Chef Claire

Claire does a really good job playing on her own until it is time for me to make lunch or dinner. These are the times she wants my attention...of course. My solution, as crazy as it sounds, is for her to help me! She loves to stir, so if I can find something for her to stir I let her. Sometimes there is no stirring involved so she gets to stand on a chair and watch me cook. (not the safest I know) We have a really good time. I explain what all the ingredients are and she likes to "try" and repeat the words. She doesn't quite have the word oregano down yet but she is close. ;) This day she stirred the filling for manicotti, it was excellent by the way!!!

*Picture of the week*

Green Beans, Yummy!!
(6months)

(couldn't decide on just 1 picture for the week)

Half Birthday for Quinn!

Quinn is 6 months old today! Where has the time gone? She had her 6 month well check yesterday and the doctor said she is doing great. I may be the only one that thinks her growing stats are cool but I will tell anyway. She is 26 3/4 in. long (84%) and weighs 16 lbs. 1 oz. (54%). Her head is at 42 cm and is in the 38th percentile. She is growing like a weed! The doctor said to go ahead and start her on baby food. I am not too fond of the baby food stage but we will start it this weekend. I am thinking her first vegetable will be green beans. Yum!!

Quinn wanted to make sure her 1/2 birthday was a big deal so she learned to sit on her own this past Monday. (Labor Day) You can probably tell by the picture she is pretty proud of herself. We are very proud of her too!! Way to grow Quinn!!

*Picture of the week*

All Smiles!

This is the Life

I realize the holiday weekend is not over yet but I have to say it has been a good one so far. The weather has been beautiful and we have been able to spend quite a bit of time outside. Both of the girls would live outside if they could. We have spent the last three evenings out on the front porch. It feels so nice to sit outside, watch Claire play and hear Quinn coo and squeal. This is the life....I love spending time with my family.

Jared took Claire to the park yesterday morning and I stayed home and cleaned (actual deep clean and throw stuff out type of cleaning) while Quinn napped. Claire came home just worn out from playing so hard. Jared said she learned to slide down the slide by herself without any help. I am not surprised, she wants to do everything herself. This weekend it seems as if Claire's vocabulary has sky rocketed. She is repeating everything we say and saying words we didn't even know she knew. Jared and I would look at each other and say "Did she just say that?..."I think she did." I heard somewhere or from someone that by age 2 it's good for them to know about 85-95 words and I thought about a month ago there is no way that is going to happen. I am beginning to think she will have that down by her birthday in 2 1/2 months! It is so exciting and so fun to listen to her.

Quinn made me very happy tonight! I blogged recently that she could care less about eating rice cereal. I finally gave up and decided to give it a week or so and hope that she would enjoy it later. Well, tonight I tried giving it to her and she LOVED it! She opened her mouth for the spoon and instead of spitting out 98% of it she ate 98% of it. It was like seeing Claire again at that age. (Claire was born loving to eat and it hasn't slowed down!) I was delighted because she has a doctor appt. on Wednesday and I didn't want to tell them that she won't eat cereal. I am keeping my fingers crossed that she will eat like that tomorrow. Also, today Jared and I think she may have said dada!!!! I am not going to count it as official just yet but we think we heard it a couple of times today. I will see if she says it tomorrow and then decide if it officially counts as her first word. It is so exciting to go through all of these milestones with the girls. God is so good and we are so blessed. Thank you for reading my blog and letting me "brag" on my girls.

*Picture of the week*

Jared teaching the girls a little chemistry.

Quinny Q

Little Miss Quinn is growing right before my eyes. She is 5 1/2 months old. She is such a good baby and quite the smiler. She will smile at anyone! It is the biggest, light up the room and brighten your day, kind of smile. I absolutely love it. She is Jared's mini me for sure. It freaks me out a little how much she looks like him. He of course thinks it is great and says she is good lookin and so darn cute. She is continuing to find her voice and likes to talk and squeal quite a bit. Her and Claire have literal squealing contests. One will squeal then they laugh then the other will squeal. It is quite cute and sometimes ear piercing. We have been practicing sitting up on her own. She doesn't have it down just yet. She tries but always seems to end up slumping forward, which Claire thinks is pretty funny. We started her on rice cereal a couple of weeks ago and she could care less about it. She was not and has not been quite as excited as Claire was. I think she probably spits out about 98% of it. We will be waiting to start on baby food, I want to make sure she gets this swallowing thing down first. We had to cut her hair, just the top, because it looked like a plane could land on the top of her head, she had a nice landing strip. Her hair now seems so much lighter. I still try to put bows in her hair everyday so that she will wear them when she is older unlike her sister. I will let you know how that works out for me. She officially has two teeth! The bottom front two are in and she has discovered them with her tongue. I am convinced she is still teething and that there are more coming soon. The drool and the chewing on anything has not let up one bit since the appearance of those two. At this point that is all to report on little miss. We will have her sixth month well check coming up in a few weeks. I am sure I will probably post her stats.
Here are more than a few pictures of Quinn from the last couple of weeks as well.
First time bowling.

In her tie-dye that we did at Grammie and Grandpa's.

Right before the first haircut! I think she liked the mohawk.

Cutting...had no clue what I was doing.

I think she may have been disappointed with the end result. :)

Happy girl!

All smiles!

Laying on the blanket that Billie, a co-worker of Jared's, made her.

Sleeping with daddy.

Very first bit of Rice cereal! Yummmmm!!!

"Seriously, you're going to make me eat this stuff?"

"I'm done! Please no more!"

"Glad that's over."

Jared's mini me.

Showing off our new teeth! (barely in this picture)