Nine months, here we come!

We are so exited for the kids' nine month birthdays, mostly because it brings us closer to the one-year milestone. Not that we're in a hurry to get there, but we really need an excuse to throw a sweet party!

As babies do, ours are changing almost daily, before our very eyes. Great example: plastic cup prowess. We have started playing with plastic cups after their evening solid foods while the kids sit at the counter in the their chairs and mom and dad nourish themselves. The first night we tried this, their reactions were a little slow and basic things like changing grasps depending on the cups' position was lost. Not one day later did all this change. One day before, and it was difficult for any of them to grasp one cup. The day after, the kids were holding two cups and trying to eat both. Amazing!

Kelly and I have been extremely lucky (thanks Grandma Diana and friends!!) the past few weeks to have been able to get out and about without the kids. The breaks were needed and effective at recharging our spirits.

The second week of June we traveled to Minnesota for our friends wedding. We stayed with other friends and had a great time. We had great beer, great conversations and a relaxing time. Thanks Eric and Amy for the excuse to get away, and to Mike and Amy for your gracious hospitality!

This past weekend, we were able to enjoy a dinner party with live band. As you might imagine we had a good time. Thanks to our friends Kim and Joe for helping us get away! And to grandma for watching the kids.

Back to the kids. No complaints, but we have our general parental worries. When will August get his first tooth? Why is Livvy so darn hard to feed? Is Max eating too much? But they are really great kids.

We've had our first taste of sibling relationships with the kids starting to take away toys from one another. Great. The attention span isn't that long right now, so the grudges are short. August and Max have begun to pick at each other. During solid food feedings at the counter, August will instigate some exploratory poking at Max. Luckily, he can only reach his arm, but today he pulled off Max's bib. Max reciprocates with some poking of his own, but it doesn't seem like he really knows why he is poking at August. Max is fulfilling the gentle giant role - for now.

Livvy has begun to do a little two-step during her bottle feeds, making it next to impossible for her to finish her bottle. Hopefully it's just a phase she'll grow out of. We've also got to be very careful of her sensitive skin. Bath time, outside or any other chance of skin irritation, and she will get it. We're battling skull-cap right now.

Visitors have thankfully graced our doorstep often in the past few weeks. My sister's family stopped by along with my parents for Father's Day. We had a great time and watching our nearly 4 and 2.5 year-old nieces tear around the house gave us a brief glimpse into the future. It was great to catch up with everyone, and we're still getting used to the idea that we've moved up in the family food chain up to parents. It's still strange because we remember being the kids running around the house!

Kelly is enjoying her days off before the next school year, but there is never a shortage of things to do. We've been keeping Wal-Mart and Target on their toes, buying diapers and formula in bulk. The formula will stop soon enough, but the diapers are here to stay for awhile...unless we can learn that ancient Chinese method of potty training infants we've heard about.

Pictures:

MORE PHOTOS & New Tooth

We know it's not as exciting for the rest of you, but Livy got her first tooth: 6-7-09!!! Which, we realized from a text this morning from my mom, is our 6th wedding anniversary. Yes, we both know the date of our anniversary, but neither one of us remembered it THIS YEAR. It really shows how fast time flies by. Funny how those kids like to mark their coming of age too.

Max's 1st Tooth = Mother's Day
Livy's 1st Tooth = Wedding Anniversary

We're thinking Auggie may go for Father's Day to round out the significance. Or maybe we'll just happen to stick our finger in his mouth that day like we did the other two and find out he's got razor sharp gums instead of smooth safe ones.

In other news, babies had another photo shoot this weekend. They just don't stop asking us, "PLEASE Mom and Dad, can we get dressed up again and have our pictures taken JUST ONE MORE TIME?" It's pretty much constant now, so we basically have to humor them until they've had their fix. They also DEMANDED we post the recent job, so here they are:

8 Month Photo Shoot

It's been 8 months since the Three Amigos were pulled from my loins.  Gross but true.  Their newest trick is sitting up on their own long enough for mom and dad to snap some pictures.  

Our days this past weekend consisted of two photo shoots.  One, bright and early after breakfast on Saturday and the other after lunch on the same day.  Both sessions took less than 10 minutes each.  We walked out our front door, put some pillows under a blanket and danced behind the camera like our lives depended on it.  (I'm a way better dancer than Mike.  You'll know by looking at each photo of smiling cherubs...that was my fancy foot work, of course!) 

We think we're going to try and push our luck this weekend too.  Try for a few more outfits and smiles to put in the baby book.   Oh, ok, we'll put them on the blog too.  

HAPPY 8 MONTH BIRTHDAY BABIES!