O Family Weekend

We had our annual weekend at the cabin with Two Fish's family. We had family pictures taken by Lovely N, ate some good food, ran around outside and spent some time together. M&M came up from Arizona and it was fabulous to have the family all together. It was so fun to watch the kids running around together especially because Red Fish was old enough to be one of the gang this year. I loved watching her run around with her cousins and giggle and play. It's so good for her to have so many great kids around her.

10 Months

Oh 10 months. How did we get here? Wasn't New Fish just born last week? We are practically closing in on a year. New Fish is standing up by herself for 10-30 seconds at a time. She is crawling all over the house and getting into everything. She is already bossy and tries to push me out of her way. She climbs stairs like a pro and is turning into a regular dare devil. She loves to talk to people on the phone and whenever she sees someone on their phone she holds her hand to her ear and starts saying Hi? Hi? Hi? She still has only two little teeth on the bottom but she wants to try and eat EVERYTHING. She babbles and hollers all day long. She has been going through a pretty clingy phase and wants to be carried around by mommy all day long. She is still her sister's biggest fan and loves it when Red Fish plays with her.

Zoo

We went to the zoo for the first time. These are the only two pictures I took because I was too busy chasing a maniac two year old through huge crowds with a double stroller. I've decided I don't want to visit Disneyland any time soon. At least not without Two Fish. We went with my friend Shannon and her two boys. It was wild. The girls loved seeing all of the animals, especially the giraffes, elephants, and apes. Red Fish liked the monkeys as well. New Fish loved riding on the carousel. She was clapping her hands and waving at everyone the whole time. Who needs to hang on right?

Art Group Day 6

I really thought that when we started this art group it was going to be absolute chaos. Happy chaos but still overwhelming. In reality the big group is great for creating. The kids are happy, they love the projects and they are really starting to explore the materials and make a piece completely individual. It's really fun to watch. Today we did collages. We had glue, contact paper, foam, construction paper, magazines, and pom poms. Some kids even used grass, sand and rocks. Collages definitely go to the top of the list for group projects.

Peyton used magazine clippings only

Little G's collage on contact paper

Kristen's swirls of color (contact paper and foam)

Christian's monochromatic piece. I like that he drew on the pieces of paper.

Daredevil Baby

Yep, she's my kid.

Watercolors

Update

Well the EEG came back normal which is good news. The neurologist is a little concerned that it might not be the right test for Red Fish, so we are waiting to schedule a 24 hour EEG at the hospital. Scheduling things at the hospital has turned into a real pain. We went to the audiologist and Red Fish has great hearing (I knew that though.) We also went to the ENT and Red Fish will definitely be getting her tonsils out and having some webbing under her tongue clipped, probably at the end of August. It isn't causing the apraxia but it is contributing to the apraxia and some other problems she is having with swallowing food, snoring like a bear, etc.

Right now the schedule of daily speech at home and multiple speech appointments during the week is wearing me out but there has been definitely tangible progress with Red Fish's speech. It makes it worth it for sure!

So far everything has been good news. Things are looking up.

I'm having a love affair...

with cheese. My Mom and I joined a local food co-op this summer. We get fresh organic produce and (drum roll please) LOCAL CHEESE. Every week I get a glorious block of some new kind of cheese. I look forward to it. Each cheese is more delicious than the last. I think I might be addicted. I won't even share with my family. They don't appreciate it properly. It's just cheese to them but to me it's a little piece of heaven. I refuse to share with people who can't tell the difference between heaven's cheese and kraft.

Recent Happenings

The last week has been exhausting. We've had four doctors appointments, three speech appointments, a lot of SLEEPLESS nights, a baby with an ear infection and I've got a lovely sinus infection. I've also been trying to squeeze in a lot of design work. It has been crazy and frustratingWe've also had some very fun adventures and excitment around here.

Red Fish has learned to try and say her name and she was repeating it over and over while I was putting her to bed. It made me cry. It's so exciting to see her make progress. We've been putting in a ton of work lately (1-2 hours every day) and it is so nice to see it paying off.

New Fish has started standing up for a few seconds at a time. She is going through a clingy stage but I'm enjoying the side effect of getting a lot of baby snuggles.

Playing in the river during our picnic up the canyon. On Friday, we met with a bunch of friends up in the canyon and had a campfire. The weather was perfect. The kids ran around like crazy. We roasted marshmellows and had tinfoil dinners.
This morning we took the boat out on the lake. I embarrassed myself trying to get up on a ski. New Fish wasn't very fond of wearing her life jacket but she loved riding around in the boat. Red Fish loves any activity that involves water.

Jumping in the lake

Tonight we had a BBQ and swim party. The girls went crazy in the pool. They are little fish.

Cabin for the 4th

We had a very mellow 4th of July. We went to the cabin and had a great weekend just hanging out, reading, playing in a cardboard box and doing a little shopping. It was great. I adore the cabin. I get to leave my to do list at home and it makes me feel like a completely different person, one with no stress or unending responsibility. I need to spend more time out of town!

Red Fish helping "Pop pop" do some pushups. It was hilarious. She was very excited to help him with his work out. Red Fish loves to follow Pop pop around and be his little buddy.

This box provided hours on entertainment for both girls.

Matching jammies. I'm pretty much obsessed with the matching stuff. I don't see an end in sight.

Art Group Day 5

We did styrofoam prints and it was my favorite group project so far. The kids love projects with multiple steps and they haven't done a ton of print making before.

Red Fish is always so distracted by all the fun backyards we work in.

So...

I'm sure you will be shocked. I went to a girls night with some of the women in my neighborhood. First time I've been out with most of them so it was fun. We went to cheesecake factory and then... I saw a Twilight movie...in the theatre... and it wasn't as painful as I thought. I won't be reading the rest of the books or becoming a Twihard anytime soon though. Let's not get crazy. I didn't really understand most of the supposed twists since I have only read the first book and haven't seen the two previous movies. It makes me giggle that Eddy sparkles. I didn't feel robbed of my evening by spending it at the movie so that can be considered a victory. I may not make fun of my Twilighting friends with quite such intensity in the future.

I still must maintain that middle aged women pining over waify, bloodsucking teenage boys with bad hair is disturbing and Bella has a serious self confidence issue.