Seven Months: Times they are a Changing!

On the 11th of this month our little monkey, Kathryn, turned 7 months old. It is so crazy to think how fast time flies and also all of the amazing changes that are happening with our little girl.

Kathryn love, love, loves the outdoors, especially hiking with Mommy and Daddy, or with our friends Alisha and Dahlia. She absolutely loves exploring and is recently trying to get into any and everything her hands can touch. She is especially fond of grass and loves to look and play with it; in fact she would eat it if we let her! Kathryn is getting quite good at scooting and the last week she has been seen on all fours moving herself under anything she can-including her crib! She is also loves learning how to swim and it is so fun to watch her as she splashes and giggles in the water. It is so fun to see her grow and I can't wait to see what she will do next!!!!


Kathyrn loves reading!

Kathryn adores playing with her cousin, Jeremiah.

Miss Mischievous scooting underneath her crib. Where will she scoot next?

Kathryn loves going on hikes and is especially fond of the closeness she gets to share with her Daddy!

Kathryn absolutely loves swimming and is a star pupil in her class!(OK I may be a little biased seeing as I am her mom)

Fun in the Sun!

Relaxing on Daddy's Lap
Enjoying a little sun!
First taste of yogurt. Kathryn says "YUMMY!"

Well despite a lot of rain this winter, I believe "sprummer" time may finally be upon us! Paul, Kathryn and I have been taking every free chance we have to enjoy the beautiful weather. We have enjoyed having picnics in our courtyard and taking long hikes. For those of you out there who don't know, there are TONS of great places to go on short or long hikes around Massachusetts. Here are just a couple of websites I have used lately to find some incredible hiking spots: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/
http://www.sudburyvalleytrustees.org/

God is richly blessing us in this time to show us how glorious His majesty is and to also remember the importance of the families he has given us.

Patriots Day

Paul and Kathryn's view of the Marathon

Our little Patriot
A fantastic walk in the woods!
For those of you who are not from Boston, Patriot's Day is the day we celebrate all that our founding father's and mother's did to help us give our freedom. It is kind of like an added July 4th. It is also Boston's excuse to hold the Boston marathon and a mid-day Red Sox game. And for us it is an excuse to spend the day together as a family!

This morning Paul and Kathryn went and watched the marathon from the 5th mile mark, which is about a mile from our house
(I had to miss it as I was booked to teach this morning only!) When I got home we decided to go for a family walk in Wayland. It was a beautiful day and it was such a joy to spend the day hiking with my two favorite people. And it wouldn't be a day of Scharlach fun without a little ice cream(thank you Ben and Jerry's for a buy one get one free coupon!) After putting Kathryn to bed, we bbq'd and had a bottle of beer. What a way to celebrate Patriot's Day!!!

A Very Happy UN-Birthday

Loving being fed by Gammy.
Fun times at the lake!

Today marks Kathryn's 6 month UN-Birthday! She is such a fantastic little girl; learning tons of new things and we are learning so much from her! Recently she has become very fond of making trumpet noises and we now refer to her as "Dizzy" as she reminds us of the great jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, cheeks and all! She also loves trying new foods, some of her favorites are sweet potatoes and bananas, not together of course! She is also testing out her ability to scoot; she gets up on all fours but hasn't figured out how to move herself from point a to point b yet.

What I have learned from her is life is too short to not be actively involved in your children's lives. Paul and I recently made a decision that I would scale back my work schedule in the fall to be home with Kathryn two days a week. God has given me a real peace about this decision and I look forward to the opportunities it will afford our family. I have also learned that because Kathryn is a flexible baby we can take her along on some of my gigs as she loves music and is quite the hit with my colleagues, plus I get to see Paul more as he is the one watching Kat while I am singing.

A Star is Born

Last night the University of Southern Maine where I teach had a 80th Birthday Celebration Concert for Stephen Sondheim. As part of this concert I was asked to sing a duet with another member of the voice faculty and to also sing a solo. The concert was so much fun and my solo included a very special guest-Kathryn. Attached is her first time on stage. She was so much fun to work with and the audience LOVED her!

Rain, Rain Go AWAY!!!!

Observing the immensity of the storm!

The last week has been filled with more rain than I care to think about! With the enormous amounts of rain our basement which has not seen any water in it in over 2 years flooded yesterday. We were really surprised when we woke up Wednesday morning to a little bit of rain in the laundry room. Well, that little bit of rain over the course of the day turned into over two inches throughout the entirety of our basement. As I look at this situation I was first really upset but I soon realized that God used this to provide us with blessings and another way of seeing how He works in our lives even in the midst of our strife:

-Paul and I would not have gone down to the basement on Wednesday, but my mom and dad are visiting and needed something out the dryer so they found the water!!!
-My parents came with me to Maine and so they were able to get a sump pump there(there are NONE in the state of Massachusetts!!!)
-I am thankful we live on the front of the complex as the back of the complex lies on the Sudbury River, which completely overflowed
-Five cars were totaled in the back of our complex due to the water.
-My parents were here for a visit. They were such a help with bailing out the basement and cleaning up today!

5 Months Old-Baby Bites

Yummy food!

Wouldn't you want to eat this?!

Open wide!

Miss Independent

Kathryn is ready to Rock and Roll

Today Kathryn got her first taste of REAL FOOD and man oh man did she love it. When we got up this morning, Paul and I were eating breakfast and Kathryn was sitting in between us and seemed VERY intrigued with what we were eating. I decided to take a little piece of my banana and mush it up and give it to her. She devoured it and smacked her lips for more. That was the final decision maker, Kathryn would begin solids today.

I mixed up the concoction of breast milk with a HINT of rice cereal and we began the fun journey of feeding Miss K. The biggest trick of the whole event was figuring out how to feed her and take pictures AND video at the same time. Good thing for two sets of hands. Kathryn took to the food immediately and even enjoyed holding the spoon and feeding herself.

We can't believe how big she is getting and all of the fun things she is doing. We now have to put a full size bed blanket on the floor for her to roll around on as she easily rolls in every direction, but she gets going too much and then she needs to spit up. We are also realizing that we need to begin the task of baby proofing the house, as Kathryn has taken to scooting on her belly a bit, although she doesn't go anywhere, YET! She is a bundle of energy and has a hard time settling down for her morning nap, she would much prefer to be part of everything that is going on around her. We love her to pieces and it is amazing to think how fast time flies.