Puzzle Queen

Sophie is the puzzle queen!  She has always been good a puzzles, but lately has taken it to a new level-
she does multiple puzzles at the same time.  It is pretty impressive to watch. She dumps all the puzzle pieces in a pile and then will work on 2-3 puzzles simultaneously. I am not sure how she does it, because my brain does not work this way- but apparently Carl used to do the exact same thing when he was young.   It's strange that there is a multiple-puzzle gene.  Who knew?

6 Months!

 Cade is 6 months old! We can't believe it- time has literally flown by!  He is getting to be quite the big boy- he now weighs 14.5 pounds and is 24 inches tall.  As you can see from the picture above, he's got some chunky cheeks and a little belly on him!  He is now transitioning to be on a schedule, which I love, and life is starting to settle down. Right now we are working on getting him to take better naps, he is currently the half-hour nap king.  You can literally set your watch to 30 min and he will be up.  Grr this means that I do not get much done throughout the day, but at least he continues to be a good nighttime sleeper.

Right now Cade is obsessed with sitting or standing- it is all that he wants to do.  My arms get sore and tired at the end of the day from holding him in a standing position.  His eye sight has developed enough that he can see the TV and is fascinated by it! Carl was very proud that he sat and watched football.

Sophie is very entertaining to Cade, he loves to watch her.

 He is starting to try and sit by himself.  He can't hold this position for long, but he is very proud when he is able to.

 Cade is a very smiley boy!  It is really hard to get a picture of him smiling because every time I bring out the camera, he becomes very still and stares at it.  But when the camera is not around, he smiles and coos happily.

Preschool!

 I cannot believe that Sophie is old enough for preschool.  I have both look forward and dreaded her first day of school.  But for the record- she loves it!  It is her first experience away from me, and she is doing great!  We have seen lots of changes from Sophie in the last 6 months. Here are the big ones-

• She has transitioned from a crib to a big girl bed
• Potty trained- hooray!
• No longer uses her passie during the day
• Trying new foods- she ate a bite of pizza the other day, since she only eats cheese and fruit this is HUGE!
• Talking, talking, talking- she is becoming quite the chatter box
• Starting to enjoy being a big sister

This is the back of Sophie's backpack.  It's a zebra and she wore it around the house for a week before getting to wear it to school.  She loves this backpack and even wears it now to help me collect the mail.

Quick trip to Portland

 We did a quick trip out to Portland to attend my Grandma's funeral.  Grammie passed away on July 30, and we held a memorial service for her a few weeks later.  Grammie had been sick and in pain for a long time, so we are thankful that she is in heaven and pain-free- but we miss her deeply and on a daily basis.

 On the morning of the memorial we headed out to Eagle Fern Park, which was one of GG's favorite places. We had divided her ashes beforehand, and everyone got a sackful to take and spread where they wished. This was a nice way for each person to have a private moment with Grammie, say good bye, and spread her ashes in a spot that held personal  meaning.  I spread my Grammie ashes at the playground.  Growing up we spent a lot of time with Grammie, and I always remember her walking us up to the playground. I know she will enjoy watching kids play from above.

While we were in Portland we got to visit my cousin Alison and her children. Claire and Sophie quickly became fast friends and played very well together.  They seemed to go everywhere holding hands.  It was too cute.

Claire and Sophie getting to eat cupcakes together. Tasty!

Sophie Summer Update

This summer is flying by- I can't believe that we're already mid-August!  We have fallen into a routine of going for walks and going to the park during the weekdays and going to the cabin on the weekends.  Sunday nights we usually go out to eat before heading home, and get ice cream.  For the record- that is a kids cone and Sophie can eat the entire thing- cone and all- in about 10 minutes.

My mom has come out a couple of times this summer to help, and Sophie follows her everywhere.  She loves her Nana.

Sophie is starting to enjoy being in the water and doing activities that the big kids do, here she is getting ready to go for a tube ride.

 Sophs had her first smore this summer- she shockingly was not too interested in it after a couple of bites. I thought she would eat anything dessert.

 Sophs is starting to swim around in the lake.

 Sophie is very jealous of her new baby brother and wants to do everything that he's doing.  We love the extra snuggles, but hope that this phase passes very quickly.

Finally- Potty training!  My mom came out for the week to help with this task.  Had it not been for preschool starting soon, I probably would have postponed this for a while.  Sophie is very strong willed and stubborn- so this has been a stressful change for her.  But we're getting there- slowly but surely.

Cade Update

Our little Cade has been doing very well.  He is proving to be a very easy, very mellow little fellow.  He still spends a lot of his time sleeping, but is slowly transitioning into a 3 times a day nap schedule.  It is hard to believe that he has been home for 2 months. The time has really flown!  He went in for his 4 month check up, and now weighs 11.2 pounds and is 22 inches long.  Since he was born, he has already tripled his weight and grown 6 inches.  No wonder he is so sleepy!  They tell us that we are supposed to look at his milestones from his actual due date- June 15.  This puts him at roughly 7 weeks old, which is exactly how he behaves. He is still working on holding his head up, but he gets better each week!

The one place that Cade acts older than 7 weeks is sleeping- he is a champion sleeper!  Most nights he feeds around 9 pm and then sleeps till 6 am.  It is wonderful to get a full night sleep!  A lot of nights Sophie still wakes up in the middle of the night and wants me (she has regressed a bit since Cade was born), so to have a newborn sleep better than my 3 year old is amazing! Now I just have to get Soph's back on track...

Cade is now off all of his oxygen and monitors.  The company came and picked it all up last week, so now Cade is a free boy! It makes life a lot easier now that he is not tied down to a 5 ft wire.  I can now pick him up and go upstairs with Sophie, bring him into the kitchen with us, go for walks and to the park.  It's great not to have to carry everything with us when we go to the cabin on the weekends as well.

When we do go to the cabin, Cade and grandpa have fallen into an afternoon routine- taking naps by the lake.  Cado loves his nap time with gramps.

At the cabin, grandma and grandpa spend lots of time giving our cado some lovin'.  They help out tremendously, which makes coming out there so much fun!

Cade and Soph's Pro Pics

 We got Cade's pictures taken!  We were waiting until he got his oxygen and monitor off- I wanted to be able to see his little face.  For the record, he's still on the monitor at night, but off during the day which makes him much more portable.  He can now go upstairs! The picture session was slightly disastrous, because Sophie wanted nothing to do with Cade.  I am always amazed when our photographer is able to capture pictures of her smiling. We are happy to have the pictures taken, and I promise that I will now send out announcements.