Lily Grace: 6 months

 Oh my sweet girl. You have already completed the first half of year one here with us, and we love you more each day. You haven't been your cool as a cucumber self in the last few weeks as I suspect you have some little teeth giving you grief. You almost never cuddle- you want to be aware of everything around you. No time for relaxing. But lately you've been more snuggly and I've been enjoying those extra moments. You also haven't wanted to let me out of sight for more than a minute or two, so you basically follow me from room to room, in my arms, or in the bumbo watching me unload the dishwasher, make lunches, or exercise. You chew on absolutely everything like you're going to pulverize it to dust with your gums. You love chewing on rubbery toys and rings, wooden spoons, and cold face cloths the most. Let's hope you aren't an eterni-teether like your big sister. 

You weighed in at 15lbs even at your checkup. That's a jump in percentiles for both, and a testament to your love of real food. There has been nothing that you've flat out disliked. You've had sweet potato, carrots, peas, avocado, mashed potato, beans, mango, apple, blueberries, pear, orange, watermelon, chicken, beef, peanut butter, eggs... You now like rice rusks, and love to gnaw on cucumber.

I always know when you're tired because you do this little shuffle/wiggle with your bum. Although your napping could use some work (20-30 minute power naps are for adults... not babies), you are so good at night, I can't complain. You go to sleep by 8, and sometimes I have to fight with you to stay awake until 7. Then you sleep until 5-630 in the morning, eat, and usually go back to sleep until 8. Thank you for sleeping through me getting your siblings ready for school nearly every morning. You are a gem.

You love soft fuzzy toys, crinkly books, running errands (thank goodness!), watching your sisters at swimming lessons, reading stories, and being outside.

You get really cranky if your siblings are smothering you, if you're gassy, or if I'm out of sight for too long. You aren't a huge fan of the jumper, but if you're fed and not ready to nap, that's your usual hangout when I'm exercising. You're ok with jumping as long as I'm jumping too.

You still make a humming/grunting noise when you're going to sleep. We're not really sure what that's about, but according to Brooklyn "Lily is thinking". 

You are free with your smiles, but not so free with your giggles. You do have ticklish feet, insides of your chubby thighs, and your right armpit. Apparently the left is tickle resistant.

We love you so much and can't wait to see how much more you grow in the next 6 months.

School's out for summer!

*Disclaimer. This post is monstrously long (mostly because it's full of super photos), amd because it's taken me over a week to finish, and I need to move on with my life, it is staying unedited. Please embrace all my spelling and grammar mistakes, or wonky formatting.*

Compared to last summer, our summer this year was so jam packed from the get-go. In fact this post has taken me weeks to write, because as I would go through the pictures, I would remember to add things, or come across more snapshots of our adventures. The kids kicked it off with their first camping trip with dad and Uncle Alex at Wabamun in the middle of June. We had a weather miracle, and it rained much less than expected so they got to spend lots of time playing, eating, and swimming. 

Also can we talk about that heat wave for a hot second? This is the time of year where Gordon lectures me about investing in air conditioning (happens every year). I just can't stomach the cost for something we'd need for a handful of days or maybe weeks. But that week almost had me convinced. Literally everyone I knew that didn't have A/C was sleeping in their basements, including us. Gordon slept on the couch in the TV room, and the little girls shared the queen bed in the guest room, with Lily in the closet and me on the floor. Isaac slept on the other couch one night and on a different spot of floor in the bedroom on the second night, for a total of 5 of us in our guest bedroom. Our nest would have the house at 33.5 degrees inside before bed, and even with all the windows open and fans going all night I'd wake up at 7 am and it would still be 31. I don't even remember what we ate, but I do remember not touching the oven. 

 Mia took the last day off school to go spend some time with my parents in Calgary on her own, so she didn't have to cram in the basement with us, but it was still scorching in down there. Her adventures with Granny, Auntie Paige, and cousins Charlie and Georgia took her to Prairie Winds twice (where she spent hours swimming like a mermaid) and the indoor playground.

We packed up (that was almost unbearable for me in the heat) the rest of the kids after Gordon was done work on the 30th and headed to BC for Canada Day to visit his family. Lily got to meet all her great grandparents (Gordon's grandma and my grandparents) for the first time- how convenient that they only live minutes away from each other! We visited the lake, and all the kids except Scarlett and Lily went tubing. Scarlett just enjoyed wading in and out of the warm shallow water. Isaac also hiked to Cliff Lake with Dad and Grandpa. We're excited at least one of our kiddos enjoys hiking! We had lots of fun with Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Becky, Uncle Michael and cousins Theo and Rose.

                             

After 4 days in BC, we left the older 3 kids with Grandma and Grandpa and brought B to my parents on our way back to Edmonton. She got to have special time with Granny and Grampy swimming, park playing, visiting the Calgary farmyard, and hanging out with Auntie Paige and cousins.

Isaac, Mia, and Scarlett had a few more days in Cranbrook to play before they went on a camping trip to the Nakusp area with Grandma and Grandpa. They spent a lot of time biking, swimming, exploring, and eating junk food- specifially the ice cream shop. (Mia actually told me over one phone call "You should see how much junk food Grandma bought!"). It was definitely one of the highlights of the summer for them.

My mum brought B back and spent a few days with us. She watched B and Lily so I was able to go out to young women's camp (I have the privilege of being a youth leader in our church). We hiked Sulphur Skyline, went swimming, sang campfire songs, and laughed waaaaay too hard.

We all met up in Calgary to celebrate B and my dad's birthday in the middle of July, and then Isaac stayed back with my parents, and we took the girls back home. 

Are you confused yet? It literally takes me weeks to figure out which kids are going where when. Not living close to their grandparents means that I want them to have every opportunity to have adventures with them over the summer. And the kids are SO lucky to have extended family who love to do things, and are willing to make the best memories with them.

Isaac always enjoys his alone time with Granny and Grampy. They went to Calaway park, the trampoline park, bike ride down to the river, and a trip to the Calgary tower. Isaac still talks about how he got to ride the C-train, see China town, and walking on the glass floor. The girls and I had lots of fun here park hopping.

Then we swapped yet again. Mia, Scarlett, and B went down to Calgary and Isaac got to have a week with mum, dad, and Lily. The girls did more swimming at Prairie winds, played in the sprinkler, had fun at both indoor and outdoor playgrounds. While Isaac was here we went exploring in Patricia ravine and then to the spray park, spent a whole afternoon out at Spruce Grove checking out several playgrounds and their fabulous spray park, went bowling, visited the Lego store, and watched movies.

At the end of July I went down to Calgary solo to pick up the girls and celebrate my nephew's 3rd birthday. The picture on the trampoline is my dad apparently teaching the girls how to do yoga a la Homer Simpson...

Georgia and Lily with Granny!

I was looking forward to not having any more traveling or packing and unpacking of suitcases after July. But then we decided kind of spur of the moment to take a trip back to Cranbrook mid August because all of Gordon's siblings (minus one) would be there. We hadn't see his brother since 2019 or met our new sister in law, so we left one afternoon after Gordon was done work and pulled into town around midnight. The kids would have been asleep, had the flashing lights from the police vehicle who caught Gordon speeding not woken them up. 

It was incredibly smoky from all the fires, with tiny bits of ash falling from the sky one of the days. We still made the best of short time there. We went on Auntie Becky and Uncle Michael's sail boat, found a sketchy rope swing, did a bit of swimming in the lake, went to Moyie falls where Isaac did his first "cliff jump" (unwitnessed or unsanctioned by me), and had lots of chill family time playing board games, drone flying, trampoline jumping, and movie watching. 

                                    

When we weren't packing and unpacking, or shuttling the kids to and fro, we were playing at the park pretty much every day. I had come across an Edmonton playground instagram page (edmontonplaygrounds-if you live here and have kids follow them) and there were so many neat places I hadn't been to that I wanted to check out with the kids. We had yet to repeat our 40 playground summer since B was born, so I made it our goal this year. We had a playground bucket list, and we diligently went through nearly all of them. Some days we even hit two or three different ones if we had made a bit of a drive. Our favourite new spray park was probably the Jubilee park in Spruce Grove. We went there twice and the kids had an absolute blast both times. We also drove out to Broadmoor Lake Park twice and spent several hours there both times. The kids love a park with an ice cream truck! And I'm happy to report we hit our 40 (actually 41!) different playgrounds and it was worth every minute of listening to them bickering on the drive there (on the way back they were either too exhausted or had too much fun together to fight). Those playgrounds were just ones I took the kids to. They didn't include any playground adventures with grandparents.

We celebrated the last day of summer break with bowling and crepes for supper. Thankfully September has been rather lovely, and we've been able to keep our adventuring ongoing. The kids loved the ward campout at Wabamun (Gordon and the 4 stayed overnight and I drove out in the morning with Lily). They got to explore, eat way too much junk food, play human foosball, try archery (Isaac and Mia), and almost got to go canoeing. Gordon brave soul that he is decided to take 4 kids (Mia, B, and two kids of friends) out on the canoe despite the wind. One second I was taking a picture of them setting off, and not 10 seconds later I'm snapping a picture of them dumped in the lake with all of us laughing from shore.

We attempted a garden again this summer. I planted carrots twice with no success, but we did have success with our green beans and cucumbers (which were totally new to me!). I admit I am a totally novice and self taught gardener, so I have loooots of learning to do. But I was proud of our little plants this year.

I also trained for and ran a 10k race (first pic) with my sister and a half marathon (second pic) with my mum. The 10k was virtual. The half was supposed to be in person, but got canceled 2 weeks out because of rising COVID cases, so my mum and I ran it on our own. It was a beautiful morning for me and I even had my own little cheering squad at the end. 

Our next summer might look quite different, as Gordon accepted a position in Grande Prairie, and started there this last week. It's been busy for him, but there is lots for him to do and he gets to be his own boss in many ways, so I think he will thrive. The kids and I are adjusting to our new normal (basically a lot of driving everyone to their evening activities), but we are surrounded by loving family and friends and I have faith that we will be able to make it through whatever the next few months have the throw at us... unless it's more renos. That is not something I think I can survive...

Even though the endless packing and unpacking and pre road trip cleaning had me stressing, as is my normal, when I look back at the hundreds of pictures we took the last few months and all the memories our kids made, it was worth every load of laundry, car seat reinstall, and stray goldfish plucked from the van floor.