8 Months

Helen laying out by the pool

On Sunday, Freddy and Nikki came over to help me take the kids to the pool. This was their first time in a real pool. They did not seem all that impresed but they still had a good time. (And I hear that if you take them in the pool in regular diapers and not swim diapers, the diaper will explode from being super saturated with water. But this is just what I hear, not from personal experience or anything.....yes, I was cleaning diaper filling off of Helen for two days).

Ella hit a road block on one of her rolling expeditions

There is no denying who this child's daddy is - Helen

Alex

I leave them alone for a few minutes and they decide to recreate their positions in the womb

Our future triathletes! Helen, Ella, and Alex

Ella and Alex

Precious Helen

Gotcha! After several attempts to get Ella to hold her own bottle, I figured she just could not do it yet. Then one day she lost her bottle and got tired of waiting for someone to get it for her. That's when we caught her holding her own bottle! I should have known - Ella can do pretty much anything she wants - the key is whether she wants to or not. Now when I give her her bottle, she whines for a little bit to see if I will prop it for her. And when I just stare her down, she takes her bottle and puts it in her mouth with a defiant look in her eye. Attitude at 8 months!

Helen is enjoying her bath

Alex likes the new bath toys

Ella thinks they are pretty cool too

Alex is such a big boy holding his own bottle

Ella can sit up now

So can Helen - better watch out, Helen, you are about to lose that toy!

Helen and Ella sitting up

Playing on the floor (notice how the edge is missing off of the red tile next to Helen - that would be because Ella loves rolling herself to the edge of the mat and pulling up the edges to chew on them. Apparently she did not get the memo that all the Baby Einstein toys are supposed to be more interesting).