Half a Year!

I cannot believe that Aria is six months old already! She is growing up way too fast. I wish this sweet baby stage didn't fly away so quickly!

At six months Aria is making her way almost anywhere she wants to go. She has the cutest little crawl I've ever seen. She gets up into a plank on her hands and toes and then pushes herself forward with her arms. She flies forward about a foot at a time doing that repeatedly until she gets where she's going. So funny!

This is her favorite place to go. If the Legos are out (and they almost always are) she finds them.

She sits on her own, can stand alone if she's holding onto something and she walks circles around her little walker table. She also tried her Johnny Jump-up for the first time this week and loved it!

She is starting to eat a little bit better, but basically she just doesn't like food. :-) She's pretty funny because as soon as she gets in her highchair she starts shouting and acting like she's starving. But when we give her food, she doesn't really want it. She just wants to be a part of the dinner experience. She went from crying when she saw food on a spoon, to opening her mouth and just letting the food sit in it, to spitting every bite everywhere. She either starts spitting as soon as the spoon gets to her mouth and food sprays everywhere, or she lets it go into her mouth and then spits it out and food sprays everywhere. She does like Baby Mum-mums and puffs though. And she tried sweet potatoes today. She might like them better than cereal, but not much. She is a little ball of adventure when she eats. :-)

She had her six month appointment on Monday. She did great and was happy as can be for the whole appointment. She weighed 15 lbs, 1oz. (29th percentile) and was 26 inches tall (55th percentile). Her height is so all over the board at every appointment. It is so drastically different every time that I really don't know what to believe about how tall she is.

These two wait every time we do this until they can get in the picture with her. :-)

This girl brings so much sweetness into our home. She is so very loved. Sometimes the smothering love of her brothers might be a little overwhelming, but you can never be too loved, right?!

We love you Aria Baby. :-)

Food!

Last week we decided to try baby cereal with Aria for the first time. I always think it's so fun to start solids and see their reactions. If I remember right, Tyler gave us a few funny faces, but he did like it right away. And Carsten was basically like, "Hello, where has this been all my life?!"

Aria, not so much. I feel bad saying it was funny because she was miserable, but it really was pretty funny. I have never seen the faces she was making before! She acted like we were torturing her. And putting the spoon up to her mouth actually brought tears to her eyes and made her lip quiver. Apparently giving her real food is pretty much the meanest thing we could have done to her. Sorry sweet girl. :-)

Happy to be sitting at the table!

She has no idea what is about to happen.

First bite!

Wait. What is this?!

What are you doing to me?

I do not like this.

Is it over yet?

We tried again the next night with similar results so we took a break for a week. Tonight we tried again and it didn't make her cry, so that was a win. She was so funny about it. She just kept staring at the spoon with her mouth tightly closed. And when she did eventually take a bite she would just hold her mouth open and let it sit there. She didn't push it back out. She just sat there with her mouth open until eventually she had to swallow. For every single bite. It was too cute. :-)

The boys were very excited for Aria to get her own place at the table. They were also pretty excited that they got to move to new spots at the table!

Tyler moved across the table.

And Carsten moved over a spot and out of his booster seat!

It's the little things. :-)

T-Ball!

Tyler played T-Ball this summer and it was so cute I can't stand it. Last year he tried soccer, but it was not really his sport. He loved dribbling with Carl and scoring goals, but he has such a sweet little heart and the stealing and aggression (that is totally part of soccer) was just not for him. But T-Ball was. He loved it! It was a parent-child one and Carl said he did get a little bored in the outfield sometimes. But he still ran for the ball and threw it when it came to him and he loved batting and running the bases. Loved it.

I just love the confidence on his face in this picture. So happy. So proud of himself. So sweet.

Quotes From the Kiddos

My kids make me laugh. Have I said that before? :-) And now Carsten is starting to join in with all kinds of funny things. He is talking at a point where he can figure out to say just about anything he wants to. He uses pretty long sentences and he puts these cute little pauses in random spots while he thinks of his next words. It's so fun to listen to him talk. And I love listening to him and Tyler having conversations with each other!I am a little depressed though because this week he started calling Tyler by his actual name instead of Ty-Ty. I love that he calls him that and I do not want it to go away!

Tyler

Talking to Aria: I love you so, so, so, so much. I love you so much it's out of control how much I love you. I just can't stop loving you!

Me: What did you think of your spinach?

Tyler: It tasted like the ground. When I was two I licked the ground and it didn't taste good. And that didn't taste good either.

Wow! I will admit the spinach was interesting because it had coconut milk in it. But it tasted like dirt? I guess I will not be serving that to guests. :-)

Tyler asked if I remembered a long, detailed and very made up event.

Tyler: Do you remember when (insert super long story)

Me: No, I don't remember that. Did that really happen?

Tyler: Yes Mommy. It did happen. Did you lose brain cells?

To Aria again: You are so beautiful Aria. You're the most beautiful girl I ever saw.

Carl and I are doing the Whole30 right now (hence the coconut milk in our creamed spinach). And Tyler has become very health conscious. For a long time he has talked about what is or isn't healthy and asks if things have protein or vitamins because he wants to be strong like Uncle Jeff. But now he's even more concerned with it. He is determined that he is doing the Whole30 with us - and he kind of is because he eats the same meals as us, but not completely. I got little Mickey Mouse trays of carrots, pretzels and cheese as a treat for lunch after a long grocery shopping trip (which he loves!) and when he saw it he said, "But Mommy, I can't eat pretzels and cheese because I'm eating like you."

And he specifically asks for very healthy sandwiches with lots of vegetables for lunch. And when he plays in his kitchen he only makes healthy things. Like french fries that have lots of nutrients in them.  Everything he makes is healthy with nutrients. :-) "The bread I'm making you is really, really, really healthy with lots of nutrients!" I love how sweet he is to try to even make his play food things he thinks we can eat right now. :-)

Carsten

Carsten has always been funny, long before he could talk. So it shouldn't surprise us that the things that come out of his mouth are hilarious too. I don't have a lot of quotes from him yet, mostly because the best part of what he says is how he says it. And you can't hear it when I write it. But I do have one.

Carsten has never wanted to attempt saying his name. He just calls himself "Me." He will say anything else you ask him to, but he will not say Carsten. His middle name is Malachi, and a few weeks ago he learned how to say that. And he immediately started calling himself "Me Malachi". When we went camping in the Dells he met lots of new people and he introduced him self over and over as Malachi. If you ask him his name he says, "I am Malachi." Every single time. The other day I was trying to get him to say Carsten so I tried breaking it down for him.

Me: Can you say car?

Carsten: Lightning McQueen.

Me: Can you say sten? 

Carsten: No.

Me: Can you say Carsten?

Carsten: I am Malachi.

Carsten has been really into bike rides lately. Carl took them in the bike trailer for Tyler's last t-ball game and Carsten refused to get out of the trailer the whole time. He just waited inside until it was finally time to ride again.

Aria 

Aria is talking a lot too these days. She has two ways of communicating. She babbles and coos and makes adorable little high pitched squeals and giggles. All very girly. :-)

Or she growls. Yes, growls. Deep, low, growls. Like a ferocious little baby bear. It's hilarious. I guess this is what happens to little girls when they have two big brothers? I'm not sure why growling is the thing she has chosen to imitate the most, but it is, and it makes us laugh. A lot. 

Tyler used to make this exact same face. We always called it his flat smile.

Tyler and Carsten are definitely Aria's biggest fans (besides me and Carl, obviously.) They jump up and down and clap and cheer for every new thing she does, yelling, "Yay, Aria! Good job! Good job! Good day! Good day! Yay Aria!!!"

Even when she does things she shouldn't. A few weeks ago Aria was sitting in her Bumbo and she kicked hard pushed and up fast so it looked like she was going to fly right out the back. I gasped and reached out to stop her. But the boys started laughing hysterically and cheering for her for learning to be dangerous like them! I'm not sure how long she's going to be calm with these two big brothers encouraging her not to be. :-)

And here are my three Bumbo babies.

Because what kid doesn't love sitting in a Bumbo chair?

Five Months!

Aria was five months last week. And she is so fun! She is such a sweet, smiley, happy girl. She is rolling over both directions and sitting up with a little support. She loves watching her big brothers play and they are both so good at making her smile. She is chewing on everything in sight. She loves her Sophie giraffe, toys that crinkle and chewing on her little pink blanket square.

It's really hard to get her smiling at the camera for these pictures...

She gets a little distracted by her brothers who spend half the time trying to get her attention (in the wrong direction) and the other half jumping into the picture. :-)

The first time Aria started rolling across the room Tyler immediately got all of our bed pillows and set them up all around her so she wouldn't bump her head on things.

Carsten called me into his room during his nap and this is what I found when I came back out. Tyler said she was getting tired to so he snuggled her up. :-)

Aria, you are a very loved little girl!

Camping Trip B

We came home from our reunion camping trip and had two days to unpack, do laundry and repack before we headed off again to camp with my family. The boys have been looking forward to this camping trip for so long that it feels a little crazy to be on the other side of it!

Carl actually ended up leaving and heading to WI to visit his grandma in the hospital on Tuesday night, which left me packing, loading the car and getting the kids out by myself for camping. A little crazy, but we made it! We went to the campground on our own Wednesday and Carl met us there later.

I am pretty sure there is nothing in the world that is more fun for little boys than camping. They would have stayed there forever. Dirt, rocks, sticks, fire, marshmallows, swimming, staying up late... the list goes on and they did not ever want to leave. In fact, Tyler insisted that we needed to stay there for seven more days.

Excited to see Papa Joe!

Thursday:

Carl and Tyler went fishing.

And Carsten and I went for a boat ride.

We are getting to be a big group to fit around the camper table! But we made it work. :-)

Then we went to the Norske Nook for dinner and pie.

Do you see the size of their pies? They were sharing a piece. It was ginormous!

Friday:

We started off with a trip to Weaver's - a little Mennonite store that we are all obsessed with. We go there every year for cheese curds, dried apples and candy. And sometimes some bulk spices. :-) 

Camper playroom!

Enjoying the beach!

The boys made their own campfire next to the real one.

That night we went to bed in a perfectly dry and comfortable tent. But we woke up at 2:45 in the morning to a huge flash of lightning followed by the camp weather sirens. And at almost the same time Carl's mom texted him to warm us about severe weather coming our way. So we loaded the kids into the car and drove over to the bathroom where we spent a lovely hour in a shower stall with my parents and Emma and Kyle (and lots of other families). The storm sounded pretty crazy and we were glad we were there. Especially when we went back to find our tent all crooked from being blown around and soaking wet. And so we invaded the camper and spent the rest of our night with my parents. It was really nice of them to bring a camper that we could sleep in. :-)

Tired boys in the middle of the night!

Saturday:

The outside of our tent in the morning.

The inside was actually much worse. All of our cots and the pack and play were completely soaked, we had dripping wet sleeping bags and there were puddles all over the floor. I am so glad we weren't in there for that!

Some quality Grandma time.

Aria napped in a lot of random places on this trip.

I love these three. :-)

Baby Samson isn't really a baby anymore!

More delicious campfire treats!

Sunday:

The boys had fun decorating Lexi.

Cousin time!

Carl left Sunday night but I decided to stay one more night with the kids. They skipped naps and I took them boating one last time. Then when they were ready to go to bed a little earlier I got to play some cards with my mom and dad. :-)

My boating buddies!

They loved sleeping in sleeping bags! Carsten asked us to "bundle him" every night. :-)

Monday:

We had a fantastic last day at the campground. We went to the beach one more time and the boys spent lots of time exploring around the campsite.

It started with three deer in our campsite!

They watched them forever! And they were adorable running around in the woods with their little striped pajama shorts.

And then my dad told them about how white tailed deer put their tails up to warn the other deer of danger. So of course they put sticks in the back of their shorts and pretended they were deer. :-)

They kept running around, pretending to eat grass and yelling about danger.

Before we left we had to get pictures in front of a bat house. There were three by the bathroom and Tyler thought they were so cool. He has told me multiple times that his favorite part of camping was the bat houses.

I don't think Carsten really cared about the bat houses. But Tyler got a picture of front of one so he wanted one too. :-)

It was so much fun to camp this year. The boys were at a perfect age to really love it. They never, ever wanted to leave. And I can't wait to take them again! I'm so glad that I grew up camping with my family and that we still get to do it with them now!