This post is about our kids. What a surprise.

Copper is 2.5 years old.  She weighs a whopping 26 pounds and is the pickiest eater there ever was.  I offered her a handful of chocolate in exchange for eating one grape and she walked away.  I finally got her to bite a cucumber and it may have been one of the worst moments of her life.  She lives off of peanut butter, string cheese, bread, yogurt, and anything snacky- chips, pretzels, crackers, and not to mention all sweets.  Most of the time, Copper is a highlight of our days.  She loves to dress up.  She would wear her swimming suit every day, even during winter.  She LOVES carousels, her blankets, and trains.  She's pretty happy most of the time, still has that classic smile, and just when she's tricked the world into thinking all is grand, she throws a major meltdown.  Maybe it's partly her age, though I hear age 3 is worse, and maybe it's partly because the huge life changes over the last several months are catching up. Just this last week Copper cried for an hour, really, because she couldn't sit on the baby-sitter's toilet longer.  And because she couldn't wear her boots to bed.  Which, actually, she ended up doing anyway.  Despite her crazy tantrums, Copper really is a doll.  She's absolutely gorgeous and has an all-star dynamic personality.

Micah at six months is nothing like Micah at two months.  Obviously the growth is different.  But what's really different is her personality.  As an infant she was so content laying on her own and observing the world.  She rarely cried.  Now, the sweet little monster cries almost every evening.  Still.  She's sitting up on her own and may be able to roll over if she gave herself time on her belly and back to practice.  She hates it, usually.  She loves to be held and at night likes her hand to be right below my mouth, I think so she can feel my breathing.  (Remember Copper slept with her hand in my mouth for months??)  She is the observer, usually.  She watches everything that goes on and (as long her she's content and her belly feels okay) loves to watch what's going on around her.   Micah loves to eat food and will eat a jar of pears, applesauce, or sweet potatoes on her own. She still spits up more than she takes in.  Sometimes it's full of food she just had.  Talk about disgusting.  She can't wait to grow out of her digestive troubles and the rest of us can't wait either.  She has super blond hair that curls right up.  At her 6 month check up Micah is 13.11 pounds (7%), 25.75 inches (45%), and her head is 15.5 inches (0%).  Small but proportionate. 

Dakota is also very different from a few months ago.  She's grown out of her crying, for the most part.  She's a champ eater. She makes the goofiest faces and usually has her eyebrows raised.  She tries to beat Micah up, stealing her stuff, trying to pull her socks off, and ripping the binkie from her mouth.  The one time this weekend that Micah ripped it back, Kota sat there a bit dumbfounded for a minute.  Taste of her own medicine, I guess.  Kota is sitting and rolling.  She seems to be a few weeks to a month ahead of Micah, developmentally.  She's turning into a pretty happy baby.  She puts herself to sleep when she's tired, plays great on her own, and smiles a lot.  At six months, Kota weighs 14.13 (25%), is 25 inches long (20%), and her head is 16.25 inches (10%).

A few days out of the week look like this, where they're all screaming and you kind of feel like shooting yourself or just running away.

But there are more days like this, which makes life a bit easier...

Okay, well, they're actually crying here, even Kota, but I contribute it to shots.  And the pic is cure.