Vivian is 7 months old!

Happy 7 months to our big girl! Here's what she's been up to lately:

• Drinking 5 6-oz bottles a day, but I can tell we'll soon be down to 4 since she's eating more baby food
• Holds her own bottle during feedings
• Has oatmeal and fruit for breakfast and a veggie for dinner (she finished her first entire jar of veggie tonight!)
• Getting very good at drinking water out of her sippy
• Tried puffs but may have an allergy to something in them since she developed eczema on her cheeks afterwards; loves Mum-mums and has not shown an allergy to them
• Taking 3 naps a day still
• Waking up around 7am and going to bed around 7/7:30pm each night; sleeping through the night
• Wearing size 4 diapers during the day, size 6 Huggies overnights at night
• Mainly wearing size 9-mo and 12-mo clothes, but the outfit for her photo shoot tonight was actually an 18-mo outfit - they were supposed to be capris, but were pants for her short little legs :)
• Loves the bathtub and the pool - has so much fun splashing
• Still enjoys her exersaucer and LOVES the playmat that my mom sewed for her, although it's not containing her as well as it used to since she's starting to get mobile
• Loves to turn in circles, roll to get where she wants to go, and scoot backwards - it won't be long before she's really getting around!
• Just started clapping this weekend - so fun!
• Making more sounds every day, but still no ma-ma or da-da yet
• Loves when Owen pays attention to her, but has definitely become more vocal about her feelings when he pushes her or takes a toy away

Family swim night

After naps, we suited up and drove over to the pool for some family swim time. Owen loved using goggles for the first time and exclaimed that he was "a scuba diver!". Vivi giggled like crazy when we swam her around the deep end. A good time was had by all until we accidentally picked up another pool-goers pizza delivery which we mistakenly thought was ours. Ooops. Oh well, we still had fun.

Winery picnic

We met up with one of my old co-workers from Sallie Mae, Karen, her husband Joe and their baby Grant today for a picnic at Loudoun Valley Vineyards. We enjoyed the beautiful weather, yummy wine and sandwiches and got to catch up with friends we hadn't seen in a long time. We're looking forward to seeing them next month at Grant's 1-yr birthday!

Sippy love

Grandma Marshall comes to bake cookies

Today Grandma Marshall came over to make "Cars"-themed sugar cookies with Owen. He had been dying to make them ever since Tish gave the cookie cutters to Ben for Father's day. He had so much fun and even more fun eating them. They disappeared so fast I couldn't even get a picture! :)

She's really starting to get mobile...

Vivi tries puffs

Vivi had fun playing with the puffs and opened her mouth whenever I offered to put one in. I think she *may* have some kind of allergy to something in the puffs since her cheeks got super red about an hour after she had them. We'll see if it happens next time she eats them.

Leesburg Parade / Backyard fireworks

We kicked off July 4th with the Leesburg parade. Kel, Matt, Kayla and Ryan came too and we just might have to make it an annual event. We got a great spot towards the end of the parade (in the shade I might add) and the kids loved seeing all the fire engines, motorcycles, Corvettes and more. Vivi struggled a bit, since it was during her usual nap time, but she pushed through and stayed awake for most of it.

After the parade, we walked a few streets into Leesburg and had lunch at Doner Bistro, a cute little German eatery.
Naps followed for some, and then it was over to Kel & Matt's for another BBQ. Ben brought the fireworks. The kids watched as Matt and Ben set off some small fireworks in the backyard (luckily there were only minor burns to portions of Matt's grass).

You can totally tell in the bottom right picture of this collage that Vivi is thinking "Why the heck are you letting 2 & 3-yr olds do sparklers next to me in this Exersaucer??? Are you nuts?!" I can assure you that we were right there next to them as they did them and no one got hurt. (Well, except for when Kayla and Owen both touched the stick after it burned out. Nothing a little cold water can't fix!)

We let the kids do some sparklers after dinner then we headed inside for a break from the heat and some strawberry shortcake for dessert. We turned on the DC fireworks coverage on TV and the babies went to sleep while Kayla and Owen played. We tried to make it to watch the Ashburn fireworks, but we were all so tired that we called it a night after setting off a few more in the backyard. It was a very fun Fourth weekend and we thank Kel and Matt for hosting twice. :)

Grandparents are the BEST!

My mom and dad drove down from Hershey today to spend the night so they could watch the kids for us while Ben and I went to a show at the Kennedy Center. It had been a long time since we had been on a date together, so we were really looking forward to spending the evening out together. We really appreciate how they drove all the way to babysit for us and were glad the kiddos could spend time with them.

Before we headed out for the night:
Owen and Vivi couldn't have been more excited to see them. They had a great time together while Ben and I went to dinner at the waterfront in Georgetown, and saw an awesome show - Next to Normal. My shoe broke between dinner and the show so I was hobbling around a bit, but we had a good laugh over it.
We took some pictures the next morning before they left to head back to Hershey. You can tell that Owen was getting a little annoyed at Teddy trying to get at his toy racecar. And I caught Poppy and Vivi pretty early in the morning. Didn't catch Grandma on camera this visit, but I will next time. :)
Thanks so much mom and dad ~ you're the best!

Fourth of July weekend began

with a very fun BBQ at Kel & Matt's new house on Saturday evening. The kids had a ball running around and playing together and Ben was even able to join us at the end of the night after his annual golf tournament with his buddies wrapped up.
It was a great start to the long holiday weekend.