Peyton Gets a Tooth and Other Adventures

Peyton's first tooth arrived this week. It's one of her bottom front teeth and the wait wasn't so awful. So far she's proven to be a far better teether than Austen.

It's incredible to think how fast they grow in this first year alone. From sitting up to rolling over (last week she started to consistently flip from back to front in her crib - I think she wanted to look at herself in the mirror!) and then crawling to walking. It's amazing how quick a year can go.

As for food, she's moved through all of her vegetables and fruits and is now making her way through her meats. Her first taste of meat (turkey and gravy) was the first time I actually saw her gag and I thought, boy she just might be a vegetarian! But with a second try the next ngiht, mixing the meet with a little veggies and fruit, she gobbled it all up. So she's still a great eater despite still staying in the 50th percentile for weight (her doctor's visit last week had her weighing 16 lbs, 10 oz) and 75th percentile for height (27 inches). So to all those who say she's such a peanut...she's not small...she's average or a little above. She just doesn't happen to be one of the many huge babies you see these days!

What's Up with Austen

Now that Austen is in a class with kids from 3-6, he’s talking more, he’s becoming more coordinated (playing ball with the bigger kids) and he’s also learning the bad habits too. Here are some things that I can’t believe my sweet 3 ½ year old is now saying/doing:

“I’m not your friend”
He usually says, I’m not your friend mommy, I’m Daddy’s friend or I’m Tyler’s friend or some other name of a kid in his class. My response: you’re right, I’m not your friend. I’m your mother. Then I think, boy I sound like my own mother!

“You’re not invited to my birthday party”
Austen loves birthdays and birthday parties even if they are not his. But I have to laugh when he tells me that I’m not invited to his birthday party when it’s the middle of the summer and his birthday is in January. Little does he know that if I’m not invited then I’m not planning it either!

Spitting
This is one of the actions that he decided to show his Dad and I that he could do when we were out for a walk one day. I think it was met by expressions of shock from both Tom and I and then wonder at where the heck he learned to do that! Then he was told he’d get lemon juice if he spit again!

“Stop looking at me!”
If he feels I’m staring at him too long or he thinks Peyton is and she loves looking at Austen and smiling at him, he’ll offer this retort. I didn’t know this started at this age!

“Stop following me!”
He usually says this when he wants to be left alone. After being with kids all day, all Austen wants to do is play by himself when he gets home from school. If you try to follow him or if Adler does, he usually isn’t happy about it.

“Adler, I don’t want to play!”
It’s great that Austen and Adler can really play together now like a boy and his dog usually would. Adler likes to take a toy and nudge Austen with it begging him to play. But, Austen doesn’t want to play all the time and if he doesn’t he’ll tell her so. But other times, he grabs the toy and sits down on our hard wood floors and let’s Adler take him for a ride!

6 1/2 Months

I can't believe that Peyton has been with us for more than half the year already. Pretty soon we'll be celebrating her first birthday! There are a lot of milestones to go before we get to that point but a lot that she has hit already.

She started baby food about a month or so ago. Cereal at first and then she moved through the veggies. Now she's on her fruits. So far, she's liked them all and hasn't really shown a preference for one over the other. The only thing that she did show was a voracious appetite. She can pretty much eat a whole container of fruit/veggie with cereal and at least two ounces of formula at one sitting! She's like a little bird who keeps opening her mouth for more!




She's also really started to notice Adler now that she can sit up. She is very tactile and likes to reach and grab for many items including Adler's fur. Adler, ever the great dog, doesn't mind either. She either moves or takes an opportunity to get her licks in on Peyton (literally).




Peyton has also taken to the beach well. She loves the water and playing with sand toys, eating sand and of course napping!




Now that she's six months, they also say the color of her eyes are less likely to change. Well, since she's been born they just keep getting bluer like her Daddy's. Check out little blue eyes!



Next week we go for her check up so we'll see how much she weighs and how much she grew. It's amazing how she's transformed in just over six months. These next six months, she'll be crawling and maybe walking too. Lots to look forward to!

4th of July Festivities

We kicked off the holiday weekend with a trip to the beach on Saturday. Peyton enjoyed her first frolick in Lake Michigan, kicking her feet and showing lots of smiles. Austen had a great time playing ball with Papa and his Daddy, and seeing his aunt, uncle and cousins.





On the actual 4th of July, we returned to the OL Parade. Not my first choice but turns out not many towns were having parades on Sundays, choosing to hold their parades on Monday instead. Grandma Szurgot took care of Peyton (dressed very fashionably in red, white and blue compliments of Grandma Lou) so she wouldn't have to suffer the 90 degree heat while we took Austen along with his aunt and uncle to the parade. Austen enjoyed himself and didn't even complain about the heat and I had fun watching Austen watch the parade. Was it better than last year's parade? Well, the weather was certainly better but I wouldn't say the parade was improved but rather I wasn't disappointed because I knew what to expect.



We returned to Grandma Szurgot's for some food, family and fun after the parade and Uncle Bob showed Austen how to slip and slide. Turns out Adler didn't think it was too safe to be slipping and sliding.



Monday, we capped off the weekend with a trip to the grocery store (hey, errands need to get done too!) and then to the mall where Peyton and I shopped and Austen, Daddy and Uncle Bob saw Woody, Buzz Lightyear and all their friends in Toy Story 3.

It was a pretty great weekend and my only regret was not taking a picture of Austen and Peyton in their red, white and blue earlier in the day to avoid this picture!