5 month update

Andrew turned 5 months old on August 12th. He's tasted two foods so far - banana and avocado. He enjoyed both, and has made great progress learning how to eat from a spoon in two short weeks. The bananas constipated him, so for that reason and a few others we're still moving slowly with foods, he's not getting them every day yet. He weighs 17 pounds and is too long for a few of his 6-9 months onesies - so he's growing well!

Andrew has been rolling both ways for over a month now, and is scooting around! He can move a foot or more pretty quickly with his own style of Army crawl/kick combo. He'll push himself up on all fours, but isn't quite sure what to do when he gets there. We expect he'll be crawling very soon.

Comparatively, at 5 months Evyn had done a short Army crawl (about 6 inches) once. She had just started rolling the week she turned 5 months old. She was eating solid foods daily, and weighed 16 1/2 pounds, but was nearly two inches shorter than Andrew (she was 25 1/2", and Andrew is somewhere around 27"). Though Evyn wasn't very mobile, her manual dexterity was quite impressive - leaps and bounds beyond the level Andrew is at. She could sit and play for extended periods of time - Andrew, on the other hand, hates to sit, and gets a little wobbly after 5 minutes.

Both kids took their first trip "to the mountains" at 5 months old! We just returned yesterday from our most recent voyage - I'll post pictures soon. In the meantime, here are some photos of Evyn at 5 months old, circa September 2004:

a day at Dutch Wonderland

Tuesday 8/11/09 I took the kids + cousins Emily & Elisabeth to Dutch Wonderland. It was hot - HOT! - but we had a great time. And Andrew barely made a fuss, he was content to tag along in the stroller most of the day.



























8/11/09

pool days

Evyn thinks it's fun to swim in her inflatable pool. She also enjoys helping to put away the pool afterward (ha!):


Andrew likes to stay high and dry:


Back for another round of swimming lessons:

like a fish

Wednesday 8/5 was Evyn's second swimming lesson. She's doing great! She never stopped smiling during the whole 30-minute lesson - even when her head popped under water, she came up grinning. She's so proud of herself.





One thing that has really helped is that she isn't afraid to go under water. When she was 6 months old I started taking her to the Rec Center pool and (much to the shock and dismay of the other parents) dunking her under the water.
(Have you ever watched this video of baby Miles? It is shocking, and amazing, and wonderful. I get goosebumps every time I see it!)

For the record, she didn't cry, she didn't swallow any water, and yes she enjoyed it. Later, at bath time her Daddy would get her used to water on her head and face. So she's always felt quite comfortable in the water.

She had a 3rd lesson on Thursday, and we have some great video of her swimming back and forth, under water, under the ropes. If I figure out how to reinstall my video editing software I'll have to post some of it!