that was fun...let's do it again!

Well, that seemed to work so let's try this again - here's an animated series of shots of Elias in our new kiddie pool we bought on the 4th, toward the end of an unusually long heat wave:

Looks like he's working on some white boy rapping, no?

5 months, animated

 

I'm testing out the sharing of an animated series of images directly from my Google + account. 5 months with guitar photo shoot in one shot!

5 months, round 2

Daphne is 5 months (and almost a week, thanks to a busy week last week and the 4th of July holiday weekend delaying this post)! I'm not sure what her stats are since she doesn't have another routine check-up until the 6 month mark but let me tell you, she's getting pretty heavy to schlep around. I've been toting her in the baby bjorn to run errands and go grocery shopping and she's not only getting a little too heavy for that to be comfortable/convenient, she's also getting so long it's getting to be a little cumbersome to walk with her legs constantly hitting my legs and knees! I'm hoping she continues to work on sitting unsupported so I can plop her into the front of shopping carts soon.

Mmm, toes. But I digress. Month 5 went by in a blur thanks to a couple of weeks of epic spit-up right around and following the 4 month mark (with the past several weeks being overall much better I think it's safe to say we've hit the reflux peak!), big brother's birthday bash, actual birthday shenanigans, school field trip...

...preschool graduation (when she should have been in bed for the night)...

...and then getting ready for Neal's birthday and our first road trip over this past weekend.

We also survived our first solo parenting adventure, with Neal traveling for work for the first time since Daphne was born.

Thank goodness we had beer set up the jumperoo before Neal left for his trip - that baby contraption allowed me to make dinner, for example, while she jumped and Elias ran around the house like a wild animal (which is what he does lately - that and jump on the couch like it's a trampoline). More Daphne-centric events this past month included learning to roll over one way. Since then she's rolled in the opposite direction a handful of times but still seems pretty clueless as to how to roll from her tummy onto her back.

She's getting very close to sitting unsupported, able to do so for a few seconds before she starts her nosedive forward or slumps to the side. When on her tummy she's already doing some pre-crawling maneuvers but I'm personally more looking forward to that brief window of being able to plop her down on a blanket with some toys without worrying about her getting too far! Also, our house is basically covered in a layer of Legos so baby proofing should be pretty interesting this time around.

Otherwise, many of the mama friends I've made since Daphne was born have already gone back to work, but we managed to plan a family picnic last weekend and enjoyed some quality time with our baby buddy, Gus (who's older brother is also named Eli!). Sometimes I forget that Daphne won't always be an itty bitty baby - she and Gus will be enjoying true play dates together before we know it!

the first of many graduations

It's a bit anticlimactic since Elias will continue to attend for another month, but the boy officially graduated from preschool last Thursday.

The ceremony started with the kids performing some of their favorite circle time songs and a dance they helped to choreograph with their dance instructor.

They even performed a preschool variation of Katy Perry's "Firework", a song that was very popular with the kids after it came out last year.

Then they sat and waited patiently as each of the graduating students was called forward to receive their certificate, rose, memory book, and of course a round of big hugs.

The ceremony was very entertaining, even for Daphne, who would have normally been in bed by the time it started. Despite going through her routine as usual and starting off asleep in the car seat, she woke up as soon as the ceremony started and stayed awake through the entire thing.

She's a lot like her brother, in more ways than just her looks, it turns out! Hopefully she'll enjoy preschool as much as Elias has when she's ready to attend in about three years.