Summer! It feels like summer and it is good. Our pace of life has changed...most people slow down for the summer, but we are actually "fuller" with activities...swim lessons, therapy, pool time, preschool co-op camp, and weekend getaways. After taking this past year "off" from our normal things and not having much of a weekly schedule, it has been kind of nice to have routine. And to be out and about! We also joined our neighborhood pool, which makes it really feel like summer; like something is different from the rest of the year.
Both boys did swim lessons at an indoor pool in May. Grady loved them and did great. Henry, not so much. He really had never been in a pool before and the commotion and noise of the indoor pool FULL of kids doing classes was too much for him. Not to mention that it interfered with his nap time. But I am happy to say, now he loves the water! He loves to bop around the pool, "jump" in, and get thrown in the air by daddy! And Grady is quite the little fish too...we still wear our swim wings, especially if it is just Mommy and the boys, but he is doing better and better at swimming alone. He usually prefers to wear the wings, because he is pretty unstoppable with them on! He swims ALL over the pool, climbing in and out, kicking and splashing around, AND jumping off the diving board! And did you see the goggles he picked out?!?!? I would expect nothing else ;) It is purely coincidence that they match his suit!
The last weekend in May, we went to Mendocino with the family to celebrate Nana's birthday. It was great! Warm enough to spend a day on the beach, not warm enough to get into the freezing ocean, but that didn't stop John and the kids. It never does. They all fully submerged! Buurrzzz. We went on adventures to find the seals and the lighthouse, explored the train station, had yummy Mendocino mexican food, roasted s'mores, and had our first official sleepover! Malin and Grady slept on the sun porch together in their sleeping bags. It was hilarious! Even though they were put down to bed at 8:30ish, they were never asleep before 10. They laid back there asking each other questions, singing songs, making silly faces, pretending with their stuffed animals, and even doing some somersaults. We sat outside the door and just listened and laughed...pretty sweet.
Two weeks later, we went south down the coast to Felton and Santa Cruz. John's aunt and uncle graciously let us stay at their cabin in Felton, a home that John has been going to since he was a little boy. He hadn't been back in years, so it was fun to hear him reminisce about his visits there. It was a great weekend for our family. So fun to explore a new place together, just the four of us. These first two pictures are "old classics" to take while at the cabin...I'm sure the exact same images exist of John doing the same things 25 years ago! The cabin was stocked with trains (thank you, Nancy!), good books, and movies. We had one great sunny afternoon at the beach in Santa Cruz, but it was so windy! I didn't even get the camera out because the sand was blowing and I was trying to hold down our fort! The waves were huge! We found a great little cafe that we ate at twice, and will definitely go back, Seabreeze Cafe. And we spent a morning at the Boardwalk...played with the sea lions on the pier and took G on some rides...his first ferris wheel! As we were walking to our car, the train that runs from Santa Cruz to Felton was about to depart and Grady and I spontaneously hopped on. It was an hour trip up the mountains to Felton. He loved it!
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| my boys ;) |
We finally made it over to the San Francisco Zoo! A very nice change from the Oakland Zoo...no offense to our local zoo, because it is great for us...close enough and small enough for little ones, but the SF Zoo is much better. Lots of animals, some neat ones that we hadn't seen before (including a Grizzly Bear!!), and just different from what we are used to. Of course, we had to ride the zoo train :). I will admit, that is one thing that Oakland does better!
We had a cardiology appointment at Children's last week, and Henry's heart function continues to be up! It was the same as last month, and that is great! He seems to be doing good too...he now crawls, which is a huge milestone we are so thankful to hit! He has never liked or tolerated tummy time (and still doesn't...I think it must be very hard for him and make him not feel good), so getting into the crawling position was a slow process. But after a few weeks of good therapy and lots of practice, he thought about moving his arms; then he thought about trying to move his knees too; and then he took off! After 2 weeks of getting used to crawling, he can now crawl from room to room. I love being in the other room and hearing him work so hard to make it to the doorway...to see his little face peek around the corner, burst into the most proud and happy smile, is the best.
Overall, he seems to eating a little better...at least we have found a few more things that he really likes...turkey and chicken are still faves, avocado (particularly guacamole!), coconut milk yogurt, tuna salad, egg salad, and most kinds of soup. He even ate his first "sweet" this month...a cupcake! We often offer him lots of things, never knowing what he may decide to try at any particular meal, and one night I put a cupcake on his tray. He looked at it for a couple of minutes, picked it up, and went to town! He has also tried and liked a couple of bites of ice cream. However, we have discovered that he doesn't do so well with dairy. Without getting into too many details, after 6+ weeks of bad diaper rash and a life long of too many loose stools, we took him off dairy and within 24 hours he was substaintionally different for the better. So we will be without dairy for a while, and then try to reintroduce it at some point and see what happens.
We have 1 hour of physical and occupational therapy 2-3 times per week, and he is doing great with it. 6 weeks in, I can tell that it is making a difference. It's good for Henry, but it is also good for us...it gives us tools to use in the meantime that you wouldn't have known about or even thought of to do if your child was naturally meeting the progression of milestones at a "normal" pace. We are very thankful to be getting these services by such great professionals! Oh, and he has gotten 6 teeth in the last 6 weeks...you can see some of them in the picture of him swinging!
Henry was given this cute blue car for his birthday. He loves to ride in it! Our neighbors passed down a little red car with the floor out that won't work for Henry yet, because he needs to be strapped in and contained, so Grady has made it his car. He is probably a year too big to really be using it the correct way, but he has insisted on driving it. We went around the block the other night, both boys in their cars, and it was the last time that we will let G try that! He worked so hard to keep up with his little Flintstone feet and knees in his chest! It was comical.
In addition to learning how to swim this summer, Grady has learned how to ride his bike without training wheels! He had mastered riding with wobbly training wheels the past few months and randomly decide by himself that he wanted to take them off when one day a wheel was too loose. Out to the street we went and off he took! He can't just get on and ride by himself yet, but he is probably pretty close.
He also got to go on a Father/ kid camping trip middle of July. It was an organized trip with a group of dads from John's old church to the camp that John went to as a boy scout, Camp Timberwolf. They slept in a tent for 2 nights, rode in a canoe, kayak, and paddleboat on the lake, had campfires, played in the dirt, played in the dirt, and played in the dirt some more! They had a great time. Four of the dads, including John, were all boy scouts together...it was pretty surreal that they had been there so many times together as kids, and probably never thought that some day they would all be there together with kids of their own. G and his two buds, Jake and Molly, were the youngest and somewhat the Three Musketeers, however, it was usually Molly leading the way, with the boys following close behind ;)
Another activity that added to our summer weekly schedule was a little pre-school co-op camp with four of our close friends. We rotate hosting and teaching and it has been really fun. Even with the busier schedule, we still try to meet up with friends to walk the resevoir and make it down to the pool. It has been a beautiful summer here...only a few hot days, but mostly 80-90 degrees, almost always cooling off enough at night to open the windows. Grady will often tell me that it is too hot outside, upon which I quickly tell him that he really has no idea what that really means (Sometimes I don't know how I survived the heat for the first 30 years of my life!). Our garden is doing well this summer too with the weather...we love going out everyday to see what may be ready for picking. You can see below our bounty the other night, that was soon turned into a yummy tomato salad.
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| Summer Co-op Camp...Water day! |
I was so lucky to have my dear friend Grace come visit after a conference she had out here! With her new work, I think this means I may get to see her more often ;). We had a great couple of days just catching up, while doing some fun Bay area things as well. Here we are at the Ferry Building for one of the most beautiful, fabulous Farmer's Market there is. Can't wait till next time, Grace!
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| Two boys drinking their evening milk...it's pretty ritual here at our house and Hen is working on holding his cup by himself. |
