Monday, June 13, 2022

7 MONTHS

Lou hit 7 months back in May.  She had a well-check during the month and she is 28 inches tall (98th percentile) and weighs 17 lbs 11 ounces (71st percentile).  Lou often insists that she be held as I do household chores...so my arms appear to be getting quite a good workout.


Lou moved up to size 3 diapers and is now wearing 12 month clothing.

 
Lou's pediatrician sent us to a dermatologist to have her birth mark checked out.  Millie and Silas have had similar birth marks that have faded over time.  We actually call them their "AVATAR" marks because they are a triangle shape on their foreheads.  Lou's had very distinct margins so we wanted to make sure it wasn't something more serious or that requires treatment.  Her birthmark is called a salmon patch or nevus simplex.  When the mark is on the forehead and eyelids it is referred to as angel kisses.  When the mark is on the back of the neck it is referred to as a stork mark.  

 
Here are her monthly pictures this month. 

 
This is one of my favorite pictures from the month.  On May 4th we dressed Lou up as Princess Leia .  The fourth is finally with us and we are so delighted that she made it to our family.
 

Lou had her first trip to Lagoon this month.

She is a people watcher and loved watching all the people out at Lagoon.  She also loved her first train ride.



My mom found a few more of my old dresses and this blue one is one of my very favorites.  I thought Lou looked so cute matching Seth in his new suit.

 
Phin and Millie are always begging to hold Lou.  What a lucky girl to be so loved.

 Lou has a "square bottom" as Nona says.  She mastered sitting this month.

She also loved the warmer weather which meant we were able to spend more time outside.

She was quite intrigued with the goats at Cross E ranch...they tried to eat her shoelaces.

 
 The Easter dresses that I ordered arrived quite late...but don't Lou and Millie look adorable in their matching dresses.

One of my favorite things was getting picture updates of Lou when she was at childcare.

 
 
 
 
This is Allison the literal "Lou whisperer."  She was Lou's favorite at childcare.  She figured out how Lou liked to have her bottle held and all the other little quarks with Lou. She is not returning to the center next year and will be dearly missed.
 
  
 
 
  
 



Lou also tried her first solid foods this month.  She started with oat cereal...which really she didn't care much for.  We were able to do just a few bites at each mealtime.




Lou loved the swings at Cross E ranch. 


I love these pictures of Lou and Bart.  Bart is the baby whisperer in the family and he worked hard to win over Lou.



Lou is rolling around and scooting backwards quite a bit.  She has gotten herself into a few tight spots.

 She has loved being on the sidelines at the kid's athletic events.

Lou had her last day of childcare for the year.  Miss Becky has been the director for the last two and a half years and is now moving back to the South.  We will miss her Southern Charm and the way she loved on our two littles.

 


We had our first girls night and day this month.  Seth took the boys to a camp-out so we went out for dinner and dessert.

 
The next day we went to Grandma Jo's tea party. Lou actually turned 7 months on tea party day.
 

This month we also did some serious sleep training.  Lou had become quite accustomed to being swaddled and we knew we needed to break that habit.  It was a rough go for quite a while...but she is now getting used to not being wrapped up quite so snug.

Monday, June 6, 2022

APRIL

April started out with Seth starting to shave his beard.  He shaved down to some chops...Millie told him he looked like a leprechaun. 

 

I took the kids up to Farmington Station for the Bunny Scavenger Hunt.  They loved running around to find the bunny window clings in the shop windows.


We paused our hunt for some pretzel bites.


 
We had a Festival Pass to Cross E's Baby Animal Festival.  We went for the first time the first Friday in April.









 
The ranch had a new archery area set up and Phin loved it.




 
Phin also loved the rock climbing wall.


 
We spent a day up in Cache Valley.The kids loved spending time with their cousins.

 
Scott, Kristi, Kira and Theo surprised us with an Easter egg hunt.  They hid eggs in our yard and sent us a text message to let us know we needed to go out and hunt.  

 
Silas especially loved the little dino eggs that were filled with pretend dino skeletons.

 
Silas loves to play with play dough.  He often convinces us on Sunday afternoons to get the play dough down for him.  He is able to keep himself entertained for quite a while, quietly creating at our kitchen table.
 
 
I took the kids down to Escalante for Spring Break.  They loved being reunited with cousins Carver and Conrad.  They also loved playing at our sandy "beach."

 
One morning we drove out to play at Devil's Garden.














 
On our way back from Devil's Garden we stopped at the playground in Escalante to get our wiggles out.

 
That night Kim and Jeff threw a Taco Twosday party to celebrate Conrad's 2nd Birthday.  The pinata was a huge hit with the kids.


 
Kim also had a ton of mustaches to celebrate Conrad's birthday.  I thought Phin looked a lot like Hulk Hogan with this particular mustache.
 

Lou had a bath in the kitchen sink at the cabin.  She wasn't sure how she felt about the whole thing.

 

The next day Jeff took us across the highway to explore a couple of caves.  It was quite a scramble to get up to these treasures. 

 
Jeff captured the boogie of all boogies from Silas.  I am impressed by Silas' ability to always smile through the sticky moments of life.




 
The mustaches returned and Colonel Sanders and his sidekick joined us on the hike.




The next day we headed out to the Covered Wagon Natural Bridge.  This was our first visit to this spot.  I loved the Grotto located just beyond the bridge.






Our last night in Escalante, Jeff took us to see some cliff dwellings just outside the cabin property.  It is fascinating to think about the people that once called this area home and to see the remnants of their lives.




 
The next day we packed up and headed home.  On our way home we stopped for ice cream at the Beaver Creamery.


This picture pretty much sums up the rest of April.  I had started to feel a little congested on Wednesday night of Spring Break.  Thursday when we hiked to the cliff dwellings, I felt out of breath.  I felt progressively worse as we drove home on Friday.  When I got home I had a prompting to take a covid test and was shocked when it came back positive.  We hadn't been around Seth since Monday so I called him to break the bad news.  He spent that first night isolated from us at my parent's house.  He came home the next day and isolated away from us downstairs.  Phin and Louisa ended up testing positive in the next week.  We were all wearing masks around each other in the house and in the car.  It was incredibly hard to feel like a family when were were all sleeping in separate rooms and eating meals apart.  It made me extremely grateful to really be reunited once we recovered from covid.

 
 
We got a Chess set for Easter.

 
Phin and Millie started Track and Field in April.  


 
I was so relieved when Lou started to really feel like herself again.

 
Silas and Millie had a special tea party one day.

Silas started soccer in April. 

Our kids got pretty creative with all the time they spent inside in April.

 
Our first outing post-covid was to Lagoon.  We went on a rainy Saturday late in the afternoon.  








 
Lou had her first train ride.







Lagoon had a tulip festival in April.  The tulips in all the garden beds were gorgeous.

 
We roasted hot dogs one Saturday evening.

 
Seth got a new suit.  This is his first three piece.


 
I loved watching Phin cheer Millie on at track.  Millie's age group always runs first so Phin and Silas would usually play on the bleachers until it was Phin's turn to run.


One of my favorite photos from the month...our first and last.

 
Millie got her summer swimsuit in the mail and couldn't wait to try it on.  Silas couldn't wait to pose with his transformer.



 
Silas loves to play Millie's bells.

 
Silas' preschool class frequently visited the High School Library for story time.  This was a photo from their last visit of the school year.



 
We played at the park close to the soccer fields before a game.

 
Seth would join us after work for Silas' soccer games.  


 
Unfortunately we also caught a stomach bug in April.  April was rough.  The next photos show the various stages of the stomach bug for Silas.



 
Lou was our stomach bug patient zero.  She was up almost all night one night.  I got it from her and then it made the rounds through the rest of the family.
 
 
On our next trip to Cross E, Phin was able to feed the camel. 




 
The goats loved Lou.













 
Millie had her Let's Play Music Recital.  


Millie's teacher Miss Natalie is amazing.  She taught over twenty students.  They were all up on the stage and played their hearts out.



 
Miss Natalie's daughter Nora was Phin's Bridges teacher.  Each time Phin hit a milestone with practicing Miss Natalie would send home a picture of him with his award.   

 
Millie's class learned about force and motion.  She drew a picture of her pushing Lou Lou's stroller.