Anna's pulling up!

Wow, Anna's balance has gotten much better in the past few days! Watching our baby grow and change is a daily blessing. At six months and 12 days, she's pulling up to standing really confidently, and does it every chance she gets! The other day, she crawled from the living room to where I was standing at the kitchen sink doing dishes, and pulled herself up on my legs! In the past couple days, she's gotten really close to "cruising," moving her hands from one thing to another to keep balance, and maybe moving her feet a little, but not really taking a step.

She's still adamantly refusing food of any kind. For the past two weeks, I've been giving her cereal, applesauce, or bananas (progressively), and she does one of three things: 1) clamps her mouth shut when she sees the spoon coming, 2) allows a bite, but then shudders and gags and sticks out her tongue until the offending food is on her chin or bib, or 3) allows a bite, but immediately zerbets it back it out, spraying her and me both. Fun! She must take the bottle or food before I go back to school in a little over two weeks, b/c I'll be gone for about five hours at a time this semester. I'm trying to be positive and relaxed about her food experience, so she doesn't start to hate it, but I feel like I need to be diligent, too!

Hey, if you haven't already, go check out the brand-new site I've been writing for like crazy for the past few weeks, Katharos NOW. It's for Christian teen girls, run by a friend of mine, Lauren Bookout, and is funded by the church where her husband Travis is the preacher. Once again, my lack of paid writing assignments means that I have time to pursue my Christian writing pursuits. God is good.

Scooting and Hopping

Here's how my girls are movin' and shakin' this summer. Anna is scooting all over the place. I've even been putting her in knotty legs or pants, as she gets onto the tile floor and her legs get so cold! A baby blanket is now futile; she goes all over. Her favorite destination is Claire's little chair, which she pulls herself up to standing and pushes the chair a few steps before she falls down.




And Claire and I have been hopscotching it up. She hasn't mastered the one-foot jump yet, but I think it's pretty cute how she's figured out a way around that.

Summer

Wow, six months has definitely brought mobility for our little Anne! She is army-crawling like crazy, sitting up on her own, and can even pull herself up to sitting and standing! She makes right for Claire's little chair usually, because she likes to try to pull herself up on it and grab the stuffed animal or doll that's sitting there. She has also started squawking to demand things or just express happiness or excitement. We've definitely reached the stage where we sometimes have to take her out of church just because she's wiggling like crazy to get down, or because she's making too much noise--not fussy noise, just noise! And she is way more of a mama's girl than I remember Claire being. If she can't see me or hear my voice, she can get frantic, unless she's intent on a toy. If someone else is holding her and she sees me, she often starts making this pathetic little whimper for me. We have yet to get her to take a bottle, but I haven't tried since the intense, unsuccessful, extremely frustrating sessions leading up to Wicked. Instead, I'm focusing on getting her to take cereal mixed with breast milk. We've done it for about the last week, and it's hit and miss: sometimes she spits most of it out and begins the "you're torturing me" back-arching and leg-kicking after just a few spoonfuls.

The top picture is of Claire and her friend Kadence at VBS at our church last week. It was a "Joseph journey in Egypt" theme, so the kids made jeweled collars and beaded headbands, and the adults wore those too, along with linen togas and belts. We also had a make-up booth every night, so the kids could get eyeliner and eyeshadow done (the boys got scratch marks or a play shave). Kadence and Claire are both wearing make-up in that pic. Claire is doing VBS again this week at 7th and Beech! It's the same church where she goes to Thursday School, so thankfully I can leave her there and come home and get a few things done!

Recent Claire quotes:
While playing with the cowboy and horse in her Lincoln Logs, in a deep voice I assume belongs to the horse: "Ow! You hurt me! I'm going to the hospital!"

"What kind of sno-cone do you want?" (She's making them out of Play-Doh) Me: "Silver fox." C: "We don't have that; we have raspberry yummy-goody cake."

Maucks on Texoma 2010

My seventh year spending a week on Lake Texoma with the Maucks is over, and it was a fun time full of great food, family time, and swimming and fishing. Traditions include Friday night steak dinner, Saturday fish fry, early-morning fishing trips, and outdoor worship on Sunday morning. A newer tradition for the kids is jumping/wrestling on the water trampoline anchored in the inlet.

This year actually brought us cooler temperatures than we're accustomed to, and rain, too. It worked out fine though: we had a couple rainy afternoons in the camper, and dinners under the pavilion instead of open air, but other than that, we enjoyed the coolness the rain brought us. However, I know a couple boats were caught out in a couple rainstorms while fishing, and the rain wasn't entirely welcome to them.

Unfortunately, I have no boat pics to share this year: it's not exactly the best place for a baby! I ended up staying in the camper to let Anna get her nap when others went out tubing or fishing. Claire tubed for the first time--but neither Jay nor I were on the boat to see her, sadly! She rode with her beloved cousin Abby, and enjoyed it immensely, from all accounts. But here are some pics of the other ways the kids have a great time. Of course, there are no mommy pics, as is usually the case with me.


The kids love riding their bikes on the road! Claire and Kerrigan have matching Barbie Big Wheels, and Katelyn is borrowing Kerrigan's in these pics.


Count on Mamaw to whip out giant coloring pages and markers for the kids!


A flock of geese were crossing by, and Kyle and some of the kids fed them some old bread.
Abby, Kerrigan, and Claire play with one of the kids' favorite toys at the lake: a kid fishing rode with a rubber fish attached to the end. They would cast this thing over and over, and reel it in through the dead leaves!

Fish fry!! Notice Jay's cousin Tracy at the end of the table holding a sleeping Anna! She will never go to sleep like that on my shoulder--no paci or anything!

Love this pic of Claire hitching a ride on a cooler full of fish! She wasn't on the boat; just saw Daddy carrying this up the hill, along with cousin-in-law John, and ran and hopped on!