Juliane and Rice Cereal

Two things have made my life significantly easier and better over the past week. One is the arrival of Marty's cousin, Juliane, from Germany. She arrived late Wednesday night and by Thursday morning, she and Josie were already best of friends.

She is great with both Benjamin and Josie.

She is mature, confident and really just fun to be around. The kids, Juliane and I took the bus downtown. We had fun seeing the sights and of course, she wanted to see where the first Starbucks was.

If she is going to really fit into the family, we figured we should get used to our walk down to Alki and Pegasus right away.


It was late and we were tired so we took the bus back home.

The other thing that has changed my life over the past few days was introducing rice cereal to Benjamin's daily routine. He had been really fussy and not sleeping well for the past 7 weeks or so and believe me, 7 weeks seems like an eternity when you are only getting 5-6 hours of very interrupted sleep a night and then loooong very unproductive days with a fussy baby. The Dr. suggested rice cereal as a way to keep down his projectile spit-ups. Turns out, he was hungry for more than breast milk and formula. Since starting him on the rice cereal he is sleeping 6 or 7 hours stretches at night (11-13 hours total) and taking 1-2.5 hour naps! I know that by writing this and making it public it curses the whole thing and he will be back to waking every 3 hours tonight.. Let's hope not, though :)

This is what Fritzy thinks of the rice cereal.

4 Months

On August 23rd, Benjamin turned 4 months. He is doing well and is mostly happy - when full and well slept - I guess I'm the same way. Who can blame him?

He got a clean bill of health at his Dr. appt. He is 13.10 lbs. 25 inches long and at the same percentile for both (55% for height and 25th for weight)

Caspar BabyPants

Last week we went to see Caspar Babypants play at the Concerts in the Park series at Hiawatha. We met up with Bryn and Ansley (and Kurt & Dawna). The girls got their faces painted and enjoyed dancing and singing. It is really funny because a month or so ago, Chris Ballew AKA - "Caspar Babypants" (from The Presidents of the United States of America) came into the podcast and sang a couple songs just for Josie. She was completely overwhelmed and even ran out of the room. Of course, now she knows all the words and listens to the CDs all the time.

Growing Up

Here is an updated photo from one of our latest PEPS gatherings. It is amazing to think that the older ones met when they were just Benjamin's age. The group started with 10 moms and 10 babies. Some moved away, a couple got divorced and now we are down to 5 moms and 10 kids. What a treat for both Josie and me to have such good friends.

A Nice Surprise

Grandma and Papa called last Thursday and said they missed Josie and Benjamin and wanted to make a spontaneous trip up north. It was such a nice visit. Thanks SO much for making that long drive to spend the weekend with us :)

We had fun at Lincoln Park (Colman Pool laps for the big kids)

And Lincoln Park (Splashing in the wading pool for the small kids)

The weather was in the 90's so we tried to cool off down at Alki after pizza at Pegasus.

Marty, Josie and Ben bringing water to build sand castles

First time with feet in the sand

And, my favorite photo so far of the kids together.

Hootenanny

Marty's first "Hootenanny" went extremely well. We were all quite nervous that about 150 people were going to show up and try to squeeze into our side yard. Thankfully, there were only a bit over 100 and everyone seemed to fit just fine.
It was an amazing evening of live acoustic music and good food. Unfortunately, none of my photos or videos really does it justice.
Marty and Jodi broadcast from the top of Josie's play set. They had each artist come up to be interviewed then each person left by sliding down the slide.
Here is Leroy Bell in the swing set fort.

Camille Bloom performing

Josie in her own world on the swing

Josie had fun with Emma Rose and Allysa. They are both 11 and were good friends to Josie and took good care of her that night.

The view from the deck - VIP seating. Thankfully, there were a lot of people who wanted to hold Benjamin.

Notice - Benjamin being held by friend, Jeanne and Josie being pushed on the swing. I guess Hootenanny means built in babysitters :)

Family

A couple weeks ago the Wileys came down to visit. We had a great walk through Schmitz Park to the beach and Pegasus Pizza. A weekly event for us in the summer, it was fun to do with a bigger group.

On the walk home, Jon found some "free" stuff.

Kim and Ben bonding

Later that same weekend we went down to visit Oma and Opa.

Lately when we go all Josie wants to do is have Marty throw the ball over the house. She watches it come over then yells, "it came, it came" (because sometimes it doesn't and gets stuck somewhere requiring a ladder - which she also loves) and then give the ball back to Marty and says "Best Day Ever!! - Do it again!" It is quite humorous.

Hands

Little Fritzy continues to love his exersaucer. He is definitely the happiest here where he can see everything going on around him and "play" with Josie better this way. It is so funny to watch him discover his hands and what they can do.

I never realized how hard it would be to get a really good photo of your two kids together. One is either crying, scared or making a funny face. Still haven't found a framer yet but I keep trying.

GROWTH

The 29th of July was our 5th wedding anniversary. These hydrangaes were small individual plants that decorated the tables at our wedding. Just as these flowers have grown, so have we. Our family has doubled in size, our house has nearly doubled in size and so has our love, our hearts and our lives. We are truly blessed. Here's to many many more anniversaries.

Summer

Josie has been taking swim lessons with her best friend, Bryn. Last Friday they completed two weeks and the class celebrated by jumping off the diving board (or starting block things) They will take another two week session starting today and then we will try to get her in our pool as much as possible. It really is amazing how her confidence has doubled (or quadrupled) after having lessons every day.

What screams "summer" more than red, ripe, juicy raspberries. YUM!

We've been taking advantage of the long summer nights by going for walks to parks after dinner.
Benjamin is happy to be sitting up in the front part of the stroller watching his big sister at the park. Soon enough, he will be out there playing with her.

Daddy reading books to both kids before bed - the nightly routine enjoyed by all.

My friend, Molly, and I have an interestingly similar history. We got married three weeks apart, her first son, Dawson, was born 2 weeks before Josie and little Gavin was born two weeks after Benjamin. She has another daughter, Reagan, in between the two kids. That part will remain different. We are stopping at 2!

Here are big sis and big bro "holding" their siblings.

Benjamin and Gavin

Josie and Dawson