Ashton, seven months

My littlest is seven months old, and I'm already mourning the passing of time. Ashton is the sweetest, chunkiest, happiest baby. He started eating food last month and opens his mouth like a little baby bird waiting for each bite. He clocked in over 20 pounds at his 6 month doctor's appointment and is sitting up well and pulling himself up to standing. He rolls around (mostly back to front now) and is just starting to try to crawl, but he doesn't get his big body very far. His blonde hair is growing out, which gives him a little halo of golden fuzz befitting his angelic persona.

The changing table, his favorite place

Harper put this hat on his head. 

#babyute

Sounds are starting to become more word-like as he babbles for long periods of time and strings together sounds like "mama" and "baba" without seeming to attach those things to objects. Ashton takes three naps a day and wakes up 1-2 times a night now between 7 pm and 6:30 am. Robert and I are still sleeping on an air mattress in the living room. We moved out of our room over a month ago so Ashton would get longer stretches of sleep. Unfortunately, he was so successful, so quickly that now I'm scared to move back. I was waking up every two hours in my room for 5 1/2 months so sleeping 7-8 hours straight on the air mattress seems like a pretty good deal.

Robert has convinced me that "mama" is his first word. I'll take it. 

Utelet

We are on the precipice of multiple changes -- Harper needs to potty train and move into a "big girl" bed -- and moving the babies, with their vastly different sleep schedules, into one room just seems like a recipe for disaster on top of everything else. I never dreamed a four bedroom house wouldn't be big enough, but right now it totally is not.

They are awfully cute together though

Harper has hit the insane 2-year-old phase. We all call her "Harpnado" because she is a whirling dervish of energy. She is hilarious and volatile, sweet and selfish. All her emotions are huge. Big love, big cries, big opinions. She listens about 30% of the time and follows instructions about 20% of the time. She is a contrarian who runs the opposite direction at Little Gym and gets reprimanded for running around at library story time. It is exhausting, but I can already see us looking back on it fondly. Even now, I admire her confidence and chutzpah. Luckily, she is still a great sleeper, napping two hours a day and sleeping 11-12 hours at night. The rest of us need the time to recuperate.

Antagonizing Aidan

Firefighter Harper

Stolen cheese puffs from another family at the park

Harper girl starts preschool in the fall and it can't start soon enough because she really needs to learn how to share and play well with others. Our new rule is that every time she takes something from Ashton, she has to replace it with something else. This will work until ostensibly he actually cares what thing he holds.

Sharing the bare minimum

Aidan graduated from Dilworth and starts Hillside in the fall. I try to respect his privacy by not divulging too much on the blog, but I am really proud of him right now. He's advancing at Boy Scouts, doing well in school, and killing it at being a big brother. The babies adore him. I sometimes marvel that after ten years of being an only child, he never complained about the spotlight moving off of him, losing time and attention, or having to help out a million times more. He always says yes if you ask for help even if he's right in the middle of something. Aidan is genuinely a nice kid. He also needs to eat more. The kid is 5'3 and 88 pounds because he literally forgets to eat, something I can't even begin to comprehend.

Sixth grade promotion

Aidan and the grandparents

Aidan and best friend Alex, photobomb by other friend Alex.

My favorite

Best. Teachers.Ever.

I can't believe that we won't have a kid at Dilworth for another four years and that Ashton won't graduate from Dilworth for 12 years. I'll be 50. Beware. If you stretch having kids out, you will be in elementary school for-e-ver. I also realized that the year after we stop paying for preschool and full-time childcare, Aidan goes to college. Don't blink, ya'll. 

Unrelated to graduation, but here is Aidan biking in Moab. 

My two boys

The three littles 

How am I, you ask? Tired. Busy. Overwhelmed. Blessed. I'm still nursing 5-6 times a day, which means I pump at work about twice a day. I'm proud of this because it is so damn hard. I have to leave meetings early, schedule "P Sessions" in my Outlook calendar and find awkward places to pump when I work out on the road. But it still feels like the one thing I can do for Ashton while I abandon him 8 hours a day (I know, I know, I'll stop) so I trudge on.

Day before elementary graduation

Ashton, 6 months

On the blanket in the backyard

At the doctor's office

Me giving a speech to 475 librarians

Flying baby

Harper and Ashton are getting closer in size. 

Date night to see RBG! 

I miss my family. I don't know why it took five years to really sink in, but the missing is palpable lately. Probably because the last couple years, I've only made it home twice, and I am raising two new little ones a thousand miles away from my mom, dad, sister, two brothers, and 10 amazing nieces and nephews. My mom and dad just came out to visit earlier this month and my brother and his family left just two days ago so at least I am getting my fill of visitors.

Ashton and Nana

At Sugar House Park

Ashton and Papa

The boys

Guardsman Pass

5/11 Tripp cousins 

Park City Main Street

Watching Zach play lacrosse at a U Training Camp. He is crazy good. 

While we were all calmly watching lacrosse, Harper was introducing herself to everyone around us. "Mama, can I say hi?" 

Hiking to Lake Solitude

Robert and Aidan were at Boy Scout Camp

Lake Solitude

Hidden Falls

The only two girl Tripp counsins

Sugar House Park

Go Utes! 

We found Hidden Falls

State Capitol

Despite the chaos and lack of sleep, I'm trying so hard to cherish every moment of seven months. This is a golden period of smiles, big belly laughs, and lack of mobility. It's the calm before the crawl. Life is good.