Grandmas Boat

A few weeks ago, Grandma took her well loved boat and gave it a face lift. She sanded painted and cleaned it from front to back. When she was all done we all went out on a long boat ride in the beautiful lake shown below.

ok, just kidding I photo shopped the water, we did however go over to her house and play in the boat before it went into storage. The kids absolutely loved it! 

They were all pretending to fish, its hard to see but Annie was taking her driving duties very seriously. Maybe there is hope for her when she learns to drive?

Benjamin is really into fishing this summer. He loved pretending to fish out of the boat and was helping Samuel with his skills. I have said it once I will say it again, he is our boy of the North.

Nicholas 7 Months

7 Months (July 6th)

Weight: I am not sure what Nicholas weighs but his 6-9 month clothes are getting more fitted so maybe 18 or 19 lbs

Hair color- This is up for debate. I think he will have redish-brownish-blondish hair. Not red like mine, not brown like his oldest three siblings but more blonde like Samuels...with some red. 

Eye Color- Baby Blues

Sleep- I don't even want to talk about this because it is too depressing. Flat out, Nicholas just doesn't sleep. I am told he had eczema in his ears and hard ear wax and nothing can be done and the kid hates laying down because his ears bother him. He has had several Dr. and chiropractor appointments because I swear it has to be something more serious to cause this amount of refusal to sleep but nope. never a fever, just flaky scratchy ears. poor kid. I am hoping its all actually related to teething and we can resume some level of sleep soon.

Eating- I am much more forgetful with Nicholas then with the other kids by this age. We try to do some self feeding, some puree and some chunky foods each day. The amount and type is a total crap shoot. He loves anything he can self feed but mostly mashes is up and spits it out. He did eat a bunch of tuna casserole the other night, he loved the little corn bits, he gobbled those right up. Nicholas still nurses frequently through the day and sometimes has a bottle of a few ounces. While he can physically get food to his mouth he really isn't a huge fan of swallowing "real food" yet. Thanks ok, no rush.

Daily routine-Even in our crazy life, we have manged to keep a pretty good routine. Wake around 7 eat, play, poop. Morning nap around 9:30 or so for about 45 minutes. Play more, lunch with the big kids then more playing and exploring until his afternoon nap around 1:30. If I can keep the house quiet, this is his longest sleep of the day, around an hour and a half. After nap we eat some more, play some more and usually do a third nap around 4 or 5. I try to put him to bed around 9 . He goes down great, but it doesn't last long. He is usually up every 2-4 hours. Sometimes up for a second, sometimes up for a quick nursing session then back to sleep. We find by itching his ears for him, he passes back out pretty quick. If I have errands to run, I try to do it over one of his shorter naps because he sleeps great in his car seat and baby carrier.

Firsts: First few crawls. He still can't crawl for a distance but has started to figure it all out. Lots of first on the food front, too many to list them all.

What we are looking forward to: Sleep, please sleep soon. I am looking forward to teeth, since I suspect they are the root cause.

Personality: You are the happiest and most content baby still, with one major exception, I have to be holding you. All of a sudden this month you do not want to let me out of your sight. If I am in the kitchen I can keep you entertained by the fridge magnets but pretty much every other time I put you down you cry and cry. Thankfully I have lots of little helpers that you love to play with and if I really need to put you down( like to cook hot things that splatter) they will happily entertain you. You very much enjoy the wrap still so I guess we will just keep with that. You love to eat but haven't really figured out how to swallow real food yet but we will keep trying. You love the outdoors and will sit endlessly out there and play in the grass or pack and play. Its too hot and buggy to do it for extended periods now, but the fall is going to be wonderful. You are going through a rough patch but still seem to be pretty easy to get a smile from and you always have lots of snuggles and kisses you are willing to dish out.

Fishing with Grandma

Earlier this month, when Grandma Mim was cleaning up her fishing boat to store it, we stopped by. The kids got to go over and climb all over it and pretend they were fishing on the high seas. Benjamin started the request of wanting Grandma to actually take them fishing but it didn't take long before all the kids were begging. While my anxiety would never let all the kids go on the boat in an actual lake, going fishing at Ryan Pond where our city stocks the water with fish, was something I could handle. We waited for a perfect day and packed up and headed down to the dock. Grandma got lures on the lines and everyone went fishing. Benjamin instantly began catching fish, Uncle Jordan was the last to finally catch one. Elias and Annie had to practice their patience but finally began reeling them in. Samuel, well he did catch one or two but mostly he just caught fruit snacks in his mouth. A great time was had by all! I didn't fish but I did hang out with Nicholas and took pictures of all our big fish! As soon as we got home, Benjamin immediately began asking to go again. He is our boy of the north!

 Benjamin was our first to catch a fish, he didn't stop until it was time to leave. One after another, he just kept catching!

 Daddy and Samuel fishing

 The water is clear enough to see all the fish swimming around. Samuel loved looking. You can see Benjamin reeling one in too!

 Annie finally caught one!

 I took Samuel up to some shade for a snack and to get Nicholas out of the sun for a bit. I got to take some fun pictures, like the one below. A boy and his did fishing, how cliche, how cute!

 I love this. Uncle Jordan kept moving around trying to catch one. Annie got bored waiting for her lure to be put on so she joined him. She doesn't look too impressed with his style.

 Elias was SO excited to finally catch one. He did EXACTLY what I did when I caught my first fish. Do you remember mom and dad? He dropped the rod and ran and screamed. It was great! he really was very excited.

Right before we left, Uncle Jordan FINALLY caught one. He was kinda a failure, comically so!

Happy Birthday Samuel

I wrote Samuel a little post for his actual birthday but now it is time to follow that up with some birthday party pictures! Samuel woke up and much to his delight mommy made muffins for breakfast! After breakfast( which was a late one due to the festivities the night before) Samuel headed off to speech. His wonderful therapist bought him a little party hat and a puzzle. He didn't take the hat off the rest of the day. After speech Grandma dropped Samuel off at McDonald's where he met up with me, Kellie and all his siblings for a very special Happy Donald birthday lunch. We hung out, played and of course, got a toy! After lunch Samuel took a nap and when he woke up, he got to snuggle up with his daddy and relax reading books and watching a show until it was time for the big party.

We pretty much stick with the same game plan for birthdays. My parents bring over pizza, my mom makes cupcakes we party hard. There is presents laughter and wrapping everywhere. Samuel's party followed pretty much this same pattern. He had a great time being the center of attention and carefully opened up each one of his gifts. Among his favorites were his pink piggy toy( a replica from the one he uses in speech), and tsum tsums. Samuel was so delighted with all his gifts he carefully organized them on the fire place where they remained for a few days for him to enjoy. While Samuel still refuses to admit he is three( NO, I TWO I TWO) he had a great birthday!