Catching up

The summer days have been much busier than I expected they would be.  I run here, there, and everywhere most days, and look forward to the rare day (or segment of a day) without an obligation.  Time for myself or things that I like to do (such as blogging, for example) is definitely on the back burner.  But overall, summer has been much better than I expected, too. Here's a brief recap on the family goings-on.

Lexi

This girl is full of questions:

"Tan I see?"

"What is dat?"

"What are you doing?"

"Why?  Why?  Why?"

She loves to be involved, to help with the details, and to do everything HERSELF.  If we do something for  Lexi, like put on her shoe, pick up a towel, wipe her face, fasten her car seat buckles, lift her into the car, close the door, or pour the milk, she completely loses her cool.  Lexi absolutely cannot handle being helped against her will.  It's much easier (and faster, and quieter) to just let her do what she wants to do.

Sweet Lexi also really likes to "read" scriptures with the family and "say" prayers.  Hearing her repeat verses from the Book of Mormon is pretty tender (even in between slurps of breakfast cereal), but my personal favorite is hearing Gavin help her say a prayer.  Gavin will offer a few words and Lexi will copy.  Tonight t hings went kind of like this:

Gavin: Help us have a good day after breakfast. (Yeah, we had cereal for dinner.)

Lexi: Dood day after bref...bref...cereal.

Gavin: Brekkkkk....brekkkkk...

Lexi: {silence}

Gavin: Lexi, say 'breaKfast.'

Garry: Gavin, move on.

The rest of us could hardly contain our laughter.

Gavin

Last week Gavin helped me plant flowers in the front bed.  This may have been the highlight of his week.  He absolutely loved digging in the dirt, inserting the flower, patting the soil, and watering with fertilizer.  He was actually a pretty good helper for a while...and he had a great time.  Bonus!  Gavin is also very fond of playing with a new t-ball set we picked up for him.  It's his favorite back yard distraction right now.

One of Gavin's new traits is announcing, several times a day: "I have a question."  He's also using fun words like "impressive," "accomplished," and "fantastic."  For all of his intense behaviors, we are sure enjoying his colorful vocabulary.

We are currently pursuing a preschool option for Gavin with the school district.  At his initial screening yesterday, Gavin was his usual spirited self, but I was surprised to hear today that the Child Find specialists are willing to conduct a full evaluation in July.  We believe that these preschool years will be critical for helping Gavin learn to function properly in a classroom.  We hope the right situation will open up for him.

Tyler

Mr. Ty finished up track camp last week and loved every minute.  At the second meet he chose to run the 50 meter dash (9.3 seconds) and the 4x100 meter relay (1:14).  He also threw the discus (20'3").  Tyler really enjoyed the water balloon fight at the end of the meet, too.

Tyler is still our most prolific reader.  Right now he is plowing through book two of the Fablehaven series.  He is blossoming on the piano.  I especially love listening to him sing the words to each song that he learns to play.  He is very enthusiastic!  He is also making progress on singing on pitch, which is fun to note.

Zach

Last week, cub scout day camp was certainly a highlight for Zach.  He did all sorts of amazing things during his days in the woods, like hiking, fishing, rock climbing, BB gun shooting, archery, painting, and building and practicing other practical skills.  Zach came home sweaty and dirty and exhausted every night.  On the last day of camp, Tyler and I joined Zach for a closing ceremony in Black Forest.  The Native American dancers and yummy snacks made for a fun evening.

Zach has since decided to work on earning some scouting belt loops.  The first one he earned was for skateboarding.  I worry about his safety on such a contraption (I guess I'm old school), but Zach enjoyed experimenting for a while.  I loved all of his sound effects, which mostly came when he lost his balance, and seeing his tongue curl or stick out -- that's Zach's sign of concentration.

Last night I came home from visiting teaching to find Zach's ratty monkey on my computer keyboard.  He "won" this from a vending machine in Kingman, Arizona last summer.  One of the monkey's arms came loose the other day and Zach apparently got impatient while waiting for me to fix it.  So late last night I sewed it up and tucked in bed with my sleeping boy.

Garry

It's been a busy work week for Garry, fraught with problems and setbacks and difficult projects.  Next week should be a little better, but he'll be slammed during the first week of July.  Fun times!

At home, life isn't much calmer; he just spends less time on the phone and computer and puts out fires face-to-face.  On Monday night Garry fished a toothbrush out of the sink pipes and unclogged a toilet filled with about a roll and a half of toilet paper (and various other substances).  Luckily, he was laughing as he worked.  He said, "Sometimes I wonder if this is really my life!"  Haha.  Me too.

Heidi

My last OB appointment was Friday.  Baby Girl continues to be healthy and super active.  Hooray!  It seems that a new issue crops up for me every couple of days, but I am happy to be in the home stretch.  At 30 weeks, my due date still seems a bit distant, but signs continue to point toward the possibility of early delivery.  We'll know more next Monday after an ultrasound and more monitoring, but the doctor has already brought up bed rest.  So now I'm torn between panicking that it's too early for the baby to come and panicking that bed rest seems completely impossible.  This week we bought a package of diapers and washed all of the newborn stuff.  It won't be too long until we're using such things!