6 months old

This month we get 2 pictures of Becca and the bear. As you can see, she is no longer content to just lie next to the bear while I take her picture. Anything within her grasp is snapped up in an instant (and then usually stuffed in her mouth.)








Highlights this past month:

• I think she is cutting teeth as she has been cranky and drooling a ton. I don't see any actual teeth in her mouth yet, but I'm sure they will appear soon.
• Trying yogurt. She loved it so much she ate an entire container in one sitting. This should not have come as a surprise since we pretty much single-handedly supported Yo Baby Yogurt during Samuel's first 3 years.
• She has figured out how to roll from her stomach to her back (but not the other way around yet.)
• She loves anything with buttons (remote control, phone, calculator, etc...)
• If you put her on the floor on her stomach, she will scoot backwards. I remember Samuel did that too before he started crawling for real. I think real crawling for Becca is not too far off:

Easter Pictures (better late than never)

Ernie's sister Bridget, her husband Pete, and 2 of their boys (Tony and PJ) came to visit us for Easter. Here are some pictures from their visit:

Samuel and his cousin Tony decorating Easter eggs:





The finished eggs:



The famous Easter cookies (if you are a Jackson reading this, you probably recognize these!)



Bridget, Pete, and I took turns posing for pictures with our favorite little girl. Could she possibly get any cuter?

How to have the worst picnic ever

Thinking of having a picnic at the playground? Follow these tips so your experience can be as fun-filled as ours:

1. When your 4-year-old asks if you can have a picnic, say yes.

2. Pay no attention to the weather. It has been sunny and 60 the past few days, so surely the 35 degree windy weather the day of the picnic isn't going to last.

3. Or not.

4. Do not believe your child when they tell you they do not need to go to the bathroom before leaving the house.

5. Arrive at the playground. Notice it is completely deserted since everyone else in their right mind is staying inside in this weather.

6. When taking the picnic basket out of the car, be sure to get a splinter in your hand.

7. Two minutes after arriving at the playground, try not to pull your hair out when your child decides they do indeed have to go to the bathroom. This is of course best if you are at a school playground on a Saturday where the building is locked.

8. Suggest going back home to use the bathroom.

9. Be thankful no one else is at the playground to experience the giant fit thrown at this idea.

10. Decide you will have a really quick picnic so you can get home before he has an accident.

11. Watch in amazement as child somehow defies the laws of gravity and falls off the picnic table, landing on his head.

12. Decide gravity is not your friend as child somehow drops every piece of cheese you hand him to the ground. Note to self: mittens and picnics do not mix. Neither do woodchips and cheese.

13. Notice that the baby could also benefit from being near a bathroom as she now needs her diaper changed.

12. Declare end of fun-filled picnic of the century and go home.

Science Central

Science Central is Fort Wayne's science museum for kids. Even though we have lived here almost 3 years now, we hadn't been to the museum until last week. I took Samuel by himself for some special big boy time.

His most favorite thing at the museum was the elevator. After that, he enjoyed:

The parachutes. You attached a parachute to this claw, then pushed a button. The claw would go up about 20 feet in the air and then release the parachute:





He also really like this robotic arm that you could move around and try to pick up foam rocks:



"That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind."



Spinning around on the gyroscope:

Posing with the dinosaur statue out front:

The museum was a really neat place that we will definitely be visiting again soon.

Sweaters from Nana

Ernie's grandmother knitted some beautiful sweaters for Samuel and Becca. Here they are showing them off:

5 months old

Becca is 5 months old now. Here is her picture with the bear:



She is getting so big! She weighs 16 pounds now (75-90%), and is 24.5 inches long (25%). She has become a great night sleeper. And I do mean GREAT - she will sleep for 12 hours at night, something Mr. Samuel has never done in his life. When she wakes up each morning, she is so happy to see all of us. Sometimes she wriggles like a little puppy when she first sees us, like "it's you guys again! I'm so glad!"

Other highlights in the past month include:

• getting really good at using her hands to grab things nearby.
• trying real food (sweet potatoes: thumbs down. Avocado, banana, applesauce: thumbs up. Oh, and one day at lunch she practically launched herself into the mashed potatoes I was eating because she wanted them so badly, so I gave her some and she LOVED them.)
• pushing herself all the way up on her arms when she is lying on her stomach. I think she is going to be crawling before too long.
• laughing and laughing at her crazy big brother's antics.

The Awesome Mop

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Samuel loves to help clean. A few weeks ago he wanted to use our mop all the time, but it was too big and he kept looking like he was about to pole vault with it, so we got him a smaller one. It's actually something you are supposed to use to clean the shower, but it works just fine as a kid-sized mop. Bonus for all the other engineering-minded 4 year olds out there: the handle retracts.

We don't normally have that much stuff out on our island. I had just returned from the grocery store and was in the process of putting everything away, that's why it is such a mess. (This sidenote has been brought to you by my OCD.)