Swimming, breakfast, and a fish…

"The water is your friend.  You don't have to fight with water,
just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move."
-Aleksandr Popov

Isla is beginning her journey to walking by standing up.  She’ll stand up on stools, furniture, and knees.  She hasn’t figured out to stand up on her own without support yet though, but she’ll get there soon enough.

We celebrated a birthday with one of Ashlyn’s classmates this Saturday at the Bedford Boy’s Ranch splash park.  The water was cold but the kids didn’t seem to pay attention to it.  They slid, dove, swam, and generally had a blast at the park.  Isla loved the water fountains and would crawl back and forth between them giggling.  It really was a great time for the kids and I know we’ll be back.

PePa came over for breakfast this weekend and the house turned into an impromptu volleyball match.  One one side was Mommy.  On the other side was, well, everything else.  I’m not really sure who won.  In between rounds Ashlyn dragged a giggling Isla around the house and PePa attempted to make a Lego structure in the living room.

Later in the afternoon Nina and Papa came over with bubbles for the kids.  Kids love nothing in this world as much as they love bubbles and our porch was soon filled them.  With the rain finally gone the weather was perfect for a walk to the pond.  Papa got out his fishing rod to see if he could catch anything, and sure enough 5 tiny fish were pulled out.  The kids thought it was neat, if a bit slimy.

Rain, teeth, and pizza…

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky."
-Rabindranath Tagore

Isla’s tooth has been joined by a friend; her journey towards a full set of chompers is off to a good start.  She’s starting to crawl like a normal baby, and she’s learned that doing things Mommy dose not want her to do is funny.  Her favorite game right now is taking off her diaper.  She knows what she’s doing and always looks up at Mommy with a grin as she slowly undoes the Velcro.  Stinker.

Rain, rain, and more rain.  That’s basically what we’ve been seeing for the past week.  Our yard is a swimming pool, the mosquitos are enjoying all their new homes, and the kids have been restless stuck indoors.  Instead of having them destroy the house we got out some toys that are meant to be taken apart and put together.  Ashlyn and James had fun working out how to do it and even Isla got in on the action before we took her to a more baby safe area of the carpet.

When it’s been raining as much as it has even dinner gets turned into an activity.  Pizza time is one of our favorites since the kids are able to make their own personal pizzas and not complain about what’s for dinner.

Other than that we tried to find anything and everything we could to entertain the kids without the TV being on.  Luckily Mom is very resourceful in this area and the kids had fun playing with Legos, learning about propulsion with rocket balloons, playing a game of indoor beanbag with a target made of painter’s tape, board games, homemade goo, and other various crafts.  All in all we successfully kept them entertained through the rainy weather and I think they even learned a thing or two during the process.  Not bad!

In the short respites between storms we got the kids outside to run around.  Ironically, the kids invented a game to get each other wet as they played in the driveway.  We spend all that time coming up with ways to have fun inside without the kids getting rained on and the kids go outside and splash each other with water.  Figures.