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We went on a church campout this weekend, which was much fun. Except for the nighttime. Co-sleeping with a nursing baby on a thin foam pad maybe half the width of a twin sized bed is not fun. And then Leif woke with the sun and proceeded to be noisy for an hour or so before going back to sleep.

But I apparently did get some deep sleep, as I didn't hear the dog barking.

Beeb is 8 months old today.

Here's a ton of pictures from the past month or so:
( Ducks! )

( Leif sleeping )

( What I saw when I woke up (the second time) )

( Sitting up on her own )

More here, most only slightly different.

8 Months!

Astrid is 8 months old today!

Our declaration about crawling seems to have been a little premature, as she's pretty much at the same point where she's been for a while now - scooting herself around, but not quite crawling. And she still has no teeth. She's doing great, though.

She plays games, now. I (mommy) take aikido, a martial art that focuses heavily on rolling and falling. In it, we do breakfalls, which are a way of falling so that the impact is better distributed across the whole body. The other day, Astrid was sitting up, then throwing herself forwards in a manner very similar to breakfalls, so I started copying her. Then Leif started. She'd watch us do it, then throw herself forwards again.

I'm sure it was funnier without all the background info.

And she and Leif play a shrieking game, where one of them will give an extremely happy ear-splitting scream, and then the other will copy it, and they go back and forth like that for a while. It's oh so adorable and oh so annoying.

Here's some pictures, taken this morning in our tent while on a campout!

What I saw when I woke up:

Not quite sure she wants to be awake yet...
( Click here for more pictures! )

( Sitting up on her own )

( Two from earlier in the month )

More here, most only slightly different.

(If any of you family members ever want a better quality copy of any of the pictures for printing out, just tell me, and I can email one to you.)

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Leif pictures!

We got some ducks at the beginning of May. We'd been thinking about it for a while for eggs and pets, and then these came up for free. They were hatched just before Easter, and are Pekin ducks (well, except the grey one, which we think is an American Black Duck hybrid), which has the stereotypical cute yellow ducklings sold around Easter... and these cute little ducklings grow into one of the biggest breeds of duck, and people get overwhelmed. So now we have them. They're considerably bigger now, as is their yard, and I intend to take comparison photos soon.

Anyways, Leif loves them, and likes to help with feeding them and putting them to bed at night.


( Click here for more pictures )

We went camping for Memorial Day weekend. Leif didn't really sleep much, but we took pictures when he did!

( Leif sleeping )

He's turning into a big boy so fast! The other day he rode for the first time with Da on a trail-a-bike (a kid size bike that attaches to the back of an adult sized bike). He can recognize words like "cat" and "zoo" (Grandma L. - we found a copy of Put Me In The Zoo, and he loves it as much as I did, along with The Cat In The Hat Comes Back). He also likes chapter books, and we're currently reading Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, which he seems to enjoy, but I can't help being a bit bothered by the casual whippings and traditional gender roles. Funny how the books we enjoyed as kids look different from an adult perspective!

He can dress himself pretty well, but often gets at least one item on backwards or inside out. Or both, which always makes me think "How appropriate". When we point this out, he always says "But I like it like that sometimes!"

We're currently planning his birthday party - one month to go until he turns 4!