Blair sitting up and Easton's latests

Blair is finally sitting up! I knew she could do it but she was just so stiff that if you sat her up she would just fall over backwards. I finally figured out the trick yesterday while she was in the bath tub. If I put something in front of her between her legs, she has to bend over to reach it so then she can sit up all by herself. She sat up for a good 2 minutes in the tub before she got distracted and stiffed up and fell backwards. It's funny how kids are so different. Easton was the opposite. In the beginning he would basically fold himself in half and have to use his hands to hold himself up. I guess Blair just has abs of steel or a very strong back. She really doesn't need her hands to hold herself up (maybe for balancing).

Short video of Blair sitting up.

If she wouldn't have moved the phone she probably could have sat up for a few minutes.

Easton has wanted to feed Blair her solid foods so I let him help me the other day. He actually does pretty well. What's better is Blair loves Easton so much that she can't help but smile so big when he is around. That definitely makes it easier to get the food in her mouth. She is still having a hard time with solids and will spit it out. We started sweet potatoes this week. She definitely likes them better than the other veggies she has had previously, but she still has a hard time not spitting them out. She is definitely a messy eater. Easton was so cute the day when he helped me feed her. Blair's face was covered with sweet potatoes so Easton made his way to the table, grabbed a napkin, and came back to wipe up her face. Even though he's not the gentlest little guy he is definitely a very sweet and thoughtful little guy.

On Monday Nathan was in charge of the lesson for FHE. He taught about holding on to the iron rod. Easton thought it was the best thing to semi close his eyes and use the rod to get to the fruit (pear). He did it a couple of times that night and insisted that we all take turns. I figured that was the end of it but then last night (Tuesday) he randomly found the rod and actually closed his eyes and started at one end of the rod and pulled his way to the other end. Object lessons are so important for kids. They may not fully understand the topic that you are trying to teach them but they always remember the fun activity that goes along with the topic. I guess it all starts there and eventually they catch on and learn the lesson.

Video of Easton "holding on to the iron rod".

Plus you get an extra added bonus at the end. Enjoy!

Now that I think about it Easton has been doing this with a few of the FHE lessons we have been teaching him. I taught him about Jonah and the whale and used a big square bucket to represent the boat. I put Easton in it and moved it back and forth to represent the storm. The next day he got the bucket out and moved it back and forth himself to represent the storm. Unfortunately he moved himself back and forth too vigorously that he tipped the bucket over and it hit him in the face causing a bruise. Oops! I also taught him about fishers of men and got that same bucket out, filled it with water and play fish, and had Easton use his fishing net to catch fish. He brought me all the supplies the next night and fished while I cooked dinner.

I've been trying to do some pre-school/fun activities with Easton this last week. Now that I'm starting to figure out Blair's nap schedule and we are staying home more because of the colder weather I figured we need to have some fun activities/things to do to keep ourselves busy. Right now I'm trying to teach Easton his letters. Easton knows the ABC song pretty well so I figured he could start to recognize which letter shape goes with the letter name. We have done A-D so far. I wouldn't say that it is connecting right now but we are still having fun coloring and spending time together. Unfortunately for Easton I'm not that great of an artist. I ask him if my pictures look like what I'm trying to draw and he says, "No, Mommy." I must not be that bad though because he can tell me what the things are the following day(s) (maybe he is just like his daddy and has a good memory of what they are "supposed" to be).

Easton's tree.

I wanted to do more of a fall tree with red, yellow, and orange but I only had these two colors on hand.