Late on Eight....Niko is 8 Months-ish

 This little monster turned eight months old last week!

Milestones & Memories

Niko has been trying hard to skip crawling.  He gets himself up on his hands and his left leg, but his right leg isn't quite strong enough to get to standing.  If given a finger to hold in each hand for support, though, he will run towards his destination

When Alexander was this age, my dad sent me an article about the brain development associated with crawling, so we have been trying to encourage Niko not to skip this milestone....if you peek into our backyard, you might just catch all of us crawling around the backyard to model for Niko!

We have found the motivation and as of this morning he has been crawling more and more

He still has only the two bottom teeth, with the top two just barely below the surface

He wants to eat EVERYTHING, but is sensitive to strawberries and gets gas troubles from some of our foods

He continues to idolize Alexander and has begun imitating some of his motions, like scooping his arms when Alexander is swimming.  Niko loves the pool!  He prefers to sit on the sun desk or chase his brother from my arms than floating in his floatie, but I am so glad to have another water baby.

We have been in the pool every day

He has started using consonant sounds, like gah, dah, etc
He is a terrible night sleeper and takes 2-3 naps a day.  He just wants to snuggle...

Alexander had a pretty huge milestone moments recently!

We were playing Power Rangers in the backyard.  He turns to me and says, "Mom!  There are 11 bad guys!  I'll take six and you take 5!"

Mental math like whoa!  When I asked how he figured that out, he looked at me like, duh mom.... 

"If 5 plus 5 equals 10, then 6 plus 5 equals 11, right?!"

Yes, indeed, my boy.  It sure does.

He goes back to school a couple days a week starting tomorrow.
I am going to miss him but he needs it.
He did a 180 on his scooter!
His swimming continues to improve.  He regularly goes the full length of the pool and then just keeps swimming.

Big Brother is the shining star in Little Brother's life

He would rather walk than crawl

Daniel ordered Alexander what he thought was a simple strawberry soda.  We were all amazed when this mojito-like beauty was served.  Delicious!

Hiking is a great reprieve from the 108 degree heat.  We went off path and explored Kyle Canyon.

Alexander got tired from the difficult trek up.  We found an easier path down and Daniel gave both boys a ride.

Zoey had an adventure with quite a big fall off a rock on our way up.  She toppled back after trying to jump up a rock and fell flat on her back.  She was a bit stunned, but finished the hike without issue and has not seemed to have hurt herself at all.

I am amazed by how fast time goes by and am trying my best to enjoy every moment, even on days when I am running on no sleep and coffee fumes.

Happy 21st Birthday Daniel!

We usually go to a waterpark to celebrate Daniel's birthday, but with things still shut down, we headed up to Mount Charleston and Cathedral Rock for a birthday hike

A rare picture of just the two of us

We were glad Bryan, Anne, and Zachary joined us for all the birthday fun.  Alexander and Zachary have an easy friendship, it is always great when we can all get together.  

There was a waterfall at the top!  Zachary, Niko and I stayed at the bottom while the rest of the group climbed to the top.  Alexander looked over the edge and called for me.  When I looked up, he threw a SNOWBALL at me!  We really love Vegas and all it has to offer.  Snow at the end of May?  I think we will be spending a lot of time up here this summer!

After quick naps for most of the group, we fired up the new birthday grill

I asked Alexander what he wanted to get daddy for his birthday and he put a lot of thought into his presents

Connect 4 Blast has been a huge hit!  Connect 4 and Nerf guns?  This game was made for us!

He also wanted to get Daniel a 'daddy scooter.'  Originally I said this was not likely something Daniel would actually want or use, but it turns out they had seen a dad scootering with his kids and talked about how that looked like fun.  Alexander stored that memory away, and came running into my room one morning exclaiming that he had the perfect birthday gift idea.  I couldn't deny that thoughtfulness!

 With Alexander and my enjoyment of baking and Nailed It! challenges, Daniel asked for a snow leopard cake, expecting us to use the spots in Rainbow Chip icing and make a simple design.  Nope!  We rose to the challenge!

I think we nailed the cake!

With the cut off cake bits, we made chocolate peanut butter cake pops.  We may have a future in baking!

Daniel's birthday was a ton of fun despite things being shut down.  The fun didn't stop with the end of his birthday!  The next morning we headed out to the skatepark to take the new scooter for a run,

Niko seemed to love riding in Alexander's old red push car, too

Asleep at the wheel

Daniel may have celebrated a couple more than 21 birthdays, but this was one to remember!

Personality

I got a little flack for my latest post having no pictures of Alexander...

There is no fear of either of these boys fading into the background once able to return to the social scene

There's rarely a dull moment around here

Cinco de Mayo

Who doesn't want a burrito on Cinco de Mayo!

We enjoyed a backyard get together with a bit more distance than usual.  Complete with margaritas, sangria, tacos, watermelon and a few friends, it was nice to feel a small sense of 'normal!'