Portraits

We left our camera battery charger at my parents house a month ago and so photos have been scarce around here the past few weeks. However, my sweet Mum posted it back to me so I was finally able to take photos of Sophie with her seven month sticker on. Now that she's almost 8 months. Ha!

And she just started sitting yesterday, on her own!

Since all the sickness that's been floating around at our house prohibited me from taking her to have her 6 month portraits done, we only just got around to that. Today was the day and she did really well. I had some specific shots in mind, to match ones taken of Jack at the same age and I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.

A comparison of Jack's 7 month portrait and now Sophie's

Sweet baby girl at 7 months old

Busted

These children of mine can't seem to stay out of health trouble from one week to the next at the moment! Today, while playing outside at a friend's garage sale, Jack connected quite badly with the concrete driveway and acquired a nice fat lip as a result. It bled badly at first but once we got it cleared up, I could see it was split on the inside and split quite deeply up near the gum. However, we didn't think it needed stitches so went home to clean and ice it. Jacko seems fine and is quite content to drink from a straw for the foreseeable future!

In other news, Sophie is still having her episodes of rapid breathing, although her pneumonia is clearing up nicely. She had an EKG and ECHO last week and her heart and lungs look perfect, praise the Lord! Since one of the only other causes of rapid breathing is acidosis (there are many, varied and complicated causes for this) she has had blood and urine tests done this week. The blood tests came back negative for blood acidosis which is really good news. Her initial urine tests showed a UTI so she's on antibiotics to get rid of that nastiness. We are still waiting on further results of the urine analysis, which may take a few weeks. I feel like we've been on a roller coaster ride with her health ever since she was tiny and although the tests are turning up nothing, there's SOMETHING going on and it's frustrating trying to figure it out. She continues to be our sweet happy Joy Baby though and she brings so much delight to every day. So there you have it, that's what's been going on at our house. Happy weekend!

Moo

Each year one of our favorite fast food chains, Chick-Fil-A, puts on a fun event called Cow Appreciation Day. If you come dressed up in cow attire, you get free food, all day!!! We have never participated but this year I was determined to get my cow spots together and do this! Jack was a little nonplussed by the whole thing but once he saw his cousins being cows too he played along nicely. And of course those chicken nuggets were a highlight!

Me and my little cows (side not: I drew a black nose on J and then added whiskers. What?! Not sure why I did that but he ended up looking like a black and white spotted cat more than a cow!!)

The cousins twins

Nessa's girls: three little brown cows!

Sophie girl

Emma girl

Thanks for the photos Ness!

Puny

Well, poor little Sophie has been very puny the past few days, as all you Facebook friends know. She's had a cough for a while, which got worse last week and then the fever started. On Friday morning, I took her in to the doctor, as the thought of waiting through the weekend was not appealing. After hearing crackling in her chest, the doc sent her for an x-ray which revealed pneumonia in her right lung. Poor baby! Antibiotics and nebulizer treatments continued all weekend and this morning she was declared "on the mend" at her follow-up. Hooray! And just in time for her seven month birthday today :)

One thing the doctor was not happy with was the episodes of rapid breathing Sophie has. So she wants her to have an echocardiogram just to make sure there is nothing going on with her heart (which looked a normal size on her chest x-ray, thankfully). So we will go for that test in the next week.

Thank you to all those who prayed for her. And happy seven months to our sweet girlie!

Boyo

He's two. And not terrible. Just terribly cute. And funny and suddenly very interesting to talk to. We are loving this stage with our boy! He only started saying words in October and could say about thirty by the time Christmas rolled around. And now, six months later, we are having full conversations, not just about what's happened today or what we're having for supper, but how he feels about all of it. And being greeted by "Mummy, I missed you!" is the best part of my day.

"Sophie, you CUTE" is his compliment of choice for the little sister. And he's desperate for her to "grow big girl" so she can "pfay me". Hopefully he still feels the same when she starts taking his toys! His newest obsession is "base-bat-ball". Yes, he has discovered the world of sports. A large soft toy baseball and a T-ball bat are his fondest possessions. I have had to scrape the bottom of the rather empty barrel that is my brain at the moment, trying to remember baseball terminology! Dear boy, he's just thrilled when I'm the "pitcher" and he gets to be the "base-bat-ball guy". Precious child.

You, Jack Boy, are quite my "favewit" boy around. 

Celebrating and staying cool

Today was BUSY and so much fun! This morning our dear friends Conrad and Myriam visited us from Chattanooga and made us crepes. Yum!

Then this afternoon after naps, we popped into our new neighbor's Open House in the building across from ours. This is a crazy and awesome situation: Julie was one of my first American friends when we moved here in 1992. We went to the same school and have stayed in touch ever since. Her husband completed seminary recently and they moved back here and ended up at our church where I ran into her again. Then her hubby got a job at the church and they moved into the same complex we live in! So wonderful to have an old friend nearby!!! And she has three little boys similar ages to my two. Anyhoo, they invited their neighbors over this afternoon and we had a good time getting to know some other people from our complex too.

 Right after that, my siblings all came over to swim, have dinner and celebrate Vanessa and Sean's birthdays both of which are in June. And it was great to stay cool in the pool for a bit after today's record highs of 106 degrees here!

Rachel, Steve and Baby Wyn (this was Wyn's first time in the pool)

Ness, Sean and their girls

The Cousins' first swim together. They all loved the water!

Sophie (6 months old) and Emma and Wyn (3 months old)

Happy birthday to Vanessa (June 12) and Sean (June 27)!!! We love you guys!

6 Month Stats

I have a special six month post I STILL haven't got around to posting for our sweet Sophie! But here's the one with her stats. We got back in town last Wednesday and she had her 6 month check up the following morning. She turned 6 months on June 9th so June 21 was pushing it! Anyway, here are some stats on our girlie:

Weight: 11 lbs 15 oz (she is going upwards on her own little growth curve so the doc is happy with her, but seriously, not even 12 lbs yet?!!! She is a little midget!)

Height: 26 and 1/4 inches (so that's where all her food is going!)

Doings: she can roll over both ways, change toys from one hand to the other, loves to put weight on her legs by "standing" if we hold her hands, and is scooting a bit to reach toys

Sayings: she blows bubbles, and makes several sounds "gee" and "da" (I'm working with her on "Mama"!!), as well as babbling a lot

Eating: we still have to work really hard on increasing her formula intake but she actually took a 5 oz bottle last night. Andre and I were shocked! Woohoo! Anyway, she has taken to solids really well and opens her mouth and gets excited when she sees the spoon. She has really enjoyed rice cereal which we do in the morning, and just tonight I gave her sweet potatoes which she loved. Good stuff!

Looking: she is still pretty bald, but is getting quite a bit of very light, almost blonde hair the past few weeks. She is very long, just like her brother but with nice chunky little legs! She is gearing up for her first tooth I think, so lots of drool happening over here. 

Otherwise, she is a healthy and very happy little girl, for which we are truly thankful!