Life or Something Like it

Ethan LOVES his swim class.  He's learning how to swim more and more.  We can now have him in his life-vest swimming around without us holding on to him.  He loves to blow bubbles in the water, as you can see in the first pic, and play with toys in the water.

New bike helmet to ride his bike in safety

I found these pics on Justin's phone.  They're actually from vacation.  We went to a local ice cream shop in Hartford with family.  It was a cute little "old-time" shop with yummy ice cream.  I'm determined to try their guacamole ice cream next time...i wasn't' brave enough this first time.

Ethan pushing Claire.  They love to play together.  Claire adores Ethan; constantly watching him and laughing at him.

We're moving Ethan away from sippy cups.

Bought Ethan his first water gun.  He loves to go around shooting mommy, daddy, and even poor Rocky...who HATES it :)

SiX MoNtHs!!!  Our little doll is 6 months already, UNBELIEVABLE!  She is rolling around everywhere, very interactive and chatty.  Her favorite is Bah Bah Bah.  She loves avocado, loves to "jump", loves to do "v-sits", adores big brother, and her hair is STILL growing...it's getting lighter and lighter and more curly.  At her 6 month check-up she was 25 in (15%) and 13lbs 15oz (10%).  She's getting less fussy everyday, which is quite the relief for mommy :)  We love our little daddy's girl.

Happy 4th of July!

We are very grateful for those who have sacrificed so much for our freedom.  We feel blessed to live in this country with all the freedoms we share especially the ability to live our beliefs without threat.  Thanks to all who have served and continue to serve!

VaCaTIoN!....Family Fun

ILLINOIS

Uncle Tim and Claire at niece Abigail's Graduation Party 

Cousin Kate and Claire

 WISCONSIN

Ethan "helping install cabinets" at the grandparent's new house

So excited to get to Wisconsin

Cousins!

Playing at Gma's

shopping in Wisconsin for camping food with mom and dad. first time she sat in the cart without her carseat.

Well you can't go to Wisconsin and not visit cows

Finally asleep in the car...Hooray! 

MINNESOTA

Claire and cousin Gavin on the way to Mall of America

Eating avocado at Aunt Rissa's

Ready to eat at Aunt Rissa's

Riding the truck ride at Mall of America

VaCAtiOn!...Devil's Lake State park, Wisconsin

So we took a week vacation that went a little something like this, drive to niece's graduation, drive to in-laws house in Wisconsin for a couple days, go camping up by the Dells a couple days, drive to Minnesota to visit Justin's sister for a couple days, head back to in-laws in Wisconsin for a few days, then head back home.  Sounds like a lot, but it really was AMAZING!  It's always great to be around family, and throw in some camping and we're in heaven.  The driving wasn't too bad, could have done without me locking the keys in the car in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin, but besides that...a wonderful vacation.  Here are some pics from our camping trip at Devil's Lake State Park in Wisconsin.  It was gorgeous...definitely recommend it to anyone who loves to camp and hike.

setting up camp

Claire helping to set up camp

caught Ethan eating dirt.  can someone please explain to me the boy fascination with eating dirt :)

making foil dinners

yum...way to go justin

hiking

hiking

Good Morning!  Ethan with cousin Ki in the background

Cousin Chase and Claire.  Love this pic!

Ethan and Ki

Crazy Camping Hair Claire and Daddy

This is the "trail" we hiked the next morning with Justin's brother and nephews.

Made it to the top!

Ki at "Balanced Rock" at the top of the trail

The view from the top...definitely worth it!

Devil's Doorway

Coming back down the trail.  Brittney, Claire, Forrest, Chase.

After our hike we headed to the beach for some swimming and guess what showed up in the parking lot.

We drove in the Wisconsin Dells one evening and played a round of Mini-golf...apparently Justin has some mad mini-golf skills...I had no idea :)

Ethan LOVED the golfing

At the putt putt place, after our game...it was a pirate-themed course

After wrapping up our camping trip, we headed to a railway museum on our way to Minnesota...since Ethan LOVES trains.  We even took an hour long train ride in some 100 year old train cars with their original windows, lights, etc.  It was really neat...of course Ethan was just excited to be on the train.

Baby Led Weaning

Well, we just got back from a week long vacation that included visits with lots of family members.  One of our stops was to Justin's sister's (Sarissa) home in Minneapolis, where we learned about "Baby Led Weaning" since she has chosen this method for her son Gavin.

Claire & Gavin

Basically, in this sense, the term weaning means "adding complimentary foods" and letting the baby, starting at 6 months, feed themselves appropriate sized foods...no more mush!  We loved the idea right away, since healthy eating/natural eating is very important to us.  With Ethan, if I didn't make the baby food myself, then we were buying the all-natural, organic stuff...which is expensive.  With this new method, Claire gets to eat what we eat.  While we were visiting Sarissa, we let Claire eat avocado, kiwi, watermelon, bread, lettuce, pulled pork and since then, she's had sweet potato and more.  Basically we cut everything into "sticks" that look like a french fry.  This way she can hold them all by herself and either eat or just suck on the food.  I wish we'd discovered this with Ethan!  We love being able to feed her fresh fruits and veggies straight from our garden, and there's a sense of relief in knowing what she's actually eating.  

eating kiwi

eating sourdough bread

eating sweet potato

                                               

Sarissa told us that her 8 month old has already had pears, with the skin on (apparently they will work off the skin and spit it out), tomato, onion, sweet potato, peppers, steak, etc.  The research on it says that a baby's gag reflex is up higher in the mouth than a normal child or adult, so if there is a problem, they will gag and spit the food out well before a child or adult would.   Here are some great links for more information on it....

http://www.babyledweaning.com/

http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a351935/baby-led_weaning