Ah, the kiddos are growing and happy. Jamisen was so cute the other night when I was putting him to bed. I said, "Jamisen, do you know how much I love you? I really like how funny you are and how hard you work to learn potty training." And Jamisen replied, "No Mama, I did not know that; I did not know that."
Lily has started dancing. It is adorable, perfect and so giggle-worthy. She just wiggles from side to side and bobs her head with attitude. We have dance parties in the kitchen now - Mommy, Lily and Jamisen while Daddy looks on with some form of amusement and disbelief.
We purchased some warm weather toys for the kiddos, including this shallow sprinkler wading system. We still need to monitor the kids when they're in it but it feels safer than a pool.\
Little Lily has started signing, barely. She can sign "more more" and "water". The rest of the time, she just says "yeah!" or bobs her head up and down in the universal 'yes' symbol. She does not do "all done" yet and she might never. It feels like she might skip sign language all together. Jamisen tries to help by signing for her and that remarkably gets better results than when Chris, Nanny McKenna or I do it.
Our garden continues to flourish with giant kale trees, corn, tomatoes, amazing squash, blueberries, and more. Our raspberries and blackberries aren't doing so great though so we may need to rip those out and replant them next year.
Jamisen loves to read. Lily is a little more difficult to keep in one place but we diligently try. Jamisen is a good sport about reading books that he long since graduated from.
Jamisen is always my big garden helper; usually because it means he gets to use the scissors! He loves to eat the fruit fresh and always takes a bite or two of the greens. He usually spits them out but it's cute and supposedly, every taste will get him closer to appreciating and liking them.
The deer are back this year. We have a Mama and her two babies. We chase them off but secretly, all love the little babies and feel bad running them off our land. After all, we sort of are encroaching on their ancestor's prior homes.
Grandma and Grandpa have been up a lot (more on why in another blog post) and in this picture, Lily was so late for her morning nap that she fell asleep in Grandpa's arms. So cute! Also, doesn't she look giant!?
Lily walks extremely well but she is quite opinionated on where she wants to walk. She'll just grab your hand and tug you until you go where she wants you to go.
This was our reality until Grandpa built us another 'Standy Thing' for Lily to stand in. It works much better to have them on opposite ends of the counter eating and we've taken to eating our family dinners that way. It fits our lifestyle right now but I know that will change in the future when the kids are a little less active and a little less hands-on work for the parentals. Sometimes, I read during family dinners =)
We hosted a birthday party for our dear friend Oskar at the lake house. We were thrilled when Ava and her Mommy were able to visit. Jamisen is just as enamored as ever by Ava; his love has not at all diminished.
Lily has started playing the toilet water which is very frustrating because it is a safety hazard and Jamisen never did it. So, training on that issue is a firm "NO!" and removing her quickly from the toilet.
At one point, we had 7 children in some stage of dress and undress playing in the water. It was chaos but it was fun chaos.
We also had a play date with Sasha. We made healthy green popsicles (spinach, grape juice, grapes and apples) for the boys and they relished getting into the process "helping".
Little Lily LOVES showers. She still is small enough that Chris holds her for the showers and she loves the water and the extra attention. If you ask her, "Lily, do you want to take a shower?" she trots off to the shower at full speed. She understands *everything* even if she's not quite talking yet.
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