half birthday

Victoria turned six months old back on June 8. It still feels surreal nearly every day that this beautiful baby girl is really ours, and here she is six months old already?! Happy half birthday, little one!

A few new things in the life of a six-month-old:

• Solid food! She had previously tried a couple foods, but at six months we branched out into new foods and it has taken off like wildfire. Oatmeal is delicious; rice cereal makes her gag. She loves sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, pears, and apples. Avocado would probably be ok if she was starving, but otherwise she'd prefer other stuff (actually, she was more excited about the avocado until she tried other foods -- now that she realizes the alternatives, she'd rather just avoid the avocado, it seems). I went to Target over lunch today and filled my basket with all sorts of different baby foods. It's fun to watch how much she loves food, and to watch the funny faces she makes when she has that first bite of a food she isn't expecting. We're proud of what a good eater she is.
• Sitting up: In less than a week, she went from needing support while sitting to being able to sit on her own for a few seconds to being able to sit for several minutes. Again, we feel so proud of her. She seems to not even realize she has acquired a new skill as she nonchalantly goes about playing with her toys.
• A growth spurt. Most 0-3 month clothes are ready to be packed away, and the 6-month clothes have come out of the bottom drawer. Matt showed me last night two photos taken nineteen days apart. Placed side by side, they show how she has changed. Face shape, longer legs ... quite the difference.
• "Walking" -- She has been using a walker at day care, and now even at home her feet will make walking motions as she tries to get where she wants to go. A new fun game is to sit with mommy and daddy and "walk" back and forth between them.
• Similarly, another fun game is "pass the baby." She is holding her arms out to get picked up, and seems to like simply getting passed from one person to another. We could sit here for an hour passing her back and forth and she'd continue to be excited about it.
  

With Matt's out-of-town trips this month, we took her six-month photos a little late, but they're so cute they were worth the wait:

Nature Valley

For several years now Matt has been working as a photographer for the Nature Valley Bicycle Festival. He just spent the last week with the bike race, and I think this year's photos are some of his best yet. They really capture the spirit of the race and its great venues. My favorite one is the racers speeding by Mickey's diner in downtown St. Paul. Iconic!

bears

Victoria woke me up at 4:30 this morning. I fed her, then put her back in her crib, and when I returned to our bedroom Piper put both paws up on our windowsill, gave a sniff into the air, then took off down the hallway barking like crazy.

I followed her, mostly to tell her to shut up. When I came out to the living room and saw a bird feeder on the ground outside the window, my stomach lurched.

A mama bear and two cubs were scurrying into the woods.

Bears aren't terrible. But the last thing I needed right now (ok, ever) was a furious mama bear deciding that our house is a tempting place to hang out.

All I could think of was this image I saw at the Walk for Animals last week of a dog after being mauled by a bear. And here were my two pups, barking and wagging their tails - what, you think those big black critters are playmates or something? My pups dash in and out of the woods so fast they could run into a bear before I'd even have a chance to call them back.

I tried to take in the moment, and appreciate this wildlife sighting. And then I promptly said, "that's it - no more feeders!"

The poles were knocked to the ground:


One pole just snapped in half:


A feeder smashed to smithereens:


Part of me really wishes I could have watched the bears have their feast. The other part wishes we hadn't had the feeders out to begin with.

Serves us right for putting feeders out in the north woods, anyway.

Viktor and Victoria

The last of the weekly photos with Viktor and Victoria! Matt decided to duplicate this earlier photo to document how much our little one has grown. She turns six months this week! We'll probably do a photo with Viktor at her six-month photo shoot -- then one every month.

first weekend of summer

All of a sudden the switch was flipped and it is summer! The Moses family took full advantage of the sun and warmth last weekend. Saturday morning we went to the Animal Allies Walk for Animals in Bayfront and Canal Park. We brought all three girls -- they all loved seeing all the people and dogs, and all were well behaved. It was a gorgeous morning to stroll along the lake, watch ships and birds (including the above recently-rechristened ship, the Hon. James L. Oberstar), and enjoy family time. Before the walk, V was getting fussy being in the carrier while I was just standing still, so we had to hang out in the grass and get her out of the carrier.


Those of you who have spent time with us recently know the phrase "straps and tags" because those are some of Victoria's favorite things. The car seat straps, the baby carrier straps, the strap on her hat, the tags on clothes and blankets and toys -- all are great to suck on! Well, it was only natural then that she would find Piper's leash and decide that SHE had to be the one to hold the leash, not mommy!


After the Walk, we came home. I couldn't wait to get out in the sun and plant some more stuff in the garden. It's been challenging having to work on the garden in short half-hour spurts rather than the several-hour sessions I'm used to. I put V in her little baby tent and started weeding. Matt headed into the studio for a photo session with baby Finn. And my dad, our personal lawn mowing service, headed out with the riding mower. He couldn't resist taking V for a couple rides on the tractor.


LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that photo!

The dogs loved being outside, too. After the Walk that morning and a couple hours spent running around smelling all the good smells in our yard, even Piper was content to lay in the shade.


Saturday evening, we headed into Duluth for an engagement session with my cousin Sarah and her fiance Evan. It was a perfect evening, and I walked V around in the stroller (we don't get many stroller rides around here, so it was a real treat). Sarah and Evan are a super cute couple (super photogenic too) and it was so much fun to watch their photo session. You can see a few of the photos in Matt's blog post. Some of my favorites didn't even ake it into the blog post, that's how good they are!

Sunday was more low-key, but we did have a birthday party for my cousin's son. It was nice to see some family, and spend some time on their deck again enjoying the sun. My favorite part of Sunday, though? Hanging laundry on the clothesline! There's something so perfect about reaching up to fasten a clothespin and seeing bright blue sky beyond. AND about crawling into bed at the end of a nice long weekend, smelling those sheets fresh off the line!