Sierra's almost 8 months!

Thankfully our nanny, Natalie, loves to take pictures because I have been slacking!  Here are some recent shots of Sierra.  She is starting to become a little chubber!!!  She also finally has the makings of her first tooth.  I feel like she's been teething forever, and it's just hte beginning!!!  Sierra is getting super close to crawling.  She can get up on her hands and knees and does the rocking motion.  Sometimes, she gets frustrated and flops on her belly and just wiggle her legs.  We think she probably can't figure out yet why they are not working!!!  She continues to be the happiest baby in the world.  Always has a smile on her face, and it's one of those big, toothless grins where her eyes close a little bit.  She is not the greatest sleeper, though, but we are working on that still!  She loves baby food and would prefer mangoes to a bottle anyday!  I actually think she looks a lot  more like Erik than Alana did, but, if you look at the last picture and see Alana's pic in the background, it looks like they are twins!!!

Big Girl Hair Cut

So Miss Alana is turning into such a big girl.  She was bumped up to "older preschool" and now she has a big girl hair do!  I asked for only an inch taken off, but I think it was more like 1.5 inches.  Her hair probably needed it, but man, she looks SO much older.  We seem to spend a lot of time lately trying to find her things to do that will challenge her.  She LOVES puzzles and continues to shock me with how quick she whips them together on her own.  We are well past the little kid puzzles and on to kindergartner age ones.  She is working on writing her name, mostly so that she can label that all of her things "Alana" (or "yana" as she pronounces it!), and not "Sierra."  She is still a great big sister and fawns over Sierra all the time.  She is actually a great helper with her, too.  Every so often, we still see the three year old in her when she tries to yank of Sierra's fingers.  I am sure that's just one of many battles to come!!

Busy, busy

All has been pretty busy around here!  Both Erik and I are traveling a lot lately (too much!), but at least my schedule should be slowing down, though these next two weeks are insane.  Hopefully things slow down JUST in time for our family vacation!!!

dad with his hands full.

i just love how her tongue is always out when she smiles!

getting crazy.  pretty sure this is when alana was sick and just before sierra got sick.  major sleep deprivation this week!

alana's new place she likes to hang on the couch.  not too many pictures of her lately.  she's in another "don't picture me phase"!

Sierra at 7 months!

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Having some technical difficulties, so I guess this post will be at the bottom!  Sierra is already 7 months old!  Wow, I really can't believe it.  She is seriously the happiest baby I have ever seen.  It's almost hilarious how happy she is.  It's like she is non-stop elated at the world.  She has definitely started a need for Mom, and if i am around her and she can see me, but I am not holding her, she'll start making some noise and kicking her legs.  She's also started saying "da da da da".  She actually has kind of a low voice, which is pretty funny.  She has gotten up on her knees a few times and seems SO close to crawling.  She'll kick her legs rapidly like she can't figure out why they won't work!  She's starting to put on some weight, too, so she's got more chubby rolls now.  Too cute!  She continues to be much more interested in food than bottles (total opposite of alana!) and is always trying to grab anything even close to her reach!  I think over the next month we will see both a tooth and some crawling!  Watch out alana!!!!