Vivian eats, she crawls and she walks

I thought I'd just do a post about Vivian's milestones since it's so fun to look back on later. Since she started crawling 7-8 months, she is totally on the go at this point. Crawling from room to room quickly, we are always on our toes.

Her food consumption has also increased. She likes 3 squares a day. I wish I could say I make all her food but unfortunately I've not managed to do that. Thankfully, these days organic meal pouches from PCC are convenient and yummy! I am doing table weaning as well.

Some foods are: yogurt, watermelon, champagne grapes, pasta, organic puffs (super greens), and plums. Her meal pouches are purple carrot, apple, squash, amaranth, chicken, ratatouille and even beef. Growing brains need iron!

This past week at 9 months I've been putting her in her crib at night. She shouldn't be in our bed, blah, blah, blah.......

I just love holding her, sleeping with her and breastfeeding her.

I do have to admit, having some time and my body to myself has been nice. Breastfeeding is still definitely happening though and we both love it!

She has somehow managed to get her one little nub of tooth (lower incisor) to clamp down on me. Ouch!

In a word, I love Vivian with all the love that I have to love with. The Universe opened up and smiled at me when they were born and I will never be the same!

No matter how hard any given day can be I always know that. Max and Viv are my Sun and Moon.

More Summer Fun!

Here are some pictures from our trip to Remlinger Farms. The only one of Vivian is when she went for a ride with us in the antique car. Otherwise, it was all about Max fun this time. I can hardly wait to see Vivian enjoying adventures like these in the future!

Westport and other miscellaneous summer fun

We had a great time for the second annual Webber/Zeichner, Beene trip to Westport! Max and Elana played so well together. We splashed in the pool, went to the beach, played board games, climbed the lighthouse and flew kites!

This will be duly noted as the summer that Max got bit by a crab! He was so excited to show mommy the big crab he found at low tide at Carkeek park when....oh no she was alive and crabby!!! It was a small bite but enough for Max to have a story to tell!

The summer has flown by and it's already time to start the last year of preschool for Max. I may begin cooping Vivian in January.

She Crawls!

The biggest news in the Beene world is that Vivian is crawling! She started taking a few timid pushes with her arms about a week ago and now a week later....... put her down and she's 6 steps away in a flash. Wow talk about fast!!!

We think she'll be walking very soon because she's already pulling up and doing more of a monkey (half walk, half crawl) type thing. She needs to start catching up to big brother!

We are in the process of painting the house and have had a landscape company come and work on our flower beds. Looks better than it has in the three years we've been here.

Also are some pictures of the Alki Art festival that Charles and his band Puppet King played at. It was a beautiful day and really fun event.

And last but not least Max had a reunion in the park with some of his dearest friends from ELDC. Hard to believe these kids are moving on to kindergarten this year or next.

I need to get some video of her crawling up on the blog! I'm not very proficient in transferring video and I need to learn it. Can't wait till the kids learn this stuff so they can teach me!

Aikido.....more pictures to follow

Denny Creek Camping 4th of July

It wasn't easy to get pictures while camping! Most of the time Vivian was grabbing at the camera while in the Ergo. I managed to get a few and Max actually took the one of me and Viv!

It was our second year going to Denny Creek on the 4th of July. I don't know how Max is going to like camping with just us anymore. He had so much fun with his friends Jonas, Elana, Ioni, etc. There were lots of kids to play with. He and his dad rode bikes and we did 2 hikes (one to Franklin Falls). JP brought tons of hockey sticks and everyone had fun with those. Especially Max who played for an hour one day!

I loved being with so many good friends. It wasn't easy at times for the adults....the adults with kids I mean...... but a nice campfire and a little beer helped with that.

Start of Summer

Viv has been siting up like a champ for the past three weeks or so.... I guess we put the official sit up time for the records at 6-7 months. She is now way up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. She actually does push backward but looks like she'll be crawling forward very soon.

Max is two stripes into his yellow belt and has also made some major progress with his swimming. I wouldn't call it swimming yet but we'll get there!

We are looking forward to our first camping trip this weekend as a family of four! We're going with 6 other families and plans include several competitions such as balancing an egg on a spoon, wheel barrel (wheelbarrow) races and best decorated campsite.

I looked up the term because I wasn't sure how it was spelled when humans play this game and it looks like it can go either way.