My baby is six months old! Archer is cheery as ever and still loves to jump, sleep, and watch his sister and Shinobi. He smiles at everyone he meets. In the past couple days he started rolling from belly to back and he started solid foods. He's been grabbing at food on my plate for a while now. In Sunriver, Abe was munching solid food so I decided there wasn't much reason to wait a couple days and I let Archer join in the fun. He tried broccoli, cucumber, and jicama and seemed to really enjoy it. Since then, he has had bell peppers, cabbage, chicken, bananas, pears, and carrots. So far bell peppers have held his attention the most. We are doing the baby-led weaning approach again since we loved it so much with Quinn. Archer also went in a swing for the first time this month and seemed to like it. He's generally up for trying anything, really. 

Archer, we love you. You are such a delightful addition to our family. I'm so excited to get to know you more, Mr. Bright Eyes!

We finished our summer with some nice memory makers. The Warrior Dash was a blast. It was so fun getting to do this event together and with our friends. We definitely hope to do another. It was a good challenge mentally and physically. And I'm still cleaning the mud off of me. Now my goal is to keep going running and keep liking running, so far so good!

Our dear friends the Littaus visited. It was so good to see them! They inspire us to love others more and better by their example. We spent thirteen hours straight with them and they still seem to like us. Shinobi obviously remembered them too.

We went to Sunriver with my parents and my sister's family. My sister and I were sent by my parents to get a massage - heavenly! We also swam, ran, played, laughed, pigged out, and the adults got some naps...the kids resisted. Archer loooved swimming! I guess it makes sense since he was born in the water. He's been a couple times and liked it, but this time he was doing some serious dolphin moves. Quinn played mermaid in the pool for over two hours. I guess we have water kids. Quinn also spent a lot of the trip climbing on stuff. Sunriver is always a nice getaway for us.

My sweet Mr. Bubs is five months old now. He is a non-stop jumping machine; all day, everyday. Little man has some serious spring action going on. He is practicing his b/v and g sounds a lot. He frequently turns himself 180 degrees in his crib and seems very proud about it. He is at just the right height to peek over the edge of his carrier. He drools and spits up so much that I constantly have him in a little bandana bib. The peeking and accessories have earned him the nickname Pico Bandito. He loves smiling at anyone and everyone, but especially other babies.

Jonathan traveled for work last week so I took the kids to Eugene to visit family. It was a nice little break for me to have some extra entertainment for Quinn and Archer. Archer went to his first baseball game and we got some quality cousin time. 

Otherwise we've been doing more of the same routine we've been enjoying all summer. Lots of happy, golden, beautiful summer days outside. A typical evening consists of Quinn playing in the yard and Archer playing on a blanket while we grill up dinner, eating dinner outside, followed by more backyard playing or walking to the park with neighbor friends until it's way later than it should be and the kids still need a bath, but, oh well. I love it.

Jonathan did the Tough Mudder with some buddies for the second year last weekend. This year's obstacles and terrain were a lot more challenging, but he had a great time. He's such a tough dude. He barely seemed sore the next day. 

I've been doing workout playdates with the other moms that we are doing the Warrior Dash with in hopes of keeping up with him. Other than that, we've been sharing some dinners with friends, going to the park, reading, I've been doing some bookkeeping and sewing, and my mom visited. 

I had an epiphany today about my attempts at education with Quinn. The whole Montessori at home idea appealed to me because I like having clear checklists and quantitative goals. I loved reading the book and getting her activity cupboard ready. The goal is to have a set routine for accessing the activities and they are not supposed to be viewed as toys, but learning materials. She went along with it for a while, but the girl's imagination and creativity are just so powerful and...I love it. The ideas she comes up with using sorting pasta, pipe cleaners, and beads are wild. Everything is mixed up and overlapping with her toys and I'm not going to stop her. She's gentle and respectful with everything, toy or otherwise. So, I'm ditching the structure and letting her follow her curiosities. Besides, the things she wants to know about astound me. She asked me why some lines on the street are yellow and some are white (which I don't think I noticed until I was studying for my driver's license). She wants to read the Voice of the Martyrs newsletters we receive and then be shown where the places are on the map. Which led to her asking where Heaven is on a map. She knows almost all the states from her US Map puzzle. She picked out a book about presidents at the library and wants to know what the leaders of other countries are called. She asked me today why elephants are called elephants. She also asked me today what stamps are for and how letters get to people. I just can't predict this stuff. I'll keep her activities cupboard stocked with new little goodies, but for now I think just being fully available for conversations is the best education I can offer.

Summer is flying by! Since I last wrote, we had some friends we met in the bay area come to visit. They are missionaries on the other side of the world and came back for some training. We are both families of four now and we haven't seen them in over two years, but it was amazing how it felt like we just picked up where we left off. It was so good to see them and have our kids play. 

I quietly turned thirty a couple weeks ago. I celebrated by not cooking or cleaning, getting a sweet new watch, some new running shoes, and some treats with friends. I also had Jonathan give me a spontaneous haircut a few days before. We went to Cannon Beach the weekend after and it was a perfect day.

I gave Quinn her first haircut, a tiny trim. She still prefers her hair long and flowing free. We've been hosting some friends for dinner with our grill - still loving that thing! And the routine of lots of playing outside, eating from our garden, and enjoying all the sunshine continues. We had another Sundae Sunday party with blackberry cheesecake ice cream. Such an easy recipe without egg yolks, definitely making it again. And Quinn (kinda) helped pick the blackberries.

Last weekend, Jonathan's parents had us to their house. They took Quinn on her first fishing trip and had her camp in their backyard. She caught two blue gill right away, I hope she doesn't end up thinking that's how fishing normally goes! 

We had a date night last week. We went to a really great place, Prettyman's General, but unfortunately it was a going away party. Our beloved Changs are moving to Amsterdam, waaaah! We are sure going to miss them!

Archer finally had his four month check-up. My yummy little squishable guy is still healthy and right on track. He remains in the 45% for weight and head circumference, but jumped up to 90% for length. He's wearing size nine months for shirts and sleepers! He's chatting, giggling, drooling, and wiggling up a storm. He rolled from back to belly once last week but hasn't since. He wants to so bad! He loves watching Quinn and Shinobi and he seems to like being read to as well. We've also discovered he's pretty ticklish.