5 Months!

I can't believe Baby E is already 5 months old! As you know from hanging out with her, she is almost always smiley and laughing.  Check out the video of her at the top of this blog to see her giggling away!

But the few moments when she is not smiley, she is all serious.  Particularly if she wants Ma Ma's attention.  The other night just us ladies took a walk after dinner. At the beginning of the walk, she was all smiles.  Then, it was serious.  Look at that little stare and her using both fists to grasp two of my fingers.  She was not letting go!  I had to push the stroller with one hand for a bit.  I will admit that this evolved to some shrieking (on her part) until I picked her up.  And then in my arms she was all smiles again.  She can be a big faker!

Dr. Da Da, Ph.D

Today Da Da defended his dissertation, and he passed with flying colors.   We had a BC party to celebrate.  When C got home from daycare, he said. "Hi, Dr. Welch!"  At his request we also had party hats.  I still remember C peaking over the gate at our old apartment, looking at Da Da hard a work in the office, calling him.  He would say "Da Da working?  Da Da works here." 

He has worked so hard for the last 5 years and we are all so proud of him!

Truck Day

Sunday was very exciting.  After church we picked C up a donut and went to "Truck Day" in Wellesley.  We almost didn't go because C fell asleep in the car, but I am so glad that we did.  He had SUCH a good time.  There was a little petting zoo with goats as tall as him, which he found hysterical.  He got to "drive" a fire truck, police car, fuel truck, digger, cement mixer, and a police motorcycle.  The policeman gave him a sticker badge to make him an officer for the day, and showed him where he puts the bad guys in the back seat.  On the fuel truck, he pulled some lever or pushed some button that made a steam whistle sound...he just cracked up at that. 

On a much less exciting but cute note, C borrowed an "Arthur"book from daycare on Thursday.  On Friday we made Arthur puppets and he was insistent on making them their own bedrooms to sleep in with blocks, and he gave them each their own blanket (a washcloth).  He played with this all morning, and at night before we went to bed he made sure to put them to sleep, adjusting their "blankets" so he could see their faces.  It is so funny to see him play calmly with things like this, and then run around for two hours at a playground, playing with a friend in a soccer goal and running around a baseball field.

E has had a good time being a fashionista, making her way through gifts, and having fun hanging out with her Da Da. 

Memorial Day Weekend

What a beautiful 4-day weekend we had!  C LOVES to completely imitate his father in the yard, helping with all of the projects.  At one point I looked out and they each had one glove on and were raking.  Another time they were spreading mulch...and C made a point to put extra mulch in the bunny garden (the garden that has a little bunny statue in it).  Our lawnmower was on the fritz, so as Da Da was fixing it, C went to "fix" his lawnmower too.  C would stop, look to see if Da Da was still working.  If we was, then C had to work too.  At last, they could both mow again, with C going turn for turn with his dad. And he always says, "Thanks for helping me, Da Da."

I took the kids in the "brother and sister stroller" to a very small Memorial Day parade.  C liked waving his flag and he got to wear a policeman's hat! 

E rolled over for the first time...from a tummy time position onto her back.  She is very good at rolling onto her side (she usually does this whenever we put her down to sleep), but like C she gets stuck on her shoulder.  She also moved into her own room. 

Farm and Family

The weekend after Mother's Day I took the kids for a weekend at Ba Ba's.  I was baby E's first sleepover.  We had planned to come in for the Farm Day since we had so much fun last year, and were able to attend a family graduation party and give Da Da some piece and quiet to finish the final edits to his dissertation. The kids were great, although they got up VERY early each day.  The photo of them in their PJs is what 5:45 AM looks like! (On a side note, Baby E is obsessed right now with grabbing both of her toes!) 

At the farm, C was excited to see the same band from last year, and has since talked about the "Saints" song, since they played "When the Saints Come Marching In".  (Since the other side of his family is from New Orleans and big Saints fans, I think it is funny that the CT farm reminds him of this song.)  He got to touch a bag of recently shaved sheep's wool "some that was clean and some that was dirty."

I think my favorite part of the visit was him sitting on a tree stump in Ba Ba's garden. At home we have recently been reading "The Giving Tree" (one of my absolute favorite books as a child).  Anyway, he was SO excited to see a tree stump, so he insisted on sitting on it.  At first I tried to encourage him not to walk around in the garden, but seeing him sitting on the stump was just too cute.

By the end of the weekend, we were all pretty beat.  We arrived at the graduation party with two completely passed out little kids.  He did rally and have a good time playing with Uncle Brendan.  On the way home we got C his first happy meal.  What a fun trip.