"Boo" is 7 months old!

Life has been a whirlwind lately - Mario was traveling for work, I'm packing up my classroom, and we are busy reorganizing our downstairs rooms and getting the deck/outside ready for warm weather and summertime.  And all of a sudden, Mathias is 7 months old!

He continues to be split between being a happy guy and a difficult baby.  When he's well rested and fed, then he's happy and smiling and giggling.  When he's tired or hungry, he can be very fussy and difficult.  And he's still been sleeping badly.....but I cross my fingers and knock on wood when I tell you that last night, he slept THROUGH THE NIGHT!  Granted, it was only 10:30-5:30, but that's 7 hours in a row.  The most we'd ever gotten before was 5 hours (once).  We are ecstatic to have had a good night of sleep and are hoping for more repeat performances, starting tonight. :)  In other things, he's sitting up on his own, rolling all over the place (back and forth and back and forth) to scoot around and reach things he wants.  He's loving eating solids (although is still unsure about carrots and peas - he loves sweet potatoes the most) and has started eating "puffs"; basically, baby cereal pieces that dissolve in his mouth.

Miriam is doing really well.  Her final day of preschool is this week - we'll be attending her "graduation" on Thursday.  It starts with a "duck pond run" (literally - they run around a duck pond) and the flyer specifically asked for parents to make sure kids are running around the pond and not off chasing ducks.  :)  She's so grown up these days, having in depth conversations, and so independent.  She loves her new playset and is enjoying growing carrots in pots in the backyard.

Speaking of growing things, our garden is growing pretty well, for our first year!  All of our plants/seeds have been in the ground for a while, and I think we'll harvest our first strawberries next weekend.  (Although I'm not sure they'll make it in the house; Miriam sees them and says "Can I eat them?")  I'm looking forward to fruits and veggies continuing to grow as the weather gets nicer.

Mario completed his first "century" bike ride yesterday (100 miles) in about 6 1/2 hours.  He said it was easier than he was expecting, and the hill that he'd been fearing wasn't quite as bad as one he trains on, so that was good!  He's doing a 200 mile ride (Seattle to Portland) in the middle of July, so I think this gave him confidence about that ride going well.  And he said he enjoyed riding in a group and drafting behind other riders, which he doesn't get to do on his solo rides when he's training.

I've officially signed my half time contract for next year and have started moving out of my room.  The new principal hasn't assigned classrooms for next year (to those of us moving positions), so in the meantime I'm storing some things in our garage and some things in a friend's closet at school.  I do have a bit of an idea of what I'll be teaching and I'm excited about that - I'm actually hoping I'll still get to work with 2nd graders and my current 2nd grade team, but we'll see.  I believe I won't find out specifics until we do assessments in the fall.  In the meantime, I'm counting down the last 2 weeks of school, packing up my classroom, and looking forward to visitors later in June before the kids and I travel to Minnesota in July! :)

Happy June everyone - here are some recent pictures of the kids:

Miriam hiding inside our new grill

Cutie in a polo shirt! 

He loves sitting in his high chair playing with toys. 

Miriam found this headband in her closet one day and insisted on wearing it (exactly like this) to preschool. 

7 months old - and sitting in his own little chair! 

Miriam was playing "hide and seek" with him, and this was his reaction every time she ran out and he saw her...

Happy little guy! 

Trying to push himself up and scoot somewhere.