Playing Catch-up

Well, Tucker was officially 7 months old yesterday! Wow, how time flies! He had his six month check-up on Tuesday (better late than never!). He weighs 17 pounds and is 26 inches long! He continues to amaze me with his sweet demeanor and cooperative disposition. As of 3 days ago, he eats breakfast, lunch and dinner with the rest of the family, and then nurses before bed...and he's still sleeping great through the night! So far he hasn't turned down any of the foods I've introduced to him...rice cereal, oatmeal, green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, applesauce, and bananas! I think his little face looks a little rounder every day! He still gets up on all fours like he's about to take off crawling, but no forward movement to speak of yet. My favorite thing right now is watching him watch Hank and Landry...oh, how he adores them!



Landry continues to keep us all laughing. Sleeping in the big-girl bed is still a little "if"y. She starts out in it every nap and night, but ends up in her pack-n-play (her consequence for getting out of bed) more often than not. I think she's just too social to stay in bed when there's people to see out in the living room. I keep telling myself that she'll "get it" eventually. Getting dressed every morning is an adventure, too. She has quite the opinion about what is "pretty." Notice the blue tie-dye shirt with floral print shorts. I think she likes colorful clothes, whether they match or not. She's looked a little bit like a clown the past few days...a very cute clown!



So, we've decided that Hank is Daddy's little sous-chef (the technical term for assistant chef). One morning Jeff was making breakfast for Fuzzy Wuzzy, the program director at Outback this summer, and Hank wanted to help. So grown-up! No worries, he's only holding a butter knife! We've noticed Hank's vocabulary expanding, too. Just today, he used the words "colorful" and "generous," and in the right context, too! He is slowly but surely gathering quite the collection of "cars-cars" (the little matchbox cars that are the characters from the Disney Pixar movie Cars). Today he got Guido and Luigi, and he's told me several times, "I'm so glad I got Guido and Luigi!" We've started making sticker charts for him so when he does something kind or goes all days without having an accident, etc., he gets a sticker, then when he fills up the chart he gets to go get a new "cars-car."

Yep, the Lay family is doing just fine these days. We have our fair share of trying moments (Tucker was awake from midnight to 4am the other night after he got his shots), but it's so worth it! Things at Outback are going well. It's hard to believe that the summer is over half-way over! It's been amazingly hot, but our air conditioner works great and apple juice popsicles help keep us cool! We are looking forward to some visitors in the next week. Chrismiss' sister will be in town this weekend, so we're excited to say hello to her. Mr. Matt and Mrs. Caitlin (as our kids loving refer to the Clydes) are coming for the weekend, and our nanny from last summer Skwirlie is going to spend a few days with us, too! We bought a queen size air mattress today to be our designated guest bed, so we are ready for some guests to use it...not just this weekend but in the future, too! (hint, hint)