The Lipscomb Family: July!

July has been nothing short of CRAZY..... in every sense of the word! Here are a few highlights!!

The Friday before we headed off to Josh's folks for Independence Day we had some company! Uncle Bob, Uncle Rui, Auntie Sue & Ellen all came to have some coffee with Josh and I and to see our house. Unfortunately, it was a quick visit - but, we made the most of it. It is always FANTASTIC spending time with family - always.

One of Papaw Birdies friends painted Carter a picture of Fireman Sam. Carter loves it and we plan to frame it and put it on the wall in his play room.

Mackenzie had her two month brace removal check-up on Tuesday, July 13th @ Duke. Dr. Fitch said her hip appears to be growing as it should. We were told that we don't have to do anything different with her as she learns to crawl, etc. He wants to see her back in 6 months to assure it is continuing as it should. Hopefully, at that point we will only have to go yearly for the next few years.

Carter is certainly behaving like your typical three year old. For the most part he is a very kind and loving little guy. However, when he has his moments - WATCH OUT! I'm fairly certain we will not have to worry about this little guy being a follower..... he shows every sign of becoming a hard headed leader. At this point, I'm not really sure if that is a good thing, or not!?

It is not even an option to leave the little princess unattended -- she is moving all over the place. Right now she is mainly just rolling - however, she tries her hand in crawling and will often succeed to scoot herself a couple feet across the living room. Her sitting abilities are still a work in progress - if she didn't like to pull up onto her feet I think she would have mastered it already. However, every time I sit her up - she wants to pull up!

We were blessed with great sleepers.... period. I've managed to get Kenzie on a great napping schedule during the day. After her 11am bottle I will let her play for about 30 minutes then it is off to her bed she goes. She sometimes will fuss a bit; however, within 5 minutes she is fast asleep and will often sleep 2 1/2 good hours.

In the evenings Josh and I have both kids in bed and sound asleep no later than 8pm. We stopped swaddling Mackenzie a few weeks back and she didn't even skip a beat. I actually think she sleeps better now. She has no interest in a paci and seems even more and more less interested in finding her thumb?! Only time will tell how that will all pan out. Carter has tried a few stall tactics - most of which we have been able to nip in the bud. On average Carter gets me up around 7:20am and Mackenzie will often sleep or at least play in her bed until I get her around 7:45am. The goal during the week is to be out the door around 8:30am..... routine is the key!

Rice cereal has been a hit. Kenzie has sampled it a time or two over the last week. I will start migrating it into our routine more and more over the next few weeks. I'm pretty sure Mackenzie won't turn down much of anything. I'll be shocked if she is a fussy eater ;-)

Things at Merz (Josh's company) have been quite busy; however, Josh does everything possible to be home for dinner. We have really made it a point to eat dinner as a family. We all really like our time together. The kids and I are lucky to have such a fantastic Dad & hubby.

Just last week Mackenzie found her feet and oh how she loves them so!

Carter FINALLY did it... he filled his vase full of fuzzy balls. One thing we have struggled with was getting Carter to not call us and ask us silly questions in the monitor with the talk back feature once he was in bed. It wasn't a huge deal, it was just annoying and the questions were getting more and more. So, Josh's mom suggested a fuzzy ball jar. I had bought Carter a Handy Manny bench that we were saving for the perfect moment. Well, this was the perfect opportunity to have him work for it. It took a while, I don't think he quite understood that once the vase was fully of fuzzy balls he would get the bench.... until it happened. That little dude was soooo proud he couldn't hardly stand himself.