The Lindahls: 5 months old!

Happy 5 month old!

5 months old!

He wants so badly to sit up...

He really does like to swing!

Evelyn and her babies in a cushion fort!

Avery is 5 months old! It is so much fun to see him growing and learning. He is starting to roll around more on his own. Although he definitely prefers to be on his back still, if there is something interesting in front of him, he'll lay on his tummy and try to reach it, or "talk" to it! The other morning, instead of his usual crying when he wakes up, I heard Avery babbling. I went in to check on him, and he was "talking" to his stuffed bear. It was extremely cute! He is my cute boy! He is really taking interest in some of his toys, and can entertain himself on the floor or in the exersaucer for 15-20 minutes on a good day. And if Evelyn doesn't steal his toys first! :) He is pretty much sleeping through the night. He usually sleeps from 8-8:30 to 4:30-6. Not too bad. Especially if Carl's the one to get up at 4:30. ;) Hehe! Avery drinks formula at bedtime and during the night, so that has made it a bit easier for me. He still nurses pretty well during the day, but I'm not loving it, so when he's done, I'll be more than okay with it. Maybe when he's eating more solids!

Evelyn going down the big kid slide

Checking out the tractors at Farm Days

Look at the bunnies!

Petting the bunny

Splashing in the puddle

Mowing the driveway

'Talking' to his bear

Chowing down on pizza!

Avery is starting to eat more. He still doesn't LOVE to eat solids like Evelyn did, but he's getting better. If we let him get his hands dirty and try to use a spoon himself, it goes much easier. He seems to like the food we give him, he just doesn't seem to like actually eating. He does pretty well eating oatmeal, but he seems to like apples, bananas, avocado alright. We've tried some jarred peas, beans, and pears, and he's not too thrilled about those. Last night, we went out for pizza. I brought some food with us, but we decided not to make a scene with Avery screaming like he usually does when he eats. We gave him a bit of pizza crust, and he seemed happy with that. Then Carl started giving him little bits of cheese, ham, green pepper, and he liked it all! Silly boy! Maybe he just doesn't like the squished up baby food. We did "baby-led weaning" with Evelyn, and let her pick up her food as much as she could, and maybe that's what Avery wants too!

Evelyn. Evelyn, Evelyn, Evelyn. Evelyn is 2. :) I hate writing updates when I'm annoyed at her, but it seems like that is happening more and more. :( And I don't want to put off updates even longer (I mean it's already been almost 2 months!!) She is definitely a hand full, and she frustrates me a bit. The last 2 weeks have been really hard with her. In the past, she's had moments or a day of not being very nice. It's been a full 2 weeks now. She is defiant, whiny, bossy, and mean. Pretty much, she's 2. She does still have her moments of being very sweet and loving, but it gets overshadowed I feel like. It's making life hard! I kind of just do what I feel is right with her, even though I feel like nothing works to get her to listen!, and hope she turns out alright. This week, I dropped her off at preschool and said "Sorry, someone stole my sweet girl and replaced her with a 2-year-old!" They see it too. I hate it. She has always been so sweet and loving, and lately she has just been mean and hurtful. Today, she hit me for what seems like no reason. I picked her up to put her in timeout and she hit me even harder and said "No timeout!" Hmmm - she got an even longer time out for that one. I will say that she is quick to recognize when she's done something wrong, and quick to apologize, but I want her to stop what she's doing BEFORE she does wrong. Oh well. I will say that after she got up from her nap today, she was very sweet to me. The first thing she said when I walked into her room was "Be easy to mommy. Be sweet mommy!" :) And she has been, she has listened very well this afternoon!

Kiddo's swinging!

We do have good times, but mostly when she's being independent. She doesn't want much to do with me (or following directions...). She is so ridiculously smart. She knows most of her letters. She sometimes thinks K is X and Q is X, but she always knows X. She gets a, d, p, and b mixed up at times. She's starting to sing her alphabet, which is REALLY cute! She starts off "A,C,D,D..." and then draws out the letters together, but she's getting the right idea. She counts almost everything. Going up stairs, picking flowers, holes in the laundry basket. I have heard her count straight from 1 to 14 without missing a number, but most of the time she skips a few. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 13. She knows her colors and basic shapes. She can dress herself, and most of the time can put her shoes on, although socks need a little help! And her clothing choices leave a bit to be desired. Haha!

Evelyn still loves her baby brother so very much. She does get frustrated when he is playing with toys, because she thinks everything is hers. She loves making him laugh, then saying "Avery so happy!" He thinks she's pretty funny too! She cries if he goes down for a nap or to sleep without her giving him a kiss and a hug. And she loves getting things to help me out. She'll go get a diaper cover or a burp cloth as quick as she can. She sometimes loves him a bit too much and tries to smother him or cover him with toys. But for the most part, she is an excellent big sister!

The rest of us are doing well. Carl started a new job with Windstream - Hosted Solutions last month. So far it has been alot of long, busy days, but Carl loves it! He is learning alot and enjoying the day-to-day work. His biggest complaint at RTI was that he didn't have enough work to keep him busy, and that has definitely changed now! The longer days have required a bit of an adjustment around home, but I think we're doing well! It's worth it to see Carl happy at work! I don't have much free time, but what little I do, I try to sneak in some sewing or reading. Lately though, it's just nice to sit and do nothing when the kids are occupied. :)