Well, we went the entire month of June without a blog post so I figured a little update might be appreciated.
- Family, Family, Everywhere: We had a couple weeks at the end of May and beginning of June when we had an abundance of visitors. Smoke's sister and niece came to visit for a week and we had a great time. Then right after that we had my mom, Smoke's mom & dad, brother, and friends from Arizona all come to visit for Froggy's baby blessing (it's a Mormon thing). It was great to see everyone and we had lots of good food and conversation, but it was also kind of nice when the house was quiet and we had the girls to ourselves again. Having everyone visit (and a couple of church pot-lucks) gave Smoke some great opportunities to try out some new recipes and get back into cooking a bit so that was a great side effect.
- Back To Work/School: Smoke's maternity leave ran out in June and she returned to work. It went pretty well and things are rolling right along especially now that there are two good financial aid reps in the office that can work together. Apparently the first order of business when she got back was to reorganize all the office furniture. Probably the hardest part was putting Monkey & Froggy back into day care. Luckily the center we used when it was just Monkey will accept babies as young as one month so we were able to get Froggy enrolled without having to change "schools" or separate the girls. Of course all the teachers and staff were very happy to see Monkey come back and just went nuts over Froggy the first day. Getting back into a routine is an ongoing challenge now that there are two littles to get ready every day and fed every night, but we're working on it. It was also a bit of a shock that our monthly child care costs are now more than our mortgage payment.
- Yard Progress: The fence is finally done! It only took three months, but I was able to finish the fence during June and check that project off my to-do list with the help of a couple of my Father's Day gifts. Brownie has figured out she can run all over the yard now without getting shocked by the invisible fence. Red hasn't been so quick to adjust and will only wander out farther than usual if I am walking with him which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The other accomplishment as far as the yard goes has been the addition of about 2,000 square feet of artificial turf around the back patio. At a home show this past Spring we found a landscaping company that takes the used turf from sports field and such and recycles it for residential and commercial lawn use. It's about half the price of standard artificial turf installation, but left a bit to be desired as far as quality and professionalism. We're actually still waiting for them to return and install the edging around the turf, but it's down and Monkey and the dogs love running and playing on it and hopefully it will keep the dust down a bit.
- Swim Break: Monkey seemed to fizzle out with regard to her swimming lessons and lose interest. So we took her out for a session and will get her re-enrolled in July and see how she does. Other than that she is doing pretty good considering she is a three year old and getting a bit of an attitude. We are still working on potty training. Her last dentist visit went extremely well. She got a bit of a cold in June but is over it now. Her imagination continues to amaze us as she tells us stories, "cooks" for us and brings us food, and interacts with her favorite TV shows and movies. She is also talking frequently now about friends at school, particularly a little boy which I may have to look further into.
- Where'd The Tiny Baby Go?: Froggy has just about doubled in weight since she was born and is getting some long legs to go with it. She is already starting to do things I don't remember Monkey doing so young. She is constantly lifting her head up and trying to look around in what seems to me to be an effort to take in everything around her. In the past week she has started trying to roll over onto her belly when laid on her back. She gets most of the way over but ends up with her arm stuck underneath her and gets frustrated. She also has been making efforts to sit up so we have started propping her up and using her booster seat to help her gain some strength. When she does lay on her back without trying to fight it her favorite things have become her musical mobile and her play mat. She smiles a HUGE smile almost every time the music starts on the mobile and as she continues to develop better muscle control and coordination the toys hanging from the arch on the play mat have become her favorite things to swat at and grab. Speaking of her smiles...one worker in the infant room at day care said they have never seen a baby who smiles as much as our Froggy. That's nice to hear and we are lucky we have two happy little ones.
- New "Jobs": Smoke and I have both been asked to help out with different things are church over the past month. Smoke was asked to help out in the Family History program and help people learn how to research and use the varied computer programs for research and tracking. I was asked to be a Cub Scout leader for a group of three to four Bear-age boys (third graders). Neither of us have really gotten a handle on these new responsibilities yet, but we're working on it.
I think that pretty much covers the month of June and a bit extra. Things are going well and everyone is doing great. Hope you all are too. - Pa
