Rigdon's 9-month Stats

I have been meaning to do this post for a month and a half now. Rigdon USED to be 9 months and these were his stats at his check-up:

Height: 30.25" (100%ile)
Weight: 25 lbs 12 oz (>100%ile)
Head: 19 cm (95%ile)

The good news is that he has greatly slowed down the growth. He has only gained a few ounces in the last 3 months. He now weighs 26 lbs 4 oz (which is exactly what Sadie weighed at her 2 year appointment, hehe).
He has now had 3 haircuts, and not because I am obsessive about it. I don't cut it until it is hanging way down his ears. He grows hair like crazy! But it is still just a blond! Here are the boys with their matching summer cuts.
Rigdon wears size 5 diapers already and 18-24 month clothing.
He loves berries of every kind and doesn't care that they turn him blue, or red, or black.
He's a little beach bum, just like his brother. He tans really easily and doesn't even wear sunscreen unless we are going to be in the direct sun for a long time. His hair also bleaches super blond in the sun.
He is curious about everything and seems to be a very fast learner.
Our kids' new favorite meal is "long noodle soup" which is really just Ramen. Rigdon loves to slurp it in and it is so funny watching him slurp the entire noodle in, faster than I can do it!
He enjoys helping do the dishes.
He can often be found standing at the window if the older kids are playing outside. He loves being in the middle of all of the action.
He is a popcorn buddy. He lOvEs the stuff!
Rigdon and Talmage are good little friends. Here they are watching super hero shows together.
At 10 months he loves to climb the stairs, though I don't trust him to do it on his own yet. He crawls everywhere and is FAST about it. He also likes to bear crawl, up on hands and feet. He is a very good eater, though he is starting to decide that there are some foods that he doesn't like as much as others. His personality is showing more and more. He is a very happy and smiley baby, but when he gets really tired he turns kind of mean and tries to hit and whines. He is way too strong, and is frequently the cause of painful (but unintentional) pinching or scratching. He has a small amount of stranger anxiety, but it doesn't take him too long to warm up. But he seems to be a good judge of character and trusts people who are trustworthy, but doesn't trust true "strangers." He is still a bit of a mama's boy and needs a little mama-lovin' every so often. He likes to come to me for a few minutes and give me big hugs, and then he's off again to be a busy little boy. We all just L.O.V.E. him to pieces.

I've had a couple of requests for the side-by-side "Which baby am I?" comparison. So here it is. Can you guess?

Wildlife Prairie Park

Only a mile from my parents' house is an animal park that is similar to a zoo, however the animals are more in their natural habitats. The down side is that you don't always see the animals because they have large areas fenced in for their homes. But it feels a bit more wild than the zoo. We took the kids a few weeks ago and had a lot of fun.Avri wanted to be a butterfly, and her arms are the antennae.
We got really close to this black bear, but couldn't get a very good picture of it.
We also rode the train around the park which was a lot of fun.

Time for some close-ups of the sweaty little people.
Rigdon is such a smiley little guy, even when he's hot and sweaty.
These two girls are getting to be such close friends. They are so cute when they play together.

So It Begins

Rigdon has begun to break things.
And he doesn't just break things, he shatters them! What 9 month old do you know that can pull a nightlight out of the wall with such force that it completely shatters the plastic? We are in for an expensive childhood with this boy.

Dance Showcase

My parents have been taking dance classes for about a year and a half now. They are having so much fun with them! They had their dance showcase in the middle of June and so we all got dressed nice and went to see them dance and get some pictures and videos for them. The girls wanted some pretty hairdo's.And Talmage has those eyes...
It was fun to see them dance and they are getting so good at it.
They had a short "intermission" so that the dancers could change costumes and everyone in the audience got to dance. Talmage and Sadie stole the show there.
It was so funny to watch him spin Sadie. But she was having a blast! (As a side note, her legs aren't twisted, she has her shoes on the wrong feet, which she does about 98% of the time. She says she likes it that way.)
Everyone got flowers...
For the last 2 numbers they were doing something a little different. One number was a line dance and the other was a double swing number, where each man had 2 women partners. So my Dad asked me to come and be his second partner. So I even got to be a little part of the showcase, which was fun.

The End of Kindergarten

At Avri's End-of-Year Concert we got a few pictures, though she was hard to see and find, since the entire school was on the stage at once! The concert was very long and the gym was very hot, but it was still fun to see her singing her heart out to the songs she had been working on all year.

Where's Waldo...I mean Avri?
The happy baby waiting for the concert to start. Let's face it though, this baby is always happy.
All done, and time to go home!
We can't seem to get enough pictures of this little face.
Avri receiving her end-of-the-year awards from the principal. We are so proud of our little smarty!
Daddy was thoughtful enough to get her a bouquet of flowers.
Avri and Mrs. Stepping, her WONDERFUL kindergarten teacher.
Avri has always been our most academic child. This is the girl who taught herself the entire alphabet at 14 months and was speaking in full sentences by about 16 months. Now that she is 6 she can tell time, count up to any number through about 999, and she is reading CHAPTER books! So far this summer she has read over 250 pages from chapter books. She is currently on Charlotte's Web and she really doesn't even need help. She can read from the scriptures almost flawlessly and has the most amazing vocabulary. Avri can reason better than half of the adults that I know and she is our "rule follower." She is always so worried about people who aren't following the rules (or the commandments) and always wants to know very specific ages that she can do things so that she doesn't break the rules and do things too early. In fact, I remember when Avri was 3 and I knew that if I worked with her a little she would be able to pick up reading. But she told me so matter-of-factly that I thought she was 15 "Mom, 3-yr-olds don't read." And that was that. She would not let me teach her until she was almost 5. Needless to say, she got the best marks you could get and the only complaint her teacher ever had was that she sometimes drifted into her own little world. :) We think the problem was that she would get bored and tune out and then have a hard time knowing when to come back to earth. We are so proud of our Avri and all of her accomplishments!!

Field Trip to the Dairy Farm

It seems strange to write about the end of the school year when we are already more than half way through the summer. :) At the end of the year Avri's class had a field trip to a dairy farm. I was able to go as a chaperone (thanks to my mom watching the rest of my gaggle of children). Avri was more than a little excited about this field trip because 1) it was her first field trip and 2) her life's ambition is to become a "farmer's wife." We have no idea where this dream came from but it has been the same for a couple of years now, which is a big deal for Avri.

To start out the kids got to pet a baby lamb. They learned about the difference between hair and fur and wool.
Isn't that a cute face?
We all watched one of the calves drink a bottle of water.
And then we got to walk around and let them suck on our fingers! They have the roughest tongues!! And they suck as hard as Rigdon. ;)
She caught a chicken from the chicken house and let the kids pet it. It had so many beautiful colors! They also saw how the eggs are all different shades of brown and white.
There were a few ponies on the farm, and even a couple of darling foals.
She taught the kids lots of interesting things about the cows and I felt a bond with them, knowing how much work it is to make milk all day. :) I didn't realize that cows (just like humans) have to have a baby to start lactating, and that they dry up after about 10 months or so.
They got to see the milking barn and the machine that does the milking, as well as where the milk goes after. The "farmer's wife" who was giving the tour was great with the kids and Avri really enjoyed the whole thing.
I like this picture because it doesn't make Avri look as big as she is. :) She is growing up way too fast for my liking.