Annabelly at 5-6 months

Oh Annie. What a sweet baby. She has had a rough time with an ear infection and some nasty eczema/ non-stop itchy dry skin, but is still generally as happy as can be. She only really cries when she has a dirty diaper, desperately needs a nap, or if we wander out of sight for too long. She mostly just chills in her bumbo and will giggle whenever we come up and interact with her.

She still wakes up usually once a night. She's also losing her hair, which is tragic. These pictures were taken over the course of a couple months, and there is quite a bit of difference. She has a patch of long dark hair on the back of her neck with a bald spot right above it. It is wispy everywhere else. It is growing back in much lighter. 

We like this bow because it mostly covers up the bald spot on the back. Baby hair is crazy. 

We tried giving her her first solid foods! She heartily objects even after a week of giving her a little bit every day. We have tried rice cereal and mushed up banana, both diluted with pumped milk. 

"why do you torture me this way parents"

We took her swimming! She was completely expressionless the whole time, but did not cry. I count that as a success! She did kick her legs quite a bit. 

Not a fan of the whole sunlight thing

Now for a montage of all the random pictures I have of her from the past few months

Another bookworm in training?

Baby zone at weekly playgroup. Annie is in the pink pants. She certainly does not lack playmates!

Elliot makes her laugh quite a bit these days

She spends a lot of time in this bumbo. She has a flat spot on the back of her head, so the pediatrician said to keep her off her back when she is awake most of the time. She is probably going to master sitting up before rolling over. Her sitting record set earlier today was about 30 seconds. 

My two kitchen helpers

Post bath snuggles

Garden & Tucson Festival of Books

Saturday was our spring kickoff party at the community garden. I sent out reminder emails and showed up with a bunch of homemade muffins and a pitcher of pink lemonade. Only one other family showed up.  Most of my stragglers responded to my "hey guys where are you" email with a decent excuse and promised to plant soon. I just had to drink a lot of lemonade that day. 

The turnout was as puny as this carrot

 The upside of the lackluster garden party attendance is that we were out of there pretty quickly, which freed us up to go to the Tucson Book Festival later that day! It was pretty neat. There were tents everywhere. We didn't do any research in advance, so we didn't take advantage of any of the scheduled talks or shows- although we did stumble upon an extremely talented guitarist in the Native American tent that we listened to for a while.  We mainly hung out in the science section where there was a lot for Elliot to do. 

Whole foods had a free cereal exhibit!

WITH STRAWBERRY MILK

I had some high school flashbacks with these edible bugs (chocolate covered cricket and cricket flour cookie)

Elliot had a really weird reaction to this sand and water table. He was super hyped but super stressed that it stuck to his hands. He was very determined to wash it off in the water, but couldn't really reach the water without getting more sand on him. VICIOUS CYCLE. 

It rained on us near the end, but that was a good trade off for the lovely cool weather. I feel like we barely scratched the surface of the book festival, and will be sure to go back next year!

Bowen House

We found a neat 2 mile hike to do with our pals the Seveys. It goes through some nice saguaro-filled washes up to the remains of the Bowen House, which was built by homesteaders in the 1930's. The roof is gone now, but the foundation and walls look like they will be around for a long time. 

CAN'T STOP ME, METAL BAR!

Annie did not cooperate with our plan to have her fall asleep in the carrier while we hiked. She screamed the last several minutes before we got to the house. Luckily, she was mighty refreshed after our shady lunch bre

Zoom in on Elliot's face in this one

Look at that view through their front door! Also at the cute sandwich parader :)

The views were great... but I still wouldn't want to live here before AC.

We're working on increasing his endurance

Annabelle rockin' the walkin'

Gilbert Ray Camping & Old Tucson

We have gotten pretty good at inviting ourselves on other people's vacations. When the Coe's mentioned that they were going camping, we persuaded to let us tag along. Elliot was pumped to combine his love of camping with his best friend Wyatt! And we were excited for a lantern lit round of Citadels. 

A couple of pals sneaking some Fritos

Who knew that gravel could be so much fun?

It got chilly at night (around 40). We greatly enjoyed breakfast in the Coe's heated camper. I also enjoyed an excuse to get Elliot to wear his adorkable hat.

Annabelle did great! She slept for 12 hours straight, which is her personal record! 

Next we checked out nearby Old Tucson. It opened as a film studio in the 1930s. Tons of western films and TV shows were filmed there, including Little House on the Prairie. They still film the occasional movie there, but it is mostly a museum/amusement park nowadays. 

Elliot was obsessed with this ride. There were no lines, so we went on it 6 times. 

Merry go round was a hit too

Apparently this is the most filmed train of all time. He's quite the locomotive super star. 

Big Changes for Elliot

As a new 3 year old, Elliot graduated nursery and moved to Sunbeams in church. He is the youngest in his class, and I was sad that he got almost a year less of fun toy time than the kids with birthdays early in the year. Despite my worries, he made the switch without any problems.

Posing with a banana phone his first day of Sunbeams. He gave himself a black eye by falling off his chair at dinner. He has not learned his lesson and still falls off his chair multiple times a week. 

 Even more exciting news is that this kiddo is now officially potty trained! He has been accident free for over a week now, and I am so incredibly proud of him! We had a really rough patch for a while, but then something clicked.

The celebratory ice cream from filling out his sticker chart. He couldn't keep his eyes off that cup

We like this pose lately

I caught Elliot with his head on Alice's shoulder while she read him a book, but they jumped apart before I could take a picture. Elliot has been extra snuggly lately. It is delightful.

He has memorized the spelling of a few words. I love finding my name spelled out on the fridge. 

One of the many random crafts from the library. Elliot gets super hyped about crafts that involve glue and scissors. 

The best thing about Elliot is that he genuinely loves helping people. Especially his baby sister. 

January

January in Arizona is simply lovely. It is a little cold in the mornings, but really pleasant most of the day. All of the non-indigenous trees finally drop there leaves as well. To make things even better, we don't have any of these trees in our yard, so we don't have to rake them! We found a few places around the neighborhood where we can get the essential childhood experience of leaf piles without the manual labor part.

Wyatt and Elliot ditched the clubhouse playground for the leaf pile

Leaf break during our weekly Sunday walk

We grew some very delicious carrots at the community garden

Elliot was super excited about Annabelle's first swing experience

Annabelle was less excited but endured it fairly well (she mostly didn't like the sun in her face)

Also in January is my Birthday! I've made it to 27 in one piece! 

Aaron and I enjoyed a sushi dinner served on this cool bridge

Followed by cheesecake with friends