Mollie Katzen. It's a great recipe book for kids! I love it because not-yet readers can put things together by looking at the descriptive pictures. Today we made sunrise lemonade (lemon juice, agave subbed for simple syrup, water, a splash of triple berry juice and exactly three ice cubes.) And Lucas loved making a "salad person." (Those are not large ears, they are "microphones" - aka headphones.) Shhhh, we are surprising Daddy and serving them at dinner tomorrow!

Roly Poly

Lucas's Yearbook Entry