The Big 6

 This boy is 6 years old!  He's like a legitimate big kid now.

 He was lucky enough to get a friend birthday party this year.  It was Lego-themed.

 We colored Lego pictures with Lego man crayons, made our own mini pizzas, played pin the head on the Lego man, and built little Lego creations that doubled as party favors.  It was a fun little party, and E was pleased, which is what I cared about.

 The salvaged cupcake cones.  Those dang cone manufacturers shrunk the size, so the cupcake batter spilled out and made them all soggy.  Luckily frosting fixes most things.

 His buddies: Trey, Mekhai, Bayles, Sawyer, Sammi, E, and Enok.

He had to wait a whole week after his Lego party for his real birthday.  It was torture waiting for Dad to get home from work!  Luckily, he got to take donuts to school for his birthday treat, and soccer treats to his game to pass the time!

 That silly new bike was hiding in the basement!

 He got a baseball mitt with balls, a Planes set, a Lego Hero Factory guy, a new bike, new helmet, and Creationary game.

He picked spaghetti for his birthday dinner, and got to pick out some ice cream after his soccer game.

 Then...he had to wait a few more days until we could celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa!  They gave him a Race to the Roof game, and a Tinkertoys train building set.  Aunt Steph, Aunt Nat, and Uncle Brad gave him a nice Iron Man Lego set.

Happy Birthday, E!  You are the sweetest, silliest, smartest, and most creative boy I know.  You are such a good example to your younger sisters, and I appreciate when you are my big helper.  You always try to do the right things, and are quick to confess when you have done something naughty. :)  We love you to pieces.  Lego pieces, in fact.

6 Months!

 This beautiful little girl is 6 months old!  The time has flown by.

Height: 27.5 inches (70th percentile) Weight: 15.5 lbs. (38th percentile) Head Circumference: 45.5 cm (98th percentile...but I saw the nurse measure this wrong)

Little Mads!  We can't believe you are six months old.  You are the sweetest, best-natured baby there is.  In fact, your doctor calls you a miracle baby because you never make a peep at the office, and he said if his kids were like you, he would have lots more.  Your smile is infectious, your laugh is the cutest sound in the world, and your two brand new bottom teeth are absolutely darling (and sharp).

You love to play with your feet:

And you drool, a lot.  You have entered the lovely front-of-the-shirt-is-always-wet stage.  Being the third child, you unfortunately have to be woken up from naps a lot to either take older siblings places or pick them up.  You take it all pretty well in stride though.

You are trying to dodge the wind

You love to be outside, listen to your own loud and cool voice, and to roll around to where you want to go.  You learned to sit up by yourself just in the nick of time before your six-month well child visit. :)

Again, that darn wind!

You are doing really well with your baby food, although you don't like peaches.  They always make you cry when I try to feed them to you.  I kind of don't blame you, because baby food peaches smell like the elementary school lunchroom to me.  Your favorite foods are all the orange veggies, and mashed bananas.

You have 5 bottles of formula per day, and are taking 2 good naps.  Occasionally you take a third nap if we can anticipate that bedtime is going to get screwed up with another activity.

You love to be sung to, and I think you like to be read to...it just happens that whenever we are reading bedtime stories with the big kids, you are usually starving for your last bottle of the night and they are usually dinking around and quickly depleting Mom's patience, so usually you are a little fussy due to hunger and sensing the tension. Hence why I am not sure you like reading yet.  There are just too many external factors.

My favorite part of the day with you is the morning, because you just can't contain your smiles and giggles.  You LOVE to be awake in the morning and rescued from your crib.  It's adorable.

We love you, Madders, and can't imagine life without you!