July in Pictures and Stories

Hi Everyone! Happy Wednesday!

July has been so good to us.

There's been Sis reading on our bed...she loves magazines...and her pink sparkle cowboy boots:

Lots of swimming in our backyard pool:

The kids laying blankets down on the floor of their room, standing on them, and saying, "I'm wake boarding!":

Some alone time with Sis out and about...she brought her stuffed pig, who of course had to be strapped into the car seat:

Picnic breakfasts at the park (at which, apparently, according to the kids, there is a tiger that lives under the playground structure. There's also a camel that lives in the bushes):

Packing up of baby things (hard, but ultimately good)...there may be more kids in the future for us, but the door on me being pregnant has been closed I'm pretty positive at this point...it was time to let this stuff go...

Cute girls in hats:

A Sunday morning trip to Rebel Donut...yum:

A pensive boy:

A girl who has been loving dressing up in Mommy's shoes:

And Luke, who loves to play on our bed, especially when I'm trying to make it. The other day he wrapped himself in the sheet and said, "Look, Mommy! I'm a corn dog!":

And so many thing that I don't have pictures of.

Like a yummy peach cobbler from our neighbors over the back fence served with ice cream and Zo giving me some of hers and saying, "I feed Mommy ice cream and make everyone happy!"

Zo saying, "Yippie!" with great enthusiasm to most plans.

Rocking and singing to the kids before bed. They like me to sing "Rock-a-bye Trucks," the lyrics made up but suggested by the book "Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site"...goes like this (sung to the tune of Rock-a-Bye Baby):

"Rock a bye trucks, at the construction site.

There's no more work, because it is night.

You've got your blankies and teddies, and your night light.

And tomorrow's another day, happy and bright.

Luke saying, "I want to do it myself!" and having to start things over, eg if I carry him to the bath it's not enough for him to walk next time, he has to run back to the kitchen and walk back by himself right then and there.

Luke falling asleep anywhere but his bed.

Zo saying, "Oh my gosh, Bubs!" (I love that she calls Luke Bubs.)

Luke brushing Sissy's hair, and her sitting peacefully while he does it.

Sis saying "Enough!" just like I do when I'm tired of some behavior.

Luke talking about things making a racket when they are noisy.

Sis saying, "I like it!" at top volume when she finds out we're having cupcakes and ice cream as part of my birthday dinner. 

Luke with the near-constant litany of, "What's that, Mom? What's that? What's that?"

The kids doing stuff to keep each other out of time out, like I'll say to Luke (or Zo), "If you don't pick up that thing you threw on the floor you are going to time out!" and the other twin will hurriedly pick it up.

Me wrapping them in towels, and when I say "wrap" they think of the "Bad Kitty" book, in which the kitty's owner brings home a buffalo burrito wrap from the store. And another book that has a water buffalo in it. So now getting out of the bath is followed by a "water buffalo burrito wrap."

Daddy calling us all dirty hippies after coming back from Lake Powell not having had a bath for over a week. Sis now says,"I'm a dirty hippie!" after meals when her hands and face have food on them. Luke says: "I'm not a dirty hippie! I'm a little boy!" and "I'm not a dirty hippie! I washed the stink off!"

Sissy during a rainstorm covering her stuffed cat, Fuzzy Britches, with a flyer that came in the mail (like she saw people doing over their own heads with newspapers, etc.)

Me and now the kids using the phrase "You are cup cake--(or whatever)--ready!" eg, "You ate a good dinner, therefore you are cup cake ready!"

Finding Sis sitting on our time out bench one day.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

"I covered the dog with cream cheese, so I put myself in time out!" she said.

(And sure enough, around the corner comes the dog, face covered in cream cheese.)

Luke waving his fingers and calling them sparkle fingers.

The kids and their dad and I snuggled in bed watching Sara and Duck (which I love. The kids also love Thomas the Train's show, which I unfortunately hate.)

The kids playing "Tackle Tackle" together on the bed.

Sis saying about Luke, "We are best friends!"

Also in July, a college and San Francisco friend of mine (a whole group of us from college ended up in the city after), with two daughters, ages 2 and 5, was lost in an accident, not unlike how my brother died. We'd been out of touch but other friends I'm very close to were very close to her...and I know her sister...I've just been feeling a lot for them...and been feeling the loss of my brother acutely...

August is going to be a whirlwind, with a college friend of mine getting married in San Francisco (I'll also see other friends, and meet my new clients while I'm there as well), a work trip to San Diego, a work trip for my husband as well and my parents visiting at the end of the month. Looking forward to it all...

Life is just full of life right now...

XOXO