Miscellaneous July Photos

It's been a great month!!  Evie has been very "helpful" lately, with lots of "Momma, can I help with you?"  She likes being with us more than playing with her toys.  And loves her play jewelry, pretty dresses and other fun girly accessories.  Evie also no longer wants to ride in the cart at the grocery store or ride in the stroller - such a big girl now.  Henry's growing and changing at a crazy pace, and is scooting on the floor (soon to be crawling, I'm sure).

Musical Chairs

So this week we moved Evie out of her highchair (it's one of those that grows with the kid, we haven't had her in a traditional highchair all this time, I promise), and into a booster seat on a dining chair.  And we adjusted the highchair for Henry so he could sit with us at the table during dinner.  He mostly sits there and continually throws his toys on the floor and then grunts for more, so we spend much of our dinner time now fetching toys off the ground.  But it's nice to have him there at the table, regardless.  (Henry would really prefer to sit in one of our laps so he could reach for our plates but that wasn't working so well now that he's got longer arms).

Asleep On The Sofa

Joe took these photos in a very rare moment where Henry & I had briefly fallen asleep on the sofa.  This kid has been keeping Joe & I from getting any decent amount of rest at night for the last, hmm, 6 months now.  Henry just wants to party at random times, like 3 AM, or has gas like a grown elephant and it wakes him frequently.  So I went to check the time these photos were taken... guess what, it's only 7:29 PM.  It's a good thing this baby is so darn cute and lovable.  Awww, look how sweet he looks when he's sleeping, he's so precious.

Henry in the Exersaucer

Luckily, Henry loves this crazy thing, since he's long outgrown his bouncy seat.  Such a fun and absolutely adorable baby!  We'll keep him.

Henry's Eating Food

We've started Henry eating solid foods this month.  Well, not really very solid as much as thin mushy stuff.  He's eating some pureed avocado in these photos and enjoying it a bit more than Evie did when we first tried it with her. (http://www.evelyngraceholt.blogspot.com/2012/01/avocado-not-fan.html)

Henry Turns 6 Months Old!

Our little guy turned 6 months old this month!!  We can hardly believe how fast the time flies with the second kiddo.  Still such a delight, Henry is full of smiles, adores his big sister, and is showing quite a bit of interest in our food.  He's pushing up on his knees now, and seems very intent to get moving soon.  We suspect he'll start crawling in the next couple of weeks.

Bathtime With A Special Guest...

..Mr. Potato Head!  Joe was giving Evie a bath and took these hilarious photos of her.  What a crackup!

Rissa & Sylvanna's Birthdays

We have a lot of summer birthdays in Joe's family.  Here are a few photos of the fun birthday celebrations that we had for Rissa and Sylvanna's birthdays this year.  Evie is really loving all of the occasions to eat cake and still says "It's Evie's Birthday!" at every party.

Potty Training

We've decided that it is finally time for Evie to be potty trained.  We've waited far longer than we thought we would, for various reasons.  Personal Readiness- we didn't feel Evie was ready for it a year ago, she has shown zero interest, and still struggles with undressing herself.  Life Changes- we didn't want to start it just before or after other big changes such as getting a new little brother or moving into a new home.  Parental Laziness- this one is all me, we've been really busy this year so far and I wasn't up for the challenge of potty-training a very independent and resistant toddler.

So I've been trying to prepare Evie for it by telling her over the last couple of weeks that it was coming soon.  Her response was "No, I'm too little-big".  Hilarious, right?  But it is time, nonetheless.

This first photo is some insight into how ridiculous I am as a parent.  I started buying these little potties when Evie was around 18 months old, convinced that I would get this kid using the potty by 2 years old at the latest.  And over time, we've purchased or otherwise acquired no less than FIVE potty chairs or potty seats.  I guess subconsciously I was hoping that if we bought just the right one, Evie would fall madly in love with it and potty train herself.  Hahahahaha.

But it's actually going really well.  She's not excited about it, but it's been a bit easier than I thought it would be.  And her teachers at school are being very helpful during the two mornings a week that she is with them.  I'm realizing that it is a longer process than I thought but hopefully in another month we'll be finished with it all and we can put this big effort behind us for a couple of years.