6 months!

Grant turned 6 months old on March 17th. First on the agenda was his 6 month checkup. He weighed 18 lbs, 11.2 oz (72%) and was 28.75" tall (98%). So basically, he is tall and thin. He is no where near as chubby as Andrew and Claire were at this age, but he weighs about the same as they did. He got more shots and the doctor checked for teeth, but there aren't any yet. At the ripe old age of 6 months it is time for baby food! Grant definitely didn't spit it out like his siblings did. This picture is our first attempt with just rice cereal. He swishes it around in his mouth like he is tasting every morsel before he swallows. A few days later we tried rice cereal with some sweet potatoes. He liked them and since then has also tried peas, carrots, and green beans.

Grant has also become interested in a pacifier which has been nice because it has making him sleep longer - not through the night or anything like that, but longer naps and between feedings. The next two pictures are his 6 month shots with the sign. The sign, like everything else, is potential food.

Mmmmmm....paper is delicious!

We joke that Grant has sticky fingers. He tries to grab at anything in his reach. Hair is one of his favorite things along with paper, food, and especially the computer.

He found his feet and loves to pull off his socks.

But he still does not like tummy time. One thing that he really likes is the cat. Whenever she is around he will watch her walk around the room. Hannah isn't very kid friendly so Grant doesn't get to pet her yet.

Birthday party fun

Claire was invited to her friend Cayden's birthday party recently. Claire insisted that Andrew come with her. She does not like crowds and having dealt with her at another party the weekend before I let Andrew come. So my intention was to have Andrew sit with me and hopefully Claire would warm up to everyone. Well he ended up having just as much if not more fun than Claire. They had a lady come who did face painting and balloon animals. My kids were in heaven!

For Andrew's face paint he got a mushroom from Super Mario brothers. Really!? Of all of the choices? Of course when it came time for a shower that night he did not want to wash it off. I told him that it probably wasn't appropriate for church the next day, but he was still mad.

For his balloon creation he chose a sword and a shield.

Claire chose a unicorn for her face paint. The unicorn was the choice of all of the girls. She is also modeling the pirate eye patch that she got from the pirate themed party.

Can you guess what her balloon creation is? A poodle on a leash of course!! She walked this dog around like it was real. She was quite upset about the fact that it might deflate some day. Learning from her older brother, she refused to wash off her unicorn. So we had to do some tough love with a baby wipe. They both ended up having a lot of fun at the party and it was a nice break to do something fun in all of the rain.

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day isn't usually a big holiday for us. However, this year Andrew got an assignment from school that got us in the mood. First off, there was Grant in all green. These were his pajamas and I had intended to dress him in some green overalls, but I forgot about them until he was already changed. Here he is also showing off his sitting up by himself skills. Claire made a cute hat in preschool. If you notice, the band is colored purple. Most things she brings home from school these days are colored purple.

I guess this picture is her imitating a leprechaun and jumping out of the closet?

Andrew's big project was to create a leprechaun trap. We didn't do this project when I was in school and frankly I had no idea that there were so many bad leprechauns that need to be trapped. We let Andrew decide what he wanted to do for his project. At first he was thinking big - we needed to figure out how we could hang a net from the ceiling in his classroom. Ummmm...not sure about that. So we told him that the trap had to be a bit smaller than that.

His trap was created using one of Claire's shopping baskets from her kitchen. Luckily for us it was green! Andrew cut out the gold pieces that you see there under the basket. He also went outside and got some leaves to disguise the top of the basket. The idea behind the trap is that when you see a leprechaun coming, you pull the string and you trap it under the basket. Somehow the traps in his classroom all got set off during lunch, but no one was able to catch one of the sneaky leprechauns. Claire was upset that she didn't make a trap, but Andrew told her that she would have to wait until she was in first grade. It was a fun project for Andrew and different than the usual homework packet.