Miss Merritt

I'm trying to do a better job of taking pictures and posting them... but it seems like the only thing I have to take pictures of is Merritt in a cute onesie with a headband, on a sweet blanket in this one spot with nice light.

She's so so cautious about crawling. She won't attempt for things if they will require too much crawling--she's willing to go about 3 or 4 feet to get something.



I love the way she plops herself back down mid crawl to take a break. And I love Keaton in undies in the background.



Another day... another outfit.



This is about my favorite little romper in the world--I got it on ThredUp and she's wearing until I physically can't get it to snap anymore. I also love those two little chompers on the bottom.



Keaton, stealing the show as usual. I love the way he intensely plays with his toys--which is mostly growling since he still hasn't decided to talk much. I also love those curls. So much.

Silly Scott Kids

The boys wanted to take some pictures when I was doing Merritt's nine month pictures... and I'm so glad I let them. As per usual, they are a mess. I had just let Keaton take a bath because he got very sandy playing outside so his hair is in (awesome) wet ringlets and he's just in undies... and the two big boys are both wearing each other's shirts. Don't even care because the pictures crack me up so much.

I'd like to say that Keaton was in rare form... but that just isn't true. He's nuts like 90% of the time. He really wanted to knock everyone over, and as you can see, only one of his brothers was willing to ham it up with him. The other one was pretty much phoning it in.

I kind of gave up on Keaton being in a picture because he was really just wildly rolling around... but I love that he tried to sneak in anyways.

Tried to set him beside Finley, but he really just wanted to giggle and flop backwards. Finley and Braden BOTH wanted to hold Merritt and she was pretty sweet about being held by so many little boy arms.

Also? Finley--doing a pretty good job smiling. Braden--basically cute no matter what.

I tried to coach Braden on his smiling and this is what I got. Classic.

Once again, I gave up on Keaton. He was crawling around on the bed and hiding under pillows... until he wasn't. He popped up behind the boys... meaning I got some genuine smiles out of them and Merritt didn't cry. Miracle.

Then I had to break things up before Keaton pounced on my baby. She's so tolerant.

Merritt || Nine Months

There really aren't enough words to describe how I feel about this little person. I still kind of can't believe she's mine. She's so soft and so sweet and lovely and we all love her so much. Nine months is the point in my babies' lives that I turn into a slightly crazed mama--how did this happen to me? Where did my baby go? Who is this small human who is not a teeny newborn? How do I fix it and make them go back?



Bad news for all of us, time only moves in one direction. I guess I can live with that because Merritt really is better every day.



She still sucks her thumb and rubs her arm while she's sucking it. Sometimes she's mad when I put her in her carseat--she generally yells for a few seconds then sucks her thumb and is over it. I think the thumb sucking has helped her be a good sleeper--she's been on a roll of sleeping ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE NIGHT. I generally put her down around 8, and don't hear from her until somewhere between 5 and 9. If she wakes up closer to 5, she'll sleep for a few more hours. She nurses when she wakes up, before her naps and bedtime and is doing a good job of eating real food. She loves yogurt and avocado and freeze dried fruit.



She learned how to blow raspberries and will do it on command and its so adorable. (See video proof... also I need to learn how to manually focus, sorry.)





Merritt is getting quite a bit stronger and braver about moving around. She used to roll all over the place, but after she got the hang of sitting she kind of stopped rolling. She's started considering crawling--and true to her personality, she's not going to do it until she can do it well. She'll take a few little steps forward and can definitely get things, but she's very cautious about it. She can get herself into sitting now, which still surprises me when I go to get her out of bed and she's sitting in it.





As I was taking these pictures I kept thinking her hair looked a bit red... I'm not sure where that's coming from, but it's cute. I don't think it's actually red.



Love you Miss Merritt! Oh and for the record... the boys call her Meri and Meri-Pie. I debated for a long time about if we'd spell it with one R or two Rs... and one R won. But I also reserve the right to change my mind if we decide to go with Merri.

Last Day of School

Well, some things never change. Namely, my eldest's snaggle teeth and inability to smile.



He had a great first year at Veritas. His teacher adored him and told us several times that he was the brightest student she had ever taught--although we suspect his incessant chattering may have led to her decision to retire this year. All joking aside--we were so glad that Finley was in a classroom where his teacher thought he was bright and challenged him. He learned so much and is just a really cool kid.



I think he was looking into the sun which contributed to the squinty weird faces... but I kind of decided if he is going to make those faces, I'm going to put them on the blog to be preserved for all of time.



He eventually stopped complaining about having to wear collared shirts. I'm really excited to put sweet little Braden in them next year!



And the big Class of 2027 shirt!



He might have grown a little bit.



And sweet Braden. He had a great year at Trinity and will join Finley at Veritas in the fall. Why is his smile so cute!



He loved going to school--he was so happy to see his teacher and friends every day. He didn't love going to early drop off on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but he went--with lots of protesting.



We went back and forth on what to do for him for kindergarten--his preschool has a Bridge-K program that lets kids get another year of preparation before they head to kindergarten. We've heard such good things about it and because Braden has a late birthday, we considered it... but ultimately decided to send him to school with Finley. He's thrilled--although I don't think he knows what he's in for. I'm a bit nervous about homeschooling both of them next year, but we will figure it out.



He lost his first tooth a few days before the last day of school and was SO PROUD.



Guess what--its impossible to get a picture of all four of them without some help. But how cute is Merritt? And their little blond heads? I love them.



They love her.



I tried to get pictures of Keaton too, but he just wanted to sit with his siblings--not stand on the porch. So I gave up. I may try again with him... but also he's two and it doesn't really matter if he doesn't have last day of school pictures. I think he'll forgive me.

Merritt loves Texas.

Obviously, Merritt is a whole new world for us. She wears bows. Her clothes are new. Knowing that there's not a parade of sweet Scott girls to pass them down is a bit sad and makes every outfit she outgrows a little heartbreaking. Every time she's dressed extra cute Sol harasses me and says, "You are taking pictures of all her outfits, right?" And I tryyyy and I need to do better. Because it's a lot easier to keep pictures than the actual outfits.



Anyways, I did manage to get the camera out and take a few pictures of her playing with the great state of Texas. As you can see, it's delicious and just the right shape and size for gnawing on.



She had just gotten the hang of sitting in these pictures--and my goodness, I never want to forget those sweet thighs. I'm glad she giggles when I squeeze them because that's all I ever want to do.



She's a joy. That's all.