Leah Turns 1/2

The six month stats:
Height: 25 3/4 inches (50%)
Weight: 16 lbs 10 oz (50%)

Leah is at that stage where she is puffed up like the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Her rolls have rolls, and it is really cute. (I promise, future Leah, it's not a bad thing!) The truth is, she is perfectly proportioned and exactly where she needs to be. For comparison, Avery was 27 inches and 18 lbs, Zachary was 26 1/4 inches and 18.5 lbs.

At 6 months, Leah has officially transformed from infant to baby. She has changed so much since her birth when she could sleep for the entire day. Now she spends the majority of her time awake and exploring the world around her (mostly, by putting every single thing she can pick up into her mouth).

The last month has been eventful. While in Asheville for Cait and Cullen's wedding, Leah got her first two teeth, the bottom middle ones. She now sits up very well and is eats many different foods. She has no problem trying new foods, but seems to prefer savory over sweet. She has started to push up into a crawling position, can roll around, and can scooch forward to reach toys out of arm's length.

The Strange Tale of the Glowing Shirt

Today, Avery was wearing a shirt with a glow-in-the-dark scull and crossbones (Halloween outfits are pretty much a year-round affair). For some reason he decided to go into the dark garage, perhaps because he thought it was time to get ready for school.

While in the garage he realized that his shirt was glowing. He came running back inside, told Zachary, and they both went back into the garage. They came in and out a couple of times, and then after a while I noticed that they had been gone for at least five minutes.

I opened the garage door and called their names and heard their voices, all muffled. "Where can they be?" I thought. "Behind the car? Under the car?" So I flipped on the light, and they were *in* the car, door closed, seat belts buckled, talking to each other and admiring Avery's glowing shirt. Neither of them can get unbuckled yet without assistance, but they did not want me to release them.

So, I gave them some chocolate milk, opened the car door and inside garage door, and now I'm sitting inside, enjoying the peace and quiet, and wondering if glow-in-the-dark shirts and dark garages are a legitimate parenting technique.

Mother's Day at Golden Pond

This is how Avery describes me:
My Mommy is 10 years old.
She weighs 100 lbs and is 6 feet tall.

And this is how Zachary describes me:
My Mommy is 3.
She is as tall as Daddy.

Two flattering portraits, but they are in for disappointment when they are older and realize that I'm almost a foot shorter than Daddy.

More interesting insight from Avery:
"Mommy's job is to clean-up, but at her job she plays with us."
"She doesn't work, Daddy does."
"Mommy likes to sleep when she is home alone."
"Salad is Mommy's favorite food."
"Mommy likes doing dishes." (this is 100% false!)
"Ellen" and "Ellen's song" are my favorite TV show and song.
Avery finished on a strong note: it makes me happy to hug and kiss him, and he likes it when I hug and kiss him.

In Avery's class he painted my nails and gave me a back massage with a toy car. We made a hand print painting together and had a snack with tea. In Zachary's class we played with blocks, had tea and cookies, and also made a hand print painting together.

The Biltmore Estate and Wedding Reception

We spent Saturday morning at the Biltmore Estate. It is the self-described biggest privately owned residence in the United States; it has 255 rooms. As we drove up to the house in a shuttle bus, the kids started exclaiming, "A castle! Look at the castle!" much to the merriment of the other passengers on the bus.

It took us about 2 hours to tour the public portions of this enormous house. One common comment people had was about how the bathrooms were so plain compared to the rest of the ornate rooms. Eli was taken with the relative modernity: built in the 1880s, it nevertheless had modern accouterments like electrical lighting, running water, central heat, elevators, intercoms, and an indoor swimming pool. This is one house everyone should see.

At 5pm was the big reception. The party we've been waiting for for the last 7 years (hehehe... kidding). Caitlin and Cullen were actually married in February, but this was their big celebratory shindig and we were happy to be there with them.

Friday in Asheville

Today we got up, ate breakfast on the hotel's club lounge, swam, and then drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway to go hiking. Cait and Cullen had picked out a trail called Graveyard Fields, a fairly easy trail that went 1.5 miles out and back. The kids did as well as can be expected. Avery walked most of the 3 miles, and Zach walked about half of it. At the halfway point we stopped at a waterfall to cool our feet and relax for 15-20 minutes.

After the hike, and an hour's drive back to civilization, we went to Rosetta's Kithchen for lunch. It was an an all vegan restaurant, but they managed to create some amazing meals. The boys had cheese-less "macaroni and cheese" that was amazingly similar to its dairy-laden inspiration.

In the evening we had a big family dinner. We got to see Granny, whose health has been on the decline, as well as all of the Burke relatives who were able to make it, and also some of Eli's Mom's family (Aunt Sharon, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Alan, and cousin Emily).

Chimney Rock

After a morning swim and continental breakfast we drove to Chimney Rock State Park, about 25 miles from Asheville. Once we got up into the hills the road was very twisty, and we were stuck behind a slow bus almost the whole way. That made Eli grouchy, but the scenery was so amazing he was hard pressed to keep his bad attitude.

The centerpiece of the park, which has been open for more than 100 years, is the iconic granite outcrop that rises up into the sky. From the top (which can be reached by staircase, or by an elevator shaft blasted into the mountain more than 50 years ago) one can see for more than 75 miles on a clear day. We rode the elevator to the top, and then had a grand old scramble getting back down on the network of staircases that crisscross the mountain.

Driving To Asheville

This morning we packed up the car and drove to Asheville, NC, where Cait and Cullen were having their wedding reception. We stopped along the way at a scenic overlook in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a long trip, through sometimes torrential rain, but we did finally arrive at 4:30. Once Eli got the car unloaded we drove to the nearby Botanical Gardens and had a leisurely walk.

Afterwards we went to dinner at the Tupelo Honey Cafe, which had a delicious all-organic menu. Even the kid's meals were something special, with items like sweet potato pancakes and grilled peanut butter and banana sandwiches (both our boys chose the PB&B, and boy did they taste good). Asheville has a diverse and liberal population, and its eateries reflected that reality. Nearly everything that wasn't fast food was organic, sustainable, free-range, all-natural, etc.

Leah Eating Pears

Golden Pond's Spring Sing