Brendon, Shelly, Henry & Stella Pagel: Stella is 6 months!

Wow has time flown by. January 23rd our little Stella girl turned 6 months old! And funny just when I thought she was far from sitting on her own, just like that, now she does! Well, she doesn't do it for all that long because instantly she see's something out her reach and falls over reaching for it! It's pretty cute- I just love the stage she's in. She loves to hang out in the jumperoo and in the exersaucers.. and I love it because then we talk to each other easier! She loves grasping for new toys and sucking on everything! Her 2 teeth that cut through a month or so ago are fully in now and I'm pretty sure she's already working on more! She now eats 2 to 3 meals a day which is fun. She's very good at eating her food. We mix veggies or fruits with her cereal and she loves it. There are some new organic baby foods out there called happy baby and Plum and some other kind (other than Earths best and Gerber).. I've been trying all of it.. all varieties, organic and non organic.. I think it's more fun trying all the different brands and flavors and I think that will be good for her too.... I hate when a brand of baby food only has like 3 or 4 kinds of veggies... the Plum and happy baby have good stuff like mango's, and apricots, and beets, and asparagus, broccoli and fun things like that. So far Stella likes it all. She's still just such a happy baby- I can't even stand it how wonderful she is and how much I miss her during the day.. I get home usually by 5pm, I come home nurse her, make supper, clean up, do baths on bath nights, and then she's ready for bed before 7pm! I feel like I have no time with her during the week because between 5pm and 7pm, it's just a race to get things done.. ugh. She's just so happy and I love it. She's sleeping well most nights, a couple nights a week she'll sleep through the night, others it's up once maybe twice and a rare occassion (like last night) she was up 4 times I think... I'll just blame it on teething though. I also had to check the car seat sizes because she's growing so tall! Our carrier goes up to 22lbs and 29inches, she's about 17 and a half lbs now and not sure on height, but I think at least 27 inches. I'm guessing another month or two and we'll have to switch to the convertible car seats. Henry still has to be in the convertible carseats since he's only almost 3 and still only 30lbs, too bad he wasn't a little older and bigger and I could just get him new booster seats and use his car seats for Stella.. oh well- safety first! : )

And Mr Henry... he's adjusted well to his preschool class room and likes it for the most part, he still talks about his toddler friends, so I hope more of them will be transitioning into his preschool room soon so that will make it easier. He learns Spanish and Sign Language, so many songs and is a good boy. Most days he's fine with going to school, but every now and then, like before, he cries when Brendon drops him off. But all pretty normal. I love when I'm busy with something and I ask Henry to go sing to Stella he'll go sing the ABC's, sing the tractor song, and start doing his numbers in spanish! He's so good with his sister and he MUST hug and kiss her before she goes to bed each night! In the mornings he likes to help me wake her up by opening her door and singing "good morning good morning to you stella girl".. priceless! He's getting really good at coloring, shapes, and letter recognition. He's also starting to learn left and right- I love how kids just soak it up! There are certain books we read more often than others, and when we ask him to read him by himself, I can't hardly stand how cute it is to hear him... he remembers some of the words we read so his does his own rendition of the story- same basic story line, but much shorter. I have to get that on video for keepsake some time.

So we're all good, now Henry's 3rd birthday is just around the corner!