One Last Summer Adventure

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One Last Summer Adventure Part 2

Last week the girls and I headed out on a road trip to take advantage of the last full week of "summer." Our first stop was Sadie's house (or you might know it as Marc & Kristina's house) Grace was very excited to visit Sadie and see the fish. Kristina and I took all three girls to Chicago to the Shedd Aquarium. It was a really fun day. I enjoyed hearing Grace's oohs and aahs at all the differet fish & turtles. She was especially impressed with the monkey they had in a special display. Lunch was a little hectic getting the strollers parked and our lunches unpacked for all three girls. But overall it went pretty smoothly. The real challenge for the day was trying to take three little active girls who had been in their stroller all day to the dophin show (Strollers being parked was a requirement.) Kristina took Sadie & Grace to walk down and have a closer look at the water. But Grace was not impressed when she decided it was time to come back up and join her sister and I. She was really asserting herself. (You can see this if you look at the picture slideshow!) I was helpless because if I moved to go help Kristina I would loose our seats. Anyway I really didn't understand why she was so upset until we got to my parents the next day and she told my dad she went to see the fish. She then proceded to tell him, "I wanted to swim with the fish. They wouldn't let me! I tried." We kept telling her people were going to swim with the fish-apparently she thought that included her. Needless to say that is why she was hanging on the railing and refused to leave the dophine pool. We got a little lost on the way home making for a longer trip so we decided to spend the night before continuing our trip. We took the girls to the local ice cream place and I let Faith have her first taste of ice cream. (I know, I know I never would have done that with Grace at 10 months!) She loved it!

On the way back we stopped to see Grace's Nana (Jeremy's mom) at the hospital which she thought was fun. She told her dad, "I go to see my nana at WORK." We then headed on to my parent's house for a short visit. The girls were going to spend the day with Grammy and Papa while Jeremy and I met do some planning for the youth ministry this year. That never happened because my granmother was in a serious car accident. She is doing better now but has a lot of healing to do. We finished the evening off with Jeremy and I attending a Casting Crowns concert. It was really good. I am not a concert peron but I truly enjoyed hearing the lead singer talk about his struggles and what inspired him to write the different songs.

Growing Like Flowers...

I always say my girls are growing like flowers because they are too beautiful to say they are growing like weeds! Here is an update on how the girls are growing.

Faith is on the move!

Well, it seems like one week Faith was content to sit and play and the next she was crawling, pulling up, and cruising!! When we left for CIY she wasn't crawling and when we got back she was. I'm not sure how this happened since she spent most of her time in a stroller but it did. She is all over the place now and into everything. (uh oh-that includes her sister's toys!) She is really starting to loose her chubby cheeks now that she is so active. She is very friendly smiling and flirting with strangers but if anyone comes close she hooks her arm around me and holds on tight. She has started to sign a little bit but it is pretty inconsistent at this point. I'm sure that is partially because I'm not quite as focused of teacher as I was with Grace. At her 9 month well baby check up (actually it was closer to 9 1/2 mo.) she was 27 & 1/2" and 20 lbs 3 oz.

Grace keeps me smiling with her words!

It amazes me how fast Grace is growing. Recently her grandma came to visit and said she is loosing that toddler look-she is starting to look more like a preschooler. I looked at her and realized it was a prefect description for how she has changed this summer. She is quite the little "mother" telling baby, "NO!" now that Faith can get into things. Grace also loves to show Faith sign language. Althouh she no longer uses signs to communicate she still remembers them all! Her and Faith are also really enjoying playing together in their room (instead of going to sleep). Recently we were pulling into the church parking lot on a Sunday morning when Grace said to me, "Mama, I'm ready to have fun!" I said well its time to go to church and go to your class. And she replied, "My class is fun." What a wonderful attitude-when was the last time you went to church thinking I'm ready to have fun!? She really amazes me with the things she comes up with lately. She is also enjoying eating her favorite summer food, corn. She LOVES corn on the cob. She has even talked Grammy into letting her have it for breakfast before. She is quite a skilled negotiator. The more developed her vocabularly becomes I can see more clearly her independent thinking. I am often amazed at how accuartely the book Aaron's way (about strong-willed children) describes how she sees the world.