You wouldn’t know from my blog, but we adults have fun too. Especially when a friend invests in only the coolest van I have ever laid my eyes on. The man of the hour was Blake, and thanks to his gut instinct…..he (and I will say “we”) now have this “business on the outside/party on the inside” beauty in our midst:
The party attendees for the girls:
And the wannabe GQ boys:
My husband trying to reinact Teen Wolf:
The girls waiting patiently for the boys to stop rockin’ the car ….. because “if it’s a rockin’….don’t come a knockin’”. They were testing it for Mikelle and Blake’s romantic date nights.
And finally — The Man Of The Hour. None of this could have happened without him!
ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!
In honor of all of the whales out there, we attended our local parade and street fair. It actually exceeded our expectations, and ended up being totally fun. And we weren’t the only ones who thought so. About mid way through, we decided to go to Harbor House for some slop — I mean food, and Scout looked at me and said, “This is a really fun day.” And then about five minutes later, he looked at Micah and said, “Dad…thanks for taking us here.” I guess that is just the icing on top.
This is at the beginning of the surprising legitimate parade, where we got to wave American flags for the Marines.
Then off to the rides. (He had to be in his favorite color – the yellow one.)
And then the rock wall, that he wasn’t excited about until I mentioned Spiderman.
Icka was thrilled to have an unlimited supply of Kettle Corn to keep her happy.
Here are my two giving each other a kiss. I love how much they adore one another.
And my favorite — here is Scout protecting his sissy. His dad always tells him to protect me and Navy, and look at what a good job he is doing. (Minus the choking.)
I have SO Many of Scout’s “firsts” documented, that I feel like I am lacking a few for Navy. So in an effort to even my two up, here are some Icka firsts…..at the ripe old age of 13 months.
First time drinking out of a drinking fountain.
First boyfriend — look who is playing shy.
First (time in months) she doesn’t rip her “pretty” (AKA bow) out of her hair.
First time she is being forced to wear reading glasses.
I know these aren’t the “standard” firsts, but they will have to do.
….for a few things — which included some Pirate’s Booty.
Fitting.
While we were in the office, I used Photobooth to snap a few things that are pretty regular around here.
#1 — Scout climbing and Icka following.
#2 — Scout climbing and Icka insisting on being my sidekick.
#3 — Icka eating a piece of bread outside of the kitchen. (Notice Scout swiping a piece and is out of the frame so there isn’t any evidence.) Interesting because Scout is always the “getter” of the bread, and gives it to Icka. But Scout is always eating the bread too, but because Icka wanted it, he does’t take any of the blame for eating it outside of the kitchen.
Icka copies every word I say. She talks all day long, but it is rare that I really know what she is saying. So in just the last day, I have paid closer attention and caught a couple of her words. And I am amazed at how much she is actually saying. She has been saying, “Yellow” “Owie” “Bow” “Chicken” “Royal” “Slide” “Smokey” “So Nice” “Bye Bye” off the top of my head. But the best little parroting act she does, is when she walks around while she shakes her finger and repeatedly says, “No No” for ten minutes straight. I guess she must hear that one a lot!
Note: She says “Cout” (Scout) and “NayNay all day long. She is in total love with both. Sorry Skills….at least she is named after you.
Scout is ALWAYS jumping off of everything. If it could be an Olympic sport, I would sign him up. He starts by climbing anything and everything. Then he scales what is usually a bookcase. And finally he takes his flying leap. He hasn’t hurt himself yet, and he has some pretty high jumps to date. I gave him the go ahead to do it when he wants, but that there are two rules. #1 — Make sure Icka isn’t below him. #2 — Make sure Icka doesn’t follow him. Rule number one has been an easy enforcer, but rule number two isn’t quite as simple.
SCALING (obviously with his sword so he can fight the bad guys)
TAKING THE LEAP
GOING FOR A SMOOTH LANDING
This is the first time Scout has gone down for a nap in a week — not that I haven’t tried the other six days. I keep asking around to see when friends have stopped the napping for their kids, and they say between two and three. I guess Scout is about there, but I am CONVINCED that he still needs them, so I am forcing the issue. I have tried to bribe him if actually falls asleep — no go. I have threatened him — he doesn’t care. I try to talk to him and help him understand — he explains to me where I am wrong. The list goes on and on. What finally worked today was using his imagination to my benefit. I told him that he needed to protect Elefante from the big huge baby that was the bad guy. Apparently, he imagined himself into oblivion. I’m crossing my fingers that this is the strategy that will continue to work. We’ll see.
If I could use only one phrase to describe Navy, I would probably choose, “won’t hold still.”
Scout would just coozie right into you, and hold still while anyone rocked him, and Navy just won’t.
But last night, when she woke up around midnight, I got her out of bed and held her. For at least an hour, she laid her little head on me and would only move about every ten minutes to look up at me and give me the biggest smile she knows how. I was in love as she did it over and over. I realized my mom’s light was still on, so I let me mom in on the love fest. Icka laid her head on my mom, and did the same smile for her. My mom said, “this is heaven”. I guess the trick is to get her up in the middle of the night if I want her to hold still for once. And I just might do that.
Navy has been a little headache lately. Nothing makes her happy (except B reading to her). She is constantly at my feet whining, and constantly crying. Unless I am literally holding her, she isn’t happy. Everyone said that she is just an emotional girl, but my “mother’s intuition” knew better. At first, I thought that her three back to back sinus infections were the cause, but once it cleared up, her state did not. So then I blamed it on teething. And I quote……”You blame everything on teething. She isn’t teething!” (From Skylar the wannabe second mom in this instance)
So when I reached back to feel two upper molars cutting through her gums yesterday, I insisted on picking up Skylar at the bus stop to rub it in her face. Her punishment was to watch the poor little teething and whining girl for the rest of the afternoon. Don’t mess Skylar!
When I went to bed last night, I told Micah that I felt like a different person. He asked why, and I said, “Now that I know that my girl isn’t a drama queen for nothing, I don’t care one bit that she is whining.” I would WAY rather have a little extra spending on Tylenol than adolescent therapy!
| DESIGN BY