A girl needs a purse!

It's good to have accessories

even if it doesn't match your outfit.

I promise I didn't pose this picture! She was holding this little purse like this on her own!

Yes, my eyes are really this brown!

Got drool? Got a purse? Ready to go!

Hannah - 9 months old!

This is how we usually find you after your nap or in the morning: standing in your bed looking at all of your binkies on the floor that you drop or throw.

One of your current favorite pastimes, emptying the recycle basket.

This month also brought you two new teeth.

Another favorite activity, emptying the shoe rack.

Back to the basket. Such a busy girl.

And a visit with your Great Aunt Ruthie!

Oh Hannah! You are 9 months old already! Your first year is literally flying by. This month brought more milestones, mainly two new teeth. I was beginning to wonder if you would ever get any! But they suddenly appeared, without any problem or complaint.

You are a super fast crawler and are starting to get into EVERYTHING. Shoes, drawers, the newspaper basket, stray sippy cups, etc. Anything that is picked up and organized, you destroy. With great delight.

You LOVE your brothers almost as much as they love you. You want anything they have and want to play with them all the time.

You are still a super eater. You have gotten really good at feeding yourself solids, with your fingers of course. You eat pretty much anything we eat with a few exceptions. I'd say your favorite foods to feed yourself right now are pancakes, black beans, bananas, cheese, avocado, noodles, carrots and green beans. I'm sure I'm forgetting something. You really do eat everything. It's amazing to see how much your tiny body can hold!

This past week you had your 9-month check and you are still tiny, but healthy:
weight: 16 lbs. 3 oz., 7th percentile
height: 26 1/2 inches long, 14th percentile
head circumference: 17 inches, 24th percentile

And since our meeting with the speech therapist last month, your speech has taken off! About 10 days after starting therapy and new textures, you made your first sounds: Mamama. Oh, be still my heart. The only one of my babies to say mamama first! Then came dadada, bababa and all sorts of other noises. And last week, I swear you said all done. It sounded more like "ah duh." But it was right after I said all done. Of course you wouldn't say it again, but you did say it a couple days later for daddy. Are you going to be speaking in full sentences and walking next month?!

You continue to be a very sweet and happy baby. You go with the flow, most of the time and have yet to develop stranger danger. You are such a blessing and delight. However, you are still trying to grow up too fast. Please don't start walking yet. And yes, we've seen you practicing letting go of the coffee table, but we are ignoring your efforts!

You win some, you lose some

Or in our case: You get some....


You lose one...
Teeth that is.

Hannah got two teeth this month, with no warning. Such a good baby. None of the normal teething symptoms. The teeth just appeared. What are the chances they will all arrive that way? A mother can hope!

And Andrew lost his first tooth a couple weeks ago. (Yes, I'm behind once again.) Anyway, on Saturday afternoon he told us his tooth was lose and by Sunday afternoon it was about to fall out. Keith helped it a little and that was it. No drama, no crying, no freaking out. Just excitement about the tooth fairy!

But now there is a little confusion about the Tooth Fairy. Last week he asked if we could sit down and have a conversation about the Tooth Fairy. I asked, "Do we have to?" I knew there would be questions that I wasn't willing to answer. He asked if the Tooth Fairy was here all the time. And I explained the Tooth Fairy only came when he lost a tooth.
"Well, how does the Tooth Fairy know when to come to our house?"
"The Tooth Fairy just knows these things."
I tried to explain that the Tooth Fairy is like the Easter Bunny and that we can't see them.
"But I need to talk to the Tooth Fairy." (I can only imagine that conversation.)
So, I distracted him with going outside and that was the end of our conversation. For now. I'm sure it will resume after our next lost tooth!

By the way, the Tooth Fairy brought him 4 quarters and he was super excited. And a little confused. He was ready to go buy a new toy that day. Umm, sorry bud. $1 won't buy you much. Maybe the Tooth Fairy can increase it's budget for your next tooth.

Our current weather...

Wichita Area Forecast:

** Excessive Heat Warning through 7 p.m. Friday **

Currently: 102, feels like 106

Tonight: Clear and muggy. Wind: SE 5-10. Low: 78.
Tomorrow: Sunny to mostly sunny, hot and humid. Wind: SE/S 5-15. High: 103.
Tomorrow night: Clear, warm and muggy. Wind: SE 5-15. Low: 78.
Wed: High: 105 Sunny and hot.
Thu: High: 106 Low: 80 Sunny.
Fri: High: 106 Low: 80 Becoming mostly sunny.
Sat: High: 104 Low: 79 Mostly sunny.
Sun: High: 104 Low: 80 Mostly sunny.
Mon: High: 98 Low: 78 Partly cloudy with some isolated storms.

T-Ball Swim Party

Andrew can touch bottom and loves being in the water!

Jonathan loves the stairs area!

little Ayotte heads

Medal presentation with Coach Shane

Andrew getting his medal. Coach Shane said that Andrew was super speedy.

On Saturday afternoon, we went to Andrew's T-Ball swimming party, even though it was 101 in the shade. The boys have discovered the joys of swimming, even if they still won't put their face in the water and they didn't care that it was blazing hot. Coach Shane handed out medals to the team and said their record was 8 wins, 3 losses and 1 forfeit. Not too bad considering the incredible heat these boys played in all June!

Swim Lessons

We started swimming lessons last week and the boys love them. It's a very basic class that is helping with our fear of water. Now they love the pool and want to go all.the.time. Sadly, we don't have a pool membership, and they have to settle for 30 minute lessons for two weeks. This is our last week of lessons, and I'm hoping that they will get brave enough to put their face in the water. The lifeguards aren't very forceful in making these stubborn boys get their face wet, but we have 3 more days, so we'll see what happens. Andrew's class has 5 kids and one lifeguard, and Jonathan's class is a mommy and me class, where the lifeguards tell me how to teach him to swim. Umm, maybe I should've told them that I can't really swim either and they should teach me first. And Hannah hangs out in her stroller. She's such a trooper since these lessons are right during her morning nap. She's pretty happy just to watch as long as someone gives her a toy every now and again. Maybe I'll start her in lessons next summer and she'll get her face in the water.

Fireworks!

The boys watching the fireworks, and yes, Andrew is that sweaty. It was so hot that night. There was no breeze and it was too hot to really enjoy the fireworks.

Someday he won't appreciate this picture, but I couldn't help myself.

chillaxing

brothers

We tried to watch our neighborhood fireworks on the Fourth, but it was so hot, we weren't really into it. Jonathan wanted to stay up and watch them, but he didn't like the noise and wore his noise cancellation headphones.

The best part of the night, was when the boys went home with Grandma and Grandpa for a sleepover. The boys were so excited and so was I, but it wasn't so great for Grandma and Grandpa. Jonathan didn't go to sleep until after midnight and was up at 5:45 am asking for a drink. Grandma sent him back to bed, but he was up again at 6:30. Such a short night. He was so tired when I picked him up that afternoon, but they had so much fun!

Happy 4th of July!

Here are some pictures of the cherubs on the 4th and Hannah in her patriotic dress she wore on Sunday. I loved it way more than she did. She had some trouble crawling in it, but I don't know that that is necessarily a bad thing!

Birthday fun continues

I love this picture! Andrew is investigating the contents of the box and Jonathan is soaking it all in.

So excited for more tiny Legos!

More Rescue Heroes!

Around here, birthdays last more than one day. And why not?! Sunday after church, we let Andrew open his presents from Grammy and Grandpa. They were a big hit! Thank you Grammy and Grandpa for the great presents! Andrew (and Jonathan) love them!

Birthday party!

Blowing out the candles

Happy girl, even if she didn't get a cupcake! (She did get a little bite of Freddy's frozen custard, which she LOVED!)

Andrew enjoying both birthday treats - chocolate cupcakes and a Freddy's frozen custard cake. So yummy!

Everyone was a little sluggish at this point. We were just finished devouring fresh salsa, homemade guacamole, hamburgers and hot dogs, watermelon, potato salad, and a Greek garbanzo bean salad. OK, so Andrew only ate very few items from this list, but we can't just eat from Andrew's limited menu!

The birthday boy!

All the little cousins wore birthday hats, even Hannah.

Luke and Jonathan sitting in as back-ups in case Andrew needed help unwrapping. He's about to open walkie-talkies. He was so excited for these! He also got a cool bug catcher, a Cars watch, and some books. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa and the Eigstis for celebrating Andrew's birthday with us!