6 months

Elliot is 6 months old!!!

What is our 6 month old up to? Well, he is still a commando crawling machine. I lose him in the house daily - "where is Elliot?" is a common question (we often find him wedged under tables and chairs). He gets up on hands and knees to rock back and forth, but has yet to attempt a hands and knees crawl.

He still isn't a huge fan of sitting. He will do it for a bit, but then slumps rights over. He would just rather be crawling. I'm ready for him to be able to ride in the shopping cart, so we keep working on it!

We did some sleep training this month (always fun...not) and managed to eliminate his nighttime eating. We are still having some trouble with early wake ups (he sometimes thinks 4:30 AM is a swell time to wake up) and are struggling with naps since we moved him from the swing into the crib, but he will get there. Our big issue is that he really needs to be napping at times where we unfortunately are out of the house for Henry's school drop off and pick up. The second child curse strikes again!

We started solid food a few days ago - only oatmeal and apples thus far (although he did manage to eat a dinner roll at a restaurant the other day). He makes a horrible face every time he eats the apples, but keeps eating them!

(Poor Henry, who has always been a bit squeamish about messy eating, is horrified by Elliot's eating habits. The other night he looked over at him and the mess and said in a stunned voice "that is INCREDIBLY disgusting". Ha!)

Elliot had his 6 month appointment and is now weighing in at 17.3 pounds (44th percentile), 26.5 inches (53rd percentile) , and his head is the 90th percentile (for his big brain, obviously!)

Finally, his photo shoots are now a little more complex:

Happy half birthday, Elliot!

Cutie

Just some random, cute pictures of Mr. Elliot to brighten everyone's day:

T Ball

Henry started T Ball this month! T Ball is truly awesome to watch - none of the kids have any idea what they are doing, but they take such joy in it. There is a lot of "No! Run the OTHER WAY!" going on. Henry loves it.

Running home:

At bat:

A herd of kids rounding the bases:

Barbecue Birthday

We celebrated Lila's 5th birthday today at a fun barbecue birthday party at Larz Anderson Park.

Elliot chilled:

While Henry and his friends ran crazily about:

The fall weather has started, and was a beautiful afternoon to spend at the park:

Apple Picking

We made a semi-spontaneous trip out apple picking this afternoon. The hope was that we would FINALLY be early enough in the season to pick the elusive honeycrisp apples...but alas, even mid September was too late and the honeycrisps were picked clean. We also apparently picked the most popular day ever to go apple picking - I have never seen so many people in an orchard at one time, and the line for cider donuts was so incredibly long that we didn't even bother (and that says something - we have an obsession with cider donuts). Other than those very minor blips it was a perfect apple picking trip - coolish weather, a hay ride, and lots of giant apples (and pears!) to be picked....

Bedtime

Henry helping out with Elliot's bedtime...Elliot looks very surprised about the whole thing:

Public Garden Afternoon

Our good friends Erin, Roy, and Everett were in town for a quick last minute trip this weekend and we were lucky to be able to meet up with them for the afternoon. We decided to meet at the Public Garden so that Everett and Elliot could have their first trips on the Swan Boats. The kids all had a great time on the boat, on the Make Way for Ducklings sculpture, and Henry and Everett were best buds while racing, exploring, and "fishing" in the lagoon.

First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Henry's first day of Kindergarten!!!

He is attending the same school he went to last year for PreK (and the same school he will go to through 8th grade, assuming we don't move), so he had an advantage in knowing the school, as well as knowing 4-5 other students in his classroom.Still, his emotions have been vacillating quite a bit over the past few days - going from being giddy with excitement to being very anxious (especially about new classmates and his new teacher).

This morning he started off very unhappy - even his celebratory pancakes didn't excite him. Then he started going a bit crazy with energy and anticipation. Finally, we were out the door and ready for forced photo taking:

(the color matching was completely unintentional. I promise)

And we all headed to school:

Today only half of the Kindergarten students attended (so Henry will stay home tomorrow while the other half of the class attends), and school was only until 12:30 instead of the usual 2:30. We also met in the library to find his teacher and nametag. Then his class and teacher lined up to head to his room (hard to see but I love how excited he looks in the first picture):

Upon arrival, he found his cubby with ease and settled down to a project with his friend Mia:

He did a great job with drop off - no tears shed (by him. I may have sniffled). Upon pick up his assessment of Kindergarten was this "It was really fun! The kids are cooler than in PreK. There was a lot more sitting. And we haven't learned to read yet."

Pretty spot on.

Congrats to Henry - we are so proud of you!!!