New Shoes!

If you are reading this as a parent of a baby in Minnesota, you will understand my excitement that Summer's new shoes have stayed on ALL DAY...playing in various jungle gyms and bouncers, lying down, in the car seat, and even through a diaper change!  

I feel so bad for Summer's little feet in the cold, but all socks and shoes keep falling off!  (That may be partly because she is constantly kicking her feet!) I chatted with some of my mommy friends, and they told me that Robeez are the only shoes that stay on, however the price tag was a bit more than I wanted to pay for shoes she will outgrow so quickly!  I talked to some of my other friends and they said Target has a knock-off brand (Mini-star) just as good as Robeez.  They have proven to be amazing on day #1!

First Food!

Summer is almost 6 months old (on Feb 3rd) and we decided to give her the FIRST TASTE of anything she has ever had, other than breast milk!  We made some rice cereal for her tonight.  She made some funny faces and seemed to enjoy chewing on the spoon more than eating what was on the spoon!  She eventually got the hang of it and would open her mouth when the spoon was near, and slurp off the cereal.  We're not sure how much actually made it to her stomach (a lot ended up on her chin!), but I would say it was a successful first try!

Laughs and Smiles

One of the most rewarding things is hearing Summer laugh!  It doesn't matter what kind of day I'm having, when I hear her laugh I can't help but smile!  This past month, we've gotten to hear many more laughs--many in conjunction with Tucker!  As I was searching through our recent videos, most of them centered around us trying to capture that laugh on video!  As a result, we have many videos of Paul and I doing silly things....me talking in a silly frog voice with Summer's puppet....Paul juggling clementines and dropping them....but few videos of the adorable Summer giggle because by the time one of us would run and grab the camera, the moment was over!  Anyway, we did capture this giggle on camera.  Tummy kisses and kisses under her chin make her laugh!

 

 

Another thing that Summer laughs about is chasing Tucker on her new princess car she got for Christmas.  We will push her as fast as she can go as we chase Tucker around the house and she will laugh and laugh!  We don't have video yet, (I often play this game when Paul is at work, and it is hard to video while playing!) but here are a few snapshots of her in her car.

 

 Another thing that without fail, brings a Summer smile, is seeing her daddy.  Whenever he comes home from work, she will flash him a huge gummy smile and doesn't want to take her eyes off of him!  These pictures were from when we went to see daddy at work over lunch.

Hanging out with Summer

I realized I haven't blogged in a while, so I decided to take a few pictures and videos while Summer and I were playing this morning.   Here are a few of the things Summer likes to do when we play together.

We've been trying to be intentional about Tummy Time so that she can exercise her neck muscles.  For her first 4 months, she would cry within 10 seconds of being put on her tummy, but now she is more ok with it :) and is getting stronger.

 

 Ever since she learned to roll over its hard to keep her on her tummy!  We play with lots of toys to keep her interested as long as possible, and then she rolls over!

We like to sing lots of songs.  Two of her favorites are "Little Red Wagon" and "Coo-coo clock".  It's hard to video and do the motions at the same time, so you'll have to imagine that when the coo-coo sounds, she gets "thrown" up in the air the same number of times as the clock "coo-coos".  These songs make her smile even when she is fussy!

 

She loves to stand and support her own weight.  It is hard to take pictures and support her, but here are a few cute snapshots.

 

 She loves to grab, hold and shake things, and put things in her mouth!

 

She likes to talk, blow bubbles,study her hands and feet, and kick her legs.  She loves to be in constant motion! 

 

My Christmas present

For Christmas this year I asked for pulls and hinges for our kitchen cabinets, and paint!  Then, I used Christmas break to paint them!


Here are some BEFORE pictures:

the old pulls

the old hinges .....the previous owner didn't take them off when he primed and painted the cabinets, so they looked pretty messy!

The old cabinets

Summer helped me mark the cabinets with numbered post-its before we took them all off to paint them, so that we would know which doors went where!

The new color of the cabinets is called "Teddy Bear Tan".  It is a light caramel color.  The new pulls and hinges are brushed bronze.

 Here are the "after" pictures.

Just for fun, I went back and found the pictures we took of our kitchen when we were looking at our house before we moved in.  Then I took 3 pictures from the same angles.  It is fun to see the difference from our three projects: building the island, redoing the floor, and painting the cabinets.

Before

After

Before

After

 

 

 

 

 

Before

After

Kirkwood Family Christmas

After celebrating "our" Christmas morning on the 24th, we headed to Woodbury for a Christmas Eve and morning celebration with the Kirkwood side.  We continued all of our traditions the same as when I grew up, and this time Summer was included!  We went to Christmas Eve service (even though Summer spent most of it walking around the church with daddy!), ordered pizza and ate at the coffee table in the family room, and opened one present.  This year our presents were matching PJ's.  Even Summer had a matching pair of flannel pants!  Here is a family picture:

Matching PJ's on Christmas Eve

Hey look, I match Auntie Kristin!

Our happy little family :)

Summer's stocking and santa hat from Grandma Kirkwood

Daddy helped Summer open a new bath toy.

Look at me!

Summer LOVES these plastic links from Grandma.

And she loves her Grandpa too!

Summer reaching for her puzzle that will help her learn to spell her name!

Summer and Daddy