Big Energy-Little Learners...Can I do it all?

Each month we do a mini photo shoot of Baby Dragon. Our overall goal is to have a Dungeons and Dragons theme each month.  I do have to admit that I am running out of ideas. We also made a character sheet for her that we update with new accomplishments and milestones each month. Month 5 we did Little Lady Majere (spin from Raistlin Majere from the DragonLance series) This turned out to be my favorite photo shoot so far.  I love, love, love it! Set up for this shoot was easy.  Props were also easy.  Simply a black sheet, some crates, and books we had on hand because again, we are nerds, and a wand-from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. At first I didn't know how I was going to dress Baby Dragon but I knew I wanted her to be a red robed wizard.  After thinking about it for awhile I remembered we had a red cape from halloween 4 years ago.  I knew it would be perfect! I wrapped the robe around Baby Dragon handed her a wand a...

 Dart Knockdown! This activity is great for summer or winter.  It can be played out doors or indoors. We did both. I honestly wasn't expecting to play indoors at any point but Little Dragon loved this set up so much he asked me to set it up all week.  That meant during rain or during moments when he was the only boy outside, and I don't let the dragons play outside alone. The set up was easy and best of all cheap! I had all of the supplies needed on hand. Materials:  nerf gun darts cups table/desk To set up you just put the cups in a pyramid and designate a place to stand to shoot, point blank would be cheating and not as fun.  Then pull the trigger.  It took a couple tries but Little Dragon got the hang of this game quickly.  Doll Dragon tried a few times but didn't enjoy this activity as much.   Little Dragon practiced hand eye coordination and by the end of the 1st day he was...

We have now reached the halfway mark.  Halfway to a year.  Halfway to the first birthday! I am also looking at it in reverse.  It has been 6 months since I was in the hospital, since I was pregnant and bloated.  It seemed to fly by! But we have captured countless moments on video and many more on camera so we won't forget these precious moments. There are a few milestones baby is reaching now but things are going to really start speeding up in the months to come! Speech The months leading up to this have given baby the tools and confidence to start trying to speak on their own.  At this point in development you should be hearing two letter sounds such as 'ma, da, ba, etc.'  You may have heard some of these sounds before the 6 month mark but baby probably has more understanding of what she is saying now.   One way we have encouraged our daughter to not only say 'mama' and 'dada' but recognize its meaning is by refereing to ourselves in...