God and Dog

We're dog sitting for a friend this week and subsequently found this video that my sister had forwarded to me years ago. It always makes me smile. Having Sidney at our house reminds me of all the great things about dog ownership... and to be sure to not leave the trash out. :-D

Happy Father's Day!

We had a nice relaxing Father's Day at our house. This morning we added to our perenial Father's Day banner:


I started this in 2009 when Maggie was 3. We just save it from year to year and each year I let the child(ren) add something to it. When Maggie was too young to write I did her hand prints. The next year she wrote her name. I thought this year Maggie would write a note to daddy or draw one of her family pictures but after she saw Abby's handprint she decided to make her own. I thought it was very sweet.

We looked at Abby's baby book this afternoon - Maggie wanted us to read every last entry to her! Abby celebrated by cutting tooth #8. We also played Pop-o-matic Trouble. Mommy won. I tried to let Daddy win but sadly the fates favored me today. Daddy came in third. But he was a good sport. :-) He made up for it by cooking some wonderful steaks on the grill! Yum!

I didn't try to make any kind of special dessert as I would usually do, seeing as how we have large carrot cake in the house and a newly purchased box of oreo ice cream sandwiches (Daddy bought those!). So I decided to make the latter festive:

We closed out the night by watching some of the Dennis Swanberg DVD he got for Father's day. And of course, by tickling Maggie. We always end the day with that. :-)

Swim

Maggie had a great time at swim lessons. I took video of the final lesson. I don't imagine there's a great wide audience for this, but just in case you are interested the link is posted at right. :-)

Big Apple Adventure!

Our church had VBS this week and we all got to participate because it was in the evenings. The theme was "Big Apple Adventure". Ben and I worked the baby room. We had two babies most nights and it was a lot of fun. Abby made a new friend, Ellie. Ellie is about 6 weeks younger than Abby but developmentally they are very close - both are crawling, pulling up, etc. They had so much fun together and seemed to be happy to see each other!


Maggie had fun of course! This was her first VBS in a couple of years so it was all new to her again. We heard she did really good at all the games (I'm not sure where she got her coordination from - I'm pretty sure it didn't come from either one of us). But the highlight for us was the Worship Rally during Parent's Night last night. The preschoolers got to sing 2 songs and you've never seen a happier little girl! Thankfully I was able to get some video so you can see for yourself. Oh, and here's the other song.

Abby Update - Nine Months Old!

Abby turned 9 months on the 13th - and we just can't believe how fast she is growing up. A few days ago Maggie was looking at videos of herself as a baby and I had to laugh - Maggie looked scrawny in comparison to Abby! But from the neck up they are SO similar!

Abby is celebrating her 9 month milestone by practising her newly acquired skill:
I love this picture because the facial expression is so typical - she loves sticking that tongue out and I think it's so cute! She can also twist her tongue, which neither Ben nor I can do. Oh yeah, she's got skills! :-) Abby's got 7 teeth and is working on #8.

Today she weighed in at 20 lbs (75th Percentile) and was 28.25 inches long (75th percentile). They checked her eyesight and iron, both were good. The doc was pleased with her progress with a cup (I give her some of her bottle in a plastic dixie cup at breakfast and lunch) and we talked about how to completely wean her off the bottle. He says she will be least attached to her bottle during her 10th month so we should take advantage of that time.

We also talked a little about transitioning to table foods. I had given her a cheerio last week - she LOVED it - got the biggest smile on her face! But when I tried to offer her more she couldn't pick them up to get them in her mouth. It was kind of funny. So we'll keep working on that. :-)

Abby is babbling more - says "ba ba ba" quite a bit and even "da da" from time to time. I have YET to get a "ma ma" out of her. But this can be to my advantage. She doesn't often speak on command or repeat you, but one time when Ben was pointing out her need of a diaper change, I said to Abby "Who do you want to change your diaper?" and she blessed me greatly by coming back with "da da!"

Swim Lessons

Maggie's taking lessons this year at a private swim club. Lessons are Monday-Friday, for 1/2 hour each day. Maggie is into her second (and final) week and loving it! This morning I watched her sit on the side of the pool, put her arms over her head in "streamline" position, lean forward and enter the water, and kick her way over to the instructor without any assistance. Later today she swam "freestyle" without assistance, although this didn't look NEARLY as graceful as the other did. :-) Still though, I'm very pleased with her progress and looking forward to seeing what she adds to her repertoire in the last 4 lessons.

A Day in Destin

We have friends from Florence who recently acquired a timeshare in Destin. The first couple of years they've been down on the coast we've been out of town. This year I was able to take the girls over for a day. . . a quick trip to the beach. Unfortunately Ben was not able to come along but we had enough fun for him too and he was much missed!

A few years at the beach have taught Daniel and Abbe how to do it right... they have a tent on the beach and chairs .... you walk out, raise the tent up, plop down and chill. Shade. Breeze. Smooth as silk sand. Green and Blue water. Aaaaahhhhhhhh. Sure kids. Go make a castle. Dump some water. Run on the beach. We'll be chillaxin' right here.

Of course the kids also had a blast at the pool. Maggie LOVES the pool. Abby wasn't too sure. I just sat her on the edge and let the water splash her a little. She wasn't convinced.

Abby spent the beach time sleeping in my arms for her naptime. I can't remember the last time I've held her for an entire nap. It rocked. Then she woke up and was in a happy mood... until I put her down to "experience sand". She didn't like that too much.


Maggie tried to help her get used to the sand.
She wasn't impressed. But it was cute.

Abbe Katherine holding Abby Catherine. :-D