10 months

Cole turned 10 months old last week. He is continuing to grow at a fast pace - he weighs about 26 pounds at the moment. He started to crawl this month and is getting places quickly.

He's also beginning to pull himself up, though he hasn't made it all the way to his feet yet. He's got a big body to lift!

And Cole has started babbling a lot more - na na, ba ba, da da, ma ma. He's not using any sounds as words yet, but hopefully he'll start "talking" soon. Such a fun little man!

Pool pics

Here's some more pool pictures. Penny took care of the pool at a friend's house, so we were able to swim while they were gone. The kids had a great time:

Jumping off the diving board...

Diving off my shoulders...

Using the floats...

And looking cute!

First Day of School!

Laine started Junior Kindergarten today. She will be going to school every afternoon from 12-3. She has the same teacher as she's had before, whom she loves, but they are in a new and improved classroom.

Laine already made a new friend, Clare, whom we got to hang out with this summer along with mutual friends. They're really excited to be in school together, especially since there's only 3 girls their class this year!

Pigtails

Mead's hair has grown incredibly slow. But she is excited about having her hair up, mostly because Laine gets her hair done a lot these days.

Here's the first attempt at pigtails - pretty cute, I think!

Pool time!

This summer has been SO hot - many 99 degree days. Thankfully we've had access to several pools to help us stay cool. After going to "real" pools, I thought the girls would be bored with our baby pool. But they kept asking me to get it out, and finally I did.

They played for a while, and had a great time.

Cole and I enjoyed sitting in the shade and watching the girls.

Gymnastics

Laine took gymnastics this summer, and she absolutely loved it.

It provided her with a weekly outlet for all her energy.

The jumping, flipping, swinging, climbing, running, etc. was almost therapeutic for her.


And, turns out, she's pretty good at it too!


I doubt we have a budding olympian on our hands, but we'll probably let her keep doing gymnastics, off and on, for a while.

Just look at how much fun she had!

Montana

Penny and I got to go to Montana this past weekend for a few days of rest and relaxation.

We joined a couple from our church who has a house in Bigfork, on Flathead Lake. This is the view from their backyard.

Another beautiful view from their neighborhood.

One afternoon we went out on the lake and puttered around, grabbing a bite to eat at a lakeside restaurant and enjoying the amazing scenery.

The weather was in the mid 80's during the day and the upper 40's at night. Such a nice break from the St. Louis heat!

We flew over the Rocky Mountains on our way in - there is still snow on top of them!

Painting

It takes a good mood for me to be willing to get the paint out for the girls. For some reason I feel like it makes a huge mess, though many times it's not actually that bad.

The girls love to paint, and it's been fun to see Mead improve in her "art" as she gets older. Lots of colors and full pages make it really pretty! Paint on, Mead.

9 month check-up

I took Cole to the doctor this morning for his 9-month check-up. There's no denying it - he is a big boy! He weighs 24 lbs 12 oz. (94%), measures 29 inches (75%), and his head is 47.5 cm (95%)!! The predominant comment I hear from everyone is about how smiley he is. We love it!

He's been a little slow to move and speak, but hopefully those things will develop soon. He's been rocking on his knees lately, so crawling could happen any day now.

We found out he had an ear infection, though he didn't complain about it. Once that clears up he should be able to hear better, and he may start repeating sounds a little more. His only consonant so far is m, so he says "ma ma ma" all the time. I'll take it!

Birthday, cont'd.

Last week was Laine's birthday, and she seemed to have a wonderful day. She requested to go to the zoo, so we braved the almost 100 degree weather. Then we met Daddy at Red Robin for lunch - the balloons were a big plus.

Here's the cake I made for Laine - she's been really excited about Rapunzel lately! And since we had already devoured the cake at her gymnastics party, we served chocolate chip zucchini bread with a candle at breakfast on her actual birthday. Yummy!

Laine has loved being 5 already, regularly talking about being a "big girl." I know she's grown an inch this summer, and I look forward to see all the other ways she will grow - physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually - this year. We love you, Laine!