July 1st? Can't be!

I can't believe tomorrow is July 1st. June just flew by with us in OH for two weeks. We had such a nice time but we all missed Daddy quite a bit. But now we're back and R- is home for four days so we can get back in the swing of things. I got sick on Wed before R- left and felt bad all day, took a two hour nap, mustered energy to cook baked spaghetti that we ate while he was on his trip, then crashed at 7:30. R- got both girls to bed successfully and I slept off and on for 12 hours. Chills, fever, sweaty, coughing - I was a mess. R- left for DUS Thursday morning and the girls and I went into survival mode, just hanging out on A-'s bed and reading books all morning. S- wasn't home to play with but A- held up pretty well with just Mommy and G- to hang out with.

We're still having thunderstorms and rain pretty much every day. Very strange and makes for humid 90F days but we haven't had to water the lawn yet this summer. Usually we've started $100+ water bills by now.

A- got to play with S- the last two days. They play together so nicely, it's wonderful to see. They're both sweet girls and even include G- (most of the time). When I was tutoring in May, they were playing outside and through the open window I could hear them saying "What's gonna work, teamwork" (from WonderPets) and helping G- get up onto the slide so she could slide down. What cuties. S- came over today in shorts and a shirt and fairy wings. Gotta love this age when that seems like a perfectly normal thing to wear to a friend's house. It won't be long before they worry about what people think about them.

We did some errands this morning and stopped at Dollar General and got candy (amazingly they didn't have the kid's blowdryer S- got in Disneyland ;-) ) and A- didn't want to eat her Fun Dip because she wanted to wait until she could share it with S-. I told her S- wouldn't mind, she'd like any of the flavors but A- was insistent.

More cute A- stories: R- helped her get dressed the other morning (which consists of standing there while she asks you what you think she should wear and then her completely ignoring your input) and when I got up (Wed. morning when I was sick, usually I'm up first) she told me "Look mom, I'm wearing Capri Suns" known to the rest of us as Capri pants. And today she told me "We're both wearing Capri Suns". Reminds me of when she was learning to talk and she would want her "ooshies" also known as shoes. I remember at the time thinking I wanted her to learn to speak correctly of course, but it's so darn cute when little kids say thing wrong sometimes you're tempted to reinforce it by calling shoes "ooshies" yourself!

And little G- communicates so much with so few words. She can tell you she wants her shoes (points to her feet and grunts), she wants her hat (pats her head), she wants food or sometimes drink (points to her mouth), and she has many variations of head nods and shakes for yes and no, emphatic yes and no, mean yes and no (it's all in the look in her eye). She also says "mor, mor" (more) and "nur, nur" (nurse) with accompanying signs. In the bathtub tonight, she wanted me to run more water in the faucet when I was trying to get her to finish and she walked to the faucet, said "mor, mor" and I told her no so she dropped her bath toys and pointed to the faucet and said "mor, mor" while doing the sign for more just in case I didn't get it the first time. The look on her face when she's trying to communicate is so funny, a combination of concentration and "what kind of idiot are you?".

More pictures from OH

Many hours were spent on these garage sale big-wheels.

Sweet sisters!

Here is G- running laps through the garage in the rain.

Photos from OH

This is us after church on Sunday.



And A- playing with her doctor kit Aunt L- got her. The girls have played with this more than you can imagine. G- picks up the dropper and tries to stick it in her eye because she remembers getting drops in her eyes when she and A- had pinkeye. A- checks G-'s ears with the aurascope and does surgery on G- and on babydolls with the test tube holder. She's also pretty into giving shots.

Swimming

Some pictures from swimming today. You can't see A's face but that's her with the pink noodle. She LOVED the water and jumped right on the noodle and kicked her legs to get all around the pool.

Kid speak

A- says today "I'm a big girl" and Opa said "You're a bagel?". She also drops her "s" at the beginning of words so "smell" becomes "mell" as in "Let me mell me" to see if I need to take a bath. And "Snow!" becomes "No!". Sometimes it's hard to understand her.... but she does pretty well. G-'s still in the grunting and pointing phase. She says "ball", "bird", and "mama" but only when I ask her to say mama.

A-and G- were wearing glasses today and Oma got some good pictures. G- couldn't keep hers on.

We went to pick strawberries today and made strawberry shortcake. Nothing like fresh strawberries still warm from the sun.

Lots of outside time

We've sure been getting our fresh air quota lately. The girls keep playing in the rainwater that R- collects (they LOVE to help him collect it too and work very carefully to pour it into buckets). It's better than a pool! A- pours water on G-'s head and then R- pours water on A-. She laughs. We also took a walk/bigwheel/bike ride to the nearby park yesterday after supper. I pushed G- in the stroller and A- rode her bigwheel and R- rode his bike. A- kept wanting to stop and take a rest and we would read the house numbers. They both climbed all over the playset (no swings thank heavens) and G- climbed all the way up and went down the twisty slide all by herself. She also learned to go up the pirate chain ladder and then A- did because she saw G- doing it.

R- took them to the library this morning while I went to the chiropracter and TJMaxx. It's very windy but a nice day - I love the new bike trails, I hardly have to be on the road at all.

Dallas Zoo

The girls and I went to the Dallas Zoo today with friends. A- took a notebook to make a list of all the animals she saw (Daddy's suggestion), the list all looks remarkably like loops and scrawls but she was very dedicated about writing down each animal. G- pretty much wanted to just look at birds and climb stairs. The Dallas Zoo has a children's zoo area with a water feature that the girls liked to wade in and a place to do crafts - A- made a "turtle" that she cut out herself and glued pieces on for the legs. There was a pattern but hers was a bit more freeform!

Popsicles

The inaugural post! Here is a picture of A- and G- eating popsicles. It's actually from April - but this is a pretty typical look for our family! Notice the lacing shape necklace G- is wearing courtesy of A-.