Family update

Hello all! As you can see I've just updated the blog with all sorts of stuff, most of which is out of order! I find it amazing how little time I have anymore to post now that River is a whopping 7 months old! That boy keeps me awfully busy! So, here's what most recent in our world....

Summer, as you will see, has joined a summer T-ball team. She seems to really like it and one of her friends from school, Rory, is on the team as well and his dad is one of the coaches (as well as Clayton!). She has been doing great in school and has really found a new confidence within herself. Summer has made a few friends on our street and this has broken her out of her super-shy mode a bit. She has been more outgoing in the last 3 weeks than I have ever seen her be! We met 2 new little girls today as she helped me walk Zero around the cul-de-sac. They are redheaded 7 year old twins, Emily and Elizabeth. We introduced ourselves and they enjoyed meeting Zero and we let them know anytime they see us out playing that they are more than welcome to come over and join us. They also have a 3 month old boy at their house, Ian.
She is acting more and more like the 5 year old she will be in June. And she has been wanting more and more of the kids in the neighborhood to be able to come over and play. She had the little girl across the street over for a playdate this week and I've posted a short video of the 2 of them playing. She has also been fond of making up songs with nonsensical things happening in them for a while now. Just the other day she was making one up and then decided to try and explain to me that there were 3 notes in it and what they were. She tried to explain this to me for about 10 full minutes and I only partly understood what she was trying to get at. I told her she and Gabe should have a conversation about music the next time he visited and maybe he could teach her a few things about notes and such. She is still into Scooby-doo and dressing up like a princess. She has been very dominating in the area of clothing and what looks good with what, as you'll see in the following posts. And we've recently had a breakthrough with her hair (which she didn't used to let us near!). Now, she brushes it every day because she likes my new brush. AND, she usually likes a ponytail in her hair, because you can put a ribbon in it as well. She actually let me put her in some cutie pigtails on Friday, but they didn't last the morning. So, there's Summer for you.

River is now officially 7 months old and working SO hard to get his body to move in the ways he wants it to move. He can sit up without any support, but I still put a boppy pillow behind him because every now and then put catapults himself backwards and slams his head on the floor. He has got awesome small motor control with his hands-- he can pick up his food and get it into his mouth (good hand/eye coordination), and gets any toy within reach where he wants it. He's big into throwing his toys to see what happens. He also plays the dropping things on the floor from the highchair game, but not to get us to pick them up, just to see where it will go. He loves to be in a standing position more than any other and doesn't understand why his legs won't keep him there. We'll walk him around while holding him and he gets a big kick out of that--- we think it makes him feel big. he has gotten himself into an almost crawling position a few times, but hasn't done anything with it. He has also skooched himself forward a bit in that position without realizing thats what he's done. He yells when he gets stuck on his back and refuses to turn himself onto his belly because he hates being on his belly more than anything. He's learned a few signs from me, but can't actually do them himself-- he currently understands "nurse", "drink", "food", and "more." I'm not sure if its the word or the sign he understands, but he definitely knows what one of them means. His sign for wanting something is to have both hands waving in and out. He has also learned that he gets ignored a whole lot when things are going on and every now and then that requires him to escalate his voice to a yell if he wants some attention. Summer never had to learn that one, as she was always the center of attention...

Clayton and I are just amazed that we've been in Northampton for 3 months now. Life has just been flying by at top speed lately. He has been going to Boston every Monday and travels to Springfield about once a week as well. He is still managing to spend a good amount of time with each of us and feeds little man once a night to help me get more sleep. He is also one of Summer's T-ball coaches, much to her delight. He will be taking this next weekend off from work and family and heading to Lake Placid for a weekend of fly fishing with Fran Betters (a flyfishing and flytying expert). He's super excited about it.
I am filling my days with both kids and re-reading all the Harry Potter books before the new one comes out. I've just finished the 3rd one and am on to the 4th. I am looking forward to the new growth in the plants around here and have staked out a few forsythia bushes that I hope to harvest the branches off of for dreamcatchers. I have been keeping my eyes open for the bears that like to roam our neighborhood, but have yet to see any signs of them. I hope to capture a picture or video of them once they arrive. I have been working on walking off the extra weight from River's pregnancy that seems to want to stick with me. And am hoping to take banjo, karate or massage lessons this summer.

That's it from us for now, enjoy the newest pictures and videos from us!!