How did they get so big?

Shira and Samuel, both, seem to be growing in leaps and bounds.

We picked them up today, after they spent the weekend at Bubbie's house, and Shira already seems older than she did when I dropped her off on Friday.  When she came running toward me as I got out of the car, she looked like such a kid, there is no baby left.  She can really run, the toddler is all gone.  And she is fast.

She has been speaking in full sentences for some time now, but her conversation has more depth than it used to.  Instead of focusing only on concrete things - I want my water bottle, where is pink baby - she discusses possibilities, negotiates, and theorizes outcomes.

Samuel's big leap in the past few weeks, has been in math sense.   He now adds single digits quite easily, announcing at dinner tonight, "three plus three is six!"  Steve asked him who had told him that, he responded, "I just figured it out."  He then proceeded to tell us the answer to two plus two, as well, without any prompting.

Thankfully, we seem to have come out the other side of our most recent behavioral descent, and Samuel is back to his thoughtful and charming, occasionally mischievous self.  Whatever developmental milestone he needed to hit, has changed his tastes again as well.  Tonight, he willingly ate dinner, complimented me on how good it was, and asked to eat the spicy greens as well.  He must have missed us a lot at Bubbie's ;)

As a side note, I'm starting my third week swimming on the Master's team.  I'm recording it here, because it's the only way I'll remember when I started, and I know I'll be curious to know later.  I can't believe that in two months I've gone from being able to swim less than a lap (feeling like I might drown the whole time), to swimming close to two miles every morning.  I'm very proud of myself.

Anchor building

For Steve's early Father's Day present I hired a guide to teach us how to lay our own protection and create anchors for top rope climbing outdoors.  This is our fearless guide, Rick.  Surprise Steve!  We're not going for a hike.

 Steve practices tying a knot around a tree stump.

 Steve K. and Steve R. get hooked up so that they don't fall off the side of the rock, while setting anchors :)

 Trying to get a good anchor under this very flaky rock

Steve #1 and Steve #2 also working on getting a couple good anchors in

 Rick checks our work.  He's not allowed to let us kill ourselves, it would be bad for business.

 Steve gets ready to rappel, tied into our anchors 

 I rappel too.  You can see the two Steve's down below already.  Also notice my extraordinarily large fleece.  In my effort to pack us up and get us up to Castle Rock on time to meet our guide and Steve R., without letting Steve K. know what was going on, I forgot to pack warmth for myself.  R. was kind enough to loan me his extra fleece.  And just our luck, it was freaking cold in the mountains this weekend!

 K. belays R.

 R and I double check each other to make sure we are all tied in properly.  On belay?

 Climb on!

 K does a beautiful job going up.

 And down.

Happy Father's Day my love.

Getting a Bank Account

Last week I took the kids to get their own bank accounts.

 Steve and I have been talking about trying to find a bank for the kids to get accounts at for some time.  The clincher was when Samuel tried to put money in his Pinocchio bank last week, and told us that he needed to go spend his allowance because his bank was full and he couldn't put anymore money in.

I rushed out a couple of days later to the closest bank to our house, and set up an account for each child.  

Welcome to the ranks of the fiscally responsible.  Hopefully their parents save save save mentality will transfer.  Don't know what I'll do if I have a hole in the pocket child.

Raspberry Snatcher

Shira loves to play in the front yard.  A few weeks ago I was weeding, and after I was out there for an hour or so, she turned to me and asked when I was going to go inside.  When I'm finished weeding, I responded. A few minutes later she demanded I go inside.  Silly me, I thought she would enjoy my company.  Apparently she cherishes her alone time in the garden.

 And now she has another reason to enjoy the garden by herself.  She is intent on picking and eating every raspberry as it ripens.

 As soon as we got out of bed this morning (6:45am), Shira made a beeline for the front door and out into the garden.

 She very methodically went to each plant to make sure she didn't miss any berry.

 And requested a picture of her loot

Birthday Celebration Part IV

Celebrated Samuel's and David's birthdays tonight.

 Grandma and Grandpa got Samuel a metal bat and he proceeded to put it to good use.

 Made and ate s'mores.  Camping must be the theme for this month.

Kindergarten Meet Up

A mom in the neighborhood has been organizing park play dates for kids who will be entering kindergarten at Bubb the coming Fall.

 Samuel found one boy to play soccer with.

 And a whole set with whom to play baseball

 Steve joined as pitcher

Preschool Campout

At the preschool auction way back in March, we bought Samuel a spot at the MVPNS pajama party, as his birthday present.  This year's theme was camping.  Last week Teacher Claire asked if Shira would like to come to the campout as well.  I think we all know the answer to that question.  

 I wanted to get a picture of them going in to show how excited they were.  As you can see, I could barely keep up.  And then they tried to close the gate on me...

 There was a swimming pool for fishing

 And tents with sleeping bags

 Everyone brought flashlights for the night hike.  Samuel's new headlamp from Auntie Judy and Uncle Kelly came in handy.  So of course Shira needed one of ours.

 Prepping nametags and personalized fish with Teacher Rachel

 Getting a last minute photo op with some of the besties

 One last pic of the mischief makers before I said goodbye.

 And at 8:30pm Steve and I returned to this:

 Everyone in their jammies, enthralled with Teacher Wilma's storytelling

 Shira never hesitates to find a lap

I don't have many details on what happened during the intervening 3 hours as Samuel and Shira won't tell me.  They did bring home fish and fishing poles and treasures.  Samuel has already told us that he wants to go next year as Shira's big brother.  I guess we have the next two years of bday gifts planned out.