August 2011
Miss Reese, you really took off this month. You figured out how to go from the crawl position to sitting -- of course you love practicing your new tricks in the slippery tub during bathtime. Enough to give your Momma a heart attack. You got up on all fours and started to rock, I thought for sure you'd take right off, but like all of your milestones, you are very quick to master the mechanics and very slow to actually execute on what you know.
Ryan, you had just started rolling with regularity. We tried so hard to get you to get on all fours and assist your crawling, but you just laid there like a chalk outline. A cute outline, though.
You guys were both sprouting teeth like crazy. Reese your top two were just about out and Ry you had four teeth by the end of the month. You loved your new top teeth so much that you would grind them all. the. time. Oh gosh, I am so glad that stage is over!!
At 7 months I decided it was time to move to three meals a day. Since we hadn't really practiced too much with finger foods, I decided that your new "lunch" would be all finger foods for practice. This way if you ended up dropping a lot of stuff you wouldn't be missing a regular meal that you were used to. Puff, you've always been my good little eater (although you've gotten much more assertive about what you want to eat and don't want to eat now) and you took to finger foods right away.
By seven months you guys figured out how to hold your own bottles as well. That was so awesome. It meant that the four or five times a day that you were drinking milk my hands were free to do things like empty the dishwasher or fold laundry. It's amazing what you can do with an extra hour in your day!
You guys started mastering milestones and grasping your world at a much quicker pace. It was amazing to watch. Reese, by seven months you could recongize your own name (and all of your hundred nicknames, you poor kid), you knew who Ryan, Mommy, Daddy and Gracie were. Ry you pretty much only responded to your own name, but gosh did you love to hear it. I made up the Ryan song for you when you were born and you'd light up whenever I'd sing it.
You each could sit unassisted (out of the tripod). But my favorite part of seven months was that you figured out how to hug and kiss voluntarily. You both were very generous with your kisses. Big open mouthed, wet ones. Reese, you also loved giving these kisses to Gracie (much to my chagrin!).
You both turned into such chatterboxes. Our house was so full of life. Reese you were our screamer. You screamed when you were happy, sad, tired, when someone looked at you. Girl, did you scream. Boy, oh boy.
Ry, you were quite the chatterbox too, but in a much quieter way. When you got tired you'd start to moan until you drifted off to sleep. Before we put the mirrors on the car's headrests Daddy and I would always know you were falling asleep because of your moaning. Another thing you started doing when you got tired was giggling. We'd call it entering into crazytown. We could just be a few minutes past your nap time and all of a sudden your eyes would get wide and buggy and you would start to laugh at every and anything. We'd know we were in trouble then!
And speaking of sleep, you were quite the narcoleptic little boy. Daddy and I love to run in the summer and we went on a lot of runs as a family in August. As soon as the wheels were in motion, no matter how recently you'd napped, you'd fall asleep.
{ Daddy told me he was keeping you warm :) }
Not you Puff, you loved our daily runs. On days that I was feeling really good and I'd hit a groove and start running faster you would kick your legs and squeal and giggle in delight. You're a great motivator kid!
In August we joined a Kindermusik class. Laurie would come babysit one of you and the other would go to school with me. Reesie you loved music class. It was through that class that your little personality really started to shine. You were a baby I hadn't seen before. It made me realize the value and importance of giving you guys individualized attention and time outside of our house.
We were regularly taking daily baths and you guys turned into our little waterbabies. You loved rolling around and crawling and playing with your toys. At the end of the month Uncle Bobby came into town and we took you guys to Victoria Pool for the first time. All that time in the tub really paid off. You guys were swimming fools that day. Not an ounce of fear!
We also got to take you guys to Vermont where we visited the Orvis store and you saw your first trout. How cool it was to see you guys watch the fish and recognize that something in the water was moving. The giggles over those fish were priceless.
Afterward we went to the marble quarry (the oldest quarry in the country!) and Gracie went for a swim. You guys thought her launching herself into the water was the coolest thing you had ever seen. You squealed in delight the whole time.
With all of your new awareness and energy we really got to get out and enjoy our lives with you guys. Farmers markets on the weekends (where you got to actually eat some of the food with us!), your first sips of fresh lemonade and bites of fresh watermelon, dining al fresco, swimming in pools, sunning in the backyard.
We were outside all of the time and you guys couldn't get enough. What a great summer we had. One of so many more to come.
