Swimming Lessons

This summer Grace had her first official swimming lesson.  She was very excited although in this picture she seems a little nervous.  She kept telling me she was fine.

We only had one major issue with the lessons.  The first day she would not put her face in the water to blow bubbles which really surprised me.  We talked about it after and again the next morning before we went back.  She finally told me that she just could not do it.  When I reminded her that she did it in Texas she gave me a look like I was just plain silly and said "Well yes Mommy I can do it in Texas but not here in Washington!!"  I explained that Washington was no different than Texas and I wanted to see her blowing her bubbles!  She did and the rest of the week and the second week went great!! :)

I love how through the videos you can see how well she improved over the 2 weeks of lessons.  At least I can really see the difference!  She passed her lessons and can move on to the next level.  We were hoping to get her signed up again this summer but the summer schedule became full very quickly and we were unable to work in another session.

The first week of lessons was pretty chilly but the second week it was extremely warm for here.  Sitting outside watching lessons was not really all that fun for Eva until the pool opened up the little wadding pool!!  She spent the time playing in the pool & having swimming lessons too, at least according to her.  She had a blast and was staying cool at the same time!! :)

Dentist

In June we took a trip to the dentist.  Grace was very excited to go cause unlike most she finds the dentist fun or she use to like going.  This was Eva's first trip to the dentist and she was excited because Grace was excited.  They were able to be in the same room and they each got to pick out a movie to watch.  Of course once the movies were on Grace wanted to watch Eva's movie and Eva wanted to watch Grace's movie....figures.  Anyways they were in the same room but they cleaned Grace's teeth first so Eva could watch and know that it didn't hurt and everything would be fine.  What a HUGE mistake that was!!

Grace has never had any issues with the dentist or getting her teeth cleaned.....until now!!  The lady that cleaned their teeth was horrible!  By the time she was done with Grace she was in tears, which scared Eva, and now she does not like the dentist and is unsure about going back.  Thankfully Grace had a wonderful experience in Texas and she remembers that so she knows that a trip to the dentist won't always be horrible.

When it came time to clean Eva's teeth she started out brave but it didn't last long at all!!!  Within a minute she was trying to get out of the chair and wouldn't open her mouth at all.  :(

It actually took the dentist to come in and talk with Eva for a long time and reassure her that everything was going to be ok before they were able to finish cleaning her teeth!!

The dentist was very nice but I was not a fan of the hygienist!!  They have a couple of hygienist so I'm still trying to figure out what to do.  Do we go back and request another hygienist or just leave and go try to find a new dentist all together?  This is what I keep going back and forth on.  I have a couple more months as their next appointment is not until December or January really.  I just don't know.  The most frustrating part to me is that several people recommended this place.  If this place is highly praised then what are the other places like.  Maybe in the five years of living in Texas I just got use to the "friendliness" of those who live down there.  I'm not sure but I do know that regardless of where we go the next trip to the dentist is not going to be fun! :(

Point Defiance Zoo

We have heard some great things about this zoo and since my kiddos LOVE the zoo we figured why not go check out another one. :)  It was a nice zoo but I can't really say it was all that great either.  I'm not sure if it was all the build up of it that made it a let down or if I just have too high of standards for zoos or what but on a scale of 1 to 10, I would say it was a 5 maybe a 6.  The aquarium there was really good and I was impressed with that but the actual zoo not so much.  Regardless of my feelings the kids had a blast and enjoyed seeing the new zoo.

So the peacock was free to roam around which the girls LOVED!  They even got it in their heads that maybe they could try and catch it cause after all they just wanted to hold and pet it!!  Where they get those ideas I will never know.  They were not successful on this attempt but the peacock did fan its feathers for us!

They could have stood here for hours watching the walrus.  They were huge and there was at least 3 of them this size!!

Thor could only take so much of the zoo before he decided to sleep through the rest of the trip.  Other than the aquarium I would say the highlight was seeing the baby tigers.  The girls would say the best part was the peacock!! :)

Slip-N-Slide Fun

6 months!!!

Time is going by way too fast!!!!

His doctor appointment went pretty smoothly.  No major issues and he was right on track with all of his development but maybe a little ahead in some areas but of no great concern.  From 4 months to 6 months life was getting a little better.  We were starting to get into a routine of some sort and he was sleeping through the night!  Still not napping unless I held him but at least he was sleeping through the night!  Of course as I posted in the past he started rolling over at 4 1/2 months and then at about 5 months he started rotating like a helicopter on the floor to get to where he was going.  This is when life got better, he was able to entertain himself more and get to the toys he wanted.  Then at about 5 1/2 months he started trying to scoot across the floor which he sort of did but was soo slow at it.  He became an expert at going backwards though!!  Once he realized he could get around on his own he wanted to be held less which gave me two hands again to do things around the house.  Life became so much better!!
Of course, as you saw earlier in my post, we also started him on solid foods.  I have yet to find anything that he does not like!!  Everything I have given him he loves!!  However, we did have issues with finger foods.  For some reason he would not eat any of those nice little finger foods that dissolve as soon as they get wet.  This was slightly frustrating to me for some reason.  Probably cause in my head he needed this food in order to figure out how to eat normal food.  Which I'm sure is not true but that was my line of thinking.  He even turned down cheerios! But besides this one little issue he has been a great eater.  It was also at some point in this time frame where I stopped nursing him all together.  He was no longer interested and it was just a huge fight whenever I tried.  I finally decided the fight was not worth it and started giving him just formula.  It was also sometime after starting the solid food that his acid reflux stopped and we no longer needed to give him medicine.  This also made for a very happy baby which made for a very happy mommy!!

Thor
Weight: 16lbs 12.5oz - 25-50%
Height: 26 1/2" - 50-75%
Head Circumference 17.3" - 50-75%

And to compare.....

Grace
Weight: 15lbs 10oz - 40%
Height: 24 1/4" - 10%
Head Circumference 17" - 50%

Evangeline
Weight: 17lbs 8oz - 75%
Height: 24 3/4" - 16%
Head Circumference - 50% so I'm guessing right around 17"

Raspberry Picking

When we were in Texas every year we would go strawberry picking and this year I wanted to keep that going but was not sure of where to go.  Well the time for strawberries has come & gone and we never found a farm close by to go to.  I have not given up hope on going to a farm somewhere around here to pick apples!  I'm actually very excited for it and can't wait to share the experience with the kids.  Anyways, we missed the strawberries and apple season has not come yet but we were able to go raspberry picking and we didn't have to go very far to do it.  I think round trip was a total of maybe 2 minutes!!  Turns out the bushes in the back yard are raspberry bushes!!  Since moving in we had wondered what type of bushes they were.  We figured a fruit of some sort but was not sure on the type!

The girls had a blast just walking out our door to pick the berries!  In the pictures below Eva is not in any of them but only because she was either sleeping or decided that she didn't want to be in the pictures.  I assure you both girls got into it and would pick them non-stop!  Thankfully they understood that they were only suppose to pick the red ones!!

 Disclaimer on the above video.  Grace's finger was completely fine there was not even a mark on it!  If she was truly hurt I would have stopped the video but I had checked it out prior to starting it.  In fact she had stopped crying about it all together before I even started recording this!! :)

This was just the first harvest of the berries.  We ended up making raspberry jam with this batch.  On the second and even the third harvest we gave some of the berries away.  They just produced way more berries than we could keep up with!!

Food

For some reason we really have no pictures of Thor taking his first bites of food....several videos but really no pictures.  I'm not really sure why or how but if I had to guess it is probably because we have been a little busier this time around than the last two times.  Heck you might even say thankfully we have videos cause isn't it normal or natural to have fewer and fewer pictures/videos of your children the more you add to your family. ;)  Regardless of the reason we have the videos!!  However, I was not able to get some of them to upload, such as the funny one of him eating cereal for the very first time.  Sorry guys I guess that one is just for us but enjoy these below.

Bananas....

Applesauce....he LOVES applesauce!

Pears....

Squash....

Sweet Potatoes.....

Carrots....

Green Beans

A Hike in the Rain-forest....aka Our Neighborhood

Sorry for the videos being all over the place.  I was sort of hiding the camera so she didn't know I was recording. :)

May Happenings

Here are a few random moments from the month of May!

Thank you Stacia for our awesome shirts, we LOVE them!!

Thor thinks the world of Grace.

Being silly but having tons of fun on a warmish day!

He just couldn't stay awake to finish eating.  Poor baby!

Loving his new hat....at least Daddy & Mommy are!

The girls were suppose to be resting.  We thought they were since it was very quiet however after going to check on them we found them in their bathroom doing this. :)

Tante Liz

In May Tante Liz came to visit us again!  We always love having her here and love that she always stays so long!!  However, this year her trip was cut in half.  Normally she comes out for a good 3 weeks or close to a month but this year she was here for about 10 days.  Man did those 10 days fly by!!  Regardless we had so much fun with her.  I would say about half the time we took it easy and relaxed at home and half the time we were out and about showing her the area.

Her arriving flight came in late so the kids were all sleeping by the time she got here.  They were super excited the next morning to wake up and find her in the guest room!!

We took several trips into Seattle.  When Liz is here are girls become about 10 times more interested in taking pictures with the camera then normal!  So as we were driving in, and while in the city, they were snapping photos left and right.  I have some very interesting pictures and maybe one day I will post some of them.  Some did not turn out, some did but they are of items like shoes, and some turned out good that they actually took of people.  A couple of those are included in this post such as this one below!

The famous (at least to us) pig in the market area!  Every trip the girls think they need to sit on it or at least touch it!!

The gum wall.

Eva and Tante Liz both had shirts with an animal wearing glasses!

Braids.....Grace will allow Tante Liz to put her hair up in ways that she never allows myself.  If I'm luck she might let me put a pony tail in it but never braids.  Which might be best cause I don't know if I could do the braids like this.

There was also a few days that we went for a drive in the mountains.  One of the trips we took some random side road and we stopped often for Liz to take pictures.  On this stop Mark even got out of the car to take pictures however, he did not climb down from the road to take pictures!  The pictures that Liz took while on this drive and just in general on this trip turned out amazing!  I always love her pictures and I believe she is truly an amazing photographer!!

Speaking of an amazing photographer, while she was here she also took more family photos of us!  Once we get those I will post a few of them but not all as she did a wonderful job of taking several great photos of the kids!!
We miss you Tante Liz and wish you could come back soon or better yet just come move to the west!! ;) Hehe