Finny is 7 months

Finn's first time swinging at the park.

Here are some recent pictures of Finn at 7 months. He's got his first tooth, it came in at about 6 1/2 months. He's rolling freely, but hasn't figured out crawling yet. He's still spinning in circles on this tummy, but I imagine the army crawl will start anytime now. As you can see, he's sitting by himself now. He's a fabulous sleeper; sleeping 8 hours, then he wakes me up for a snack, then sleeps another 3 hours. He's still a great eater, his favorite food right now is yogurt. I can't believe it, before I know it he'll be walking and talking! Finn is such a jovial baby, he's got a very easy temperament. Hallelujah!

Cullen's school pictures

Here is Cullen's first school picture. His best buddy, Kenton, is the boy in the yellow and blue striped shirt.

Clare's baptism

On the way to church.

After the baptism

Sean watching his niece, and Goddaughter being baptized.

visit to Kansas

Cute cousins! Finn & Cullen with baby Clare.

Sean with his old college friends- Randy, Rob, and Justin

Finn and Nathaniel, Justin's baby. (He's 3 weeks younger)

Dinner with Holly (Sean's favorite high school teacher) and her family.

We took a quick trip back to Kansas at the beginning of Sean's leave. It was jam-packed, but we managed to do almost everything in the 9 days. We were finally able to meet Clare, our niece, and Sean was the Godfather at her baptism. Sean and I met up with his old college friends and we met Nathaniel. We had dinner at Holly's house, Sean's favorite teacher that he keeps in touch with. We also met up with some old friends from Ft. Drum (they're now at Leavenworth). Amongst many other visits...

Sean hadn't been back to KS in some time, so he really enjoyed seeing everyone. But now we're back home and Sean is thrilled with his long honey-do list! :)

St. Paddy's Day

Here are the boys in their St. Patrick's Day shirts. It was a beautiful day here, but we laid low. Cullen and I had food poisoning the night before. :( So the two of us were up early praying to the porcelain gods... like all true Irishmen do.

check-ups

The boys went to the Dr. yesterday for check-ups. Finn needed his 6 month check-up and Cullen needed a sports physical for soccer. Cullen is doing good, he weighs 34 lbs (74%) and is 38 1/2" (75%). The Dr. didn't say much else, other than "he's pretty active". :)

Finn is 15 lbs 6 oz (11%) and 27 3/4" (90%). I was surprised about his low percentile in weight, but the Dr. assured me that it's normal for breastfed babies to get lean at 6 months. He explained that the growth chart used in the US is based on formula fed babies, which tend to be chunkier. Interesting!

room mother

I was the room mother in Cullen's preschool class today. I really like that this school has such strong family ties and encourages parents to be involved. He was sooo excited to have me help in his room today! (I'm cherishing this, it won't be long and he'll be embarrassed of mom being around!) I was able to leave Finn in the nursery down the hall, and he did great!

It was so fun seeing Cullen participate during school! He does really well, much better than I could have guessed. Cullen was the leader today, so he got to: lead the class to and from the playground, help me set the table for snack time, wave the wand on each classmates shoe to dismiss them to snack time, ring the bell to end playtime, and draw a name for Cuddles to go home with. He was also able to bring a favorite book for show and tell. We provided the snack today. They are really strict, it is a peanut-free school and everything has to be pre-packaged. No artificial sugars (thank goodness) and it must be 100% juice, which is good. We brought apple slices, Teddy Grahams, white grape juice, and Cullen was especially excited about the Diego Dixie cups we brought along. :)

His teachers told me, repeatedly, how happy they are with Cullen. They told me he is quiet, and not one of the kids they have to constantly "re-direct". Who knew? They also told me that he plays with Kenton and Landon a lot, which I witnessed today (and have heard from Cullen). Our little guy is growing up! It's great being able to witness him becoming more and more independent.