6 months

15 lbs. 3 oz. - 50th percentile

27 inches - 95th percentile

Maggie is getting to be such a big girl! She loves to play with her toys and put everything in her mouth. Her first tooth came in on Tuesday. We have started her on rice cereal and will soon be making her way towards fruits & veges once we start making her baby food. Maggie is just starting to sit up on her own and we are always close by to catch her when she falls over. Maggie loves attention and loves to be held. She fully recognizes her mom and dad and will smile with delight when she sees us. Maggie just started to say "ma ma " although I don't think she really knows what it means. She is so much fun to be around and we are loving the stage she's in!

non-reader's visual summary (July/August)

High Water

On morn' of Thursday July 30th, we threw our plastic wrapped items and backpacks into the truck and headed for Zion at 4am. Our trip was temporarily put on hold while police officer Levitt, in Hurricane, wrote out a ticket. Thankfully it was not for speeding and only for not having a front license plate. We arrived at the visitor's center 9:30 sharp, picked up our overnight permit and caught our shuttle to Chamberlain's Ranch.

If you want to hike the Zion Narrows there is nothing better than starting from the top. We started in a rolling cow pasture, following the Virgin River, slowly watching it carve below the surface. Taya insisted we tell stories the entire length of the trip

The first day we past through the first narrows, my favorite section. We also past the waterfall, which is a great place to swim. We also past Kolob Creek, where the water gets warm and slippery, deep and murky.

There are twelve designated campsites in the Narrows, our permit was for twelve, but due to lack of sunlight we camped at ten. Our site had dozens of spidery dandy-long-legs, which kept me from sleeping most of the night.

The next day, I awoke to find that a squirrel had eaten most of my remaining food. Luckly, Taya had packed enough food to feed a family of five, including vienna sausages, jerky, bagels, energy bars and extra cereal. I had no idea I would be craving vienna sausages!

The journey out was beautiful. We had to swim through a few areas, which was fun. We filled our water at the Springs, which taste delicious. We didn't take too many detours and were home by 9pm and ready to sleep in our beds.

Camping with the Donovan's

I loved camping when I was a kid. It seemed like a free easy way to live and nobody cared if you were covered in dirt and smelled like a campfire. I never remember packing. I don't recall any sleepless nights. I don't recall unpacking either. I do however remember roasting marshmallows and staying up late telling spooky stories. In fact, I sometimes wondered why all children didn't run away and live in the woods.

Friday after packing for half a day, we left with the Donovan's for Mt. Charleston, about an hour north of Las Vegas. We arrived early enough to get a camping site at Old Mill picnic area. It was chilly and I was thinking about why I packed everything I did but left my jacket at home. I guess when you are constantly sweating you forget that there are places in the world that are cold. Well, my jacket was not the only thing I forgot. The chocolate bars for smores were sitting in the freezer at home and the oil and spatula for the pancakes were sitting in the cupboard. I actually didn't even think of those things until were cooking.

But there were plenty of things that were just as good as I remember. The tinfoil dinners were delicious. The marshmallows were yummy, especially melted on the peach cobbler. The fire Brian built was warm and smokey as any fire I recall. And the stars... well, I am glad I remembered to look up because I almost forgot there were stars in Nevada.

Camping with the family was not quite like I remembered but even without smores or sleep, it was still fun!

5 1/2 Months

Today Maggie looked close to crawling. It has been five and a half short months. She has made some recent discoveries. She recognizes her name by turning to look at you when you say Maggie. She wants to put everything in her mouth, including her toes. She pulls toward any solid foods that Mom or Dad are eating, she really wants to eat something more solid than milk but we are still holding out. She continues to love the outdoors. She can be in the middle of a piercing scream but the instant she steps over the threshold outside, she is calm as a stary night. She sleeps from 8pm to 5am, with a sleepy feeding around 10pm. She loves to be talked to and held. She is developing coordination in her hands. She can hold her own bottle and can pick her pacifier up and put it in her mouth. She smiley more and has more reactions, which makes parenting that much more rewarding.

Birthday

One thing I love about Sara is the reminders she gives me that her birthday is almost here. One month out and she gets giddy, "Do you know what today is?" I should know by now but I swear my brain is not wired to remember dates. "One month before my birthday!" Birthday month begins, which means nothing really changes except, Sara is making plans and talking about all the things we are going to do. Special favors are done under the guise of birthday month. One week out and presents begin to arrive and we celebrate early, after all it is birthday week.

Finally it's here. The funny thing is in a few minutes I will be wakening her with Maggie and then we are off cleaning the house because the Donavan's are coming out to celebrate and we are going camping, yes camping. Sara even let me influence her birthday plans. This is a big experiment with two toddlers but if nothing turns out at least we will have an adventure.

Happy Birthday Sara!!