She's a traveling baby!

Today I laid her down on her tummy on her blanket and a minute later she had scooted herself backwards and off the blanket and was messing around with the bookshelf. She's into all kinds of mischief lately. This morning I took her onto my lap while eating breakfast, and the first thing she did was lunge for my cereal bowl and dump milk and soggy bran flakes all over the both of us. Clever girl, eh?

And here are two pictures I just had to share:

Five Months

Well, our little chub-monster is five months old today, and she's got the thighs to prove it. Lately nursing has been challenging because she's so interested in everything going on around her that she doesn't stay latched on for long. She'll hear her brother's voice and whip her head around to see what's happening.

Today I stood her up in her crib, guided her hands to the railing, and let go. She stood on her own for a full minute or two! She's rolled over a couple of times but still seems surprised every time she does it...hasn't figured out how to do it purposefully. And she can sit up by herself for about three seconds before toppling over. All of it makes her laugh!

Last weekend, she experienced her first camping adventure. We met up with some friends camping up at Silver Falls and joined them for a night. A long hike, playing in the creek, junior ranger programs, roasting marshmallows, campfire songs--we did everything. And there were five other kids to mess around with. Alexander had s'mores for the first time, and Annabel was mesmerized by the fire.

Oh, and she tried eating some cantaloup today (which was also her brother's first food). She mostly just sucked on it, but seemed to like it.

Progress

Annabel had her 4 month checkup this week. She's 17lbs 6 oz, which puts her in the 95th percentile for weight (she's also there for height). I'll have to post a picture of her leg rolls soon.

Alexander has been taking swim lessons for the past two weeks and yesterday he graduated to the next level. When he started he didn't even want to get his face wet. Now he dunks under easily, although he sometimes forgets to blow out and comes up sputtering. It's been such fun to watch his progress. He loves to push off the wall with his feet and come floating out to you. And he'll happily dunk underwater to retrieve a toy from the bottom of the pool.

This has also been his first "class" setting since he attended peuterspeelzaal in the Netherlands. I'm happy to see that although he and I are constantly butting heads over authority issues, he listens and responds to his swim teacher without any trouble.

For her part, Annabel loves to watch her brother do anything. She finds him the most fascinating creature. I often try to enlist Alexander to help me when she's fussing and I can't put down what I'm doing. He sometimes obliges...when he's in the mood.

Alexanderisms

It's time for a few more things from the mouth of Alexander. I've been collecting them.

For a long time Alexander didn't get the concepts of yesterday, last week, and last year. It was all "yesterday" to him. Yesterday we went on opa and oma's boat. Yesterday he played with Leah and Talia. Now, he's learned to differentiate between things that happened just yesterday and things that happened longer ago. For all of those other things he says, "A long day ago.

He's also taken to saying, "Aw man!" when something cool happens.

And when he's done playing with something or done picking up his toys, he says, "I'm full of doing that."

We're often telling him that he needs to behave or that he can join us again once he's ready to behave. When he gets mad at us for something we've done, he'll say, "You're not being very have."

One of my favorites, though, was when he told me, "Mommy, you need to learn to play by yourself sometimes." Wonder where he got that?