Gogi

I'm not sure yet how to spell it. It might be Gogee. Or Gogey. It has two hard g sounds, a long o and a long e sound.

This is the nickname Grayson has taken to calling Finley. The first time she said it, we both looked at her and said "what?!" and laughed because it was so odd (as a sidenote, when Grayson names things, they are usually odd combos of constants and vowels, it's quite funny).

Now (of course, because we laughed) it has stuck. Needless to say, Finley smiles every time she hears it.

People

Grayson is getting so good at drawing people! New additions lately are ears and noses and sometimes hands, feet, finger and toes.

These Just Make Me Laugh

Sitting Pretty

This week Finley learned to sit on her own! A few weeks ago she was able to do it for five minutes, then ten, then all of a sudden, she could sit for hours. I think this is my favorite milestone. Grayson is a huge fan as well, as you can see from the sister-love pictures below.

Other current events in Finley's world...the girl loves solid food. She now eats breakfast, lunch and dinner. She likes rice cereal or oatmeal and then pureed anything...bananas, pears (favorite), apples, prunes, sweet potatoes (favorite), peas, green beans, squash, and carrots. She protested at first to homemade food and preferred jars, but now she's good with either. We've been trying some puffs and banana pieces now that she is sitting this week. She makes a funny face at the texture and is still learning how to get it from hand to mouth, but opens her mouth for more once she tries it. She will also drink a few sips of water from a sippy cup.

We dropped the dream feed about 3 weeks ago and were able to leave her for a night with Maymay and Peeps to get away! Then she thought bottles were just ok, not great, but now she will take them like a champ. This is big news for her since she has rejected bottles for a while now. She nurses four times a day and takes two naps (anywhere from an hour and fifteen minutes to two hours each nap) and an evening 30 minute catnap to make it to an 8pm bedtime. I think she is close to dropping the catnap as some days she fusses instead of sleeping.

She also has 3 teeth, two front bottom ones, and one front top one. The second front top one is so close to coming in. She gets a bit fussy when teeth are close to cutting, really fussy with the top one. At her sixth month check-up, she was 17 lbs (75th percentile) and 27 inches tall (90th percentile). Unless she's teething she is a very content baby. She smiles a lot and laughs at just about anything Grayson does. She sometimes moves her arm up and down as an attempt to wave when we say "hey" to someone.

She is starting to enjoy books more, which is basically a requirement for living in our house! She likes the exersaucer, but mostly I think because it has some of the best toys for teething. She rolls around to reach toys. She almost always flips to her tummy to play, and sleeps that way too. She loves stroller rides and also loves the ergo. She watches Grayson like a hawk. It won't be long before she's chasing after her!

Skip this post if you are squeamish about spit up

I had to interrupt the posts about our summer adventures to update on a few others things first. Over the past few weeks I happened to catch on camera two spit up incidences. These happen daily in our house. I am seeing a small glimmer of hope in the last week that things might be staying put in her belly more than coming back to greet us, but I had to go ahead and blog these for future reference and a good chuckle.

There she is, looking so sweet and innocent in her booster chair. Just finished a nice breakfast of rice cereal. But don't be deceived, look over to the right side of the picture on the ground. If you need further clarification just be brave and click on the picture to enlarge it. I won't go the extra mile and post the picture of the close up shot. That's a big (giant) splat of spit up. She just turned right over that left shoulder and let it rip down her arm and onto the floor. Nice one.

Another day. The girls are sweetly playing tea party. Panda and Harvey have joined us, and Finley is enjoying chewing on a variety of cups and saucers. Saucer in her mouth...

Next picture shows a cup in her mouth like she's taking a sip. But before I can even get the camera down, I realize she's actually making a deposit.

Ewe. At least that one was easier to clean up. Grayson was NOT a big fan of this temporarily tarnishing her tea set. Actually, Grayson says some funny things about spit up. She often claims that "it got on me!" or "it got on my woobi!" even when Finley is mysteriously across the room. And now, if she hears me say "oh wow" or "oh goodness" or "shew-wee!", I hear back from the almost 3 year old "is it fit up (spit up)? poo-poo? snot?" and she quickly races to meet me and says "I want to see". Lately she has even taken to pulling up a stool so she can watch me change stinky diapers. What in the world is the fascination?! At least its such a cute little person making all of these messes.

Harper Comes to Play!

Harper, Aunt Kiki (Kristin) and Uncle Eric came to visit for a weekend at Riverbank! We had soooo much fun!

Corn on the cob

After the artichoke we moved on to corn on the cob. Corn was never her favorite until she realized it was more fun to eat it straight off the cob. Again, I'm seeing a a theme here with her liking new foods that are butter transport mechanisms.

Artichoke

Move over mac and cheese....this girl loves an artichoke!

Raking the leaves all on her own...

Getting ready for a bite of the artichoke heart from Peeps. At this point we all decide that artichoke hearts are just another vehicle for butter consumption. I love the progression of these pictures.

Riverbank

It's already August and I've only blogged a tiny bit about our summer at the lake! We've spent the majority of our weekends at Maymay and Peeps' lake house (Riverbank). This is the first summer where we decided ahead of time that we would really try to get down there as much as we could. Other summers have been taken up by house rennovations, preparing for new babies, etc. It will take me a few posts (and some time) to get all of my favorite pictures up here, but here's a start.

Grayson just loved the water and the boat this year.

Riding on the doghouse while Peeps drives.

Both girls reading with daddy before naptime.