Ildri has a Cousin!

Ildri's first cousin, Matthew John Clute, entered the world on December 30th at 5:05 AM (with just a little help from his mama, Aunt Kirstin).  He shocked us all by weighing well over eight pounds.  Mama has met the little guy, and Ildri and Uncle Dave are excited to greet their new family member as soon as possible.  

I must say, I am so excited for my sister and brother-in-law to be parents.  Not only to David and I get to share the experience of being a new parents with them, but I've always known that those two would make a wonderful team as parents.  Matthew is truly a very lucky little boy.

Six Months Old!

Wow, Ildri's already at half a year!  Amazing.

• She is still quite the talker and smiles and laughs more often.
  
• She is over twenty pounds already, so we're getting quite a workout carrying her around!  She's in the 95th percentile for height, and 97th for weight.
  
• She has tried sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, bananas and rice cereal.  Carrots are by far her favorite.
  
• She is getting really good at sitting on her own.  We recently got her some stacking cups, and she spends a lot of time tasting them and throwing them around.
  
• She LOVES to be sung to, and loves books that have mommy and daddy make funny noises, such as "Mr. Brown can Moo".

Food!

Ildri just started on solids.  We had her on rice cereal for several days, and we've recently graduated to bananas.  She absolutely loves the bananas, and we can't wait to add new foods to her list.

Idlri the Great Pumpkin

It was our first family Halloween in Iowa, and I expected to have a lot of trick-or-treaters.  We never got more than a couple in Chicago, and we were kind of excited to see a lot of kids dressed up this year.  We got a lot of candy, and dressed Ildri up in her pumpkin costume (thanks Grandma Barb!).  And, nothing.  We ended up with one group of non-costumed teens around 9:30 PM and a lot of leftover candy.  At least we got a lot of cute pictures!

Daddy's Birthday

November 6th was Daddy's birthday, so Ildri helped me make a cake.  We decided on a banana cake with cream cheese frosting.  We halved the recipe (we didn't want an entire cake sitting around) and make little individual cakes in ramekins.  I was a little worried that the cake would taste like banana bread, but I was wrong.  It was a lovely cake, and a lovely little celebration.

Hats!

I've recently taken my sewing foray into the land of hats.  I have now completed 3 hats, including one with earflaps, and one with cat ears.  I still need to take pictures of her in the other two hats I made, but I have pictures of her in a winter hat for the first time (I didn't make the pink one), and in my first attempt at making a hat (the blue one).  It's quite obvious that I had some issues with fitting her tiny head, but the new hats are working out much better!

Finally, New Pictures!

Okay, it's been a while.  But I've had a nasty cold, which Ildri finally caught from me, so there's been a lot of sniffling, sneezing and coughing in the Weaver household lately.  Besides that, Ildri and I have been enjoying all of the days that bring us good weather by taking long walks and hanging out on the porch, blowing bubbles and watching the wind rattle the leaves.

Ildri has been fascinated by our mouths and her mouth lately, and does a lot of grabbing and exploring of this orifice when she has the chance and proximity.  She also loves it when we blow "raspberries", and is trying to perfect the skill herself.  Every morning this week when I've gone in to wish her good morning, she responds back with a smile, followed by her little sputters.