8 Months, already!?

Grandpa always has treats in his pocket!

Ready to go, scarf, purse, and small lap dog!  She put this together all on her own - 100% girl!

Smiley face!

See his teeth!  His hair is growing fast too!

Ah!  In only 4 months Kevin will be a year old...my baby is growing up too fast!  At least in 4 months it will be summer and we will be going outside every morning to walk to the park!  :-)

It has been a quiet month.  I have had more time to delve into this dairy/gluten free cooking.  Currently, I am going through my cookbooks trying all the recipes that are already friendly the diet, or only need slight modifications that won't sacrifice flavor.  My goal is to find budget and family friendly meals that everyone would enjoy.  We've found a few favorites, and some so-so's, and some definitely-NO's.  That is why I've been posting so many recipes.  The keepers are to share, in case any of you ever need a meal for a guest or suddenly find yourself in my position!  Right now, I'm working on perfecting my coffee cake recipe, and will also be putting up a recipe for apple spice cake with maple glaze!  It's pretty tasty, and attractive for those nicer occasions.

The kids have grown closer over this past month.  Kevin really enjoys being near his sister, and has started to try and converse with her or at least make as much noise as she is.  He still doesn't crawl, but he does roll over a lot now.  I knew he could roll over before, but he just wasn't too interested until recently.  I get the feeling that he might go straight to walking, but you never know.  His "words" are starting to take on syllables and repetitiveness, almost like mama, dada, etc... so we might get to hear some real words sooner than we realize!  Also, he shows a clear recognition of his family names.  When I talk to him about sister Kendra, he will turn and look at her with smiles.  I also was telling him how nice his daddy was and he turned around 180 degrees to look at Nathan across the room.  He is very good at making eye contact and will stare a hole in the back of my head while I'm cooking when he wants me to get him.  He loves exploring new places, going out, and new objects.  (I'm sure that is pretty normal ;-))

I think we are making progress in the sleeping department, although he has been on a growth spurt so has been eating almost hourly.  The other morning, he awoke especially early and I was lingering in bed, hoping he might just go back to sleep (clearly I wasn't completely awake enough to think that one through).  Kendra came out of her room and he heard her so that was the end of my dreaming.  Or so I thought!  She asked if she could go see "Kenan" and I said yes.  She took her newest favorite book - There's a Mouse in the House, sat on the floor right next to his crib so he could see the pictures and read the story to him about 8 times almost perfectly from memory!  She gave him his paci too.  It was the cutest thing to see her holding up the pictures to show him and his chubby cheeks crammed up next to the bars so he could see her.  It melted my heart!

"Reading" books is another thing Kendra has been doing better now.  Before, she babbled a lot, but now she remembers the words connected to the pictures and can read a book pretty well after one or two times.  She has also added the phrase:  I'm being patient Mommy!  Which is pretty cute, as you can imagine.  It is nice that she understands now what waiting means.  She also has reminded me several times in the past few days to be happy...um...working on smiling more!  Haha...guess I am rather serious looking when I'm doing housework, dishes, etc...

We've been working on table manners a little bit too.  Now she asks before she gets down from her new big girl booster seat and before she takes her bib off - to prevent spilling all the crumbs and stuff everywhere.  It is so cute how she remembers to ask nicely.

Kevin sits in the high chair, playing.  He has tried a few foods, but isn't really interested yet.  I'm sort of glad, since nursing is so much easier, I don't mind delaying solids at all.