Greta a 6 months

Happy half birthday Greta! At six months Greta has two teeth on the bottom, can sit up, and is rolling both ways. She loves to play peek-a-boo, and to watch her silly brother dance around. She likes fruits, sweet potatoes, and carrots, and loves teething biscuits, but is not a fan of peas or anything too lumpy or thick. Her stats are:

height: 28in (off the charts)

weight: 18lb 12oz (90th %)

head: 18in (off the charts)

And in case you're curious, at six months Soren was

height: 28.5in (95th %)

weight: 20lb 12oz (90th %)

head: 19in (off the charts)

Greta is working hard to keep up with her brother!

Soren at 2 years, 7 months

Soren was not too keen on sitting for a picture

"Huh? Candy?"

"Okay, fine"

happiness is a warm bath

still feeling kinda guilty

I'm taking lots of pictures of Greta now, I swear!

bath time

We are always trying to find ways to coerce Soren into getting into the tub, ever since he went from loving showers and baths to loathing them. Last week we were giving Greta a bath and he asked to get in too. Hard to argue! Greta was extremely tolerant of having lots of water splashed in her face, and they both got a real kick out of having some company in the bath. Unfortunately it seems to been a one-off thing, as Soren is back to fighting us tooth and nail.

cat nap

more sweetness, then not so much

awwwwwwww....

not so much a fan of the peas

shout out to grandpa

First a nice picture...

And then a nasty one.....

Grandpa Albright is a die-hard cheesehead, so my guess is that he won't appreciate the outfit our neighbors gave Soren. To make matters worse I actually had to hide this outfit after he wore it for two days straight (including sleeping in it). I hoped he would forget about it, but he keeps asking for his football shirt and football pants, but they seem to have gotten "lost."

hungry girl no more

For Greta's first meal we decided to skip the cereal and go right to pears, hoping it would help with a certain problem she tends to have that rhymes with ponstipation. At first she was a little dubious.

But she quickly caught on and started gobbling it up!

She actually was so good at the whole eating thing that we don't have any of the classic messy first meal pictures, since most of it went down the hatch!

That was delicious!

a good day to start the new year

Isaac and the kiddos at the Minnesota Zoo.

You know what's scary? I started taking violin lessons at the same age that Soren is now. Hard to believe! Although he looks like he might be ready (except that he's holding the neck backwards)

happy munchkins!

sweet girl

sweet stuff

This isn't the greatest picture of Greta, but I love the way Soren is looking at her. He really truly loves his baby sister! The first thing he asks when he wakes up from a nap or in the morning is usually where Gigi is. I'm not a huge fan of the nickname Gigi, but it's what he started calling her, and it's so darn cute coming from him that it seems to be sticking. Soren was so proud of Greta when she started sitting up that he would clap and chant "go G, go G!"

this one goes out to my siblings

I'm attempting to make up for the deficit in pictures of Greta, so here is our newly sitting up girl on New Year's Eve!

hungry girl

What's a girl gotta do to get some grub around here?

Great Lakes Aquarium

I hadn't been to the Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth since shortly after it opened, so away we went! Greta insisted on gnowing on the rental stroller. I'm sure they sanitize those, right??

Soren and Mary checking out the lift bridge

Soren had a strong opinion about dad petting the stingray

But he loved getting to feed the giant trouts

Greta was totally into this bird

our fam

Soren and the big fish tank. This, people, is why swimming in lakes creeps me out.

So you say she might be teething (yes, it's all drool)

Christmas in Duluth

I'm going to have to skip around a bit here, as a bunch of pictures are on our other camera and I still have to download them.

We drove up to Duluth on Christmas Eve in the midst of a blizzard. The roads really weren't as bad as they were predicting, but we were glad we got there when we did, because they got much worse later. We arrived just in time for some lefse making!

Mary is pretty much the champion lefse maker in our family

Soren loved to "help" grandma roll out the lefse

Since we wouldn't feed her lefse, Greta was forced to eat her boot. Poor child.


Christmas morning breakfast of champions- donut holes and pears.

Ahhhh, the sophisticated two year old sense of humor (that's a bow on his forehead)

Side note: I feel really guilty, because despite constant badgering from my siblings about how I need to make sure to take just as many pictures of my second child as my first, that last picture just may be the only one we have of Greta's first Christmas. Yes, that's her on the floor. Parenting fail.

Uncle Tom and Aunt Liz gave Soren a harmonica for Christmas. I will spend the next year plotting my revenge.

Soren is actually quite a virtuoso harmonica player. After putting on a show for everyone he went in the sunroom, shut the door, and lay down with his feet up to play a bit more. He was like a sad hobo in there.

mixing, mixing, mixing

Christmas Eve into Christmas Day it continued snowing. I think we got about 2 feet?? And then it started to rain. But that didn't stop the boys from all going outside to make a snowman.

I'm not sure how with Tom and Isaac working on this snowman it didn't turn out looking more....shall we say creative....but they went pretty standard.