5th birthday and the babies are 6 months!

Brother Bear and Small Bear are now officially 6 months old. In theory, that means everything will be getting easier. They are starting to sleep better now, thank God, and as a result, I'm starting to feel a bit more human. There are some exciting new developments in the last few weeks. Firstly, they are getting BIG. Brother Bear is 17 whopping pounds, and Small Bear is 15. They will be outgrowing their infant car seats very soon, and I will be sad to say goodbye to my lovely (and lightweight) snap n' go stroller. Hopefully they will be better sitters before they outgrow them so that they can sit in highchairs when we go out.

They are starting to eat baby food. While Small Bear totally gets this and actively participates in the eating process, Brother Bear is completely mystified as to why I am sticking this strange substance in his mouth. Most of what goes in, comes immediately out again. Along with a veritable fountain of saliva. I'm going to need an umbrella soon. Hopefully he'll catch on quickly. Small Bear's favorites are bananas with cereal and apples. She's not too sure about the avocado yet. I'm kind of surprised by Brother Bear's reaction to the baby food. I expected him to love it as much as he loves eating his bottles. I guess it just goes to show that you never know.

They are both rolling over now, and can scooch around quite a bit. They are able to sit up in the exersaucer and bumbo seats and have really gotten into playing! They love to laugh with Big Sister Bear, who often will entertain them with laughter, reading books, and getting toys for them. She gets them a lot of toys...until they are absolutely overwhelmed with them.

We will also be allowed to switch them from the hypoallergenic formula to soy! Yay! The generic soy is 1/4 the cost of the hypoallergenic. We will no longer be spending $600 a month on formula. What a relief. Hopefully they will like it. We're planning to slowly transition them over a little at a time.

Big Sister Bear also has exciting news: she's now a big 5 year old! Her birthday party is this weekend at the local jumpy castle/ inflatable climbing gym place. She is inviting her playgroup friends and some of her friends from school. Looks like we may have a pretty full house. She is beside herself with excitement. She has decided on an under the sea theme, so we have lots of coral reef tropical fish. She specifically requested "no sharks, because they eat the other fish".

Our family celebration included dinner out to her choice of restaurant. Her choice this year was Red Lobster. She loves the popcorn shrimp and a side of broiled small scallops. When we got home, we had cake and opened presents. This year we got her one big gift: a playmobil house. We are still waiting for the house...it is being shipped from Germany. I hope. All the messages from the ebay seller are in German! We babelfish translated them, and we think that its on its way. It looks really cool. I can't wait to play with it. Oops, I mean she can't wait to play with it!