The end of summer

It's been a while since we've updated the blog. We've spent a good chunk of the summer in Minnesota to spend time with Joe and the rest of the family. The past few months have been really, really tough, but the blessing is that we were able to spend so much time together. The Vogels have seen Theo pretty much every month since he was born, and Nate is no longer shy around his relatives. In fact, we've heard "Grrrama and Bumpa!" constantly since we came back to Charlotte. He's eager to have them visit soon!

Theo with Grandma and Grandpa at the Loggers game.

Nate and his Grandpa. Still a little shy. :)

Nate and Grandma enjoy a dip in the pool, his new favorite activity!

 Theo is enamored with big cousin Brody.

Grandpa and Theo.

Theo is already 6 months old and has quickly become the Rolling-Over Champion of the World. Seriously, you can't put the kid down for five seconds before he flips -- and then flips again. He's also beginning to master squirming around on his belly. It's not quite a crawl, but he can make some serious traction in no time at all. We started him on solids a little bit after he turned 5 months, and it took a while before he got the hang of it, or even seemed to like it. That was strange after our experience with Nate, who was an eating champ the second we started him on cereal at 4 months. But now Theo is doing really well. He's had rice cereal, oatmeal, barley, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, apples, peaches, pears, and prunes. He had his 6-month appointment last week and weighed 18 lb., 8 oz. and measured 27.5 inches long. That's 75th percentile for weight and 85th percentile for height.

 Who could resist that sweet face?

Drool from teething ... and yet no teeth. :(

Getting ready to crawl!

Nate has become obsessed with letters and numbers. He mumbles the alphabet or counts to 20 as he's playing, and he sometimes says the entire alphabet backwards -- just as fast as I could. He recognizes letters and numbers in random, everyday things, like a bitten-off pretzel ("9!"), a mark on the wall ("L!"), or his ketchup after he swipes into it ("C!"). I guess the child of two English majors is bound to have a love of letters.

The obsession.

 Two nerds working hard.

After a long day of work and play, the kid knows how to relax.