Prayers, Improv and other stuff

I guess VBS is sinking in for Joshua. Today we were making cookies and Joshua was VERY excited to get to eat one. So when the cookies were FINALLY out of the oven AND cool, he picked one out to eat. He sat down in his chair with the cookie in front of him and said, 'We need to say prayers,' then continued with, 'God is Great. God is good and we thank him for the...' he paused and thought for a moment then finished with, '... COOKIES! Amen.' Then he ate. I just cracked up. In the last week, something has clicked. He is being creative with the things he says and is showing an understanding of the words and their meanings. He is also impersonating as I like to call it lots of objects. He has shown me how a lady bug flies with his hand, how a helicopter flies, with his piece of cheese, how the fire alarm sounds and other noises. He is almost whistling. It is as thought his brain has had a cognitive explosion.

Jason on the other hand seems to be having problems. Yesterday, he was running in the morning with Jack (a first) and going full speed down a steep hill on our community when Jack ran in front of Jason tripping him. Jason hit the ground hard and has road rash and bruises on his arm, hip and leg plus a very bad cut on his finger. He screwed up his iphone in the crash as well. Then tonight while working on his RC car for our trip. He sliced his thumb deeply with the exacto knife. I think I need to put him in a padded room for his protection.

Mira is just being plain cute. She is holding on now when I carry her and likes to talk by moving her mouth and lips as if trying to simulate what we are doing. It is very cute.

Vacation Bible School

We had our first day of vacation bible school today. It is a morning program from 9-12 for a week. I am teaching the 10-12 year olds and have Mira with me while Joshua plays with the other 'too young' kids. It was a lot of fun. Joshua both behaved AND had fun. He and Mira are napping now. I asked him what he learned and he said, 'I had candy.' Well, we'll work on it :-)

Mira is rolling ALL the time! She does it at night and then gets frustrated that she is on her tummy. She is either going to have to learn to sleep on her tummy or learn to roll back over or I am not going to get any sleep!

more rolly polly

After Joshua rolled the first time he rolled again once in a matter of weeks. Mira has rolled over several more times including a time when Jason saw it happen. She is laying on her tummy now as I type having rolled over next to me.

Rolling Over

She did it! She made her way ALL the way over. She has been close to rolling over for a few weeks now and could make it 3/4 of the way or more but just didn't go that final cm. Yesterday though she was frustrated at me with laying her down to tend to Joshua and so in her little screaming frenzy she finally made it all the way. Mira stopped screaming once she made it over since Joshua and I cheered her on. She looked around like, 'How'd I get here?'. It seems that she is either teething or really upset from the shots that she got on Tuesday because she has been in a very bad mood over the last two days. I can see that a tooth is trying to come through and she is shoving her hands in her mouth a lot but it is hard to tell if that is actually what is bothering her.

Today is an errand day, never fun for the little guys but has to be done. We are also planning for our big family vacation. Can't wait to go!

Mira's Four Month Check Up

Mira now weighs 15.2 pounds and is 24.5" long. She is in the 75th percentile for weight and 50th for height. The checkup went fine and she is right on track for developmental milestones. The Dr. asked if we were going to start feeding her solid foods and I said we hadn't yet. I don't feel much motivation to take this step yet. She is doing well on breast milk and we can wait until 6 months or whenever she starts to show an interest in our food.

We ran lots of errands afterwards and Joshua was a good boy in the car, Mira slept. Now we are home and enjoying the cool weather.

Happy Father's Day!

We had a nice relaxing father's day. Joshua had colored a card for Jason and we let him sleep in. After breakfast we were outside playing and saw a little snake on the deck. That was a fun surprise! We had a family nap and then went for a walk along the water. On our walk we saw turtles, geese, ducklings, squirrels and a ground hog. After our walk we check out a new Mexican resturant a couple of towns over.

Last night was Joshua's first night in just underpants (no diaper) and he did it! He was dry! Good Job, Joshua!!

Happy Birthday, Noella!

Today we enjoyed Noella's 2nd Birthday party. We had a nice lunch with presents, swimming and cake. Mira napped while the bigger kids swam. Joshie gets better and better in the water with every dip!

While we were eating dinner, back at home, Mira started just giggling at Joshua. It was so funny! I am really not sure what exactly she was laughing at, most of the time Joshie wasn't even looking at her. But, she does love her big brother tremendously. Joshua is great with Mira, too. He asks us to read stories to her and has even shared his beloved, 'Little Blankie' with her for a few moments.

Mira has taken a very big interest in books and likes to touch and help turn the pages. Looks like we have another book worm in our midst!

I posted pictures from today. I still have lots to post from the party weekend and this past week.

Braving the Heat

We've been trying to make an effort to take a hike every weekend. There are quite a few trails within just a couple of miles of us so it is pretty easy. Joshua 'hikes' for part of the time and then rides in the backpack carrier the rest. I love that he can pretty much run and explore without me trying to hold his hand or correct him all the time. So today we tried to get out of the house as early as possible with the weather being so unbearable. The temp was already in the 80's, humidity was in the 90% range and there was very little breeze. But, the hike was almost entirely in the woods with a lot of foliage. Still, we were just dripping sweat when we finished and pretty grumpy,too. The afternoon called for cool showers and family nap time.

This evening we enjoyed the company of Jason's coworker Richard and his girlfriend Lacey. They also brought her little dog, Otis, along. Jack and Otis were best friends right from the start. Josh loved Otis as well. He was happy to show off for Lacey but did make it through dinner.

Mira's First Swim

Our neighbors, Stephanie & Harry, opened their pool up recently and since the temperatures soared into the 90's with about 100% humidity yesterday (and supposedly again today) we headed over to their house to take a dip in the pool. Joshua, when we last took him, was almost swimming on his own but since it has been a few months I figured there would be a bit of remembering to do. He did great and by the end of the evening we had him reluctently swimming to the pool ladder by himself. Mira we plopped into the water and she was just so relaxed about the whole thing. We have a little floating seat for her and I think she floated around close to an hour. Joshua had a fantastic time as the bigger kids took turns tooling him around the pool. He even went down the slide (and under the water!)... once.





Since moving Mira into the crib we have also begun a little bedtime routine with her of nursing, two stories and then placing her in the crib. She just drifts off to sleep which is like magic to us. She enjoys reading and reaches for the pictures on the pages. She is grabbing at specific objects now and not letting go: the computer power cord, her toes, hair, toys, etc. Her sitting is getting better every day and she is starting to correct her body as it begins to tip one way or another.

Jason let Joshie play with his regular legos and he is having fun with those. He can't always get the little pieces apart but other than that he is building like a pro!

Scary

What a day. It really hasn't been a bad day. Very muggy. We've had thunderstorms this evening. We met Jason for lunch with his coworkers Chuck and Erik but before we made it to lunch that is when the fun started. I was walking with Joshua and Mira up to Kimberly's house to drop off two letters for church. Mira was in the stroller and Joshua was walking and running in front of us. He was doing a good job of staying close so I just let him go. Then in a flash he was running, wasn't looking where he was going and turned his head around just in time to run smack face first into a parked car. He rebounded backwards and hit the back of his head on the side walk. It took him a moment to start crying because he was so startled but I knew it was bad because he did cry. I was expecting broken teeth and a bloody nose but he managed to escape those to things. I carried him and pushed Mira two more houses up to a neighbor that we knew and who was already outside and hollered for ice. Mr. Charlie ran in and got it and by the time he came back out Joshie was fine, no more crying anyway. He has a bruise on his forehead and one on the back of his head. We didn't make to to Kim's. We just went home, I gave Josh tylenol and we headed out to lunch. He seemed fine today, I kept a close eye on him. I am used to Joshua's injuries so most of them do not upset me. Even the ones that are rather bloody but this incident really shook me. He is one tough kid! And... I think he ought to wear a helmet from now on!!

Under the Big Top

Memaw and Grandad took Stephanie, Dylan, Joshua and Mira to the circus yesterday. There were tigers, acrobats, clowns, horses, elephants, and trained dogs among other things. It was fun to watch the kids watching the show. I think even Mira enjoyed all the excitement. Joshua did not like the clown that was standing at the entrance of the tent but once we got around him all was well.

Mira can now move herself 360 degrees just by rolling on her side and back. She hasn't made it all the way over yet but it is fun to watch her wiggle. She is doing alright in the crib. She sleeps about 4 hours and then is up every 2 to eat after that. I've been putting her down for naps in the crib, too. It seems essential to swaddle her to get her to sleep.

I am on a 'green' kick these days and we are looking at ways that we can reduce our waste, gas use and water use. It has been interesting. This week we only had one white bags worth of trash. We'll see if we can keep it up. With raising gas prices the gas usage is going to be critical. Now when Joshua is washing his hands and I turn off the water he says, 'Save the water!'. :-)