Little Fish

Over the course of the summer, both of the kids have gained many skills and developed much more confidence in the water. Aidan loves to stick his face in the water and blow bubbles. He also kicks and paddles his way around the pool by himself with floaties on. Reese is able to touch, so we allow her to walk around the pool without floaties on as long as somebody is watching her closesly. She loves having the freedom to hop around the pool without the restriction of flotation devices. She enjoys jumping into the pool to see how big of a splash she can make. She has also learned to lean forward and use her arms and legs to propel herself forward. Finally, she is comfortable floating on her back in the pool. It has really been a lot of fun now that the kids can be a little more independent. Though Aidan may be a little too confident! He recently climbed into the pool by himself, though I was yelling at him from the side of the pool to wait. I immediately jumped in after him and pulled him up out of the water, though he had done pretty well at keeping himself bobbing just under the surface of the water! After getting him calmed down, I explained to him that he needed to either wait and go in with an adult or have a floaty on to get in the water. After scolding him, I immediately took him back into the pool to keep him from becoming afraid of the water. I realized soon after that fear would not be a concern as he fought me to let go of him so that he could swim on his own! He wants so bad to be like his big sister!

All Boy

In watching Aidan play with his cars and trucks I am amazed at how he plays. For example, he put rocks into a skid loader and dumped them from the bucket of the loader into a dump truck! This is not something that we see frequently and it amazed me that he was able to play with the toys in a way that mimics how they are actually used. It also kills me to listen to the sound effects that he uses when playing with his trucks. His sound effects include everything from honking to crashing and engine noises. While watching movies, he is completely oblivious to everything except for any locomotives that may be in the picture: cars, trucks, trains and even tractors. When riding in the car, he watches out the window like a hawk and points out all of the vehicles he finds interesting. He even encourages Randy to speed up and pass certain semis and trucks so that he can get a better look.
Recently, while playing with a large box of cars and trucks at Grammy Aunt Linda's, Aidan lined all of the cars and trucks up according to size and type. He had a line each of race cars, trucks, semi's and tractors and all arranged from smallest to largest. Of course he also still loves to play with his train table and all of his trains and to watch the trains that drive by our house daily. It absolutely melts my heart when he looks at me and asks, "Mommy, you play trucks with me?" I love that boy!

Story time

I went to the library before our recent trip to Indiana and picked up a book that I have been dying to read, "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo". The kids were so well behaved during the 6 hour drive that I was able to read the entire book during the trip.

Today Reese grabbed a kids book and sat down to read. After a few minutes she looked up and said, "I'm reading like mommy!"

I didn't understand what she meant, so I asked her, "How are you reading like mommy?"

She responded, "I'm not saying anything, I just look at the pages."

I almost laughed out loud! She didn't understand that I was reading even though I was not reading the book out loud like I do when I read books to the kids.

More Austin Powers than James Bond

We took the kids to see Cars 2 in the theatre over the Fourth of July weekend. Since then they have really been into pretending to be spies. The other day while they were playing, Reese screamed to Aidan, "Come here super secret spy!" Thankfully, I was the only one around so his secret identity is still safe!

Values

Reese: "Mommy, I won't let Aidan into my bedroom until he marries me."

Me: "Honey, it is not him that I am worried about! Besides, I won't let any boys into your bedroom until one of them marries you!"

Family Pictures

Since our oldest child was born we have always gone to the photography studios that supplied instant gratification! We schedule an appointment, take some pictures and walk out 1 hour later with photos in hand to disperse to various family members.
A family friend recently started doing photography and I was so excited to try her out. Though it was nice in the past to have pictures taken and receive the prints the same afternoon, I was tired of the same old poses and backgrounds. Our family friend was willing to meet us anywhere we chose to do outdoor shots. We chose a local park, where the kids could run around and play. Though it took us about 2 hours to get all of the shots that we wanted, it was a lot less stressful for me not having to hold the kids down screaming and crying to take a picture in a blank white room. Without further adieu, here are our family portraits all courtesy of Lynn at Portraits by Lynn.

A totally impromptu moment where Reese grabbed Aidan in a big hug!


Randy and I looking at each other with googly eyes.


Family portrait


Love, love, love this one!


Pretty as a princess.


My handsome little prince.


There are so many more, I don't know how I am ever going to choose!

My little feminist

We are doing a complete renovation of the outside of our house, new roof and siding. When the crew arrived to start work Reese must have noticed that they were all males. She asked me later, "Mommy, where are the girl construction?" I replied that unfortunately there were not any females that worked on this crew, but there are females that do get involved in this kind of work. Later that day Reese told me, "Mommy, after I go to school, I am going to build a house."

Suckered!

I had an appointment today, so I dropped the kids off at their grammy's for a few hours that included naptime. When I arrived to pick the kids up, grammy brought Aidan out from the room he was sleeping in and he had a binky in his mouth! He has not had his binky at home for several months and I thought that he would have completely forgotten about it, but I could not have been more wrong. I figured that maybe he found the paci in his bed, but Grammy reported that when she put Aidan to bed he asked for his paci, and not knowing whether or not he still used it at home, she gave it to him. Thankfully he did not ask for it at bedtime tonight!

Summertime 2011

It has been a jam packed summer so far! So jam packed, in fact, that we put a list of the things that we want to do on our chalkboard to make sure that we get to them all!


We spent the first few warm days lounging around grammy's pool.




Soon after Reese's birthday we bought a membership to Niabi Zoo. The kids ran from one exhibit to the next! We started in the petting zoo and worked our way through 1/2 of the zoo. We took a quick break to ride the train around the zoo and then made our way back to the exhibits we had missed.

Here the kids are in front of the lion cage. Unfortunately, I did not have my memory card and did not get many pictures! Thankfully with the membership we can go back as many times as we want over the next year.

That weekend, we went boating, as we usually do, but we also got out the tube.

Reese and daddy

Aidan and daddy

During a rainy day the next week, we decided to go to John Deere Commons in Moline to check out the tractors. The kids had a blast climbing into each of the different tractors on display and pretending to drive.


During our weekly boating trip that Sunday, the kids discovered the fun of jumping off of the back of the boat!

This activity keeps them entertained for hours!

Over the course of the rest of the month we also visited a local park, spent a few days with Grandma Potter, played at the beach, went to the races, and spent countless hours outside riding our bikes and fourwheelers and swinging in our own yard. Despite how busy we have been, we still have lots of activities left on our list, and only about 6 weeks left to do them in!

Preschool Bound

Reese had her 4 year check up and physical for preschool today. Thank goodness she is ecstatic to start school and has talked about it for months, or I don't think that we would have made it through all of the shots and pokes! She was oblivious when we went to the lab for the blood draw from a prick in her fingertip. Another couple was actually pointing out her calm behavior to their son who was getting himself all worked up about it. During the blood draw Reese was very inquisitive and watching what was going on. Afterward, it hit her that it was painful and she cried for the next 30 minutes. We saw the little boy that had been so worked up and he was smiling and exclaiming that the blood draw tickled! After the lab, we went to the eye doctor and had her vision tested. She passed with flying colors.
Finally, we were called back to see the doctor. She weighed in at 52 pounds and was 47 inches tall, off the charts on both counts! The doctor said to reduce the amounts of sweets and sodas (which we rarely give her) to get her weight in check, which I didn't understand because she is also tall for her age. I think that her weight would be a problem if she wasn't as tall, but her height and weight seem in perfect proportion to me! Finally, after getting 2 more shots and the physical forms, we were off! I can't believe that Reese is all ready and cleared to start school!

Beautiful

The other day while shopping at Target, I decided to browse the racks and see if I could find any new summer clothes. A couple of dresses jumped out at me and I went to the dressing room to try them on. I had the kids with me so I knew I was going to have to be quick or risk major chaos. I disrobed and tried on the first dress, a plain linen shift dress with some fabric flowers on the neckline. It was one of those dresses that you had to try on because on the hanger it did not look like much. Immediately after I got it on, my son looked up and said, "You look beautiful mommy!" My heart completely melted in my chest and I felt more beautiful than I have ever felt in my life. I finished trying on the clothes and proceeded to the checkout with everything that I had taken into the dressing room. This was a major feat in and of itself because I have a horrible time shopping for clothes and finding things that I like that also fit me well. Also Target can thank my son for my purchase that day because I usually have a bit more self control! Not that I couldn't afford the purchase or won't wear the clothes, but usually I would have picked my favorite rather than buying all three dresses that I tried on. I wore one of the dresses for my family's 4th of July party and got a lot of compliments, and each time somebody commented I smiled and thought of those 4 simple words my son uttered.