It's Been Awhile...

A lot has been going on in the last month so I'm going to try to update all at once.

We had a busy Memorial Day weekend. On Saturday, our friends' daughter, Naomi, graduated from high school. On Sunday, we hosted a BBQ at our house. I made a Key Lime Pie and an Apple-Peach Pie. Both were very yummy!


















On Monday, we went (briefly) to a BBQ out in Strasburg (briefly because there were 5 children and their mother having coughing fits so we left). It was really cold that day so we came home and had a fire in the fireplace and drank hot chocolate with marshmallows.









After Memorial Day weekend, Phil had his birthday (I won't say how old he is now because I'm a nice wife) and we celebrated by leaving the girls with his parents and going to see Indiana Jones.

Natalie turned 6 months old last week. She's almost 27" and probably over 16 lbs. by now. She continues to be in the 80+ percentiles for everything. And she is an EATER! At least one of my children will eat.

Last weekend, we took Elaine to an air show in Broomfield. We all had a really good time. She loved the airplanes.

Elaine also got a bike helmet with ducks on it. Now we have to find the bike...but she can wear this when she rides her trike at Grandma and Grandpa's house.









In adult news....nothing new with me. Still trying to lose weight but it's going really slowly and it's quite frustrating. Phil passed his PE test. Hooray!!! Now he is officially a Professional Engineer.

Ok, there's the last month in a nutshell. I'll try to get my updates done more regularly.

Vacation

We had our first big trip with the girls. My sister got married last Saturday (most beautiful bride) so we flew to Washington, DC. Elaine loved the airplane. I think she was exposed to just about every form of transportation on this trip - airplane, subway, taxi, bus.

Our first day there, we went on a tour of the White House. Two-year olds are really not into history or politics, in case you were wondering. Not that we expected her to understand. We probably set a record for that tour! After that, we had lunch and met Mr. Ralph Regula, Representative from Ohio (Susan used to work for him and they are good friends now).


Then it was off to St. Matthew's Cathedral for the wedding rehearsal. What an amazing church!









Natalie did a little reading in the hotel room. She obviously understood what it said!
Saturday, I got the girls ready first - thought they looked so pretty. Elaine got pearls (Susan got them in China) to wear with her flower girl dress. She loved them - mostly she wanted to chew on them. Oh well.
It was a beautiful wedding.


On Sunday, we went to the Air and Space Museum. Elaine and Daddy had a great time looking at the airplanes and space ships. Phil's cousin, Everett, and his family met us there. We had lunch in the cafeteria at the National Gallery and then went back to our hotel to play in the pool. Elaine fell asleep at 6:30 that night and slept for 13 straight hours! Gotta love the pool!










We had a good time but we were glad to be on our way home.

Tongue Action

No, it's not anything dirty so if you'd like to stop reading now, I won't stop you.

But if you stop reading, you'll miss the update on Natalie. We think she's not getting enough to eat from just milk so we decided to start on rice cereal yesterday. I have always been on the pediatricians' side - no solids till 6 months. But if my girl is hungry, I'm going to feed her. So we tried it.

She seemed confused about being in the highchair. And she's a little small for it so she promptly tipped over. We stuck a little pillow in beside her to prop her up.


Then I got the spoon and the very runny cereal. She wanted to suck on the spoon.


The tongue was pushing and pushing - just the wrong way. But we'll try again another day.




After dinner, Elaine and I played peek-a-boo with Natalie (her new favorite game).

Things To Do

I have definitely had a case of the blahs the last few days. Maybe even more than blahs...I've been downright.....down. I feel very boring - I just don't have an interesting life (hence the name of my blog). I called a former co-worker yesterday and got all the latest office gossip. Then my friend asked what was going on with me. Um, nothing. Not that my girls aren't interesting - I think they are. But what is there to say? Natalie's four-months old so she's not walking, talking, etc. yet. Elaine does nothing but walk and talk. Reverse that - she TALKS and walks. And talks some more. Other than the girls though, I go to the grocery store, clean my house, do laundry, cook, read a little, knit a little. But I don't do anything. And I certainly don't do things for myself, like I used to.

So I am going to start a list of things that I want to do for myself. I have no timeframe for these things though.

1. Get back to the piano. I haven't really played and certainly haven't practiced since shortly before Elaine was born. After my sister and her fiance watched my last recital and commented on it last week, I have really felt compelled to get back to it. When I can do this, I don't know. But I want to.

2. Learn to play the harp. This is the one instrument I have wanted to learn for my entire life. I have always played piano and briefly played the violin. But the harp...I don't know what it is about that instrument but it just captivates me.

3. Not as major as the first two but since I've gotten back to knitting and am enjoying it, I must make this shawl.

4. Along the same line, I want to learn how to fit a knitted sweater for an adult and I want to be able to design a sweater or shawl or something for myself.

5. Catalog my recipes (this could take the rest of my life, even if I don't ever collect any more books, magazines, separate recipes or ideas - and that's unlikely).

6. Dancing. I don't know what exactly I will do - or who I will do it with since Phil doesn't enjoy this. But I did dance for a while (swing, ballroom, country, and teensy bit of Latin) and I do miss it. I need to do something similar at least - sometime.

After a long day like today, that's all I've got off the top of my head.

Baby Stats

Natalie had her 4-month check-up today (even though she's almost 5 months old). She's doing well and growing fast. 25 1/2" long (90%), just about 1.2 oz. shy of 14 lbs. (55%) and 16 1/2" head circumference (78%). She did have to get five shots, poor thing. But she seems to be handling it ok. She slept most of the day.

Is there anything sweeter than a sleeping baby?

Must Love Dogs

My husband and I are those annoying people who attribute language, feelings, etc. to animals. Especially when it comes to our yellow Labrador Retriever, Riley. Usually we're just making things up but last night, you could practically see the thoughts in his head.

We have a doggy door to the backyard - with which I have a love/hate relationship. I love that I don't have to worry about letting the dogs in and out all the time (especially at night) but it does allow for mud and dirt to be brought in and other things (like trash or toys) to be taken out. Plus Elaine likes to go in and out through the doggy door, which is not allowed. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on the day) she has now learned how to work doorknobs and handles so she doesn't go out of the doggy door anymore.

Back to the story....last night we were sitting in our family room, not really doing anything. Elaine was playing; Phil was reading; I was trying to settle the baby down. The dogs had gone outside to bark. Pretty soon Riley comes prancing in with a big stick in his mouth - clearly pleased with his new treasure.

We told him to take the stick out (a command he used to follow) but he continued on up the stairs to the kitchen. We told him, "no sticks," again. No response.

Elaine begins going up the stairs to the kitchen saying, "No sticks in the house, Riley. Drop it, Riley." He drops the stick! Elaine picks up his stick, takes it back downstairs, opens the doggy door and deposits the stick outside. We were quite impressed - as parents would be.

But now you can see the wheels begin to turn in Riley's head. He comes downstairs, picks up one of Elaine's stuffed animals and trots right out the door. Typical. We're calling after to him to bring the puppy back which he, of course, ignores (I know, he needs another obedience class). Instead he returns to the house in less than a second - with his stick. (It only took a couple of minutes - after we stopped laughing - for sticks, toys, dogs and kids to all be returned to their proper places.)

Growing

It's hard to believe how much kids change in one year. Just look at the difference in Elaine's hair alone!
















(First pic taken 4/9/07; second pic taken 4/13/08)