It Finally Feels Like Summer!

This past weekend was the first time we've seen the sun in quite awhile. We decided we needed to get and enjoy it, so we headed to Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. 

On our way, we stopped in Mt. Vernon to visit Jen and Dan and their kids...Jen and I lived in Visalia together. They were up visiting Dan's family for a funeral and were able to fit us into their schedule! It was so fun to catch up and meet their kids! They have four kids- Chase is a few months younger than Annaliese, Zane and Haleigh are one day apart, and Quinn and Lance just turned one! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of everyone!

We made it to the zoo mid afternoon...and apparently everyone else in Seattle was also excited about the sunshine and had the same great idea to go to the zoo! It made for some fun people watching! Kels, Ben, Mallory, Owen, Kim, Elias, and Malachi met us there and we spent the afternoon checking out the animals. (Thanks for taking all the pictures Ben!)

3 Sisters and their kids (minus Haleigh who was up ahead with Kyle!)

Malachi

Mallory

Cousins!

Owen

One lone penguin

Annaliese fell and hurt her knee...Elias was pretty concerned!

Sisters. Sisters. Sisters.

Earlier this week, I was exhausted from a combination of working and fighting a cold/laryngitis and the girls decided that they were all ready to be awake for the day well before I was ready. I told Annaliese and Haleigh that if they were going to be awake, they at least needed to stay in their room until 7:00, but they could play quietly with the door short. Something about that made Haleigh very upset and she started crying. And crying. And crying. For over an hour!! Let's just say it wasn't a very good start to the day and I was a bit concerned about how the rest of the day was going to go. 

Thankfully, she snapped out of it and they rest of the day turned out to be so much fun! (Except for the part where Haleigh pooped in her panties...the joys of potty-training!) The sun came out so we were able to get outside for awhile and the girls played so well together! And since I had the camera out to take Lydia's 8 month pictures, I was able to capture a few shots of the fun they were having!

While I was cleaning the kitchen, the girls decided to take
Lydia out of her jump-er-oo and put her in their baby stroller!

A little unsure about this whole situation!

Annaliese was pretty proud of herself for getting Lydia out of the pink swing!

8 Months!

Lydia is 8 months old! She is the happiest little girl ever! I am constantly amazed at how content she is and how well she deals with the shenanigans of her older sisters! 

Sleeping: This little lady will usually call it a night around 8:00 and sleep until somewhere around 7:00. The past few days it's been a bit earlier than that, and occasionally she will sleep in until close to 8:00 am! You just never know! She is an excellent napper, and will usually take one good 2 hour nap and then 2 shorter naps, depending on what our day looks like. She's pretty flexible and does amazingly well if she doesn't get to nap because we are out and about. 

Eating: Lydia is still nursing 5 times/day. We have gotten much better about feeding her solid foods over the course of the past month and she loves to sit in her highchair and eat! I don't think we have any clear favorites or obvious dislikes! Our regular go-to foods are Cheerios, Rice Krispies, avocados, bananas, and applesauce, but she has also had zucchini, squash, sweet potatoes, rice and beans, refried beans, spaghetti, pears, and oatmeal! We don't follow the 'introduce a new food and wait three days' rule and thankfully she has tolerated everything just fine! 

I asked the girls to get to the table for lunch!

Clothes: Just about everything Lydia is wearing is 6 months, with a few 6-9 month things thrown in there. I just bumped her up to size 3 diapers, although I probably could have stuck with 2's for a little bit longer. (The jumbo box was on sale and I didn't think I needed that many 2's!)

Mid sneeze!

Activities: I would say the number one favorite activity is jumping in her jump-er-oo...but other favorites include swinging, anything with Annaliese, bathtime, sucking on her fingers and giving kisses! 

Sister kisses!

Teeth: We have 3 bottom teeth that have all popped through within the last few days! They haven't seemed to bother Lydia at all, which is super nice!