Just Catching Up

I can only shake my head at my well-intended notion that when summer started, it would be a time of lazy days and quiet schedules. We wouldn't HAVE to do much of anything and we could relax and lounge to our heart's content.

HA!

What we have had instead is a schedule just as busy, though the items on the agenda have changed. So far the best part is not sheep herding people early every morning, though it's still nice to enjoy the quiet early hours of the day.

Now, nearly three weeks into our vacation, the big girls have been babysitting and spending time with friends. We've had several sleepovers and in order not to completely lose the morning to sleeping in, have established an "in your room by 11pm and out of bed by 8am" rule. So far, so (mostly) good.

The big girls are also enrolled in the local library's summer reading program and so many minutes are spent drifted away in other lands and inside other people's heads and lives. The little guys are also benefitting from quite a (hastily grabbed) library stack.

A new TV found its way to our livingroom (Happy Father's Day, Kurt!), so we've caught up on some movies both thru Redbox (and free, thanks to codes), and watching some from our own stash.

The weather isn't quite sure what to do with itself yet, so while we've had a few warm days that give us hope summer is venturing this direction, we also have had a lot of rain and even wind and even twisters not too far away.

I don't know that some of the other calendar items are worth mentioning (and if you're still reading, this might be a good place to click to somewhere more interesting), but we've been to the temple and to other church meetings on their normal, regular schedule. We've helped a friend of Liz's with his Eagle Scout project, and had friends' kids come over for short chunks of time while their moms got some things done or made it to an appointment in better peace than towing little people would have provided. We've had a few dr's appointments of our own that span everything from the chiropractor and the eye doctor to Emily's follow-up with the Pediatric Orthopaedist. Oh, and the dentist. Can't forget the dentist!

The two biggest girls and their momma have been working on their Personal Progress, trying to take advantage of the summer months to get as much done there as possible. Mom even started a FB page to help others who are journeying through.. (find it at Personal Progress for Young Women, IYI)

Kurt and the three youngest got to see the local air show a week or so ago. They are still talking about it. Nathan got to climb through one of the Life Flight helicopters and when he turned to his dad to tell him he wanted to fly one someday, the pilot said to Nathan, "make sure you do well in school". Nathan paused and then said, "uh, I'm in Pre-school...". The pilot's wife was there and started to laugh, while her husband told Nathan, "well, do well in Pre-school then!". To which Nathan said, "ok!". Not much of a dull moment when he's around.

We've also been to BFD's summer family picnic, and when Kurt said hi to Roy, a fellow FF, Nathan overheard and promptly came up to tell Roy that he "had him at home". Roy had a funny look on his face until Kurt explained that Nathan's FF figurines were named Johnny and Roy (hello RTV and Emergency! reruns...). Roy's response wasn't what Kurt thought it would be: "you mean they have action figures?!". Kurt had to explain that these weren't official Emergency! figures, these were just generic FF, but it made things that much more funny that Roy was interested in the toys. Kurt said he has the TV show on DVD even....something to think about as a gift idea for Nathan. He loves that show!

Our darling Emily will be turning two soon, and lately has skipped completely over 2T and 3T in her clothing. She wears a size 8 shoe and is nearly a square at 34lbs and 36inches. She has been cleared by the speech pathologist (with fun homework to do like chewing on stale licorice and sucking thick shakes....wouldn't it be great if all homework were that tasty!), but has an appointment in a month to see a Pediatric ENT who will evaluate the unusual shape to her palate. We also discovered her labial frenulum (that little piece of skin that attaches your top lip to your gum line), comes all the way down between her two front teeth. So, we'll see if there's anything to be done about that before she is old enough to get into orthodontia. In the meantime, her vocabulary has exploded and she's putting together two and three words at a time. "I'll get it!" is a favorite when the phone rings, though actually putting her on the phone just gets us head shakes to answer grandma's questions. We also hear "I'll get it" when we print something. Emily is such a super helper and wants to pull the paper out right when it's done. Ahem!
Sadly, she is addicted to pacifiers and although she only gets hers when she goes to bed, she's discovered the collection I have in my jewelry box and just this morning tried to hide her little handful behind her back so I wouldn't see. (in explanation, I've keep a pacifier from each of my babies who has taken them...) She'll say "ok" every time I tell her to go put them back, but seldom do they actually make it back to the right place. If she weren't so cute about it...

Otherwise we are still couponing and paying bills, eating meals and squeezing in "dates" to the store and the gas station and other glamorous and romantic places like that. We have a lot to look forward to yet and will share the highlights as they come.

Happy Summer!!

xoxo