Random Cuteness!

Another baby....another love affair with my portrait lens...

4 Months Old!

Wow! Didn't I just finish the "3 months old" blog post? February flew by, and SJ just keeps on growing and changing and getting more an more amazing! She's chunking up nicely,  and has moved up to 3-6 months clothes and will soon move up to size 2 diapers.

She still loves to eat, but is now easily going 4 hours in between feedings, especially if she's taking a good nap. I'd love to report that she's consistently sleeping through the night, but this stinker still loves to wake me up around 2:30 or 3:00 for a little snack. Sometimes I let her cry it out, and sometimes I just give in and feed her so we can all get back to sleep sooner. I will say that even though she doesn't sleep as well at night, she's a much more consistent napper than her brothers ever were.

She's very alert and interactive these days. She's focusing well, and follows people across the room with her eyes and head.  This month she has started grasping things with her hands, and then bringing them to her mouth. She's also showing much more interest in what WE eat, watching the food intently from our plates to our mouth. Almost rice cereal time!

 She's starting to prefer the "sitting position" much more than reclining, but she still doesn't quite have the hang of it. She can sit up for a few seconds, but then slumps to one side.

 Mark finds is quite entertaining to watch her practice

Keaton says, "She's definitely the cutest baby ALIVE. But, not the cutest baby that ever lived. Because, Baby Jesus was probably the cutest of all time. right, Mom?"

She still loves her brothers, and her favorite game is chasing them around the house playing tag (in my arms of course). This gets her laughing and smiling like nothing else.

 She still loves to suck on her fingers, and has not decided which finger is her favorite. I'm convinced she would eat her whole hand if she could fit in in her mouth. Unfortunately, all the finger sucking and extra slobber has caused her to have super dry cheeks, and makes her spit up A LOT! I finally decided to cut my hair to my shoulders because it was constantly matted with spit up. You're worth it, sweet girl!

If you can't tell, she's kind of a big deal in our family. She is an absolute delight and joy, and we thank God for her everyday. 

We love you, Sailor June! 

OH! The SNOW!

I remember having this conversation with Scott at the end of January. One of us said something like, "Y'know, I'm going to be pretty ticked if we don't even have one really good snow during our first winter on the mainland in 5 years!"

Ha! I'd say we've gotten our fair share during February!
It started, and now it just seems to be one snowstorm to the next. By the way, have they always named these winter storms, or was I just never paying attention before? Juno, Pandora, Octavia, Thor... they just keep on coming! 

I think we are going on 6 snow days now (meaning Keaton has NO school) and at least 5 late start days (meaning Keaton starts school 2 hours late). My boys are loving every minute of it! 

Sledding

Mark seems to have no internal temperature gauge, because he would be outside every second it is snowing!

Mark greeting our very friendly and dedicated mailman!

Just lounging around watching the snowplows clearing our back alley

We feel like complete rookies - we don't even own a snow shovel, nor did we really understand why we might need one? Doesn't it all just melt away the next day? Not in  Northern VA! Here's Mark trying his best to shovel our driveway with a Rubbermaid lid.

more sledding!

Nothing like eating the snow as it's falling!

Here's a pic from our kitchen window - solid white everywhere! You can't even tell there's a river out there!

definitely not in HI anymore!

After the snow finally stopped, we took a walk to explore our neighborhood.

Sailor was snug as a bug in the Moby, in my coat.

Keaton liked to taste the snow periodically. No yellow or brown snow Keaton!

snow angels

Face plant

I think it's possible he loves the snow as much as he loved the sand in Hawaii?

 After 2 back to back snowstorms, and about 5 days of never leaving the house, it warmed up to about 50*. I really wanted to get out, so we drove into D.C. to see what the Jefferson Memorial would look like with all the white stuff.

Looking back at these pictures,  it probably wasn't the safest thing to be walking around these slushy steps (especially holding a baby!), but thankfully, no one was hurt.

Keaton and Mark with TJ

Someone had built a snowman on the memorial. The boys had fun looking at it, and this random guy gave Keaton a cowboy hat to put on his head. Clearly the guy (see behind Keaton) got a huge kick out of us taking a picture of the snowman with his hat on.

The boys with the Tidal Basin and the Washington "Mommy-ment" in the background. Hard to believe that this will be covered in Cherry blossoms in a a few weeks!

As I write this, the snow is still on the ground, ice is covering our sidewalk, and we are awaiting another 3-5 inches tomorrow. So, I'm sure there will be more pics to come. This is really the first month that I've really longed for Hawaii weather. But, I'm a mainlander at heart, and all this snow and ice comes with a level of excitement and appreciation of our new life here in VA. And spring is so much sweeter when you've waited out a cold winter. Can't wait!