Crawling?

Not quite yet.  But still getting into everything!  

Not quite yet.  But still getting into everything!  Jennifer can also get up into a sitting position from her tummy.  And she's getting her top teeth in, four in a row by the look of it!  One has broken through. :)

Watch out little yucky things everywhere

Jennifer is able to move forward now!  There aren't any places I can put her where she doesn't get into stuff.  Downstairs there are bits of playdough.  Upstairs are loose nails and plastic.  On the deck are day old or two day old food scraps (we eat every meal out there now) and dirt from my pots, and on the grass, grass (which isn't yucky) and bugs.

Due to "extenuating circumstance" I allow her to eat pretty much everything, excepting the nails and plastic.  Her immune system at age one will be remarkable, I am sure!

We are ever so thankful for the sunny outside days, as the painting continues...

Baby shower

" What's this, you think I'm cute?"

"pbbbbbb"
(my poor toes get splattered)

It's not so fun when she does with a mouth full of food!  :o

Seven!

 We have been blessed with having Nathan as our son for seven years already!  He is now able to blow up his own birthday balloons, and make his own cake...

 with Mom's help, of course. 

 This year I was going to walk to the store in the evening and pick up some stuff for a cake, but didn't manage 'cause I was too tired by the time the opportunity came...but we improvised--and besides, cupcakes are easy to take to the zoo!

 Nathan could even, with a bit of Melanie's help, read her poorly spelled card.

Seven years have just flown by!

Lunch on the deck

 Jennifer in her "doghouse" as the kids called her little hideout under the bench.

We've been enjoying the sunny days lately.  Especially since our house is less accessible than usual because of the painters here.  School is a thing of the past, and playtime and sun is happening.

House being worked on

 We've got workers in the house again.  The older kids love watching what's gong on, and keeping me up to date on what they're doing.

The younger two are less comfortable with people making lots of noise in the house.  They looked very cute napping together in the spare room together.

Growing so fast

Jennifer can now "crawl" backwards.  She can get at a lot of things.  And, other than being extremely unhappy once, she even likes to play in the playpen during school!  On the floor she can get down from sitting to her belly relatievely gracefully now.  She loves being able to move around by herself-she is no longer a "helpless baby" and she's enjoying her relative independence..  Soon nothing will be safe in the house!

Melanie

 Melanie is such a pleasant girl-what a blessing for us!

 

When she gets bored, she now come up to me and says "I wish I could do something really fun!"  When I ask her what sort of really fun thing she might like to do, it almost always involves making a really messy craft

visiting someone., or having someone visit.

When her brothers aren't playing games her way or if they are picking on her, she goes up and plays with her sister.  What a treasure to have a sister!

 Melanie also checks on Jennifer more often to see if she needs anything.