7 months

My little sunshine turned 7 months last week.

It was a rough week.  It was my first time being sick as a mom.  I will just say, a mom should never have to be sick when she has a baby or children.  It was not easy taking care of what seemed to be a more than normal fussy baby with a sore throat, body aches and exhaustion.  I am hoping I get a very long break until I am sick again.

 Kate had her 6 month check-up last week, even though she is 7 months.

She weighed 13lb 12oz and 24 1/2 long.  About the 5th% for both.  She might be little for her age but the proportion of her weight to her length is perfect.  She is a healthy 7 month old with chubby cheeks and rolls on her legs. 

 At 7 months, Kate loves to be outside. We spent a couple of days at the pool and a day at Eagle Island playing on the beach.  Kate is so content outside so whenever she becomes too grumpy to handle we head outside to enjoy the warm weather.  She loves riding in the stroller, laying on a blanket looking around at the cars going by, at the leaves on the trees, and enjoys picking at the grass.  She could spend all day every day outside.

Kate loves her momma.  I am her favorite and I hope it stays that way forever.   Her eyes follow me around the room.  She gets very interested in what I am doing so I talk her through things like me unloading the dishwasher, doing my hair or me making dinner.  I love when I can make her laugh or when I peek around the corner and a huge smile appears on her face.  It makes me feel like a million bucks when I get a huge grin from her.

Kate loves to put everything in her mouth.  I know this is the way babies learn but it can be hard to watch her put a dirty shoe in her mouth.  Luckily she hasn't gotten sick from the dirty things that end up in her mouth.  She is becoming quite the mover.  The time has come to baby proof.   Kate can get to anything within rolling and reaching distance.  Kate also loves food.  Her favorites are bananas, watermelon and squash but she also eats applesauce, carrots, sweet potatoes and oatmeal.  She dislikes green beans and the baby food meats, which look and smell gross.  I would say Kate has mastered sitting up.  She can sit for long periods of time and when she gets sick of sitting she leans forward to get onto her stomach.  Every once in a while she tumbles over but I don't worry about her falling over face first anymore.

Kate is a good little shopper.  She can now sit in the shopping cart and loves it.  She is pretty dang cute sitting in the cart holding onto the bars.  We get stopped by all sorts of people.  They love to comment on her big eyes with her long eyelashes.  If Kate isn't too shy she will give a smile and then they really can't believe how cute and adorable she is!  I always agree with them:) 

 Happy 7 months pretty girl!

Arnold and Sun Valley

 Two weeks ago we went to Sun Valley for a couple days to be with my family.  My brother Cole and his wife Sara just got back from being in Hawaii for 6 months and this week they are moving to Missouri for medical school.  This was last our chance to spend time with them before their big move and new adventure. 

Nate was not planning on coming with me and Kate but last minute decided to come.  He wasn't able to do the activities with us during the day but he enjoyed eating, talking and playing games in the evening with everyone. 

The weather was not ideal but that did not stop us from enjoying beautiful Sun Valley.  

We rode bikes, hiked to a lake, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Red Fish Lake while sipping hot chocolate.  

One our last day we had breakfast at The Kneadery.  When we were waiting for a table to open up, in walked Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Nate looked at him straight in the face and gave him a nod.  Arnold kind of acknowledged Nate has he went into the restaurant.  We ended up being a table away from him so Nate sneaked a picture of Kate and I with Arnold in the background.

Me and Kate with "the terminator."

Getting out of Sun Valley was quite the process.  Right before we left, I locked the keys in the car.  Well I cannot say I really locked them in there because I never pushed the lock button.  I had no idea the car locked itself but it does.  It took the locksmith an hour to get to the cabin and then it took him 10-15 minutes to unlock the car.  He didn't know how to unlock the Civic and he didn't want to look it up in his book so it took him much longer than it should have.  

Once we got on the road it took about 3 minutes for Nate to get pulled over.  He wasn't paying attention to how fast he was going and right after my dad said he should slow down we were passing a cop.  The cop turned around and pulled Nate over.  It is never good to speed in Sun Valley.  The cops always pull you over.  

So the cop comes up to the window and Nate gives him his drivers license, registration, and insurance.  He asks Nate if he knows why he got pulled over and of course he does cause he was going like 25 over.  Nate then explains why he wasn't paying attention: we just locked our keys in the car and the locksmith just helped us and now we are trying to meet our family.  The cop decides to give Nate a warning, which I was so surprised but happy for.  Like I said, the Nielson family knows all too well that cops like to pull people over and give them tickets in the Sun Valley area.  

The cop then says well next time you get locked out of your car just call me cause I used work for this guy as he looks at my dad.  The thing is we don't know he is looking at my dad cause he is wearing sunglasses.  When he first said this we thought he was talking about working for the locksmith but he was talking about working for my dad.  The cop then goes on to tell my dad how he just saw his father, my grandpa, 3 weeks ago.  He tells my dad how he worked for him a couple of years ago but my dad does not remember this guy.   The cop talks some more and when he is about to leave Nate asks him if he went to Pocatello High School, which he did.  Nate then asks what year.  The cop responds, the same year as you.  Haha.  Man it was so funny.  Nate then asks him to take off his sunglasses to see if he recognizes him.  Nate did recognize him but he didn't know him that well in high school.  It was so crazy the cop knew my dad and Nate but they didn't really know him.  It was pretty awkward. Haha.  I think the only reason why Nate got off was the fact the cop knew my dad and Nate.  It was a huge blessing that cop was the one to pull us over!