A Time For Firsts

My babies are both growing so fast!!  Like every other mother, I find myself watching them sleep at night wishing time would just stop for a little while so I can keep them young for just a little bit longer.  Doesn't it seem like when you most want time to slow down, though, it speeds by twice as fast?  That's how I feel, anyway.

With time speeding by over the past couple of months our kids have had a lot of "firsts".  (P.S.  Sorry for the poor photos.  Why is it that I only have my nice camera around when nothing exciting is going on?)

Jayden has started sitting up by himself.  He has gotten so steady that I don't even have to sit by him anymore.  It is nice to be able to sit him in front of a pile of toys and go do my own thing.  (Rylee never had this stage because she learned to crawl before she figured out how to stay sitting up by herself!)

Unfortunately, I'm afraid the "sitting still in one spot" stage won't last long.  He is already up on his hands and knees rocking back and forth.

Jayden also got to sit in a high chair at the restaurant for the first time when we went out to dinner for my birthday.  Look how proud of himself he is!

Another first for Jayden this past week has been squash.  We had a ton of squash from our garden this year so Chad made homemade baby food.  (Impressed?  I sure am!)  I couldn't blame Jayd for this reaction too much because I don't like squash either!

Rylee has had some "firsts" lately, too.  She enjoyed her first fishing trip with daddy.  They didn't catch anything, but they had a lot of fun anyway.  (If you ask her, Rylee will tell you that all the fishies were sleeping that day.)

We also pulled the John Deere tractor from our wedding out and Rylee got to drive it for the first time!  She was so sweet to even give Jayden a ride around the yard.  (I'm not sure how much Jayd liked it, but Ry thought it was hilarious!)

Rylee and Jayden got to experience their first trip to Cabella's as well.  Ry loved walking around looking at all the animals and the kids thought these little tiny camping chairs were the best things ever!

We have had a great summer and I love being home with my kids!!  Jayden will be 6 months old next week and I am amazed at how fast the time has flown by.  My cousins, Jennifer and Danny, just had their baby boy and after looking at his cute pictures I am astonished to realize just how big Jayden really is.  For now I am just trying to enjoy each new stage as it comes.  For some reason my kids seem to be in an all-fire hurry to grow up, so I will just have to be content to chase along behind them trying to catch as many pictures as possible!  After six months, though, I am very happy to report that Rylee and Jayden are still best friends!  Rylee is so protective of her baby brother (she even has fights with me over who he belongs to!) and Jayden loves his sister more than anyone else (yes, even his mommy)!  It is so cute to watch them play together:  Rylee always makes sure Jayden is included in anything we do (she seems very worried that we will forget to take him with us anytime we go somewhere) and Jayden watches Ry's every move.  He is just dying to start moving so he can chase after her!!  This is one of my favorite pictures, even though it is a blurry cell phone picture.  Looking how sweet they are together!