7 months and on the move

Harry's now 7 months old and right around Dec 8th, he really started to move. In the past 2 weeks he's gone from rolling from his back to front, to pivoting, to crawling, and now pulling to stand. He's no longer content to sit in any of his baby contraptions and is happiest on the floor where he can move around. He is particularly interested in trying to get a hold of Dragon and his chew toys, along with trying to eat anything that looks like he shouldn't have it... including scraps of paper and little pieces of anything he comes across on the rug. Fortunately we did a toy purge of the downstairs before we left for Germany and the kids aren't allowed to bring their little toys downstairs anymore. Their toys are now concentrated in their rooms upstairs and safe from Harry's quick hands. 

For his 7 month photo session he let me know how he felt about being on his back:

Wondering if I'm going to try and put him back down again

much happier sitting!

https://youtu.be/o4H-VzvoL8E

Rolling back to front on December 5:
https://youtu.be/FPvjDt20Pgk

Pulling to stand on December 10:
https://youtu.be/blaoV86Wpio

Starting to crawl December 10:
https://youtu.be/zCNbqIzhs0c

More crawling December 13:
https://youtu.be/j2uhRXlz1Pc

And really on the move, December 21:
https://youtu.be/9GqiyGV3IuY

And some photos from the past few weeks:

he backed into this basket and hung out for a bit

a basket full of toys behind him and busy chewing the laundry basket

cutie

testing his legs

chilling with Dada

Who's that baby in the mirror?

Harry hasn't really been into food, and has rejected baby cereal completely. I kept trying though and he has taken a liking to sweet potatoes in a pouch and hummus. In the past few days he's also started trying more new things, including come cooked carrots and zucchini from homemade soup and pieces of cheerios. Hopefully that trend will continue!

Yummy sweet potatoes

If I Was You

This one speaks for itself:

https://youtu.be/1AoZs4q_nwQ

Oscar in concert

A few days later it was Oscar's turn! This semester he learned how to play the trumpet. He was really excited about it and his music teacher told him he was a natural after he was able to play all the instruments from the first day. He chose the trumpet (out of flute, clarinet, trombone, and saxophone) and really enjoyed himself. We're so proud of him!

We took some video of the group performance, but also some solos at home since we weren't sure we'd be able to hear him in the band:

Go Tell Aunt Rhodie:

https://youtu.be/Hp30DAq8ELk

One Step up:

https://youtu.be/GQyxMigZ1FU

Mary Had a Little Lamb:

https://youtu.be/4idnqSy03tA

Jingle Bells:

https://youtu.be/xbP3gmcZnkI

Livi in concert

The end of the school term brings the annual musical performances from the kids. I love that ISK uses the concerts as an opportunity to showcase the kids artwork from the semester as well.

Oscar's snake print

Livi's Starry Night inspired landscape

Livi proudly showing off Oscar's jaguar paper mache leopard

I love this!

Livi and her buddies, with her leopard painting above her head

Livi's concert was up first, and she was an enthusiastic performer as always! The first set of photos show how bad my phone camera is for these things.

The moment she found us in the audience!

So happy to be giving one of the teachers flowers.

Waving from behind the principal

 They finished their performances a little early, so they had the kids resing the songs and called parents up for some photo ops. They were all pretty good sports about having a ton of parents with cameras in their faces:

Happiness
https://youtu.be/z2Noag-1zVk

Bananas
https://youtu.be/MAZ1K4TE3LM

Twende Twende - this clip she's blocked a bit but they sang partly in Swahili so I still kept it
https://youtu.be/7Ec3O8NuLfo

Closing out November

I was focusing so much on our trip to Germany, I forgot that several weeks have gone by since and we've been keeping pretty busy! Livi and Dragon continued to enjoy the short rainy season (which seems to be over now) and got a play session in before we headed out for Thanksgiving dinner:

We headed to another compound to have a Thanksgiving get together with some of Oscar's colleagues. There was a pool, a ton of kids around, the Back to the Future trilogy playing in the background, and the turkey was yummy! Dragon made a friend, who is also going to be visiting us over Christmas weekend:

meet Bosco

Sleeping off the turkey

snuggling in bed that night

pooped puppies

Thanksgiving weekend, the elves helped me set up the Christmas tree:

A pause in decorating for an indoor snowball fight

 I tried to get a picture worthy of a card, but the lighting wasn't right so they came out blurred, and Harry gave us a special surprise.

Did you hear Santa?

checking out the ornaments

We had visitors from the UK with us the first weekend in December, and we took them to our favorite restaurant at a local B&B:

the boys

And the next day a walk in Karura Forest:

After the walk we stopped for lunch at the outdoor River Cafe. As we were getting settled Oscar J. was lamenting how we got the worst table (the one at the back of the restaurant). Turns out it was the best table that day! We could see a storm cloud rolling in and all of a sudden we couldn't see the forest at all and huge gusts of wind came through with tons of rain, ruining everyone's lunch but ours! Unfortunately I didn't get a picture but hopefully out friends got one and will share it.

At the end of the weekend we went to the annual Christmas party at the Ambassador's house. We skipped it last year, but between the pool and the bouncy castle, we had a hard time dragging the kids away when it was time to go:

Oscar in the ball

The only one who would sit with Santa!

6 months old

With prep for our trip to Germany, I missed Harry's 6 month pictures. We did make a trip to the doctor for his regular immunizations on Nov 8th. He was 15lbs 8oz and 26in long which is the 25% percentile, well proportioned, and right along where he has been.

When we got back from Germany we had a few mini photos sessions to show what he was up to, including our panda month-iversary. Dragon is never far when Harry is the center of attention. He's extremely tolerant of Harry's grabbing and always tries to sneak in some licks (Nov 23).

All the boys

Dragon is never far when Harry's getting the attention

Letting Harry explore

Our 6 month Portly panda photos at 6.5 months (Nov 24th). Harry was not in the mood to lay down, and Oscar was in the background keeping him entertained. This was the first time we put "real pants" on Harry and Oscar thought he was cute, but likes him better in his jammies.