6-Months Old Today!

Our little baby is alreay 6-months old ... my how time flies! The changes Krysten has gone through over the last few months has been amazing. Just look at the difference 6 months makes:

February 21, 2008

August 21, 2008

Krysten has developed quite a little personality and is really starting to be fun now. She has finally fallen into a routine, which I longed for during her first 3 months. She sleeps through night, going down around 8:00 and sleeping for 10 to 12 hours (thank God!). She usually takes at least 2 naps a day, but napping is not as consistent as nighttime. She is taking cereal at breakfast (oatmeal), lunch (rice) & dinner (barley), and we are looking forward to introducing her to baby food after her 6-month check-up next week. She loves to be in a sitting position, but has not mastered sitting unassisted yet, but we practice every day. She can roll from her tummy to her back, and from her back to her tummy, but chooses not to do either very often. She is very interested in the happenings around her. Just recently we've noticed that she has taken an active interest in our cats for the first time. She tracks them with her eyes when they walk into the room and sometimes will giggle when she sees them. She puts everything in her mouth and is a constant drool factory, to the point where she has to wear a bib all day long to keep her shirt dry.

Krysten began her half birthday with some play time in her exersaucer while Mommy got ready for work.

Then she chugged down her breakfast bottle before we had to take Daddy to the train station. She has become very adept at holding her own bottle.

Later she sat up like a big girl in her boppy and played with some of her favorite toys.

Busy Weekend

Krysten was a very busy little girl this weekend. On Saturday we had our friends the Holsteads over for an afternoon at the pool and a BBQ. This was Krysten's first time in a swimming pool ...

Not being too thrilled with being in the water, Krysten and I were content sitting at the edge of the pool dipping our toes in the water.

After a while, Krysten and Sami decided to lounge on their deck chairs.



Here Sami is simply too cute as she poses for the camera.

After a long afternoon of fun, Taylor and Krysten relax at home.

The next day, we joined the rest of the Engfer family for an afternoon of baseball at the Kane County Cougars game.

It was a pretty hot day, but Krysten was a trooper, and even took a nap during a few innings. When she wasn't sleeping, Krysten took turns hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa and her aunts and uncles.

Here she gets in some quality time with Uncle Brian and Aunt Liz.

A little while later, Uncle Brad worked on polishing up his baby skills (don't worry, he still has 7 months to perfect his technique ... tee hee).

A busy, but very fun summer weekend!

Our First Family Vacation

We took our first family vacation to New Jersey in July. It was a true "road trip" and things went very well. I was kind of nervous traveling with a 4 month old, but she turned out to be quite the trooper.

The trip began when we left our house at 4:00 a.m. on a Friday morning, with our Blazer packed to the gills, headed for Dave's Mom's house in Cherry Hill, NJ. Krysten fell right back to sleep as soon as we hit the road and we didn't hear from her until we stopped for gas about 3 1/2 hours later somewhere in Ohio. Since she was up and it was breakfast time, we headed over to a cute Mom & Pop restaurant located right next to the gas station. Krysten enjoyed her daily breakfast of rice cereal and formula, while Dave and I enjoyed French Toast and eggs. Here is Krysten full and happy ...

... and getting a smooch from Daddy before we hit the road again.

We drove for the rest of the day, stopping periodically to let Krysten out of her car seat and to stretch our legs. She did great in the car. When she wasn't sleeping, she was pretty content playing in her car seat, so long as I was in the back seat and she could see me. I became quite good at crawling from the front seat to the back seat, and vice versa, on this trip. Dave drove most of the way, but I took over when we were about 2 hours outside of Philadelphia. Of course we hit Philly at rush hour, so I had my first experience with that ... I would say it is just as conjested as Chicago, but everything is much more narrow and compact, and there is not a lot of warining before your exits. Regardless, we arrived at Grandmom's (i.e. Jan's) house around 7:30 eastern time. Total travel time door-to-door was 14.5 hours, including stops.

We spent the rest of the evening visiting with Jan, John & Sarah before all three of us collapsed from exhaustion. The next day we enjoyed breakfast on the deck in Jan's backyard.

After breakfast, and Krysten's morning nap, we piled back in to the car and drove to Avalon, a shore town about an hour and a half away, where we had rented a house for the week with 3 of Dave's good friends from high school ... Nick (and his wife Bridget), Justin, and Bill. It had been at least 5 years since all 4 of them had been together, so this was a really nice opportunity for them.

Now that we were at the shore, Monday was our first day going to the beach, which was just a 3 block walk from the house. Monday was a bit cloudy and overcast, but we decided to brave it anyway. Here is Krysten at our arrival at the beach ...

Here is Dave setting up camp. We rented the umbrella stroller, the beach umbrella, and a portable infant bed for the beach so our things would not get full of sand. It all actually came in really handy.

Kyrsten and Dave in the ocean ...

... Krysten dipping her feet in for the first time ...

... Krysten chillin' on the beach ...

... the 3 of us on the beach ...

... Krysten napping on the beach (she was sleeping so well we had to wake her up to go home!).

Later that night we posed for a picture on our balcony as the sun set over the bay (Avalon is an island) ...

... and yes, that is our daughter seeming very interested in Dave's margarita.

This is a view of the sunset from our balcony ...

... and a view to the East, toward town and the ocean, even though you can't see it.

We went to the beach again the next day, and this time is was a bright, beautiful, hot, sunny day. Krysten began the day with some play time in the infant bed ...

... after that, we took her in the ocean again. It's hard to tell from this video, but we think she liked it :-)

Finally, she just relaxed and enjoyed some lunch.

On Wednesday, we all headed out to Ocean City where Justin's Mom and sister were vacationing as well. Here are the boys on the boardwalk ...

... and our whole group (less Bill who was back home for the day, and Krysten who was napping). From left to right we have Justin, Dave, Nick, Bridget, and Jen.

On Thursday, Jan drove down to Avalon and we went over to Cape May for the day. Cape May is the shore town where Dave's grandparents had a shore house and where they spent their summers when he was growing up. Of course, we went to Dave's favorite restaurant for lunch ... the Lobster House.

Before lunch, we enjoyed some appetizers on a boat docked outside the restaurant.

Then Krysten enjoyed her lunch while we waited for our table to be ready.

After lunch, Dave went back to Avalon, while Jan, Krysten and I spent some time at the Washington Street mall in Cape May before heading back to Cherry Hill for the weekend.

Here is Krysten and Grandmom by one of the newly installed fountains on the mall. The building in the background is a beautiful old Catholic church.

Kryten was so intrigued by the fountain that Grandmom gave her a close-up view.

And, of course, after a long afternoon of shopping, we stopped at the soda fountain for ice cream.

Back in Cherry Hill, Uncle John came by for a visit. He has a new job as a Parole Office for the State of NJ, so he is currently going the police academy. Even though he had had a tough week, he enjoyed winding down with his niece.

On our last day of vacation, Dave drove back to Cherry Hill from Avalon and we had a nice dinner with Aunt Bev and Aunt Marianne, whom Krysten was very excited to finally meet.

Lastly, before we hit the road to come back home, Dave and Krysten spent some time hangin out with "Aunt" Molly.

All in all we had a wonderful time ... I am still in awe of what a good baby we have! We hope you enjoyed our pictures.