it's been a great summer

We have thoroughly enjoyed summer at the Miller house this year. Since I was on maternity leave Jan-March I was a little worried that I would feel cheated with no vacation days or trips with the family...but that was certainly not the case. We didn't get our garden in like we had planned and there are projects that are not yet completed, but I feel very satisfied. My family came out for a long weekend, Eric's mom and dad came up from Florida, Nate came and spent a week with us, I got to go to San Diego for Katie's gorgeous wedding and spend a weekend with college friends, and just enjoy my husband and our wonderful kids!

Madison will be 12 in a week, Claire will be 2 1/2 in just a little over a week, and Ian will be 8 months old in less than a week...crazy. Madison is in her second week of 7th grade and already going to football games and having sleepovers on the weekends...boy do I remember 7th grade and everything that comes along with that. YIKES! :) Claire has started using her imagination beyond just playing with pretend ice cream cones and tea sets. She now tells me stories of how she saw dinosaurs flying in the clouds by big waterfalls and they spilled water on the floor, there is a small family of whales that live in the Jeep on the floorboards below her car seat and she throws her blanket down to catch them and I have to guess if she has the mommy, daddy, or baby, she sings row-row-row-your boat while helping wash the dishes with two wooden spoons, etc. It's awesome to watch and listen to her explore the world. Observing an imagination grow is a magical thing and sometimes reminds me to loosen up myself and just pretend. No need to get so wrapped up in the reality of bills, work, and the never ending pile of laundry.

Ian is almost eight months old and is just the most mild mannered little munchkin I've ever laid eyes on. He is so sweet, smiley and content. He is so close to crawling which will definitely add a new dynamic to the house. I must admit it's really nice being able to just set him down on the floor and know he will still be sitting there smiling when I return. Those days are almost over. He is starting to reach his arms up to me when I go to pick him up and I adore that. He is a huge fan of boxes, crunchy empty packes of baby wipes, and balls. He thinks Claire is HILARIOUS and laughs his deepest belly laughs when she plays the game where he is sitting in the hall and she will run over to him and plop down next to him. He just dies of laughter and she does it over and over and over. Madison has a video of it on her phone...I must get it loaded on youtube. It's priceless. He loves his babyfood almost as much as I love making it.

On that topic...it's SO easy to make babyfood. You literally just go through your fridge and steam things and purree them. Peaches, apples, mangoes, pears, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, carrots, tomatoes, spinach, kale...anything! And then once they get used to those food I just start adding some protein. Since he's now 8 months I have just been putting whatever we are having for dinner in the Magic Bullet and he eats the same. Of course this is modified a bit depending on what we are having. But last night was pot roast with potatoes and carrots and Ian had the same. It's awesome! I usually make big batches on Sunday and then freeze about 1/2 of it in little one serving containers. The only thing I have found that doesn't freeze/thaw well is regular potatoes. Anyway, try it...it's great and so wonderful to know exactly what is being fed to my little guy.

I was going to post pictures to end this post, but it's now been about six hours since I started this draft and I am completely wiped. When I looked at my folder to decide what pictures to add, there were just too many. So I'm off to bed...pictures to come. Happy last day of our fiscal year at work - here's to a great FY12! And my vacation days reset...WOHOO! Goodnight all.