Swim Party!

We went to a 30th birthday party for a friend the other night. It was a swim party and a lot of fun. We opted NOT to take the twins just b/c Nathan and I actually wanted to relax and enjoy ourselves a little bit. Emory enjoyed her first time in the pool, and Kaleigh seemed to have lost her fear and was jumping off the side, the diving board, and going down the slide. In weather this hot, the water is the only place to be! Nathan took a lot of pictures and got some really cute ones, especially of the kids.

Emory - 4 months

Little Emory is already 4 months. 4 months and 1 week to be exact. Her babyhood is just flying by. She's still been the sweetest little thing. Lately she's had to cry herself to sleep for about 5-10 minutes for naps & at night, but we can deal with that. I try to rock her or other things, but she just won't go to sleep that way.
I took her to the doctor today for her checkup. She is 13 lbs, 7 oz (41%), 25 inches (73%!) and her head is 16 inches (29%). She's in 3-6 month clothes.
Developmentally she hadn't really done anything new for a while, then suddenly she made some strides.

• The biggest is rolling onto her belly. She started that a few days ago. What really surprised me about that is that she doesn't get a whole lot of time on the floor. I knew she was close when she started doing this uncomfortable move. I think mainly she was always craning her head around to see what was going on with her big sisters. She still gets sat on on a regular basis. But now she can roll all over the place! Yikes!
• Her neck is getting stronger and she can hold her head up really well now.
  
• She's also discovered her hands and her feet and her voice.
• She's starting to play with toys, grabbing them and bringing them to her mouth.
  
• She loves to just squeal. She's still the smilingest little thing.
  
• We're starting to get somewhat of a routine now - bottle, playtime for an hour or so, then a nap. Some days are better than others. We're not on any sort of schedule, time wise. She sleeps until 8:30 some days but gets up a lot earlier other days.
• Avery & Alexis are now saying her name. At first it came out "Elmo" but now it's "Emmy" I think we prefer Emmy. :)
  

Activity- it's always hard to "entertain" a baby at this age, especially when you're like me and don't have a lot of time! Since she's staying awake longer and wanting to do more I sometimes have to get creative. She spends a lot of time in her swing & bouncer just watching the other kids. And they enjoy bringing her toys as well, such as pom poms, napkins, and other very inappropriate baby items! I try to read to all of the girls and sometimes I will put E in the bumbo while I read. Her sisters like to scoot her around the floor in the bumbo. She lays on her Baby Einstein mat and plays with the toys. All in all, an exciting existence.

Kaleigh's "Graduation"

This was Kaleigh's second year to go through the HIPPY program. We really like it and they are serious about it. We had 30 weeks of lessons, 5 each week. It gave me the motivation to make sure I was spending quality educational time with her each day. Although some weeks we did all 5 five lessons in one day!

But with the year we've had, I was pretty proud to have finished all those lessons. For the end of the year party they had a luau. They were supposed to have an inflatable water slide but wouldn't you know it, a storm hit right before. When we got there, Kaleigh looked around and said "this does't look like anything". Uh, oh! Someone's not as easy to please as she used to be! But free ice cream from the ice cream truck made her day. She got a bag of books for finishing and we got some pictures of the girls in their matching clothes.

My plan for the summer is to still do a lesson with her every day. I want to sign her and the twins up for the summer reading program at the library.