I took the kids to the park late afternoon yesterday, we had been stuck in traffic for a while and needed to get out and let loose before heading home. The park is shaded and it turned out great even though it was hot as heck outside. This morning we went to the Kendall Branch library. We have been to several libraries and went to a great storytime yesterday at Ring Library, but when it comes to libraries the new Kendall Branch library crushes the competition.

Emily loves the park and library but her favorite thing to do is sing and dance for an audience. I don't have any pictures, but just this morning Emily was singing and dancing for everyone in the gym nursery. They gave her a pretend microphone and the staff was clapping for her as she held out notes and waved her arms around in a dramatic fashion. It took me and a staff member several minutes to take the microphone away from her so we could leave. I need to find a singing/dancing class or activity for Emily. I know of some but only for 3+ yr olds. If anyone knows of a good class for two year olds, let me know.

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Steve and Carol had our family and my parents out to the lake for the weekend. Emily and Mark really enjoyed spending the weekend with their fan club. We ventured out on the boat on Saturday for Mark's first boat ride. We weren't sure how it would go but it turned out to be a lot of fun. We stayed out for much longer than anticipated and even had lunch on the lake before heading home. We also enjoyed hanging out at the house with good food and good company! On Sunday we visited Great Grandpa and Grandma Karcher's house for a cousin play date and lunch. We enjoyed seeing Great Aunt Jean and Cassidy and Jack. It was very entertaining to see the cousins interact. We shot several great videos. I will post those as soon as I get some help with editing and formatting because the videos tell the story much better than text or a picture. Here are some pictures from our fun weekend in Austin.

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A nasty stomach virus has wrecked havoc on our house so we've spent about a week at home. We are finally on the mend, but here are some pictures of the kids playing at home.

I think Mark is secretly happy that we've had to skip our usual outings.

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Grandma and Papa took us to Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus last Sunday. We had a great time and I think that Emily may have found her calling in life, Lion Tamer. Emily also attempted to steal the show. Before the circus starts they let the crowd come down to the floor and meet the performers while they do some smaller up close acts. Magic, juggling, sword swallowing, and other various carney antics. Emily couldn't resist the music, crowd and great lighting so she put on a show of her own.

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[password-protect]We had Mark's '6 month' appointment today. He will be 7 months in 6 days so it's really a 6ish month update. Everything went well at the appointment. We were there 2&1/2 hours ( ahhhhh! ) not fun with two small kids, but Mark checked out and looks great. Emily stood up for Mark while he was getting his vaccines. The nurse was giving Mark his shots (and naturally he was screaming) and Emily kept waving her arms in the air and yelling at the nurse, "stop that, stop that. He doesn't like it!". I had my eyes and one arm on Mark but had to pat Emily's back with the other arm during the shots because she was very upset by it too. I thought that was kind of sweet.

Mark is now 16 lbs, 9 ozs and 27&1/4 inches long. He has two teeth and loves to show them off with a big smile. I am still nursing and that is going really well. Mark loves solid foods too. We started him on rice cereal mixed with my milk at 4 months to get him used to solids and then started vegetables and fruits at 6 months. So far he likes just about everything and even grabs the spoon out of my hand to shove it into his mouth. He eats sweet potato, green peas, green beans, carrots, squash, avocado, apples, bananas and pears and also likes rice cereal and oatmeal mixed with milk. He loves mum mums - little rice crackers. I can give him one of the crackers and he will stay independently happy the whole time I get dinner ready. It is awesome! He is eating a mum mum in the pic below.

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My friend, Katie Cooper, gave me this cool bath seat to use for Mark. It makes it much easier and safer for me to bathe the kids together - and Mark loved it! I was a little reluctant to take it off of Katie's hands because it is kind of big, but I am so glad I did! Here are some pictures of the new set up.

We went to the toddler "skate" at the Dairy Ashford roller rink today. It was a lot of fun and a great place for the kids to run around with their friends in this heat. Mark was happy to watch while I held him but I look forward to watching him run around with friends too. Here are some pictures from our morning jog and our roller rink adventure.

Back at home.

Emily is actually pretty good at feeding Mark. (I took her dress off during lunch because it was a nice one and bibs never really work...bad habit, I know.) Emily also put all of her clothes and Marks clothes in the washing machine for me earlier this morning and refused to let me help her. And since she can do the grocery shopping now too, she just about has it covered!

A few people have asked about the shopping trip and in case you are wondering, we did not actually purchase any kraft mac n cheese. Emily was surprisingly well behaved and put back any items that I said we didn't need. She just got stuck on the Mac n cheese isle the longest due to their perfect product placement and use of the "lightening McQueen" character. I will be dropping her off at Kroger with our list as soon as she can read;)

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Mark is now sitting up without support. He had been sitting up with support of one arm or a toy for a while but just started letting go and straightening up this weekend. I'm excited about this development because it makes playtime a lot more fun because now there are more things for Mark to do. Here he is having fun with the Music table.

Kroger just got some kiddie shopping carts. Obviously it was a huge hit with Emily although I'm sure we were annoying everyone at the store with our slow moving train of mother and daughter shopping carts. I realized today that Kraft must pay big bucks to place their Mac n' cheese approx 3 feet off the ground but I'm sure it pays off in a big way. I'm also wondering if Kraft is behind stocking our local store with kiddie carts. If so, it was a brilliant plan.