Lily finds her voice

Many of you have probably already heard this story but I wanted to get it down for posterity's sake. Lily wasn't doing much talking before she was two and, while I wasn't worried, I was starting to wonder because I remembered Noah saying a lot more by the same age. Well, I took her to her 2 year check in April and they checked her ears. The PA said she couldn't even see her ear drums because there was so much wax in them. So, she cleaned them out and I was shocked to see what had been residing in her little ears. It would certainly explain Lily's silence to that point...Sure enough within the week more words were being spoken and every day since her vocabulary has been growing. She'll repeat anything she hears. Yesterday she came out with her first sentence. As Noah was getting up to turn the TV off she said, "No, Noah, don't turn it off yet." Very impressive!

I suppose it wasn't the first sentence. She says things like "I got it." or "I did it." or "Mommy, need help!" but this was much more complex. I am trying to overlook the fact that her first complex sentence was a command to her older brother and what that might indicate about how their relationship is going to evolve...It was at least much more pleasant than having to listen to her yell "NO!" over and over again.

Strawberry Fields Forever...

I took the kids to a local farm today to pick strawberries. The last time I did this was the first summer that Luke and I moved up here...long time ago. One of the moms from Noah's preschool was trying to get a bunch of us together to go this week but it didn't work out so I went ahead and took the kids anyway since Noah had really been looking forward to it. It was a nice hot day perfect for strawberry picking (mainly because that meant the kids wouldn't want to do it for long and I wouldn't end up with strawberries overflowing from my refrigerator). We had a good time and I managed to keep Lily from eating too many--no belly aches at least.

Shades of Violet: doesn't she sort of remind you of the girl who ate the blueberry gum from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--before she blew up and had to be rolled away, that is?

Father's Day

Here are some pictures from Father's Day. I think Luke would agree that it was an enjoyable day...the kids helped me make a t-shirt for him by decorating it with their handprints and I made his favorite banana pancakes for breakfast and then we spent the rest of the day with his family at his sister's house. We had an excellent meal including Charlie's famous ribs and two kinds of dessert: strawberry shortcake and chocolate-frosted orange poke cake made by the resident cake artiste (Becky)...yum.

I couldn't help taking this picture--it was hysterical how much Lily really enjoyed her bread

Luke played 'baseball' with the kids (Alex at bat)

I know, I wasn't very diligent with the camera again...sorry.

Bubble Heads

Just some cute pictures of the kids having fun in their bath. It seems like too long since I last posted so I had to put someting up...

A Reality Check

Ok, this article on gas price 'gouging' is a must read! It'll make you feel a lot better the next time you go to get gas. It's written by 20/20's John Stossel who wrote, "Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity," which is a really good book if you are fed up with the way mainstream media spins things.

Playtime with Daddy

This is another long video but it's cute. Feel free to stop when it gets too boring.