Another awesome month! Besides the knowledge that I'm compiling and saving our pictures and memories for the future, my favorite thing about the blog is getting to, monthly, look back on all the amazing things we've done and realize, "man, we really have an active, fulfilling life!"
We have awesome friends like the Hunters who are so fun to play with!
And our kids are already building a remarkable relationship.
Which includes Sister laughing at Brother's emotions.
And Brother overestimating what Sister is capable of (not Row Row Row Your Boat).
This month, he said "I think Lydia and me are the best people in the whole world!" I wonder who he got that idea from?
And she adores him. She's so happy to watch him play (when she can keep her eyes on him. He's so fast!), and sometimes he makes her laugh.
Lydia turned 4 months this month. She's still wonderful and lovely. She's a great sleeper, partly because of this sweet finger sucking.
We went to the zoo for a puppet show. Rachel and Brian swapped babies. Sadie really didn't know if she was ok with that. She's such a mamma's girl. Love that.
The obligatory zoo turtle head pose.
A couple pictures of Lydia on the 8th, her 4 month "birthday."
On the 9th, she rolled from her back to her belly for the first time
(and the next day, she was also going from her belly to her back). It
was fun that my parents were there to see her accomplish this big
milestone.
On the 10th, we went to MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM!!
Everett hadn't been since he was 21 months old, and what a difference a year (and some change) makes! He was so interested in everything. He sat in front of the big tank for longer than I ever have declaring, "that's a hammerhead shark! That's a sea turtle!" but mostly "that's a hammerhead shark!"
He surprised this volunteer by saying about the sea cucumber not having bones, "how can that be possible?!?" He also mimicked her British accent when she told him the names of things. How would he know not too? That could get confusing.
Lydia was more interested in the fish in the tanks than we expected her to be.
The wave crash exhibit is a winner with all kids.
We decided it's a little far to buy a pass. So fun and educational, but the 2.5 hours is tough with 2 kids. Totally worth it occasionally, though. We brought a picnic and ate lunch at Dennis the Menace Park beforehand. Once Everett stops napping, we'll plan our aquarium trips to include playing at the park longer (although I'm not rushing stopping naps).
Everett had his first dentist appointment! He did great! He got to meet Claudia, my hygienist since I was a kid.
Then Dr. Farr. We were mostly there to show Everett it was a fun place to go. They looked around, counted teeth, everything looked fine.
He also had his 3 year check up! He got another A+! He's 33 pounds, 37.5 inches. Apparently this means he's slightly shorter than average and slightly heavier than average. I bet he'll be having a growth spurt soon!
Lydia also had her 4 month check up this month. She's still big!
We painted our house!! Well, Brian and Shaw (and Shaw's boss Frank) painted our house. The body of the house just took a few hours.
Then it took a few more days to paint the trim. He still has to add trim around the windows. He would have done it this weekend, but it's so HOT!
We also got a new door and painted it YELLOW!! Our old door was hollow, really. And the holes cut in it for the old hardware made it tough to change out (and we were desperate to change the old hardware--half of it didn't work). Luckily we got a good deal on an indoor/outdoor plain, solid door.
We had a pretty laid back Father's Day. Breakfast, bloody marys, and chilling out with daddy.
Then we went to Phil and Gion's for a delicious (thanks to Gion) Father's Day dinner.
One morning (Wednesday--the day we used to have Mommy & Me), I got really motivated to have a fun, mellow morning outside. I got out the bubbles, chalk, tub and brushes for sidewalk water painting. I got out the pack n play for Lydia to hang out in. We were out there for maybe an hour, and it was COLD and windy!
I remembered some friends were planning to meet at the Children's Museum in Paso, so we packed up and went!
It was my first time, but Everett knew the ropes. His favorite "exhibit" was the elevator . . . the actual elevator.
This is what Lydia and I thought about the Children's Museum. Just kidding. It was fun.
Since we were in Paso anyway, we went to visit Brian at his classroom. Everett got to see the kids get on their buses, which he found very exciting.
Gion's been taking Everett to swim lessons with Lance at Kennedy. She's also been taking him to family swim days. He loves it! One of those days he tripped over his towel and got a fat lip. I realize now that this is the closest thing we have to a picture of his swimming activities. We need to remedy that.
Daddy and his two kiddos playing in the yard. I think they need more trucks. See his lip! That thing healed so fast. Kids are incredible!
A little more about Everett. He's become obsessed with Cars, the Pixar movie. He'd seen the movie a few times before, but something just clicked and now he LOVES it! He'd watch the movie over and over all day, every day if we'd let him.
He decided he wanted to use his birthday money to by a Mack toy (Mack is the truck that hauls Lightening McQueen--the main race car in the movie). We went to Target to see if they had one. They didn't, which was disappointing, but he handled it really well (we wouldn't have tried this if we didn't think he'd do well with possible disappointment). He was ok with the idea of ordering one "from the computer" and having the UPS guy bring it to him in a few days (like when the UPS guy brought the Dinosaur Train playset to Grandma Gion and Grandpa Phil's house).
In other pop culture news, Brian has been reading Everett The Hobbit graphic novel, so Everett talks about Smaug and his love of gold, all the dwarfs, and Gandalf the Grey Wizard. Nerd alert!
Our long time friend Sarah got married on June 22nd. It was a lovely wedding. We are very happy for Sarah and her husband Trevor!
It was an exciting night for us because we actually went without the kids! Phil and Gion watched them while we were there. Everett spent the night and we picked Lydia up on our way home.
I was also excited that, when I was getting ready for the wedding, Everett wanted me to paint some of his finger and toenails with clear nail polish. I rarely paint my nails, so this was his first opportunity in probably a year and a half to get in on the glamification.
Rachel and I actually took a picture together!! It's a miracle! We had a nice time hanging out with John and Rachel and Heidi and Shaw at the wedding.
On June 25th, Everett went to his first movie in the theater!! Gion and Phil took him to see Monsters University. He did great! I was mostly worried that he'd forget to tell them he needed to pee and go on the seat, but he didn't (he's been doing great in the potty department, btw--still using pull-ups at night).
On a super-mom-kind-of-day, we made play dough (after painting!), and then we played with balsa wood planes. There were some bubbles too.
Lydia got a high chair!! She's still a little floppy for it, but we're gearing up to start including her in meals (not eating, but including).
So, as I mentioned before, it's HOT here! It's been over 100 degrees in north county, 105 & 108 are numbers I'm hearing a lot. We're very lucky to have air conditioning, but we still decided to escape to the beach on Saturday with friends Anna, Max, and Paloma.
I'm going to end this post with a historical reference. 10 years ago this month (June 13th), I had my thyroid taken out. So, I have been caner free for 10 years!!
To celebrate (party animal), I went and got a fancy blood test done for cancer markers, and it was clear!!
We were such babies. Going through a situation like that at 20 really affected me, that's for sure.
But I had so many amazing friends and family to help me get through it.
Right after the surgery, Brian and I left for our 15K mile road trip around the US. I'll have to do a post just commemorating that!
