Laura: 6 months old

Happy 1/2 birthday to our little Laura!  We adore this sweet girl so much.  She is an absolute delight.

Here's a little about her at 6 months old:

- She loves toys!  She is very content (as long as she is not hungry or tired) to lay on the floor and play with baby toys.  She rolls around and pivots and turns.  She grasps and gnaws on the toys.  She drools all over them.  She seems to stay entertained that way for quite some time which made me feel like she was so good at entertaining herself, until I looked up and realized that of course her siblings are always near by so there is plenty going on for Laura to watch and they are actually the ones entertaining her.  :)  Either way - she is happy and easy going about floor and toy playtime.
- Her favorite toy is probably a soft sided baby wipe container (she loves the crinkly sound).    But she loves all of the baby toys that she can gnaw on and rattle.
- No teeth!  But she sure is biting and drooling on more and more these days... so we'll see.
- She is still just nursing.  She nurses about 8 times a day.  She is ridiculously fast at it too!
- Spitting up has definitely slowed down and lessened (so nice).
- Blow-out diapers are also much less frequent (in fact - so are her dirty diapers).
- We have not started her on baby food yet, but she reaches for all of our food and wants to put everything in her mouth.  I definitely think she is ready.  We'll get her started on it this month.
- She takes 3 naps a day.  She sleeps unswaddled in her bassinet (sometimes on her back with her arms around her face, sometimes on her tummy).  She naps vary greatly in length.  It might be 30 min.  It might be 2 hours.
- She has a hard time going to bed in the evening hours (7-9ish).  She will go down, but then will wake up again and again.  But overall she is doing better at night (maybe up 2x between 9 pm - 5:30 am).  We still put her to sleep and then lay her down.  She transitions to being put down pretty well, so this hasn't been a big deal yet.
- She is smiley and happy and adorable!
- Her hair is starting to grow back in.
- She likes to be outside.
- Really she likes to be with the family.  So wherever all of those siblings of hers are... that is where she wants to be.
- We are working on sitting up.  Just practicing.  Definitely still have a ways to go on that one.
- She likes peek-a-boo.
- She has started noticing more and more when other people are holding her.  No stranger danger yet, but definitely stranger awareness...
- She is pretty easy going and flexible.  She is content and wonderful!  Oh we adore her!  And her gushing smile and her eager kicking legs.
- She is still petite.  :) She is wearing 3-6 month clothes mostly as of recently, but she still fits a lot of 0-3 month stuff and a lot of 3-6 month stuff is too big for her.  She wears size 2 diapers during the day and size 3 at night (we are considering moving to size 3 all of the time).
- She is very "talkative".  Which is apparently the only way that Johnstons come. :)
- She can get splashed in the face with water, a sudden loud noise will go off, and she startles... but doesn't cry.  She is baby #4 and with that is pretty tough and not easily upset.
- When she does decide that she is hungry or tired or wants to be held - then she will LET YOU KNOW.
- Oh she is the perfect little addition to our family and we just adore her and feel so lucky to have her in our home and in our lives.  We love our Laura Lou!!!

Happy 4th of July!

We had an eventful, yet relaxing, GORGEOUS and wonderful 4th of July!  It was pretty much perfect.

The day started off with Jeremy and the big kids going to a pancake breakfast and flag raising ceremony at Bennett Park.  Yummy pancakes.  Beautiful weather.  Playing at the park.  It doesn't get much better than that. (Laura was asleep or else we would have all gone).

Next up we went the world renowned parade in downtown Liberty (haha).  It is the smallest parade ever.  But luckily our kids don't know any better, so they love it.  It's not crowded so we got beautiful seats in the shade.  It was short and sweet and the kids even got otter pops and candy.  Happy day!

 

Then it was home to shuck and clean the corn on the cobb, slice up the watermelon, fold some laundry (what?!? chores on a holdiay?  Meanest parents ever).  Lunch.  Quiet time. 

After quiet time the weather was PERFECT for swimming.  So we packed up everything that we own and headed to the pool.  This was our FIRST pool outing of the year!  Side note:  It's pathetic that this was our first swim outing.  I know! I have a pathological fear of taking my 4 non-swimmers "swimming" without enough helpers... it's this whole fear of someone drowning... so we have mostly played at the splash pads and in the sprinklers this year.  I say all of this to explain what a big deal this was.  The kids were SO excited!!!

Laura was asleep when we arrived which was nice, but I am so glad that she woke up!  Because we finally got to put her in her adorable swim outfit (a hand-me-down from the Redd family - THANK YOU!).  And she was just too cute!  I wanted to eat her up.  Luckily I got to take a million pictures of her because she is just the cutest thing ever!!  And everyone at the pool got to admire her adorableness too.  :)   It was her first time in the water and she seemed to like it just fine.  She had a great time swimming with daddy and being admired by everyone.  Here she is:

After the pool fun we dried off, changed our clothes and headed to Brent & Michelle's house to play outside in the amazing July weather (high 70s with some cloud cover and a light breeze - it was beautiful!) and barbecue.  Dinner was yummy and the kids were happy for hours jumping in the trampoline, playing with water balloons, playing duck duck goose, and just being kids with their cousins and some friends.  The moms chatted and the dads even got a chance to play a game of bocci ball.  After root beer floats and picking up, it was time to head out to the driveway for fireworks!

Historically our kids aren't big fans of fireworks.  Okay - they are all scared of them. :)  But we decided to give it another try.  We started with pop snappers and smoke bombs.  Those were both big hits!  Then we did some quiet  bright ones and the kids loved it!  I thought we were out of the woods this year.  But then the loud ones started and the kids climbed on our laps, cried, and eventually ran inside.  After a few moments of that we decided to pack up and head home.  Luckily it was late and we had already had a TON of fun!!!

The magical ending of the night came when we were back home.  The kids were all ready for bed and we went into Isaac and Elise's bedroom, turned off the lights, and opened up the blinds.  There in the dark and safety of the room, snuggled up together, the kids watched the awesome firework show that someone in our neighborhood puts on.  It's not overly impressive or anything - but for our kids it was perfect!  As each firework went off the kids would point and laugh and smile and chatter with each other and say "more!".  They loved it.  They were warm and cozy and safe and free to enjoy the beautiful spectacle before them.  We cuddled on the bed together there for a while (Elise and Jeremy even fell asleep!) and it was the end of a beautiful day.  Happy 4th of July!!!!