6 Months!

Wow, what a big girl. Cosette's at an age where she's changing daily. It feels like overnight she's all grown up and sitting, babbling, eating anything we put in front of her, grabbing furiously at everything in her world, and smiling, smiling, smiling.

She seems to be a very friendly and outgoing girl and is extremely adaptable and sweet. She snuggles and loves her mommy best of all, but her big brother is a close second, even though he roughs her up a little bit. She is very tough and rarely minds. We love you Miss-Priss!

Rolling Cosy

At 5 months Cosette started rolling across the floor. She loves to push up on her belly and check out the world. Also you can tell from these pictures that her outfits, even the 6 month sizes, are getting pretty tight. She is growing so fast! Her skin is so fair and her hair and lashes are finally coming in but are very light. She's such a Little Beauty.

She is a stable assisted sitter and now that she's up at eye level with Jackson, they play so much more. He shows off for her and talks with her non-stop. Here he's spinning her in the jumper.

 Jackson's current favorite toys are his dinos and he spends hours each day lining them up around the house. Here Cosette is a prop for holding dinosaurs.

 She just likes the attention

 A little pool time with our playgroup at their community pool. Cosette's a little water baby while Jackson is pretty timid and particular in how he likes to be in the water. He'll let you know if he wants to be in shallower water by saying "I don't like it!"

She's still working that thumb all day.

Escapes

It took him a while to realize that he could easily get up from his new toddler-style bed, but now it's almost an obsession. He is so crazy tired, but has decided that he doesn't want to nap or go to bed at night. He's getting up again and again and we're reeling for strategies to get him to stay in bed so some of us can get some rest.

 

When he doesn't nap all day he's like a lunatic, limp and exhausted, looking for trouble by 3pm and you can't reason with him in the slightest. It makes my days very very long. Last night he escaped at midnight and was roaming the house! What to do?

Daughter for Daddy, Cheesecake for Mommy

Jackson got to spend the night with Grandma and Papa Barrett at their home in Santa Rosa ("Papa's House" as he calls it) and Dan and I got an evening with just the baby. We got some yummy PF Changs and then went to our favorite place in downtown Palo Alto, University Cafe, for dessert. We went there all the time pre-kids. Not so much anymore.

Bubble Cow

It's actually a dog that he calls a cow, but it does (or did, since it's broken now) spit out endless bubbles, to the delight of every 2-year-old and the relief of every mom sick of blowing and blowing on those bubble sticks.

 Other backyard fun. Me and Cosette hanging in the shade on these hot summer afternoons.

 Trying to amuse baby by holding hands.

 Enjoying the sandbox. This was before he started to get nervous about the sand making his hands dirty. He's a little particular about his hands, as I mentioned in the finger-painting post, so the sandbox is a bit of a challenge now.

 What a sweet little lady!

 He's very gentle with his Sissy.

 I didn't think we'd call her "Coco" but we do use that nickname all of the time. Here's Coco and The Bear (Jack) hanging out with Daddy while Mommy enjoyed a baby shower on Sunday afternoon.

 I think Jack's yelling "3 strikes, you're out"

Crafty Time

 Trying some more fun activities around the house. I saved and cleaned out egg shells for a week for Jackson to play with. He enjoyed handling and cracking them.

We also tried some finger-painting with the new easel Jackson received for his birthday. We love washable paint.

 He's still learning color names and calls a lot of different colors "blue"

 He was fascinated at first, then got pretty alarmed that his hands were covered in paint.

We had to wipe hands after ever dip since he finds messy fingers upsetting. Maybe finger-painting is not the craft for this clean kid.

 Cosette wanted to get in there. She doesn't mind making a mess.

 I ended up doing a lot of finger-painting myself with Jackson telling me what to draw (80% elephants, 20% lions), and what colors to use (mostly all red, which he called "blue"). The next time we tried painting we used brushes and that made him a lot less nervous. Pens and chalk are the easier way to go.

 Then we pulled off the smock to do a game Jack calls "hit the ball!" where we set up the t-ball, but don't really hit the ball off of the tee. We just pretend to hit it with the bat, then run the bases. He doesn't like to actually hit it because it messes up the perfect position of the ball on the tee. He swings, then proclaims "hit the ball" or "miss the ball" to indicate if he got a pretend hit or not. If he gets a "hit" he runs to the fence and back. His favorite play is to get a "double" which is even better to him than a home run. He loves the double.

Also, there is a lot of "Go Giants!" being yelled throughout the proceedings.

 He uses a ridiculously wide stance and a very long wiffle ball bat which is much harder to handle than the short bat that came with the set. The silly thing is that he is coordinated enough to hit the ball (and often catch it) every time, but he prefers to miss.

If you know even one thing about Dan it is probably sports. He loves sports: talking about them, watching them, tracking the stats, sometimes playing them. Jack is really enjoying watching baseball and is quickly learning the lingo. It's actually a little alarming. I thought that would start around 5 or 6 years old, but at barely 2 he is sort of following the game, reciting players' names, singing "take me out to the ball game," cheering, and even listening to the game on the radio in the car. This is way too young for this kind of passion! I'm not sure if he'll want to be a player or just a fan, we'll see how his interests develop.