Girl on the Go

This little girl can not sit still. She really wants to be on the go, but she can't quite get herself into crawling position. She's always got one leg tucked up underneath. Lately, she's been pulling herself up to standing, looking so proud once she gets herself there. That little tongue comes out and she grins and grins. Then she doesn't know what to do. She'll let go with both hands and flop forward or wobble until she plops down.

Here she is with her oom Maarten:


And here we are at the Oregon Coast Aquarium:

Children's Museum

Today we went up to Portland and spent the day at the Children's Museum. What an amazing place! We were there for hours and probably could have spent days there. The water works room alone had the whole family occupied for a good hour. Michiel and I were playing with this water-channeling thing and suddenly realized Alexander wasn't with us. He turned out to be just across the room, but we'd both been so engrossed in what we were building that we hadn't noticed him leave.

Swimming Boy

Tomorrow will be Alexander's last swim lesson for the summer. He's come such a long way! He started out refusing to get his face wet, and now he'll dunk under easily, will float on his stomach with his face in the water, and can float on his back for a few seconds without help. Today they put life jackets on the kids and let them float around and jump in the deep end.

That's my kid with his face in the water:

Even though he often tells me in the morning that he doesn't want to dunk all the way under, he's all smiles in the pool. We'll make a swimmer out of him yet!

Two Pictures

Here's our little sitting-up girl! The tongue action is pretty typical too.

Sitting up

That's sitting up, not spitting up, though she does some of each. Today I think we can officially say that Annabel sits up on her own. I left her sitting up on a blanket in the backyard, and she didn't tip over! She happily sat for at least 4 or 5 minutes before slowly leaning to the left and falling forward on her face. But she totally had her balance before that!

Chillin' on a Saturday morning:



And we actually found Alexander sleeping like this one night:

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.