State of the family

Well Ana's been busy working on her milestones. She is now sitting very well. She started kind of tripodding about the time she turned 5 mos and now she's totally got it. She loooves her new view and spends a lot of time sitting on the floor with me playing with her toys. She especially enjoys a ball that rolls around on its own with songs and lights.

She's very good with her hands and can pretty much grab anything she wants. ...including food. She makes us feel very guilty for not sharing ours with her. I think that chubby little belly is always up for a good meal. :) She actually shares cheerios with us in the morning and eats them like a champ. If we don't share, she basically begs and raises a real fuss.

She is also able to roll both ways and prefers sleeping on her belly. She can also push up on her arms when she's on her belly and I think (fear!) it won't be long before she's learning to crawl. She would love nothing more than to keep up with her big sister.

Ana thinks Katen hung the moon! She always smiles when she sees her and loves to laugh if Katen makes a sudden move or is being silly. I've got some video coming showing Ana belly laughing while Katen circles the room and then pretends to crash.

Katen is an amazing big sister most of the time. When she hears Ana on the monitor she loves to be the first to go up and see Ana. She talks to her and rubs her head from outside the crib. She is also good about giving Ana kisses and hugs... and the random cheerio from time to time. (How do you think we figured out that she could eat them, after all?) Sometimes Katen has a little trouble sharing. She'll ocassionally take a toy away and recently, since they wear the same size, Katen will have trouble letting Ana wear a shirt or bottoms that were previously only hers. I'd hoped we could make it to the teen years at least before the girls started fighting over clothes. Oh well!

Last weekend we visited the Tulip Festival in my home town. We braved cool temps, wind and a little bit of rain. Katen got to Dutch dance with Grandma ("Mamo") Debby and both girls rode in the baby parade with their Dutch costumes on. After riding in the parade we watched the rest with Great Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Tammy. Katen especially enjoyed the marching bands. I think we have a future drummer on our hands. Ana wasn't overly impressed with the whole operation but didn't really complain too much either.

As an update to the housing situation, we have sold our house. The home that we'd picked out to move into got 5 other bids on the day ours was sold and we did not win that game, which left us homeless. After searching for just the right opportunity, we came across a great piece of land that fit all of our criteria for the house we'd intended to build later, so we jumped on it. In two weeks we secured a six month lease on a townhome near our land and called our builder. We should be breaking ground in the next three weeks or so. Living in a townhome is pretty cramped (our cars sit out because the garage is totally full) but it's a nice place overall. Close to our future home, Grandpa R's house, a little Dutch ice cream shop (!), and it's very sunny and bright. For a short time, it will certainly do just fine.

I think that brings everyone up to date on the state of our family. :) Always lots going on around here!

Here's some video of Katen dancing to the marching band...

(you might have to go to the actual blog to see this if you're reading this via email.)