6 months!

At six months, Ross is turning into our little bean pole! He's so much leaner than Madeleine was at this age, and this week weighed in at just under 18lb.

He is starting to sit on his own for longer periods, and is still constantly watching Madeleine wherever she goes.

Madeleine still loves to hold and 'burp' Ross, but it's getting a bit more awkward now that he is getting bigger.

She gives him lots of nice kisses and thinks it's hilarious when he gives her a slobbery kiss back.

Ross is much more fair in skin tone than Madeleine and his eyes have stayed blue. When I'm out with them both, people often comment on how similar they look, and yet I don't think they look definitively like either me or Steve.

This week we look forward to picking Grammie up at the airport! My Mom is graciously coming back to stay with us for a month, to help me out with the kids and enable Steve to work even longer hours. Steve is in the writing stage of his PhD, and with this coming month of intense effort, we are hoping he will be able to submit his thesis by October.

Happy Canada Day!

I felt pretty patriotic today: I dressed Madeleine in red and white and Ross in his "Canada" shirt (I completely forgot to take a picture, of course), I sang Oh Canada to Madeleine this morning, I tried to teach her how to say "ca-na-da", and I even read our "Canada ABCs" book to them.  But when she saw the page with x-country skis and snow and said "boat! water!", I knew maybe my efforts were futile. 

Here are some pictures of them from a couple of days ago. 

Madeleine's patience with posing for pictures is limited to about 5 seconds... I think I asked her to smile "just one more time" and this was her answer.

Ross, on the other hand, is still easy to capture.

Madeleine quickly took up the task of making Ross laugh and smile for me.

He had his 5 month immunizations last week, and weighed in at 17lb 8oz, and 68cm long. I think so far, he is roughly the same weight as Madeleine was at any given age, but he is a lot longer so not as chubby. He is still a wonderfully laid-back little boy. He sleeps well, with at least one longish (1.5-2h) nap a day and a couple of short ones, and falls asleep by himself, and wakes once or twice overnight to eat. He is starting to make more noises, and we're practicing his sitting, but he's still pretty wobbly. We've not started him on solid foods yet, but he is watching us with great interest as we eat, and it will be fun to see what he thinks of food in a few more weeks.