Garden Update

In Zacharese, the word "tomato" is pronounced, "toe-may-TOE!" (with a strong exclamation on the last syllable). We have 5 tomatoes already!! Zachary got to pick the first one and he was super excited. He tried to eat it like an apple. And, in honor of "racc-oon" (remember his beloved Raccoon?), Zachary washed that tomato for 20 minutes. He kept saying, "More water....wash toe-may-TOE!" We saved another orange-red tomato to pick when "Gwammy Cware" gets here this weekend! (P.S. - I'm not sure the squash are ever going to produce fruit. There are TONS of blooms, but no squash or zucchini.)

RebTodd Construction, Inc.

We received an awesome swingset/playground as a gift. Unfortunately, it came in two large boxes. The other night, we opened the boxes and starting reading the directions. We laughed out loud at the following sentence, "...depending on your experience level, the assembly of this set may take 6-12 hours to complete..." Todd & I are THE WORST at construction & engineering projects (hence our career choices...Financial Advisor, Therapist). And these types of projects test our marriage like nothing else.
We spent over an hour just clearing the "construction site" (aka: the only flat area in our backyard, pictured below). This will be an entertaining experience, to say the least. Upon completion, it should look like the second picture below. In the spirit of this election year, we've created a little "poll" (on the right sidebar) to see how long it will take us to finish. Feel free to vote. We'll keep you posted on our progress.

There she is!

Well, we finally got the camera ready in time for some sweet little girl smiles & laughs!! We are trying to figure out who she looks most like. Right now, it seems that Grandpa Moose (my paternal grandpa) has the lead - I think it's the round head & double chin. Ha! He would love that - wouldn't he?!!

"Tendencies"

Have you ever heard someone say "I'm so OCD..." or "I have a shoe fetish..." or "I'm very ADHD..." ? Much to Todd's dismay, I have a little soapbox I'll jump on whenever I hear people use psychiatric terms flippantly (Because, truthfully, real mental illness is a difficult barrier for some people). So, when you see a person demonstrating traits that are common for a specific disorder, but the person is NOT mentally ill, you should say, he/she has "tendencies..."

For example, if one had "tendencies" towards OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), they might come home from school with a paper they colored. On that paper you might see that instead of simply coloring the picture...the person first focused on filling in empty circles (look closely).

Another example might be a "tendency" to have an aversion to disorder...

...or a "tendency" to prefer straight lines or arranging by colors or types...

And lastly, one might show a "tendency" to collect or hoard things.

Of course, Todd & I don't know anyone like this in our home...let alone either of our families.

Update

We have been traveling quite a bit over the past few weeks, and I'm getting behind on some things, but here's a short update on the kids.
Zachary is having a fun summer. He attends a church camp two mornings a week throughout June, so that has been fun for him. He came home one day reciting the following sentences..."Zachy run really fast...sit down Zachy...Zachy need time out...." Todd & I are still curious about what happened that day! But his teachers seem to enjoy him.

We started Allie on rice cereal and 2 veggies - carrots and sweet potatoes. She is doing alright. She gags a lot...maybe it's the texture? Zachary ate so much so early, I guess I don't have a "normal" point of reference! Allie has also been teetering on her side...as close to rolling over as she could possibly get.

Zachary is getting much sweeter with Allie. He's been reading books to her, singing songs for her and he likes to show her things. I love this part of their "sibling-hood."

Allie is also laughing & smiling a lot. However, we are still unable to catch these sweet faces with the camera. As soon as we pull the camera out, she stares at it, expressionless. So, here's a cute picture of her as Todd is trying to get her to laugh (as she was doing before she saw the camera!). These last two pictures are 2 of 20 that I took trying to get them together. They turned out fairly well...both kids look cute!

Big Weekend

Well, Uncle Jason & Aunt Meredith got married last weekend!! We traveled to Virginia for the wedding festivities. Here are some fun photos -
Road trip fun:

Breakfast with Mimi:Grandad & Mimi:

Pretty photo of Allie & Grandpa at the church during the rehearsal:

Allie & her glowing skin:

Talking to grandpa:

Looking pretty with Grammy (who also looks pretty!!):

Zachary enjoying his "special treat" after a successful practice round as ring-bearer:

Uncle Jas, Daddy & Zach having fun at rehearsal:

Zachary ready for wedding. Doesn't he look just like Todd? WOW!:

Allie being an angel during the wedding:

Aunt Meredith (she looked drop-dead gorgeous!!) with Allie:

Todd & Rebecca at the reception:

Zachary playing with his animals in the rock wall at the reception (great entertainment for him!!):

Uncle Price & Aunt Mary enjoying baby Allie:

Zachary dancing with the bridesmaids & Meredith (SO fun!):

After the wedding, he was so exhausted from the whole weekend. We were putting him in his car seat and I said, "Zachary, did you have so much fun at Uncle Jason's wedding?" He looked right at me and said, with a huge grin..."Zachy danced with girls!" SO funny!!

A real "trip"

I love riding my bike. Now that we have this super cool attachment, I can take the kids along. Allie's not sitting up quite yet, but I've figured a way for her to lay & be comfortable. Of course, we only made it 5 minutes before Zach started whining, "She's touching me! Mommy, NO! Baby Allie's touching me!" He was freaking out - like she has the plague or something (which, I hear, is how most big brothers feel about their little sister at times). I had to turn around & head home because he starting flopping around and jostling her out of that comfy spot I made for her.

Big Brother

Now that Allie is almost 4 months old, she is becoming much more interactive and playful. There are times where this is fun for Zachary (like the pictures below), and other times when it is NOT fun for him (like when she is holding ANY toy in her hand, since all the toys were originally his). I do enjoy watching them interact. It is wonderfully fascinating.

"Role" call

Being a stay-at-home mom of 2, I have noticed it is difficult for me to get everything done. Most days, I complete 25% of the household tasks I had hoped to complete. This means that our house is usually cluttered, the laundry is half done, and many things just pile up. My main priorities are teaching Zachary and taking care of Allie - both of which take the bulk of my time.
The following conversation made me realize why God has blessed ME with the role of the stay-at-home parent and Todd with the role of bread-winner. (Side note: Todd truly helps with both kids as well as around the house more than I could ever dream).
He was working on a project upstairs and offered to take care of Allie for me. After I heard her crying for awhile, I went upstairs to make sure everything was ok. This is the conversation that occurred between the 2 of us:
Rebecca: "Is Allie ok?"
Todd: "Yeah, she's fine."
Rebecca: "Why is she crying?"
Todd: "I don't know. She'll be fine."
Rebecca: "It sounds like she needs something."
Todd: "Well, I just laid her down. I'm not going to let her crying distract me from my activities."

Way back when...

Years & years ago...before 8 years of marriage and 2 children...I was a runner. I've recently dusted off my runnin' shoes and hit the pavement again. My sisters & I are planning to train & run some long-distance races over the next year. We'll be documenting this experience on another blog titled "Three Legged Race". I am super excited to be running again. It brings back tons of great memories and it is such a healthy habit!

Learning to swim

Last summer, Zach took infant swimming lessons and did fairly well. We decided to take those lessons 1 step further this year...and it has gone very well!! Zach was tentative at first, but once he saw this other 2-year old (equally equipped with 8 lbs of water safety gear!) running full speed towards the pool and jumping in (all by himself)...Zach realized it isn't so scary after all. We finally figured out the floaty/safety suit combination so that when he jumps in, it pops him right back out of the water, and he can kick his feet to propel him to the side of the pool. It is awesome!! Plus, we can rest easy now, knowing that he's not going to fall in and...well, you know...

I tried a thousand different ways to crop myself out of the following picture. However, here's Zach's cool in-the-air action photo (with cheesy mommy cheering him on in the background).