Merritt at 8 months

It's been a while since I've done a Merritt update.  A lot has changed since I updated about her months ago!  She has learned so much and is busy learning more.  She is now 8 and a half months old!

At about 6 and a half months, she began to sit on her own and quickly became a master at that.

At 7 months she started to do an army crawl to get around.  This may not seem like a very efficient way of moving, but she is fast!  She has crawled the "normal" way a few times, but she quickly goes back to the army crawl.  At this point, I don't think she will every do the traditional crawl.  She is very happy with the army crawl!

Now at 8 months, she is pulling up to stand.  She is working so hard on this and is doing a great job.  She is even trying to stand up without the help of anything.  She's not quite there yet.  That will take a bit more time.

She loves to play peek-a-boo and be tickled.  She will just cackle!  I even caught Sims and Merritt playing together this weekend.  They were both laughing so much!  Merritt was on one side of the coffee table, and Sims was playing something like peek-a-boo on the other side with him going from one side of the coffee table to the other.  She would move around and try to catch him.  They were having so much fun.  I tried to get the camera to record it, but, of course, it was over before I could get the camera ready.  I felt like I was seeing a glimpse into the future with both of them playing together.  It was a wonderful sight to see!

We are so thankful for this happy baby!

Sims' 5th Birthday

When it came time to think about what kind of party Sims wanted for this 5th birthday, we explored so many options like bounce houses and museums.  But for some reason, I was ready for us to do a more homemade, creative party this year.  On our third or fourth time reading Neil Gaiman's Fortunately the Milk to Sims, it hit me.  We should do a party based on this book!  Sims and Jason loved the idea, so we started to plan.

Since none of Sims' friends had read the book, we decided to give them the book with the invitation.  So we designed the invitations to be bookmarks as well.  Jason drew all the art for the invitation, and I love all the details that he added.

Front and Back

We decided to have a morning party where we could serve breakfast cereal, which was inspired by the book.  Having a morning party is definitely the way to go.  We were cleaning up around noon and had the rest of the day to relax.

The centerpiece for the food table was Professor Steg in a Floaty Ball Person Carrier, of course!  (If you don't know what I am talking about, then you need to read the book!  It's brilliant!)

This was the first party where we had to plan activities for the kids.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  For our first activity, the kids decorated spaceships.

I made spaceships out of paper plates and bowls, and we had markers and stickers for the decorations.  After they were finished decorating them, they threw them frisbee-style through hanging hula hoops that we referred to as the space-time continuum.

This was a much bigger hit than I would have imagined.  The kids really liked throwing them back and forth.  This could have entertained them for a long while.

Our next activity was Pin the Eye on Splod.  (Once again, you really should read the book!)  It was like Pin the Tail on the Donkey, but better.  Actually, when I say better, I mean an awesome focal point to our party that Jason spent many hours on.

Each child had a "stone" or "eye" to place in the right spot on Splod.  I don't think many, if any, of the kids had ever played Pin the Tail on the Donkey before, so it seemed new to all of them.

Then it was time for cereal and fruit!  We got a bunch of cereals that we wouldn't typically have at home, so it was super special for Sims.

After eating, the kids did their final activity.  They had to walk the plank over shark infested waters to pull a string on the pinata.

The sharks were inflatable, and the kids liked jumping in the "water" and playing with the sharks as much as walking the plank.

We got one of the pinatas that opens by pulling strings, and only one of the strings will actually make it open.  Well, it sounds better than it was, since none of the strings actually opened it enough for the loot to fall out.  But the kids enjoyed it anyway.

Before the party dispersed, we had cake.  Sims had 2 identical cakes - one was labeled Birthday Cake and the other was Birthday Cake from 15 minutes ago.  Both were delicious.

I think Sims and his friends really enjoyed the party.  I was so happy that the activities all worked out well enough, since we were rookies at that.  I know that we all enjoyed being creative and planning all the details for the party.  And we love that so many of Sims' friends love Fortunately the Milk.  It's always nice to share good books with friends!

And now we have a 5 year old!  Here he is the day after his birthday at my niece's wedding.

We are so proud of our big guy!