Recent Happenings

So I'm taking Chrysta's suggestion and going with Live Writer. So far? Love it.

Anyway, it's been a long time since I've updated with anything rational. The month of August got started with a bang when Scott and Christy and their brood came to town! My bro just got back from Iraq and it was good to see them. They showed up on Saturday and we ate lunch together before Christy and I took off to Grapevine Mills outlets for some shopping. Can I just say how refreshing it is to leave the kids and spend time with an ADULT?!?! And one of my very favorite adults too! Lucky me!

After shopping we had dinner together before heading back to S&C's hotel to swim. It was, like, 800 degrees outside, the pool water was warm and yet we all ended up freezing! Christy and I couldn't figure it out and whenever we would complain CK would go on with some extraordinarily scientific reason for why that was happening. I just thought it was windy.

Anyway, the kids were all little fishes! Zach is a super swimmer. He was doing so well Christy and Scott were staying busy just trying to keep up with him. Of course that got Cam even MORE excited to keep doing his underwater swimming. Peer pressure can be a good thing sometimes. Ty, on the other hand, was hilarious because he was SO laid back. He had his life jacket on and would just bob around in the water. He'd swim here and there and just kinda go with the flow. He didn't feel any real need to be clinging to mom or dad. He was just pretty content to splash around in the deep end by himself and occasionally he'd paddle over to see us before drifting off again. Funny, funny kid.

Sunday we met back up at our house for dinner. I made homemade tortillas and we had chicken fajitas. At first I thought, "Yeah, fajitas! That's a good, easy Sunday dinner." Obviously I hadn't made fajitas in awhile. It took forever!!! oh well. I thought it was pretty yummy. We had cookie ice cream sandwiches for dinner. The kids didn't like that idea. They just wanted the cookies!

After dinner it was time to say adieu. We're so glad to live close to them so we can see them often. We'll be heading up there in October and Christy and I are going to run a race together. WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!

 

After Christy and Scott left my life was consumed with Breaking Dawn, which you all know. The kids, however, maintained an active social life.

Sophie had a quick trip to the cardiologist to get her heart murmur checked. I have one, Cameron has one, I think some of my siblings have them. I wasn't worried. It came back clear and we'll go back in 6 months for a check up. She did relatively well during that appointment, though. I say relatively because the next week was her well child appointment and that went terribly. I hate shots! Poor Soph had to have four. She was a champ, but it's tough to watch them go through that.

One funny thing that came up during that appointment: Sophie's head circumference is literally off the charts. Like, she's in the 120th percentile or something. Little smarty pants! I love her ginormo head! And it complements her 18 1/2 pound body perfectly, I think!

In other Sophie news, that girl wants to crawl so badly she can taste it! She's always pushing up onto her hands and knees and reaching for things. Last Wednesday she started scooting. She looks just like that inchworm puppet from Sesame Street. She puts her face down in the ground, hikes her bummy up into the air and gets her toes under her and then pushes off. It's HILARIOUS! I could watch it for, like, tens of minutes. But, alas, after about 20 seconds of that she gets pretty ticked off and screams at me until I rescue her. She's ALSO trying to pull herself up on things. She's done it once and was able to stay up on her feet for about 10 seconds before promptly falling on her face. She wasn't deterred, though! She's a fighter.

Lastly, she's on table food now. I know that's not exciting for everyone, but it is for me! I think it's so fun to feed her REAL food. And she doesn't seem to be picky...yet. That will come. I know it will.

Moving on to Miles. There's not much to update. He's still not napping much, which has taken a lot to get used to. Every now and then he'll put himself down for a nap, though, and when he does it is the most adorable thing. He'll just grab his blanket and puppy and climb up in his bed and I'll find him snoring away. I love the little angel face of a sleeping child. So perfect and innocent.

The thing that's wearing Miles out these days is probably his newest obsessions: soap and bikes. Now that Miles has figured out how to crawl up onto the bathroom counter I usually keep the guest bathroom door locked. Before he wouldn't ever think to go down the hall to the master bathroom, but now he looks for any available bathroom with pump soap. If I don't hear him for a minute or so I usually take off in a mad dash toward the bathroom and that's where I'll find him sitting with his feet in the sink, rubbing copious amounts of hand soap all over his face, arms, legs, clothes. When I find him he'll say, "All keen, mommy!" At first this was cute, now it's just getting expensive! So the soap was retired to the cabinet above the toilets (right next to the toothpaste he used to compulsively eat). He hasn't figured out how to get to it. But like my dad says, all kids are like squirrels. They'll just keep working on it until they figure it out.

When he's not soaping Miles wants to be outside riding his bike. He got a trike for Christmas last year and hasn't been that taken with it until recently. He's really got the pedal action down and loves to cruise down the sidewalk and say, "I so fast, mommy!" That kid is just the embodiment of awesomeness.

(I like this picture of Miles because his diaper is on backwards. This is how my babysitter put it on him! Awesome! We love our babysitter!!!)

This was supposed to be Sophie's photo shoot but Miles wasn't having it...

 

Cameron. My boy has taken off this summer! He's so different in so many ways! He's gotten really independent and is coming out of his shell. I'm kind of sad that he won't be starting kindergarten this fall because I think he really could have done well. But that's cool.

So Cam's big accomplishments this summer have been swimming, writing/reading, and overcoming some of his shyness.

Swimming: at the beginning of the summer Cameron HATED to get water on his face at the pool. To be honest, he didn't even like going to the pool that much. But little by little he's gotten more and more comfortable with it. We've spent lots of time at our friends' pools this summer and the peer pressure of seeing his friends swimming has helped a lot. I could see him really concentrating and focusing on each new step and it helped him gain a lot of confidence whenever he would master another step. Sometimes I look at him and I'm so proud I think my chest is going to bust open. In three months time he has gone from being scared of the pool to be a fish! I love it and I'm so happy for him!

Cam's also really excelled with identifying letters and words recently. He's such a cerebral kid. He'll often come up to me in the middle of the day, or shout out from the back seat of the car, "Hey mom! P comes from Pizza Hut!" Or whatever sign he just saw. And he loves to take out his magna doodle and write letters on it and then ask us what he spelled. Usually it's ARB. I'm not sure what that means, but who knows, maybe it's the secret to curing cancer and we just don't know it yet. Sometimes, though, he'll switch it up so it says "BAR" at which point I think he's probably already dreaming of the day he passes the Bar exam.

Lastly, my kid is getting so dang independent! He's always been so cautious and he has a pretty shy/quiet side to him. He would get nervous whenever he had to pray or give a talk in primary. But not anymore! He's making friends left and right at the playground or pool. At church he's always raising his hand to give the prayer or help with singing time. When we're out riding bikes he wants to zoom across the street by himself (after checking to make sure it's safe, of course). I don't let him do that yet, but it's amazing to me that he wants to do it!

 

So that's it for us. If you're wondering why I had to write a 40 page blog just remember that this is really my family journal so I want to make sure to get all of these memories recorded for the future!