36 Weeks Old

Trying to crawl! I've been joking that every time she gets ready to crawl I scoop her up off the ground so she can't, but the time is coming. She's getting closer and closer (even with me trying to stop her!). She can scoot on her bottom in a seated position but doesn't really realize that she's doing it (at least that's what it seems like), and she can move in a full circle while on her belly, but now she's moving from a seated position onto her hands and knees - see picture to side. She still has one leg bent sideways rather than straight out behind her...but I have a feeling that once she gets that leg into position she'll be off.

This week was Father's Day and Brett's birthday. We had a great time celebrating both with a BBQ at our house. Brett got a bike - as seen above with Henry - so now all we need is a baby seat for Nora and we can go on family bike rides, something we've been looking forward to for a long time.

The video above should be named "Anticipation" because all I am doing to make her laugh hysterically is moving my fingers along the floor as if I am going to tickle her and then occasionally just barely tickling her. Mostly I am just moving my fingers around and she is just dying. Then, towards the end, I'm trying to get her to move towards the camera. She does a little bit of that scooting action I was talking about and tries to get on her hands and knees without much success. Henry had a friend over to play which is the noise you hear in the background!

35 Weeks Old

 Officially 8 months old! Wow have the last eight months flown by...I just can't believe it!
After a few days of illness last week, she's now pretty much back to her regular cheery self. She started with a fever early last week, but it wasn't very high so I let her ride it out for 24 hours without medication but it persisted for two more days (giving her Tylenol during) and then she started throwing up. So I took her to the doctor only to find out it was just a virus and there was nothing to do but wait it out anyway. But, I did get to weigh her just in time for her 8 months. She weighs 20 pounds. On 5/13 she weighed 18 pounds, 15 ounces so she gained a full pound in one month (actually probably more I'm guessing since we were a few days off and she was ill and not eating well). Pretty good!

She is getting her 5th tooth already! And it randomly is the upper left one next to the middle ones. Weird because usually the bottom ones come in first and usually the ones on the right...

We've been keeping busy - the pictures above are from a hike we went on. Brett set up our tent in the yard for Henry so he has been spending a lot of time playing in there and asking if he can sleep overnight in it.

The last picture is of Nora this morning at breakfast. I discovered another food she loves....pineapple! I wasn't sure if she would like that or not, but she ate the entire piece and ignored the other food on her tray (eggs, mandarin oranges, toast and a couple Cheerios) until she finished the pineapple.

Multnomah County Fair

Over Labor Day weekend we went to the Multnomah County Fair held at Oaks Park. It's lots of fun and nice and small so it's really easy to navigate. Of course they don't have all the animals that the larger fairs have, but for little kids it's pretty much all you need!

 Nora absolutely loves animals. I don't remember Henry being this interested in animals at her age. He You can see her craning her neck to look around Henry at the goats in the second picture. She just loves any animal she sees - she's going to love it at the zoo when they open up the petting zoo section!

 Here Henry and Nora are playing in a giant tub of dried corn. Nasty germs probably but less mess than a sandbox. Henry also got to "milk" a cow...the little bugger pointed one of the udders at me and squirted me with the milk.


And, finally, a picture and video of him in these big bubble/ball things they float in a big pool of water. Last year he waited in line all the way until it was his turn and then decided he didn't want to do it...but this year, he was ready to try it and loved it. It really did look like a lot of fun!

Goodbye Burlingame Preschool - Hello Capitol Hill Elementary!

 With the last day of preschool over, Henry is now officially a Kindergartner! On his last day of school his class took a field trip to the Portland Aquarium. I went along (with Nora as well) and had a great time spending the day with him and all his wonderful classmates one last time. We will all really miss this group of kids - sadly of the 7 of them they are at 5 different schools next year! Following the field trip the entire school (junior and senior classes) met at the school for an indoor picnic and graduation ceremony for Henry's class. He received a certificate of completion and a plaque with his picture and the following inscription - "Most likely to have a horse named Trigger, drive the Batmobile and keep his classmates entertained."

34 Weeks Old!

 Almost 8 months old! And she finally rolled over this week!! She went from back to stomach which is what I predicted she would do first. She is fairly content being on her tummy - especially since she can push herself around a bit (mostly backwards) and turn a complete circle that way. On the other hand, she doesn't particularly care for being on her back as she can't reach anything that way. She's able to now go from back to tummy when she wants although I can't say she does it with ease (or grace!) - it's quite a struggle for her to get over but she is determined. Once on her stomach she is starting to push up onto all fours. She hasn't quite made it all the way up onto her knees, but she's getting there. I'm in no hurry for her to crawl though!

We are enjoying the warm weather and have been spending lots and lots of time at the park. The video is of Nora in the swings and Henry masterfully riding his big pedal bike. Yay! Also this week we went to the Forest Park carnival which was great fun, to the Starlight Parade, to a puppet show at the library (see picture above of Nora meeting one of the puppets) and today we went to the Jr. Rose Festival Parade. The parades were only marginally successful as even with earplugs, the noise of the drums was a bit much for Nora. The weather today was pretty hot and Nora has been running a little fever, so we cut the Jr. parade short as well. The last picture above is of us at the Jr. parade today - hilarious expressions on both their faces.