Swimming

In past summers we've had Cakes and Silly in swim lessons all summer long. This year that just wasn't going to work out, so they only got one session. Cakes really loves it, and after watching her in gymnastics, which she likes, but doesn't love, I think we might put her in swim lesson all year. We'll see. Silly can swim on his own, but doesn't really know it.

Bubbs hanging out poolside

I thought it was going to be torture keeping Bubba out of the water, but he was great. Never once had a fit about not getting in. Most days we went from swim lessons to our friend's pool anyway. He's so patient.

Swimmer boy

Chicken, airplane, soldier

water safety day



Cakes is the one in front



Working on her arms

I think she could stay there all day. And I like it that it really isn't possible to be a slacker in swimming; either you swim to the other end or you don't.

Children's Museum

Is it really going to be September tomorrow? Guess I Better catch up on summer stuff before it's over.

Silly has had submarines on the brain this week. A few days ago he came running to me and Scott saying, "look, my apple has a submarine hatch!" Then showed how he could flip his apple open. Yesterday he was talking to Scott, saying submarines should have a second hatch, because what if the main hatch doesn't close, then the submarine will fill up with water. Scott his explained to him, that actually, submarines do have two hatches, just for that reason. I love that kid's brain.

Anyway, on to the summer recap. Early in July we finally went to the newly reopened children's museum around here. Scott kept trying to tell me I had been there before, or pointing out what was different. I don't know how many times I told him I've never, ever been there before. They do have some cool stuff though.



Making giant bubbles



 



Scott was helping them fish. There was a return chute up top so the kids could drop the fish back into the "water." They were supposed to match the fish up to the slot that was the same shape, but Scott said Bubba was the only one paying any attention to that.

Playing cashier

Driving the bus





Putting out fires



Working in a bank





Cakes's body



We spent a whole lot of time at this wall. There was an employee there with a piece of cardboard and it was her job to push all the pins back in.



Playing with vacuum tubes

  This is what I had the most fun with. The vacuum tubes were blowing air and when you hooked them up to one of the openings they blew a colored ping-pong ball out somewhere else. It was fun figuring out which colors went where.


Blasting bottle rockets



Bubba thought it was pretty hilarious when the bottles took off. It was pretty loud so at first it startled him, then he just thought it was awesome.

Milestone Month

Cakes turned 8 this month. I took her to the new American Girl Place in DC on her birthday, with my mother-in-law. She picked a few things for her doll that she's had on her wish list for quite a while. We ate lunch and did some shopping, She was thrilled to buy a few things at Justice (it's a very trendy store for girls, but it also has LOTS of inappropriate clothing, so there isn't usually much there I'm willing to allow). We did have a minute of panic when we got into the car to head home. She opened one of her boxes from AGP and realized we picked up the wrong box. She immediately yelled, "Mommy, stop!" She was freaked out and on the verge of tears for the couple minutes it took us to walk back into the store and exchange the wrong thing for the right thing. Good thing she checked! She had a great day and was really happy to be so spoiled.




The birthday girl! We looked around the Disney store for a bit and she actually allowed me to take a picture.

 We spent the night in Richmond, had dinner at Cracker Barrel and had some birthday cake with the grandparents. When we got in the car the next morning I realized she's 8 - she doesn't have to ride in a booster seat anymore! So we pitched that in the trunk and she was thrilled to sit in a regular seat and let her feet touch the floor. Good riddance!

And then today was the BIG day. She was baptized! Everything went just fine this morning. She wasn't acting scared or nervous and Scott was too busy focusing on our toilet that isn't working right to be scared or nervous himself. I surprised her with a new outfit and she was perfectly happy to get ready and hang around the house until it was time to go to church. Once we were at church the nerves started getting to her. She didn't really want to take a family picture before and when I went to help her change she started crying, saying she was scared, didn't want to do it, didn't want people watching her. I said a prayer with her then handed her off to Scott who gave her a little pep talk and eventually convinced her to join everyone.




Not a bad picture given the circumstances. No one was scowling.


Her one particular program request was to sing "If I Listen with My Heart" which is the new Primary song this year. That took some figuring, since not everyone knows the song and I couldn't find a pianist. I asked my family to practice ahead of time, there were several other Primary people there, and Scott burned the accompaniment to a CD for me so everything worked out. My sister Melissa gave a great talk that was just what Cakes needed to hear.

I don't know about other fonts, but ours has Plexiglas in front of it and today it was all foggy for some unknown reason. I'd never seen that happen before, and I've seen lots of baptisms in that font. Our Bishop said later that he thinks the glass fogged up just for Cakes so she wouldn't be more scared and nervous by all the people since she couldn't really see anyone. It was perfect.

Scott confirmed her with my dad, brother, Bishop, Br Stubbs and her Primary teacher, Br Langdon. He had a sweet gift and card for her too. He's great.

My friend Kris took some family pictures for us outside the church with all the family members that came out for the day. She doesn't know yet how significant those pictures are, but that's a story for another day.

With the grandparents

All the relatives. Anybody notice anything different...

Everyone came back to our house for lunch. Mamie gave Cakes some cool books for her birthday and Papop brought us some pictures he took of our beach trip earlier this month. Scott and I had bought Cakes a new scripture case and a mini-hymnal when we went to the temple earlier this summer so I finally gave those to Cakes too. She's official!

POST EDIT: That unfamiliar face in the family picture is Melissa's HUSBAND, William. They eloped the night before the baptism and announced it here at my house. I had great fun at church the next day telling everyone who'd been at the baptism that my sister, the one who spoke, had eloped the night before.

Top Ten for Bubba

Bubba talks his head off at home, but not so much around other people. There are a few things we just love to hear him say over and over.

10. Time a wake up! (and rubs who ever's head)
9. Where my cwoc? (looking for his crocs)
8. I wan' do. (Whenever he sees me starting something in the kitchen)
7. You scare me?
6.Wook! Wook at dat!
5. What's 'at noise?
4. You hear dat?
3. I skish you. (Or "I skish you (insert body part; arm tummy, head, whatever)"
2. I wight here! (When we're looking for him or he's hiding under a blanket or something).
1. I not Smeagol! (Scott let the kids watch Lord of the Rings so they're all a little obsessed with Smeagol now. We love getting Bubba to say it because he sounds so darn cute.)

In other Bubba news, he got his cast of Wednesday afternoon. On the way there I told him we were going to get that thing off his leg and he immediately started talking about jumping in the pool. I told him yes, it will definitely be easier to jump in the pool when you have two ankles you can use. He was interested in the cast cutter and wanted to watch, yet be as far away as possible. I don't think he ever took his eyes off the cutter, but he was leaning back as far as he possibly could without laying down on the table. It took the nurse a good bit of effort to cut through it because of the extra covering they put on Friday.

Oh, I left out the fact that I got to the doctor's office and as I'm checking in a realize I was supposed to go to the other office. I tell that to the receptionist and she tells me that my appointment was canceled. What!?! I didn't cancel it. I'm thinking that when we went in Friday for his cast repair and it took forever for the lady to check us in that she must have somehow canceled our next appointment. Oops. Thankfully, the other doctor agreed to squeeze us in, and it was a squeeze. That office was packed.

Anyway, back to the real story. The nurse finally sawed his cast off. and his leg looked pretty good. She gave us a big wet wipe to clean it up with and Bubbs had a good time with that. Then a different nurse took us for the follow-up X-rays. Bubba was his cooperative little self and when we went back to the exam room he said, "We take a picture mommy?" Then sitting back on the exam room table he's looking around at the ceiling, notices the vent and says, "That not take a picture." Nope.

Doctor comes in to show me the new pictures, but firsts looks over our history and notices that we were just in on Friday. I told him we had to get the cast repaired because the heel wore out. His response? "And they didn't just take it off?" AARGH! I told him I asked, repeatedly, but they told me no. Thanks for getting that extra copay out of me. He looked at the new pictures and saw three tiny little areas on the three bones in the middle of his foot, closest to his heel, that showed some new bone growth. So there was some real damage after all. He said those kinds of breaks happen when a kid lands too hard and the foot is forced up. Makes sense.

And that was that. Bubba walked like a spaz for maybe an hour, but after that he was pretty much back to normal with the exception of an occasional ankle wobble here and there.

Last picture of his leg in a cast.

Fresh out of the cast. His toenails weren't as gnarly as I expected.

So both of our boys have had two significant injuries at, around or before age two. So maybe they'll stay in one piece from here on out. Right?