Snow Mountain!

Today, we took Katie Anne to Snow Mountain at Stone Mountain Park.  Katie Anne says that her favorite season is winter because she loves the snow so much.  For the last several months, she's been looking forward to winter and playing in the snow.  We tried to explain to her that snow is rare in Georgia, but she didn't really believe us because, during the last two winters, we've had several good snow storms that she remembers.  

Snow - February 2010

Snow - December 2010

Snow - January 2011

She loved playing out in the snow, and she was expecting that trend to continue.  

Since we knew it was quite possible that she wouldn't see snow in her own backyard this season, we decided to try out a Snow Mountain day.  Saunders and I thought SJ wouldn't be able to handle it this year, so Gigi and Granddad kept the little man for us for the day.  (Thanks, Gigi and Granddad!) Since we had SJ safely taken care of, we decided to make it a Big KA Day Out!  We planned for Snow Mountain in the morning, Ok Cafe for lunch, and Beauty and the Beast 3D for the afternoon!  Katie Anne was so excited about doing all these special things with just Mommy and Daddy.

We started our morning at Snow Mountain, and it was a blast!  We all had an amazing time.  We went sledding for two hours - we did the big family tubing as well as individual tubing. 

 Catching a ride from Daddy-

 Almost choking poor Dad out!

 Obermeyer snowsuit booty!

 Riding the moving sidewalk-

Dragging her own tube!

Here comes Dad!

Here comes KA!

 Little girl in a giant tube!

 Then, we headed over to the snow field for snowman building, snowball fights, and a mini-tubing area that KA could do by herself.  She liked it, but she said it didn't compare to the fast ride of the big tubes!

 Time to make a snowman!

 Our finished snowman!

 The Snow Mountain snow is really more icy than powdery... much too hard for making snow angels!

Time for a snowball fight!

 Mini Tubing Time!

 Time to go!  KA was tired, so Daddy had to carry her out!

Next up in our big day of fun was a late lunch at the Ok Cafe!  We all love this place!  We had all the terribly  unhealthy but totally tasty things there - fried pickles, vanilla milkshakes, hamburgers, and fries!

Last stop - the movies!  We were all looking forward to kicking back, relaxing, and watching Beauty and the Beast 3D!

It was a great day out with our big girl!

New Car Seats!

Today was a big day for both of the kids - they both made a big move from their old car seats into new ones!

   SJ moved up from his infant car seat into a rear-facing convertible... he's using one of Katie Anne's old seats, but he also got a new one that's just for him!  He was very happy to stretch out in the new, bigger seat.

While we were shopping for a car seat for SJ and trying to do the math on whether to buy SJ 2 new car seats or KA 2 new ones and reuse her old ones for him, we realized something crazy... Katie Anne is well past the height and weight requirements for a booster seat!  Apparently, she could've moved up to a high-backed booster a long time ago, and now she's actually big enough for the backless booster.  I could not believe it - and I wrestled with the idea of moving her up because I just couldn't accept that she's that grown up!  But, finally I did accept it, and we bought her a booster seat!  She is so excited to be riding like a big girl in the car.

 (But ... I'm still keeping her in the high-backed booster for awhile.  Even though she can ride backless, I just feel better with her being a little more protected.  She's not all grown up yet!)

Guess Who's 7 Months Old?

This guy!

That's right - SJ is seven months old!  

Not too much has changed in the last month for SJ.  His eating, sleeping, and playing patterns are all basically the same as they were at six months.  

Eating:

He loves to eat - especially fruit - and would eat baby food all day if we'd let him.  He still likes his food very smooth and isn't into any textures yet.  If I make his food the slightest bit chunky, he chokes on it.  He loves chewing on fruit in his net feeder!  A big developmental step for SJ in self-feeding was learning to hold his own bottle just before his seven-month mark.  He shows a definite interest in what we've got on our plates, so we may try some finger foods soon.

Sleeping:

Unfortunately, SJ still isn't sleeping through the night.  Even with watering down his nightly bottle, he still wakes up every night at least once - sometimes even three! - times between his 8:00 pm bedtime and his morning wake-up time of around 6:30 am.  Luckily, he does go back to sleep very quickly when he wakes up - especially if you give him a warm bottle - but that does make for one tired mommy that we're still getting up every night in month seven!

Personality:

Luckily, his disposition hasn't changed, either!  At seven months old, SJ is a very cheerful, happy baby.  He loves to babble, giggle, and he's definitely learned how to let loose with a high-pitched squeal this month!

He loves laughing, playing with toys, trying to grab hair and pull it, and chewing on everything.  SJ would love to crawl - he's desperate to move around and tries to crawl or pull himself along the floor a lot.  He's drooling nonstop and teething all the time, but so far he hasn't had a tooth pop through yet.

SJ loves to watch Katie Anne and mimic everything she does.  Here, he's wearing her cowboy hat, which we all found hilarious!  One of the cutest things that he does is lean way over to his side and look out of the corner of his eyes at you with a silly little grin.  He is a big ham and loves to play peek-a-boo with a burp cloth, toy, or hat.  He is a lot of fun - everyone loves to play with him!

We can't tell quite yet, but it looks like SJ's eyes are turning brown this month.  They aren't the blue-gray color they were before - there's a brown starburst in the middle of both his irises now, and his eyes definitely look darker.  We've had to cut his hair again this month because it grows so fast, and it is hard to really tell what color it is for sure.  It looks medium brown, light brown, blonde, or reddish depending on the light.  His coloring is definitely lighter than the rest of the family.  He looks a lot more like me as a baby than Katie Anne did - she looked a lot like Saunders's baby pictures.

SJ is a wonderful baby, and we're so glad to have him!