Teething sucks!

Poor Aidan! He really is a trooper through it all. But wow, teething is really a pain. He has had a shadow of the outline of his 2 bottom teeth very visible for the past month now. He drools like a faucet and chews on anything he can get his hands on. His favorite, of course, are my fingers... ouch! That boy has some strong jaws. He's almost 5 1/2 months, and is approaching the same time Ava got her first tooth, so if genetics repeats itself, it won't be long before those pearly whites finally make their appearance.

It's not a green thumb... it's a green pinkie

If anyone remembers, last year I spent a lot of time working on these flower beds out by the pool. When we had the patio designed, we purposely had them make 2 empty spaces, one on either side of the pool, in the cement to give us a place for landscaping and flowers. Last year the flowers looked great, but I had decided to do rock in the beds, instead of mulch, for fear that the mulch would fly into the pool with too much wind. However, something worse happened, which did not depend on the weather - Ava developed a bad habit of amusing herself while throwing the rocks into the pool. This did not make either of us happy, so finally I decided the beds needed a complete overhaul.

I should have started taking pictures from the very beginning, to document what I was starting with. But let me just tell you... it was a mess, and a lot of work. This "before" picture was actually after several long hours of pulling out dead foliage from last year, and scooping several wagon loads of rock, along with some dirt, out of the beds. Aagghh... I think my back is still recovering.


So new dirt was laid, new plants were planted, new mulch was... well, mulched. And here you have it... the finished product. And with all the rain we have had lately (thank you, Midwestern flooding for sparing us more than our fair share) they have really spread out more than in these pictures and look really good.



And the best part is... Ava hasn't bothered to touch the mulch one bit. And none of it has ended up in the pool yet. The cutest thing is Ava likes to "pick flowers for Mommy" and brings me snippets of leaves and a few blooms inside the house and lays them in my hands. So cute!

Our little fish!

Ava is loving the pool again this year, and hasn't lost one ounce of her courage she gained last year. She is such a fish - she loves the water! She probably has more confidence in her ability than she really should... with her little swim ring around her waist, she is invincible, or so she thinks! She jumps off the edge, swims in the deep end, and just generally shows off.

5 months old

Wow - time is flying by! How did Aidan get to be 5 months already - didn't I just go back to work, and start buying 3-6 month onesies? Nope... I guess not. I just can't keep up!

Aidan is such a great baby, we are so blessed to have such a sweet little guy in our family. He is so happy, and watching him reach all these milestones just melts my heart every time. He is rolling over both ways now, though the rolling from tummy to back needs quite a bit more practice. He is eating all sorts of fruits and veggies, and loves almost all of them, except he is a little slow to warm up to the green beans. He also had his first bites of homemade mashed potatoes the other day (loved it!) and homemade whipped cream (hated it!).

His 6-9 month onesies and 6 month size summer clothes are all getting snug... looks like we will me making a 2nd round of shopping for more summer clothes since it is still only June, and we have a long stretch of hot weather ahead of us.

Another first!

Since Aidan has been really working on his bottom two teeth that are trying to come in, and he has been eating baby food with no issues for a few weeks now, we decided to try the infamous Gerber biter biscuits! Of course, no stretch of babyhood is complete without the experience of one of these brown, gooey, messy concoctions!

He was really into it! Except he kept dropping it, because after a few minutes these things become really slimy and slippery. He totally enjoyed it - and the very thorough bath that he obviously needed afterwards!