Happy Easter! He is risen indeed!!

Look what mercy's overcome
Death has lost and love has won
Alive, Alive
Hallelujah, risen Lord
The only one I fall before
I am His, because He is
ALIVE!

 

Baylor Easter Egg Hunt: LadyBear's First!

 

Each year, one of the sororities at Baylor puts on an Easter Egg Hunt for the children of faculty and staff of the university.  It's a really popular event with the kids and always fun to involve our kids with something on Baylor's beautiful campus.    

It was a chillier day than it has been in past years, but LittleBear still found four eggs and LadyBear even got a couple (though she was most interested in eating her Easter basket). 

Afterwards, Momma tried to take some pictures of the kids, which resulted in LadyBear continually knocking LittleBear over backwards and LittleBear trying to teach LadyBear about plastic eggs and how the eggs themselves are not for eating.   Good times!!

LadyBear and Solid Foods: BLW Style

LadyBear enjoying some freshly roasted broccoli

LadyBear has entered the exciting world of eating solid food and seems to be enjoying herself.   In fact, the few meals we've eaten where she was awake, but not given any food, she was decidedly unhappy.

 Mom, this banana is slippery!

As we did with LittleBear, we are introducing solid food in the manner outlined in the book Baby Led Weaning.   LadyBear still enjoys her milk (for sure), so this isn't "weaning" in the traditional American sense of reducing milk feeds, it is more so in the UK sense of "adding complementary foods."  Basically, we are not giving pureed or mushy foods, but rather regular food in suitably sized pieces that she can gnaw on, if she wants.  She picks up what she wants and puts it in her mouth on her own...and yes, it's very messy at first :)  She learns how to maneuver food in her mouth, chew, etc. and also becomes acquainted with foods in their normal form (as opposed to puree style) at an early age.  It worked really well with LittleBear, so there was not much question in my mind that we would do it again with LadyBear.  If you have more questions about it, feel free to visit this site or this one.

first taste of solid food

We are starting out slow and easy with what we give her.  So far, she's sampled rice cakes (a favorite), roasted broccoli (a close second), steamed carrots (not a fan), banana (she liked it), turkey lunchmeat (thoroughly enjoyed), cucumber (didn't seem to like), asparagus (not sure, but she kept going back to it), and cheddar cheese (didn't care for).  She seems to enjoy sitting at the table with us eating and LittleBear loves that she is eating now too.  In fact, the other day three out of four Browns ate all their broccoli, which is a new record in our house!

Our little LadyBear is growing up!

Guess Who's Six Months Old? LadyBear!!

 Six months old!! 

Ordinarily, this would mean she got to try her first solid food, however, our little lady decided to "go-big-or-go-home" with her first ever sickness being a case of Bronchitis that she is still feeling the affects from.   Of course, we had to take her to the ER to find this out because she was having a lot of problems breathing on a Sunday (what is it with six months olds and their first ER visits in our family?) when no one else was available to help.  Long story short, we're going to wait until she's totally better to start with solid food.  Maybe tomorrow night...

Smiling at Daddy :)

She weighs at least 16 lbs and is somewhere between 25.5" and 26" tall.  She has her well check on Monday, so we'll find out the "official" numbers then.  Being sick has made her lose her appetite and she's just now starting to get it back, so I'm sure she probably lost a little bit of weight this week.  We did not see her smiles for a week and we are so happy that our happy girl has come back!

 

Knock, knock...who's there...

Prior to getting sick, she had been napping well and sleeping better at night.  We even had two blissful nights of not waking up until morning!  She's sitting better on her own and I think is not far from sitting completely by herself, unsupported.  She still loves the doorway jumper and really likes the exersaucer she got from family for Christmas, especially when it is parked in front of our big picture window.

LadyBear likes to sing in the car (loudly...which then causes LittleBear to yell, "I can't hear the music!", which then causes Momma to think of a scene from a movie that always makes her and Daddy laugh where a guy is in the midst of a heated discussion between others yelling "Loud Noises!"...oh so funny and probably not translating well at all here...I'll get back to LadyBear).  Also, if she sees something she wants, she will make every effort to go get it.  She'll stretch, roll, twist, whatever is necessary.  If LittleBear sees what she is reaching for, he almost always runs to go get it for her, unprompted, followed by a "here's your toy"...such a sweet little boy I have!

Just for fun, here is our six month old LittleBear...  it is so fun, in looking at these two, I can definitely tell they are siblings, but they still look distinctly different.  Yes sir, proud Momma Bear...right here.

Does LittleBear Still Want to Be A FireFighter? Oh, Yes...

 

 Sheer wonder and amazement were on his face when he walked into the garage

Yes, LittleBear still wants to be a firefighter when he grows up and keeps telling me he wants another fire truck/station party for his birthday (fine with me!).  At any rate, the boy still loves all things related to firefighters (including his still-in-one-piece, cardboard fire station- totally worth the $5 we spent on it).

Our newest friend, thank you so much!!!

Recently, we had the blessing of an invitation to visit Waco's own Fire Station #1, which is the newest and largest station in the department.  It was huge!  There was a neat museum-type display at the front of the station with the Firefighter's Prayer on the wall and some gear that had been through some intense fires.  We also got to see a big board where they keep track of all the firefighters, stations and trucks around the city, their gym, rec rooms and (of course) the trucks.  They had (I think) five trucks, including the hook and ladder (which LittleBear had never seen up close), a pumper truck (like the one at the #8 station), another truck which we didn't really see, the Fire Chief's truck and a backup truck for the Fire Chief.

LittleBear loved seeing all the gear he has read about in his books, up close and personal!



Our wonderful guide, the Assistant Fire Chief, showed us around and started giving LittleBear an in-depth tour of each of the trucks.  He even got to try on the Asst. Chief's firefighters helmet (those are really heavy), a radio headset and try out the thermal imaging gun (Daddy really liked that part)!


While LittleBear and the Assistant Fire Chief were looking for the axe, the station ended up getting a call, so we had to cut it short and say goodbye, but we all enjoyed the visit nonetheless, especially LittleBear.  We are so thankful we got to visit!

off to go help someone!

Thank you so much to our friend, the Assistant Fire Chief for the invitation and tour and to all of the firefighters in the City of Waco for all you do.  Another special thank you goes out to Auntie who was with us this particular day and was responsible for all the picture taking.  Thank you for documenting the whole thing and for sharing this fun day with us, Auntie!  We love you!

Fun Things From Our Backyard: The Squngee!

Just for fun, this one is for all you animal lovers out there and has nothing to do with our kids :)

I love this one, you can actually see the corn kernel in its mouth!

 One gift I received recently for my birthday is a little contraption called "The Squngee," which is a squirrel feeder on a bungee cord.  I had hoped it would provide some fun entertainment for us and help keep the squirrels away from my garden.  The idea is to hang it low for a week or two until the squirrels get used to it, then raise it up a bit and watch them jump on to the corn and bounce around while eating it.  It's harmless and I have to admit, fun to watch :)  Recently, the squirrels found our feeder (or maybe it is just one really hungry squirrel...I'm not sure which)!  Here's a video of all of us enjoying the action:


Thank you, S family, for our Squngee!!