Road Trips.

Busy Bees are Jace and Lexa. They took a mid-week road trip to visit Uncle Chuck. It consisted of the usual. Eat. Then eat dessert. Actually, now that Mommy thinks about it, most recent activities have consisted of the aforementioned. Ok, not just recent activities. Moving on.....

Here is the dinner part. Look at that big girl in a high chair!!



And since it fits in nicely here...check out her new booster seat at home.



And the dessert part....



Sunday, another road trip was in order. To see the one and only Thomas. Actually, not just see him but ride on him too.

This was the best shot of Jace and Lexa in front of the very useful engine himself. They were sitting on this rough blue stuff that Lexa couldn't keep her eyes or her paws off of.



Jace got to pose with Sir Topam Hatt.



And play trains. Seriously, there was a lotta (Mommy is still going to keep the word 'lotta' even though her computer keeps underlining it in red) crying going on in that place. Put together hundreds of 2-5 year olds fighting over trains and tracks and you get chaos!!



There was even a petting zoo....Mommy was away feeding Miss Lexa at this point but it appears Jace's safety may have been periodically in jeopardy. Does it look to anyone else like that goat is about to abort ship??



Probably the biggest surprise of the day was how much Lexa loved the train ride. She was wailing and snorting like she just found out she was going to get an extra feeding or something.



Aren't they sweet....



Jace and Daddy on Thomas. Actually it was technically Annie, one of Thomas' freight cars.



And last but certainly not least...Jacer and his Mama!!

Best Thing Since Sliced Bread.

That would be Jace.

The best thing since sliced bread.

According to Lexa.

Of course she hasn't actually had sliced bread yet, but you get the idea.











Yes, Mommy must agree. He is one cool little dude!

Panther Paddler

Jace is officially a Panther Paddler! He began swimming lessons this morning and they went off without a hitch. Huge sigh of relief from Mommy!



Lexa was originally signed up for the Mommy and Me infant class but Mommy got nervous about not being there for Jace as their lessons were at the same time. Lexa was happy enough just cheering him on...and she has no issues with water at this point. She prefers to have Mommy dump a cup of water over her head!



This morning Jace blew bubbles, back floated, front floated, and learned how to move his arms while swimming. The last task shocked Mommy a bit more than Jace....the teacher took each of the kids (there are only 4 in his class) and randomly dunked them!! Jace shed a few tears but recovered quickly...Mommy is still a little traumatized! This is probably reason #1 why Mommy was a swimming lesson dropout as a child.







And yes, as much as Mommy tried to avoid it, she was totally that Mommy front and center snapping pictures. She did however, only wave and yell 'Hi Jace' in a really annoying Mommy voice a couple of times.

Ants in Her Pants

Girlfriend has major ants in her pants. The girl CANNOT sit still! She has this new move that mimics some sort of baby yoga pose. It is really not safe but Mommy decided to let her do it one more time to get a picture. Anyway, she can lift her entire bumbo in the air while sitting on it. She then flips her little body around for some unknown reason.

This picture does not do justice to "Lexa's School of Yoga". (It does however, give you some idea as to how much she gets into her bananas.)



Yep, not much of this being seen lately...probably time to move on from the bumbo seat.



The other morning, Daddy commented on what a good thing it was that Lexa was strapped into her swing. She was full-on swinging (and the swing is nicely reclined for an enjoyable ride) but decided to maneuver herself to a sitting upright position. It was too funny looking.



She did a similar movement in the car today. Really, why lean back and enjoy the ride when you can spend a 20 minute car ride holding your head up against the will of your car seat straps?? No, Mommy does not have pictures of this feat because she was, well...driving. Yes, it did cross her mind to take one though!

Another new Lexa move. Pulling herself up in the tub! Mommy finds it almost impossible to bathe the child as she, again, doesn't use the built in recline function and literally pulls herself to her knees. Mommy puts her back in a nice seated position only to have Miss Lexa do it all over again! She's a pistol!



Me, sit still??? NEVER!



On another note...Lexa had her 6-month checkup today. She's doing just swell! She weighed in at 15.6 lbs...44th percentile and 25 1/2 inches....43rd percentile. She actually gained nearly a pound in about 2 1/2 weeks...so there was a reason Mommy felt the need to eat EVERYTHING in sight lately!

Little Miss donning her bling bandaids.



She is a bling kind of girl though...wouldn't you agree?

Rewind

A lot has happened in Jace and Lexa's world since Mommy's last post. Allow her to rewind and get you all up to speed.

First, Aunt Erin came to town to enjoy a little Jace and Lexa time. Actually she came for the food but whatever.

Jace's hair was getting a smidge unruly...again. Mommy decided (with this new leaf she's working so hard to turn over on the budgeting front) why not try and give Jace a haircut herself. It actually turned into a tag team effort from her and Daddy but was still deemed a success!



After Jace had his locks looking proper again, there was no time like the present to enjoy the annual wing ding. If you've never been to a wing ding you're missing out. Picture yourself among like 10 vendors, each giving you wings and other yummy goodies. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Anyway, Lexa lusted over Mommy's wings (which she was surely going to get in 2-3 hours anyway) and posed for pictures with Erin.



After a restful night (sleeping off a wing coma) the whole crew headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for some rodeo action. Be advised that Lexa's rodeo outfits were something like 6 months in the making (yes, she is only 6-months old) so this was a big deal!

Of course Cowboy Jacer (as he named hiself) needed rodeo gear as well and what better place to get it than a local consignment shop.




Jace was having an identity crisis and went back and forth referring to himself as Cowboy Jace and Pablo.



Mommy had decided a while ago that the first annual Rodeo Stampede 5k sounded like a nice way to spend a Saturday morning. She, Fabulous Aunt Kay, and several others pounded the pavement in pretty decent time. Mommy finished in 25:54 which, although not her best time, did earn her 3rd place in her age group...she thinks. Of course Fabulously Fast Kay placed in her age group too...but she always does.



Jace meeting Mommy at the finish line



You can't go to a rodeo without a parade. And you can't have a parade without candy. And more candy. Jace was in candy heaven. As was Mommy.

Just so you know...her bow has boots on it to match her outfit....





There were a few kinks in the process of actually getting to the rodeo (like Mommy didn't) but don't let her bore you with the details. Jace enjoyed himself and that's always the goal.

Lexa donning Jace's hat.



Giddy up Cowgirl!







Since every weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's is obviously about fitting as many eating experiences as possible into as short amount of time as possible, it would only make sense to do more of the above on Sunday. This time in the form of a baby shower for Tracy and Baby Ashlan.

Lexa thought she was hot stuff hanging with the big girls



Speaking of big girls...check out who sat in a high chair for the first time



That was really off topic but Mommy had no place else to document this mini milestone that surely needs it's place in blogosphere history.

Back to the shower......

Grandma and Lexa at the shower



Daddy, Grandpa, and Jace were fishing during the shower but since Mommy is a camera hog there are no pictures to prove that Jace caught 8 fish!! Just this picture to prove Jace is a very scary dinosaur.

Happy 1/2 Birthday to One Fabulous Little Lady!

It's Lexa's 1/2 birthday!! Woot, Woot! Mommy feels like it was just yesterday Lexa whizzed into this world...but then again it feels like she has always been around.

Lexa, at 6-months you:

-are beginning to really let your personality shine through. You are not one to sit still and like to be doing something all the time. You are very curious and check everything out. You also put EVERYTHING in your mouth!

-you sit up like a champ and can get on all fours from that position. It's Mommy's guess that you will be crawling sometime in month 6.

-you love to eat! Mommy isn't sure where you put it because you are still kind of a peanut. You don't always look it though since you are kind of short (hence the thighs)! Mommy has a feeling it's all that moving that you do!

-speaking of eating....the bottle has long since been forgotten. While at daycare you drink from a sippy cup...however you mostly wait for Mommy and then it's a free for all at night.

-you have pretty much tried all fruits and veggies and the only thing you haven't been gaga over were peaches.

-you are still sleeping really well both at night and for naps. You have recently been getting up in the night but it was when you had a nasty cold.

-you are still pretty attached to Mommy. You are doing better and better with Daddy every day and are perfectly content with him as long as Mommy is not in sight.

-your favorite toys right now are cars and trains. Mommy isn't sure if that's just because you see Jace playing with them and your house is filled to the brim with them....you still tend to choose them over your pink, girly toys though.

-you just moved to a size 3 diaper...although you have plenty of room in them. You are still wearing almost all 6 month clothes. And shoes....you can finally wear them...a size 2!

-you are Mommy's little angel. She can't imagine her life getting any better! Mommy never worried about having enough love for 2 children but she never realized how the second one would make her love the first one ever more too! Mommy has had the opposite of the baby blues from the minute you were born...something more like the baby overjoyedness (yeah, that's not a word but it's Mommy's blog and she can use it if she wants to).

The Weekend.

Mommy doesn't have many words tonight. Just some cute pictures...from hanging at home, picnicing with Davon, Haley, and Amiya, and making babylegs with Gaige and Carlie.

Check them out.......

Hawkeyes 1 and 0!! Must have been these little good luck charms...ok, they really didn't need good luck charms this week but with these guys on your side they are bound to win every game!



Jace's new love is ice cream. He talked Mommy into buying cones so he could have an ice cream cone at home whenever his little heart desired. Unfortunately, that is literally night and day so he is learning to ration....even more unfortunate is the fact that Mommy is the one teaching him to ration his sweets, which she herself isn't so good at!



Lexa and her Daddy



Jace and Amiya



Jacer pushing Lexa on the swings...too bad you can't tell how she feels about him!



Daddy was pushing the big kids. Silly kids and Daddy!



Lexa's onesie...homeade by Mommy...lost it's U. Mommy figured what the hey, NI works...Northern Iowa. Too bad, 60 minutes later the I was dunzo! Mommy is seriously done trying to be domestic and creative!



Lexa trying out Carlie's jumparoo...it was a hit!



Jace was really into Carlie.....



The rest is a Panther Parade!