Growing Up--fast

Erica got her 2 month check up this week.  I had been a little concerned because she started eating every 2 hours again.  I was getting used to a longer break in between feeding, but then she kept wanting to nurse.  I thought, "oh, it's just a growth spurt, it will calm down in a couple of days."--but it had been lasting a week.  Then I thought maybe she was teething. 
Well, I shared my concern with the doctor and he just said, nope--she's not teething, she is GROWING.  She has gained 2 pounds in the last month putting her in the 85% for weight and she is 25 inches long which puts her off the charts in height!  So those first few weeks when I was worried that she wasn't getting enough to eat, those worries are gone.  She has grown pleanty!

But she is not the only one growing up around here.  Elizabeth just 'graduated' from 6th grade!!  They had a nice graduation ceremony at her school on Tuesday and now I have a 7th grader/ middle school/ junior high student living in my house.  I never thought I could be this old. :)

Sarah completed 4th grade and Rachael completed 2nd grade.  Maire will be entering kindergarten this September.  We are all very excited for the new changes, but focusing on the fun to have this summer.

They had an end of the school year water party and it was tons of fun.  Each girl got to invite a few friends and we borrowed Grandma Ehlers' slip-n-slide.  They got wet, ate popsicle or ice cream sandwiches, and watched a little bit of the movie Tangled.

Kool-Aid and Curls

While there are many things that I can do while holding a baby, typing coherent sentences is not one of them.  I can pour cereal and milk, click a mouse, type in passwords, sort laundry, dial a phone number, hold a book open (depending on the size of the book), and of course nagging my kids to do their chores can be done without any hands.

The Kool-Aid stand.  (a friend helped too)

Last weekend our housing development sponsored a neighborhood yard sale.  Boy was Elizabeth excited! Nothing is more wonderful than the thought that she could actually get money for things that she doesn't want any more.  It has been hot out and so she asked if she could do a kool-aid stand sometime.  I suggested that she do the kool-aid stand during the yard sale since a gathering of several families to sell things was a bigger draw than a table outside our house on a dead end street with little traffic.  But Saturday came and there was not one single other person out to have a yard sale in the big field!  We decided they could still set up a kool-aid stand on the common road (not very busy) that we see from our back yard.  The kids did all the work and even cleaned it up.  They made the kool-aid, kept track of the sales, even divided the money evenly and spent it all on ice cream from the ice cream man. :)  I stayed inside with the baby while my other girls were entertained for more than two hours outside.  Lovely!




Erica is smiling a lot now!  We love it!  She will start to fuss and one of the girls will go to her and start talking and Erica will stop fussing, look at her and smile or coo.  I love that.  I am trying to get a good picture of a smile, but you will have to be patient.  I do have a picture of her cute hair that curls after her bath.  Adorable!  It goes straight when it dries, but we'll see what happens as she gets older.