On a lighter note....

The kids have been up to so much lately, so it's time for an update. A week from today Andrew will be 7 months. I haven't weighed him recently, but I'm pretty sure he is pushing 20 lbs if not already over that. He is wearing all 9 month clothing and even some 12 month sizes. His lower gum is starting to swell and we are going through multiple shirts a day (from drool), so I think teeth are on their way. We are working on getting Drew to sit up on his own and I think we are fairly close. He definitely likes attention and he has even developed a fake cough to get our attention.

Sarah is 2 years and 4 month old and I just can't believe the difference between age 2 and 2.4! She has gone from sitting in a highchair to using a booster seat at the table. She even eats her breakfast at the kitchen counter sitting on a barstool. The great thing is she can get herself up and down from both seats. She is in a climbing stage right now, so she loves it. Sarah has also gone from just a handful of words to using 56 words (that we can understand). Naturally, the word we hear the most at home is, "No, no, no!" She can be quite sassy when she says it to us. Ugh! The interesting thing is that Sarah likes to keep her language a secret from most people. At school, her teachers thought she could only say 3 words (hi, bye, eat). I'm not sure why she won't speak in front of others, as she is really outgoing and silly in public. I guess that it must be a confidence thing. Despite this sudden improvement in language ability, she has some pronunciation issues, so it won't be a surprise to us if she ends up needing speech therapy later.

Sarah thinks she is such a big girl now. Here are some funny (albeit frustrating) things that she has done lately.

• Swiping my diet Dr. Pepper off the table (gotta be just like mommy) and finishing nearly the whole glass before I caught her. The most surprising thing is that she barely spilled, because she still uses sippy cups.
• Swiping Michael's Starbucks coffee (gotta be just like daddy) that he brought home. He set it on the counter top and she got up there and finished it off.
  
• Pouring herself a second bowl of Raisin Bran cereal (yes, she actually likes that stuff)
• Changing her own diaper. She had the old one off, wipes everywhere, and had a new one halfway taped on. She is nowhere skilled enough to accomplish this successfully, but you gotta applaud the effort. Of course, she won't potty train....

But, Sarah is still enough of a baby to climb into Andrew's exersaucer and put his pacifier in her mouth. Or, crawl into my lap and want me to hold her sippy for her while she drinks.

Sarah continues to be a really good helper around the house - helping unload the dishwasher, wiping up spills, and throwing away Andrew's and her own diapers for me. Here are a few of the latest picture of the kids.

(We had a guest, Gabriel, from Malawi, Africa. Sarah was in love with him.)