8 months

Our 2 1/2 year old is blossoming into quite the social butterfly! Her cousins, Emann and Rana, called Friday afternoon to invite her over to their home for a gingerbread house extravaganza. Rana's fellow hockey teammates were among the participants, and they made Helaina feel like she was one of the girls. I left her with her new fiends and made a quick Target trip with my mom. Upon separation, no tears, no whining, no looking back; she was in candy heaven. When we returned to pick her up, she had made (with the help of her friends) this beautiful creation.

Helaina and Zach's swimming classes have concluded for the year, but the recreation center has open swimming on Saturday afternoons. To fight some cabin fever, with the help of my parents, we took the kids to the pool. We certainly have 2 small amphibians for children! We are looking forward to Helaina's new swim class in January. She is moving up to the older group, and by the last week of class, sometime this February, our hope is she'll be swimming independently!

Loves the water just as much as his sister!
Zachary turned 8 months old this week! This kid is checking off the milestone's daily! He's saying "mama" and "dada" and several other babbles. It took him a little longer to get the speech going, but it's started and it's nonstop! Music to our ears. Zach is pulling himself up on everything. He doesn't like to sit still any longer, always on the move. He doesn't enjoy crawling any longer, and prefers to hold our hands and walk around the house. Could our son be walking on his own at 8 or 9 months old...I've only heard of these kind of babies through other mom's...surely our son won't be one of them?!? Lastly, it is very early to determine, but he uses his left hand for everything. We have several lefties in our families, myself included, so it's quite possible we have another one in the making.