This is how Kiera looks most of the time lately. She gets whatever fabric she can (usually her socks) into her mouth, then just leaves it there while she plays and "talks" to us. It is sooo funny to watch her do this (which is all the time!).

We have been encouraging Janae to take on as much of the Maggie responsibilities as possible, and she loves it. She loves her doggie so much, in fact, that often Maggie looks at me as if to say, "Please don't let her love me quite so much!"

Janae fell asleep this afternoon (she doesn't usually take naps anymore), so I had some time to take pictures of Kiera just being cute.

Here she is playing with Maggie, who is such a good sport!

Kiera has been doing this yoga pose a lot lately...I don't think it will be too much longer before she is trying to crawl. I don't know if I'm ready for her to be mobile any time soon!

I helped her up onto her knees, and she thought that was just the best thing ever.

A couple of weeks ago we started doing a new positive-reinforcement thing with Janae. She had to get 10 marbles into the jar, and her reward would be going to get a pink ice cream cone. She earned marbles by being good and by doing her jobs everyday (her jobs are feeding the dog and putting her dirty clothes in the laundry room). But, of course, it worked both ways; if she was naughty, she got a marble taken out of the jar.

This worked like magic. She would get so excited when Jeff or I would catch her doing something good (helping Kiera, cleaning up w/out being asked, etc..) and put a marble in the jar for her. She would also get very upset if she lost a marble - which was great for Jeff and I! Just the threat of losing a marble was usually enough to get her to cooperate with us on the task at hand.

This morning she earned the 10th marble, and was ready to go get pink (strawberry) ice cream at about 8:45 AM! I was able to distract her for a couple of hours until Cold Stone opened. She proudly told the lady behind the counter that she got all of her marbles and needs pink ice cream, please! It was sooo cute!

We are now working toward a Chicken Nugget Happy Meal!

Kiera had her six month check-up on Wednesday. She did really well, but had a fever most of the day on Thursday from the immunizations. Today she is back to feeling well and acting happy.

I think that since the invention of the camera, every family has a bath-time picture like this - I don't want my girls to be disappointed when they get older, so I had to take one last night. Kiera is big enough now to sit up well in the tub, and Janae is really careful with her in there. They are such good sisters!

Silly shampoo hair!Meeting Rubber Duckie!!

She is such a HAPPY girl!!

Today we adopted a beautiful golden retriever from the humane society in Salem. She is a great dog - really smart and well-behaved. Most importantly, she is really good with the girls. Janae has spent the afternoon herding the dog around and every time the dog walks by Kiera, she goes crazy with excitement! (Kiera goes crazy, not the dog) We have tentatively decided on Maggie for her name, but Jeff has some not-so-great associations with that name, so he has some reservations in naming our dog that. I think he might just have to get over it! =)
This is Kiera's "kissy face," and yes, just after I took this picture, she gave the dog a big kiss on the nose!