5 Months!

Will's 5 months (as the title suggests) and stealing our hearts right out of our chests!  He's had lots of milestones...sleeping better all the time, rolling over, had to upgrade to a larger miracle blanket, very close to sitting up, playing with toys with more ease and cereal!

Oh boy, we love that grin.  Isn't he a good looking baby?  I mean seriously :)

He laughs without being tickled now.  He also laughs when you tickle him although I've found that he tries as hard as he can not to laugh when you tickle him, but finally he has to let out a scream.  This is just a picture that happened to have his eyes closed, but I thought it looked like a big belly laugh so I kept it.

Getting smile pictures is so much easier because he mimics what you do.  So, just smile at him and he'll start smiling away.  Now, when he can sit up, my camera will really be busy!  Taking photos of babies is hard! But I've told you that already.

Will likes his jumperoo and spends a lot of his time there.  This picture captures my Will...spit up running down his chin....always!

This is not spit up...it's his first taste of cereal! Woo Hoo! I had high hopes that he would keep that down better. Nope, he just has thicker spit up.  Kiddo loves to eat. Loves everything about it.  Now he's got the hang of cereal better and he loves that too.  This first day, he was not too sure about it.  By the way John, did you know this bib was yours? (according to Grammy)

Hope has had plenty of practice feeding her baby dolls.  She was a pro at feeding Will!

Hot Springs!

Have you been enjoying the hot spring?  We really have (though in the back of my mind I wonder if we'll be paying for this in July with 100 degree temps).  All winter, Hope has been wondering when it will be warm enough to go outside and finger paint.  Finally, it is!

Hope's personality shines through in finger painting.  She starts out timidly at first.  Just a tad bit of color on her hand...

maybe a little on the finger tips...

but once she feels comfortable with something, she really gets into it!  We were feet painting before it was all over!

I feel like I've not gotten many pictures of Will lately, but it's because he is not cooperating.  He just spits at my camera.

Here I caught him not looking.  This one makes me laugh...doesn't he look like a farmer looking back to check his hay?

Yum! Hot weather is also Popsicle time!  Shhh...Never tell her, but these are V-8 juice and Hopi loves 'em!

Here's to a hot, healthy and fun spring!

Crazy Crayons!

Oops! Hope would tell me that I am not supposed to say "crazy."  Actually I am trying to teach her not to say "stupid" but she has latched on to that word instead. 

Anyway... I am sure you have seen these either on Pinterest or somewhere else on the Internet... or perhaps you have done it yourself as a kid.  I wanted to do this a while ago while I was pregnant but I was afraid it would make my house smell like wax and I was not for that at all!  But... I was up for it this week so Hope and I gave it a try!

I will say it was way fun and too easy.  We spent hours peeling paper off of old crayons. I really thought that I would be doing it mostly all myself, but Hope really stuck with it.  Way to go girlie!

So here's what you do: Break em up, put 'em in a muffin tin, bake 'em at 250 for 10 minutes and then let 'em cool.  I have this muffin tin that I only use for crafts like painting and baking crayons, etc.  I wouldn't use one you actually cook with.  The crayons come out remarkably well once they are cool, but still... On that note of getting them out...the directions I used didn't call for spraying the pan, etc so I didn't but I was nervous.  I let them cool in the fridge while we took naps and when we got up, they fell right out.  The next batch we made I let cool while we ate supper.  After supper, they did not pop right out so I put them back in the fridge for a little while longer and then they did pop right out. So there ya go... if they don't pop right out, they are not cool enough.

Hope has had fun with them.  Anything new is always fun.  We mostly see people making the rainbow kind of crayons and we did that too, but I like the solid color ones.  We used lots of shades of blue or purple, etc and made solid colors.  They are fun to use on coloring books.  Makes an interesting blue sky or grass with texture, etc. (Do I sound like an artist or what?!)  Now if I could just find something cute to store these in... They are strewn across the playroom floor as I'm typing this.

Another lesson with Hope

70 degrees outside in March? Let's head to the park!  Hope was more excited about showing Will the swings than she was about doing anything for herself (except maybe the see saws...how do you spell that? And is it see saw or teeter totter?)  Now, I realize a should have only chosen a few of these pictures to show you, but it's my blog and my baby's first trip to the park so I'm loading 'em all!

At first Will says "Mom? Is this ok that this thing is moving?"

"Hey I think I like this!"

"Wee! More please!"

"Hopi is makin' this thing go! Wow, she's more fun than Daddy!"

Hope has learned from watching Grammy and Pappy that it is fun to make Mom nervous by pushing her babies too high in the swing. 

This little man is full of life and ready for fun!

Oh boy! What a boy!

Hope did make a stop off at her favorite spot: The airplane.  No kid has ever enjoyed a stationary wooden airplane more than Hope has enjoyed this one.  Tonight, she drove me to the moon on it.  Sometimes, we just go to Kroger, but it's always a fun ride!

Lessons with Hope

Hope is a great big sister.  Will loves her and loves to watch everything she is doing.  Hope decided the last sunny day was the day to teach Will about bubbles. So, out to the backyard we went. 

Shh... don't tell, but Hope hasn't exactly mastered bubble blowing herself.  She often blows too hard and only gets one bubble out if any.  In case you haven't blown bubbles in a while...easy does it.  You'll get many more bubbles that way!

And, sometimes she spills her bubbles bottle.  No problem.  Thankfully bubbles are cheap and we have a lot of 'em!

The highlight of Hope's bubble blowing days are always when she is able to catch a few on her wand.  That, she has practically mastered.

Will liked his bubble lesson!