Pictures That I Forgot About

 

 

Cyber Safety

 Meg over at Shabby Blogs posted this heads up on internet safety, and I think it's something worth passing on.  I know there have been a few times that I've posted innocent pictures of Elora, and Corinnea has kindly sent me a private message with the reminder that there are people who would view them with something other than innocence.  I think I've learned to consider that before I post, now.  I've also learned to be careful not to post my travel plans until after we've returned home.  But I've wondered too, should I set up a PO Box for my Etsy shop, to protect my home address?  After all, it isn't just my home anymore, it's my children's home, and I'm not sure I like using it for my public shop. 

Thoughts??

Beach

We packed up the new car and headed out to the beach on Sunday.  This has been a very, very long time coming.  It was the first time that I'd been to the beach since moving to Germany--4 years ago!  We've been meaning to go all summer, and it took us until now to finally make it.  Now that we've been, I think it made better sense than I realized to wait.  It would have been rather foolish, and a lot less fun, to go in the spring, when Kaylie was tiny.  Really, beaches are not infant friendly places.  They're too hot and too sandy for tiny babies.  But at 6 months, it was perfect!   The day was beautiful, the girls were very good, and we all had a good time.

Brandon and Elora played in the water.  I'm not a strong enough swimmer to feel comfortable taking her out there, so it made more sense for me to stay with Kaylie.  He took her out there twice, and even with the water spraying in her face (she normally hates that) and even though she was shivering cold, she didn't want to come out of the water.

We all played in the sand.  Even Kaylie managed to get her hands on some, despite our efforts to prevent it.  Elora couldn't even wait until we actually got on the beach to start playing.  She squatted down right by the car, started playing in the little bit of sand there.  (I was too busy putting sunscreen on Kaylie to get a picture.)  She had a very thorough bath last night, but I'm pretty sure she still has sand in her hair.

While Elora played in the sand, Brandon and I took turns keeping her company and entertaining Kaylie on the blanket.  She's getting good with a bottle, and getting better at sitting up.  I worried about her getting too much sun, especially in her eyes, but I couldn't keep the hat on her.  Next time, we need to bring an umbrella.

Before we left, we asked a fellow beach-goer to take a family picure for us.

And on the way home, we stopped at a mom-and-pop seafood restaurant for dinner, where stuffed ourselves silly on a sampler platter for two (Elora nibbled on it too). It was a good day.

6 Months!

Kaylie hit the 6 month mark on Saturday, and to celebrate, she got her first taste of solid foods!  (I'm not counting the time a few months ago when Elora tried to share one of her goldfish crackers with her sister.) I put a piece of watermelon in one of these and helped her get it in her mouth.  The watermelon got mixed reviews.

Elora, on the other hand loves watermelon.  She requested it specifically when we were at the store, and she asked so nicely that I very promptly put one in the basket.  It's all gone now.

We also got a new car seat for Kaylie this weekend.  Target had an awesome baby sale going, and had their MyRide65 car seats marked down from $160 to $100.   That's the seat I'd planned to get for Kaylie anyway, so I went ahead and grabbed one on sale even though she hasn't quite outgrown the infant seat.

I'll probably go ahead and switch over now, anyway.  It's a pain to get her in and out of the infant seat, and she's getting too heavy to tote around like that.  We'll just keep it rear-facing for a while.

Milestones!

I got my video camera charged and started taking video of the girls about 2 weeks ago.  Last night, I downloaded a nifty little video editor, and now I can share my videos with you.

Kaylie is now sitting up unaided for short periods of time, and she's started getting up on her hands and knees and rocking.  She'll be crawling very soon, and I am not anywhere near ready for it.  Why does it have to go so darned fast???

Enter Kaylie

 

 

 

I might have gone a little crazy.

New Wheels

We spent the holiday weekend car shopping.  The plan was to do some leg work now, then buy a car in December, unless we found an amazing Labor Day weekend deal that was too good to pass up.  Well, we found one!

It's a fully loaded 2011 Ford Edge.  It was more expensive than I'd wanted, but it was the car that Brandon really, really wanted, and it really was a great deal, so we went for it. I think I was charmed as much by the immediate gratification as anything else.  It has been hard only having the one car, because I've been unable to run errands or make doctor's appointments unless Brandon was off, or could get off, from work.  (We've had to cancel a lot of appointments because he wasn't able to get away.)  And to have a car big enough to seat all of us comfortably!!  Brandon and I will actually be able to put our seats where we want them, rather than moving them uncomfortably close to the dash to accommodate the car seats in the back.  Not to mention the generous cargo space in the back, for strollers, groceries, and whatever else we want to put back there.
Oh, it is so very exciting!  Just this morning I had to take Elora to see the doctor (minor, but persistent, cough; she's fine), then we went to the Salvation Army store next door to look for treasures (Tuesday is military discount day), and this afternoon we're going to run to the grocery store.

And all before Brandon gets home from work.  Hooray!

A Few New Pages