Crawling, and teeth, and cloth diapers, Oh My!

 Well, as usual, it's been awhile since i've written, so I'll try to make this quick!  Well, as quick as I can, because as most of you know, I have a daily word count that I must get in (and that doesn't matter if it's spoken, or written.  Sorry, Jared.).

Morgan has recently gotten her first tooth, one of her bottom ones.  I'm totally going to miss that sweet, innocent, gummy smile.  She has the most precious smile.  It makes my heart melt.  I know it did with Austin, but it's easy to forget as our children get older those small simple moments in life that make you realize what it is all about.  That smile is one of them to me.  And next month it will probably be something else.  I really wish we could just freeze time sometimes, but I know that's not possible.  But they really are growing up too fast.  It's hard to believe that she will be 8 months old in a few short weeks.  These two make our family and life complete.

Morgan at 6 months- just learning how to sit up on her own

How sweet and innocent can she possibly be?

Here are a few pictures of Morgan from her six month photo shoot with daddy.  As you can see, she's starting to come into her own, and looking slightly less like Austin at this point.  Granted, she still resembles daddy and big brother more so than me, but I think the bottom of these two pictures, in particular, she's starting to look like her own being.  And my, she is gorgeous, if I don't mind saying so myself.

Morgan getting into a stack of bills I'm working on organizing.  

Morgan is officially a crawler at this point.  She's very slow and timid with her movements, but she gets around.  It's adorable to watch.  She's up on all fours, unlike her brother who did the army crawl for months.  She's very curious and into everything at this point, and nothing is safe around her.  Austin is still trying to figure out how to keep her away from his toys, but he's very patient with her, and doesn't get upset with her (yet).  He's such a wonderful big brother though, and lets me know when she's got something that's too small that she shouldn't have.  Morgan is starting to want to eat adult table food and is getting upset when I try to feed her purees.  She typically blows raspberries at me, usually resulting in me needing a change of clothes almost immediately after meals.  I know it's a phase, like most things are with kids, but hopefully she grows out of this one soon.  It's cute, and frustrating all at the same time.  She's starting to self feed herself Gerber Graduate Puffs (she would eat the whole can in one sitting if I let her), bananas (i'm now up to buying around 12 lbs per a week for the family, ugh!), and i've given her really ripe pears and green beans.  She is still a good eater, and has quite the "tum-belly" on her as Austin would say.

Hanging out and watching basketball as a family

As some people know, I've recently gotten into the crazy, confusing world of cloth diapering.  There are so many options out there now, and it was honestly overwhelming and cumbersome at first.  I'm getting there with it though!  In all honesty, with Austin, I thought there was only one way to do things.  You buy everything-disposable diapers, food, whatever.  I'm not as timid with Morgan as I was with him.  I've made all of her baby food, started her on cloth diapers, have let her have bites of my food and drink from my cup.  These are all things I was terrified to do with Austin and I'm just a bit braver with her.   I almost tried cloth diapering with Austin, but it was when he was starting to potty train and I didn't want to invest the money in it at the time (and, we couldn't afford it, to be honest.  The initial cost was too much for us.).  So, Target started carrying a cloth diapering system (Charlie Banana) that I have been wanting to try, and I broke down and purchased them about two weeks ago.  So far, I love it.  I wish I would have done it sooner, but I sort of got wrapped up in making purees......and life.  Since she was an infant, Morgan hasn't really minded sitting in her own filth, which sort of concerned me with potty training (even though I know that's a bit down the road).  Austin hated it and I had him in cloth training pants before his 2nd birthday, and he was pretty well potty trained shortly after that (at least with the going number 1, number 2 was a totally different story!).  Morgan, not so much.  She blows out of every disposable diaper I've tried, and has always been red in the downstairs area.  Since i've switched to cloth; no blow outs, no redness....yet.  She still doesn't seem to be bothered with being wet, but she gets changed more frequently now that she's in the cloth as they don't absorb much.  It's a bit more work, but I like that she's not red, and I'm not wasting a bunch of money throwing diapers in the garbage anymore.  I feel like I'm doing something good for her, good for our budget, and good for the environment by doing so.  Not to mention that unlike the disposables, I can sell these once I'm done with them :)

Austin and Jared recently went to the Monster Truck show.  Austin was a huge fan, and Jared naturally tried to compare the Fort Wayne show to a much larger one he saw in MI growing up.  Not quite the same, but they had a blast.  Austin is changing so fast, and it's hard to keep up.  He's been in a more playful mood lately and not so literal and serious, which has been really fun.  It seems like at this point, he's more like our "buddy" than our son, if that makes any sense.  I hope that doesn't become a problem at some point, but it's what works for us right now, and it's part of the reason why he's such a great kid.  He really doesn't give us many problems and is a very sweet, kind, compassionate little boy.  Apparently we are doing something right. :)

We've all been sick lately.  Over, and over, and over again.  It's really getting old, and hopefully with the nice weather approaching (finally), we will get over some of it.  Here Austin is relaxing with Jackson, most likely watching a show, sick.  He's bringing home all of those lovely preschool germs, sharing them well with the family.  He's starting to do chores around the house again, and was just able to save up enough money to put $5 in the bank for savings, and buy himself his first toy.  He was so proud of himself when the Amazon package arrived today.  It was priceless to see his face and how excited he was.  I hope he enjoys this toy as much as he thinks he will, especially since he worked so hard to buy it.  it's interesting trying to teach a 4 year old responsibility and about money, but I guess we can't start to early with those sort of things.

Jared recently ran across the above quote.  And I don't know what's happened to us and our family in the past few years, but we've grown so much (both physically and mentally).  I don't know if it's been since the birth of our kids, since Jared switched jobs, since i've stayed at home, since or circle of friends has changed, or since we've gotten older (more likely a combination of the listed).  I'm really not sure, but we've been trying  around our house (as well as teaching the kids) to do the right things in life, knowing that eventually those things will be reciprocated and good will be done in the world.  I keep reflecting on a quote from Dr. Seuss that's in the Lorax "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better.  It's not."  I long to get back to a simpler life; one where we aren't keeping up with the Jones's (although we haven't been doing that for years), where it's about helping our community and others around us, one where we live with what we need, and not so much what we want.  One that it's not just about "me". It doesn't take much to be compassionate, and it comes in all forms and can apply to most things in life.  I just hope that we can continue on this path in our lives and teach our children the same.  I apologize if some of this doesn't fit in, but I have a massive pack of Switch and Go Dino's next to me making a lot of noise from a very talkative 4 year old and have completely lost my train of thought.  So much for insightfulness :)