Last weekend we celebrated my big 2-5.

At 6 months and 1 week, Adilene loves to grab, grab, grab. As seen by her reaching for..everything. Beer included.

Addie has a newfound love of avocado, as seen in the last picture..She just couldn’t get enough of it. And, finally, Addie continues to chomp on everything and her next two teeth, up top, are gearing up to pop through.

And finally. My Auntie Pam, Addie’s Great Auntie Pam, passed away last night unexpectedly. Addie was so lucky to have known, at not even 1 day old, one of the most beautiful people around. We’ll miss you Auntie Pam.

Adilene is 6 months old today! What a six months it has been. Addie went from a sleepy newborn who I had to wake every 2 hours to eat, to a cooing, smiling alert 6 week old, to a vivacious 3 month old, to a giggling 4 month old, to a tooth sprouting 5 month old, to a babbling 6 month old.

Some notable things as of late:

Adilene loves to wiggle and squirm. On the changing table, on the floor, in my arms—she knows no bounds. She’s recently shown in interest in rolling over, both sides now. Adilene loves her “crack bouncer,” or, jumpy exersaucer; she can’t get enough. She’s had pancakes, toast, some yogurt, avocado and applesauce (not a fan). She might have also had a taste of ice cream ;] She is vocal, using lots of “babababababa’s” and “mamamamamama’s” and “dadadadadada’s” to let us know what she wants. She loves her doggies; and lights up when she see’s them in the room—although they might not be fans when she pulls on their fur. Addie gets excited a lot—she tenses up, kicks her legs all over, and smiles the biggest smile she has.

Charlie and look back at the past 6 months and realize how perfectly Addie fits into our lives. Often, when we would be out and about when she was just weeks old and sleepy in her infant seat, people would make comments.. “isn’t it nice when they’re sleeping?! It makes up for when they are crying and screaming!” Charlie and I would look at each other and laugh, because Addie just plain doesn’t get upset. Sure, there are times when she cries, but its certainly not a cry, cry. She is one of the happiest babies I know.

Happiest of Birthdays Adilene Olivia!

Someone’s tired of mama’s incessant picture taking..

No, no. Caramel corn from great grammie and gigi does NOT count as babys first food.

So, Addie is only 5.75 months and our plan was to wait until 6 months..But we thought it would be fun to let Addie have a little taste this morning. No harm in tasting some hotcakes, right?

She was a little weary, but enjoyed exploring her first taste of solids. We’re doing “baby led weaning,” or rather, “baby led solids.” Addie will explore her food by skipping baby food and purees. The theory is that it teaches babies to trust their instincts around food and eating, as well as learning to chew before they learn to swallow. We chose to try this because, frankly, Addie runs the show when it comes to food. Addie knows what she wants, so we’re gonna trust her to pave the way. Case in point: Addie still refusing the bottle when shes away from mama. (5-8 oz MAX per 8 hours in daycare. yeah.

We’ll start solids for REAL in a week!

Our first step was creating an opening where the fridge used to be. Here is the kitchen when we moved in, and the computer room on the other side.

And the kitchen right before opening it up after we moved the fridge out of the way.

And the computer room

After the opening

On the other side, the window and door were taken out

Meanwhile, Charlie was busy doing this..

Eventually, the openings got patched up

Which proved to us how much our natural light was cut down in the new kitchen with pass-through to the new “dining room….”even WITH the new patio door letting some good light in.

So, we decided to take down the wall between the rooms.

Down the cabinets came.

So, with the window all patched up, we were ready to put up some cabinets.

With our project manager keeping close eye..

We had a contractor install the patio door, take the rest of the wall down, skim coat in the new dining room, and close up the window and door. Because were doing the rest of it ourselves, were going with IKEA cabinets for the affordability and customer satisfaction.

Present day: the walls are primed, painted, and ready for the board and batten wainscoting and crown molding we will put up, and we have just a few wall cab’s (we buy and put up a cabinet or two each month).

next on the list: moving gas line for the stove to the other wall (there will be a peninsula where the stove is now), running plumbing to the other wall for the dishwasher, adding lighting and outlets, new sink and faucet, new countertops and tile backsplash, add floating shelves.

when its all said and done we will have more than doubled our counter space and cabinet space, I cant wait! But for now, we live in limbo.

We spent the day lazing around, playing in the bouncer, and watching the pups.

We got dolled up (anything other than sweats is dolled up ;] and stopped by our friends for an hour or two

When we got home, we got started on our “new tradition” of homemade egg rolls and lettuce wraps.

Lettuce Wraps:

pound ground turkey, can diced water chestnuts, shredded carrots, zested ginger, salt, pepper, garlic powder, rice vinegar, sesame oil..wrapped up in lettuce with peanut and hoisin sauce for dippin’.

Babe testing out the deep fryer ;]

And babe set aside somewhere safe while daddy works the deep fryer

Addie didn’t seem to mind.

Egg rolls:

1 pound ground pork, salt, pepper, zested ginger cooked in a pan, then set aside. 1 head shredded cabbage, a couple of shredded carrots and a drizzle of sesame oil and rice vinegar in a pan, heated through until cabbage is soft but still has some crunch.

place a handful on an egg roll wrapper, and roll up!

deep fry in peanut oil until the wrappers are a nice golden color. Or, pan fry in oil on the stove.

Ladies in the kitchen can stand back, look cute, and watch.

And the finished product! yum.

After we filled our bellies with homemade yummies, we snuggled on the couch. Babies eyes closed at 11:59—can you believe it? She missed it by 1 whole minute.

New years morning we woke up late, and moseyed into the living room for some tummy time.

Daddy and Mommy are off tomorrow morning too. I suspect more lazing around, don’t you?