Sonja ~~ 9 months

Our sweet Sonja Drew turned 9 months old a few weeks back. At her appointment she weighed 17lbs 3.5oz and was 27 3/4 inches long. She continues to be fairly small, but I am worrying about it less and less. She is a pretty good eater - never consumes too much food, but has tried a variety of foods. She tends to like savory rather than sweet. Her favorite so far has been avocado and a recent new love are blueberries. No crawling yet, but she scoots backwards on her tummy and has just started pulling herself up on us when she's in our laps. I still nurse her every 3 hours or so and she wakes up 2-3 times per night. She is still in our room - I don't have a clear plan yet to move her into Riley's room. Most days she takes two good naps per day, so I don't want Sonja sleeping in there and therefore giving Riley no place to play. I'm not worried about it, although some nights I would like to read in bed before I fall asleep. She is as sweet and mellow as can be. She is very curious and seems to be pretty social. She loves engaging with people, although lately if I'm in the room she gets very concerned about where I am and why is she not with me! She simply adores Riley and squeals and laughs at Riley's many antics. Sonja babbles a lot and makes all kinds of noises. She is seriously a delight. We all adore her. Riley told me the other morning, "Mommy I don't never ever ever ever want Sonja to grow up. She is just so cute!"....so true...I feel the same way. Sonja Drew...we love you so.

June Update

It's been over a month since I've posted. Not for lack of things to post...we've definitely been staying busy. Just lack of time, energy and often motivation! Tyler has been in and out of town this month which always causes extra exhaustion. Not to mention my normal exhaustion from taking care of the kids and the house. It often feels like I'm treading water - just doing enough to stay afloat - namely food preparation, serving and cleaning up of said food preparation, dishes and laundry. That about sums up my day....day in and day out. No different from any other mother's life though. But, I do not complain, because I am so blessed to have the health and relationships that I have.

So this last month we have been staying busy doing the norm - naps, lots of playing, walks to parks, playdates with friends and trying to exercise and eat healthy meals. I recently participated in a 30 day food challenge with my gym. It's called whole 30 and you can read about it here. I was very pleased with the results - I lost a significant amount of weight - still have more to go, but it was a great start. But more importantly I felt great. It took lots of preparation and planning, but it became easier as time went on. I plan to implement many aspects of that style of eating into my life. I am reading lots and becoming more and more aware of all that I put into my body and how it affects my health. With cancer so prevalent (and so close to my heart) I am making healthy food a big priority for our family. It is a process and slow journey, but rather exciting, I think!

We also decided a few months back to take our house off the market. After 8 long months of our house being listed and not a single offer, we decided to stay here for a bit longer and see what the market does in another year. It was a hard decision, but I certainly am glad to not have to clean for showings anymore. Since then, and knowing we'll be here for a bit longer, I've been re-arranging and doing some much-needed decorating. I've been slowly changing Riley's room and making it more big-girl and cozy, so I'll be sure to post some pictures when I'm all finished.

A few weeks back my youngest sister Sarah graduated from Roosevelt High School. Click here to read the post I did on my brothers blog. Martha and I made a Mexican fiesta for dinner and overall we had a great night celebrating Sarah's success.

I am working on a few other posts and will hopefully get those up soon!

most days riley is re-arranging our house and playing some variation of "bus, school, house, park, store, etc" with all her animals

i can't remember why the grumpy face, but here riley had just taken her bear on "a magic carpet ride"

usually riley stays in her pj's until late afternoon, when we finally manage to leave the house after sonja's naps. it takes some convincing to get riley out of her pj's...but otherwise she is usually in some sort of dress up costume

i can only convince riley 1x/week to take a bath with her sister...she ends up enjoying it and SHE EVEN LETS ME WASH HER HAIR W/O SCREAMING (this is huge people)

riley is becoming a champ on her glider bike...a real bike w/no training wheels is in her near future

one morning while sonja was napping riley helped me make this simple tea towel apron - she is so happy to finally have her own apron. i made one for myself out of a different tea towel.

one sunny morning riley ate her waffles outside while sonja played and i hung diapers on the line. lately she has been carrying her bear on this necklace aka make-shift sling