habla espanol?

This afternoon, Jonah told me he was "starve". He kept rubbing his tummy so I said, "you're starving?". "Yeah", he said, "I'm starve means I'm really, really hungry, in Spanish."

Voted #1 for wearing kids out

We're in the midst of a "staycation" right now. (A hard thing to do when the temperatures climb to 100+ and all you want to do is flee north.) Michael took off work today and tomorrow and we're making a long weekend out of trips to the children's museum, Phoenix zoo, and baseball games.

Today was the museum, and I remembered to take my camera this time. I vote this place #1 air conditioned activity in Phoenix for wearing kids out. It's amazing. Jonah could spend an hour in the entry way.

This photo shows half of the first room you walk into. It's huge and full of fun stuff.

I love that the museum thought of the adults too when they designed their layout. Benches and chairs everywhere, tons of stroller parking, great lighting for camera-happy parents, and baby-friendly activities on every floor. It's like they created this place for worn out Mamas with newborns and cabin-feverish toddlers.

Gracie loved the oragami hanging from the ceiling. She spent a long time looking up.

We went straight to the 3rd floor, because that's where Jonah had the most fun last time we visited. There's so much to do! Check out the nerf pole maze. Fun!


The 2nd floor turned out to be the biggest hit this visit, because of the tricycle car wash. We had to use some crazy-mad-parenting-skilz to get the kid away from that thing.


By the time we made it back downstairs, 2 1/2 hours later, Gracie was zonked. I love this picture of Jonah negotiating with Michael on how many minutes it would be until we left.

It's a dry heat?

In the desert, splash parks are fabulous things. I love them. L.O.V.E., love them!

These pictures were from our playdate last Tuesday. Jonah could have stayed much longer than an hour and a half, but some ants made a snack out of Gracie, so we needed to go home.


Lester's expression cracks me up...

Gracie was checking out the fire hydrant when this kid came up and activated the hand censor on the top. That started the water back up and Gracie got a face full!

Lester's best model pose. He's looking very Calvin Klein, don't you think?

Vroom! Vroom!

Watch for about 50 seconds and you'll hear Gracie's car sounds. It's really her! Not me! I promise!

The Man We Love

Happy Father's Day to the man we love.

Thank you for always taking care of us, for playing, running, and tickling, for letting us do yard work with you when it's not very helpful, and thank you for loving us so very much!

We love you,

Jonah and Gracie

Are you ready to RUMBA?

I love rumba ruffles on little girls! Love, love, LOVE!

Playing and Laughing

Here are a couple of videos from last week. The first one is just a typical morning with the kids playing in the living room, but it shows how Gracie's been getting around lately. The second video is the first big laugh out of Gracie that I've captured on film. She belly laughs a lot lately, but as soon as the camera is on, she clams up! It's been tricky to capture!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Today, a regular trip to run errands yielded the deepest conversation I've ever had with Jonah.

We stopped at Kohls to get some play clothes for the kids and Jonah ended up sitting on a bench with an elderly man, who had a walking cane. Jonah later found the head of a clothes hanger laying on the floor and decided it was the perfect walking cane for his little stuffed puppy (who came with us to Kohls). Jonah told me "puppy has sore knees".

In the car, as we were leaving the parking lot, I remembered how I've been wanting to take the kids to a local nursing home. Just to let them visit and smile at some of the residents, and maybe take flowers to hand out, or something like that. The walking cane gave me a perfect chance to find out how Jonah would feel about being around the elderly. The conversation went a bit like this...

------

Mama: Hey Jonah, do you remember visiting Dubbie in the nursing home?

Jonah: Yeah. Is Dubbie still der?!

Mama: No, buddy. Dubbie went home with Jesus. He's in heaven now.

Jonah: Oh nooooo! You mean we can't see Dubbie ANYMORE?!

Mama: No, we can't see him, but Dubbie's very happy with Jesus. He's not sick anymore and he gets to play and have fun all day. Do you think he's happy?

Jonah: Yeah. But maybe we will miss him. Dat makes me really SAD! Is Nannie at da nursin' home?

Mama: No, buddy. Nannie's at her house in Texas.

Jonah: Mmmkay. Dat's good. Can we go to da nursin' home?

Mama: In Texas? No. That's too far away right now. But there are some nursing homes here in our town we could go to. Maybe we could go visit some people there and cheer them up. You could make them smile.

Jonah: Let's go!!! I want to go to da nursin' home right now!!! I'll tell 'em my name is Jonah!

-------

I think I have my answer to the nursing home question! I was amazed at how Jonah steered the conversation right where I needed to go and then showed 100% enthusiasm at the prospect of visiting.

About 2 minutes of silence passed after that conversation, and then Jonah asked me if Jesus was is in his heart. I know he was wondering if Jesus was in heaven with Dubbie, how could he be in somebody's heart too. I told him, if he asked Jesus to be in his heart, then Jesus was in his heart. He asked me, "what does Jesus do in there?", and I said, he makes you all clean and helps you when you ask him to. He then said, "My stomach is dirty. I ate too many blackberries. Can Jesus clean that too?"

T minus 29 days, and counting

I'm officially Mama to an 11 month old. Holy cow! Where has this year gone?!

May and June brought 2 teeth, some toddling, and a tiny bit of talking.

Also a little dose of separation anxiety. It's mild, but definitely a new development. Even when Gracie shies away from strangers, she still smiles at them. She's such a sweetie!

She'll be 1 year old in 29 days!

Growing Like a Weed

Gracie has been sleeping HARD this week. A solid 11-12 hours at night, and long naps during the day. I was worried she might be coming down with something, but yesterday it dawned on me why she's been sleeping so much.

A week ago, she could walk under the kitchen table with no issues. Yesterday, I was snapping pictures of Jonah and Gracie playing in the kitchen when Miss Priss strutted under the table and seriously conked her noggin. (I promise, I stopped taking pictures right AFTER this!)...

Look how much of her head is above that beam of wood! Could she possibly have grown that much in one week?!

Sweet Friends, Wonderful Day

Our sweet friends, the Animal Family, welcomed their twin baby girls to the world yesterday. When Jill called me this morning with the news, Jonah overheard my girly squealing and immediately demanded to know what was going on. I told him Lester's baby sisters were here! His eyes got huge and he broke out in a grin, then without dropping a beat, he asked to go see them. So we did!

Baby A, 19 1/2 inches, 5 lbs 11 oz (blonde)
Baby B, 18 3/4 inches, 5 lbs 14 oz (brunette)
Lester was proud to show us his new sisters, then he and Jonah dropped to the floor and played trains for the next hour and a half. They were totally oblivious to any baby stuff going on around them.
We're so excited for our friends, and pray that the next couple of months will bring huge blessings!

Mama's Little Helper?!

Gracie just dumped a bowl of Kashi crackers on the floor. Jonah drove over the crackers with his ride-on, 6V battery powered, 4-wheeler. It was totally on purpose. I could tell he wanted to see how many crumbs he could grind into the carpet. When I called him out, he promptly explained he was, "jes helping! 'Cause Gracie doesn't know how to eat da whole phang."

Fun with Tutus

Gracie and I had a little girly fun this morning. Aren't baby girls in tutus just the best thing ever?!

He ate a taquito

On Monday, Jonah was moved up to the 4 year old class at his preschool. We've loved the teacher of the 3 year olds, Ms. Sue. She has a way with rowdy boys. And endless patience. We have prayed for her every night, and every M-W-F on the drive to school. She's been a big part of Jonah's life this year and is going to be missed!

Ms. Tiffany is the 4 year old's teacher and we're really excited about the next year with her. She was an aide to Ms. Sue, so she already knows Jonah and seems to love him. She's silly and fun and knows how to diffuse Jonah's intense reactions. Plus, she's very big on specific praise and positive reinforcement. Love that!

When I dropped him off in his new classroom, I was struck by how little he looked in the room full of 4-year-olds and just-turned-5-year-olds. It made me wonder if it was too soon for him to be moving up. I called Michael and worried out loud, then prayed all morning that he would be able to hang with the big kids.

When I picked him up at noon, he was so proud that he had used his best listening ears. And he ate taquitos for lunch. That's huge! I mean, he's basically been vegetarian for two years now. (Amazing what a little peer-pressure can do for a kid's appetite.) I think this is going to be a fantastic year!