Friday Quick Takes (56)

Here's what we've been up to so far this summer and lots of pictures to catch up:

--- 1 ---

We've spent LOTS of time at the pool.  The kids absolutely love the water and have zero fear.  Anna will go underwater, get her face and hair wet, jump in the side, go down the slides, and run around crazy the whole time we're there.  They just love it, and I'm getting quite the tan!

--- 2 ---

We've been to the park a lot and gotten to see friends almost every day.  Anna's and Anne are best buds and are just way too adorable together.

Dancing at the Farmer's Market while Anne's dad played and sang songs.

Dancing at our parish carnival.

Holding hands and dragging each other around at the carnival

We didn't think Anna would like the rides, but she loved them.  Her and Anne went on all the rides they could and they had a blast on every one. 

They rode the Mini Ferris Wheel like 3 times.

Riding the airplanes

Anna and her friends Anne, Maria, and Emma at hte park

Anne and Anna matched at McDonald's this week. 

Could they get any cuter?

--- 3 ---

Anthony's had a lot of fun too.  He loves all of the places we go and he gets to spend a lot of time riding on my back.  He has a best bud too.  Anthony and cousin Cecelia just love to play together.

--- 4 ---

We've been going to daddy's softball games.  It's a bunch of dad's from our parish and they've had a lot of fun playing.  Anna and Anthony love to watch the games.  Anthony spends most of his time sitting at the fence cheering them on. 

--- 5 ---

We've spent lots of time playing in the yard.  We're having a fence installed this week, so the kids have enjoyed watching them dig holes and pour concrete.  Once the concrete sets they'll come back to finish up.   We should have it all finished next week.  That will make it much easier for me now with two mobile children. 

--- 6 ---

This past week we had our annual Adoption Bowling Night.  It was so fun to see all of the kids together.  One little girl, L, was born the same day as Anna, placed a day apart and had her final adoption the same day as Anna.  So it's really neat to see them playing together.  All of the girls just had a blast.

Anna and L watching people bowl and cheering them on

Anna and Isabella (18 mo) playing with the air on the machine. 

--- 7 ---

My mom's 50th Birthday is on Sunday.  We're excited to celebrate with her!  We're having a big party, Anna's super looking forward to it, she loves parties (cake specifically)!

Happy Birthday Mom!

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Eating habits

I'm incredibly frustrated with mealtimes right now.  It's a battle every single time.  Both of my kids have taken to chewing their food (or just storing it in their cheeks) and then they just spit it out.  Mostly it's with any kind of fruit/veggie.  Which is primarily what their diet consists of.  Therefore neither child is actually eating much at all.  Then they're in terrible moods, complaining that they are hungry.  It's making me crazy.

After they spit out their food, they get told no and their food is taken away for a "time out".  They get it back after a minute or two, but they no longer are eligible for dessert or snacks afterward.  (I know Anthony has no clue, but we can't really make exceptions for him in front of her while trying to teach Anna to obey).  I hope it's just a phase, but I'm pretty much dreading mealtimes and snacktimes right now.

Happy Father's Day! and some catch up...

Happy Father's Day to my hubby!  He is the most wonderful daddy to his babies. I love watching the together and his kids absolutely adore him. Watching him be a dad has made me fall in love with him more and more every single day!  I love you Jeremy!

WE LOVE...

I framed these pictures for him with their handprints.  He now has it in his new cube at work!




And now for some updates:

-  First and most exciting is that we officially have a crawler in the house!  It's about time.  At 14 months, Anthony finally decided it was time to be on the move.  The funny thing is that he's only had one physical therapy session so far.  He actually was crawling a little when his PT came for the first time.  But he's still so far behind, he needs to get proficient crawling, start pulling up more consistently (he's doing it, but only once in a while) and get to walking now!  Just a few days ago, he would only do one or two "crawls."  And now today he's crawling across the room!  That seems to be how he handles milestones.  One day he doesn't do it at all, the next day, boom!  He's got it!  And we're back to not being able to upload videos. Ugh.

 - Since getting my phone, I've still been figuring it all out.  And our computer's acting up 90% of the time, so posting blog posts is just not gonna happen from my phone.

-  Also we've been super busy.  Since I no longer have a child to watch, we've been going somewhere every day.  We go to the library once a week, the pool 2-5 times a week, a splash park once a week, and a regular park once a week.  Add to that Jeremy's softball games in the evenings and family trips to the pool/park, and we're having a fun summer staying busy.  I'm enjoying it while it lasts.  This winter dragged and dragged it seemed, we were cooped up a lot, so we're basking in the business!

- Anna's back to sleep boycotts.  I wish she could just be consistent.  She had a month or two where she was falling asleep right away, not fighting us, staying in her bed, etc...  And now she's back to taking 1-2 hours to fall asleep at naptime and bedtime.  Adjusting the times does nothing for her and we're wearing her out big time with the pool and parks and stuff.  She just goes through phases.  This one is particularly trying...

Okay, that's enough for now, I'll save the rest hopefully for quick takes this week.  I just figured out today how to transfer photos and videos from my phone to the computer (well, I hadn't tried at all due to our computer's mood swings).  So now it's much easier to post :-).

Answered prayers

Apparently I'm a terrible listener. Because when I take something serious to God in prayer, he answers with a big fat slam in the face. Infertility? A big fat "not gonna get pregnant ever", a definitive answer to our question. Adoption? Doors opened do wide we could drive a semi through them. New job for Jeremy?  Well, here's a dream job with a higher salary, better benefits, and better hours.

Lately I've really been struggling with my job, taking care of the child I watch. He is a challenging baby and I feel like I spend 90 percent of my day taking care of him and my kids are missing out on my time, emery, and patience. I couldn't just tell his mom that her son was too much of a challenge for me and I couldn't think of a great reason to quit other than my own challenges with him. So today his mom stopped by and told me that for months his grandma who is retired has been  begging to watch him full time. It would help then financially and he'd get to spend time with his grandma. As she told me this, I had a hard time containing my smile. What an answer to my prayers. I've been praying about it a lot lately, asking God what he wanted me to do. Well, his answer was obvious and I feel such a sense of peace.

So God?  Can we have another adoption fall in our laps soon? :-)

Friday Quick Takes (55), A Day Late and (always) a Dollar Short

 

--- 1 ---

As Anna gets older, I'm quickly realizing how much of an impact the things that I do and say have on her.  A good example of this happened today.  As the plumbers were here installing our dishwasher, Anna was being her usual self.  She was avoiding the plumbers like the plague.  They were male and according to her, they were "messy."  They brought with them styrofoam which spent a few seconds on the floor (messy) and flies in with them (uckies).  

So I found her sitting on the living room couch.  With a St. Anne prayer card in hand, saying to herself, "Hail Mary, pay da ya (pray for us), Amen."  She then lifted the card to her ear, as though it was a phone and said, "Hewwo Mary, yeah, yeah, Father, Son, Spirit, Amen."  She then caught me watching her and said, "Mommy pray Mary too?"  How can I say no to that?

--- 2 ---

So we had to get a new dishwasher.  Our old one had seen better days.  I wish I had a picture how badly its demise actually was.  Let's just say that in order to open it, it required a pair of pliers and the Hulk.  And when it was running, I couldn't hear myself think or the airplanes flying overhead from the airport that's practically in our front yard!

When the plumbers came in to remove it, the guy (who does this kinda thing for a living) said, "How do you get this thing open?  I see why you bought a new one!" 

--- 3 ---

Jeremy started his new job this week.  He's loving it and I am too.  His work day is shorter (always a bonus).  It's a mile closer to our house (cutting our commute to 1.2 miles :-)).  And he got a pay increase along with a decrease in insurance expenses.  It's right up his alley and he loves his team.  I'm so proud of my hubby!  Not to mention we got our company park passes and have already been to the pool once (in the one evening this week when it wasn't mosooning.)

--- 4 ---

My kids just love to read.  I always look forward to our libraries' summer reading programs because they get lots of fun incentives for reading.  They have to read 30 books this summer.  We hit that day 2.
 

--- 5 ---

Like mother, like daughter.   Anna insisted today that she carry her baby on her back while we grocery shopped.  I always have Anthony on my back and she wanted to do the same.  I didn't think to bring her kiddy Mei Tai with me, so I improvised with my water wrap.  It worked just fine and she talked about "Clare on back" the entire trip.  I can't help but smile when she wants to be just like Mama.

--- 6 ---

Jeremy's playing softball with a bunch of guys from our parish.  We've enjoyed watching them play and our little sports fan, Anthony, wants to be standing at the fence the entire time. He's just too darn cute!

And our Anthony is FINALLY starting to become mobile.  He's up on all fours and crawling a little.  He still has a ways to go to catch up, but he's getting there.  Ironically, he's done this on his own.  His therapy doesn't start till this coming week!  He's also starting to pull up to standing on his own and he's going from laying to sitting.  All this in 3 days.  I bet he crawls before his PT on Thursday...

--- 7 ---

There was a beautiful double rainbow this evening when we were hanging out at my parents' house.  The first rainbow was so bright, I've never seen anything like it.

It did make me laugh though.  Looking at a rainbow always reminds me of Noah and God's promise of never again flooding the earth.  This rainbow seems ironic considering the extreme amounts of rain we are receiving and the flash flood warnings for our entire area.  Maybe this is God's promise that we will in fact see some sun soon?

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!