Horses

There is a farm behind my parent's condo in Hershey, and the horses will come right up to the fence to say hello. The kids got a real kick out of it.

Tea party for one

As Ben and I were making dinner tonight, I caught Vivi in the middle of a tea party.

Blueberry pickin'

While Owen was at his summer camp today from 9am-2pm, Vivian and I drove out to the farm to get our share and to pick our bonus. This week the bonus was 2 pints of tart cherries, 1/2 pint of black raspberries and 1/2 pint of blueberries. We picked an additional pint of blueberries and I'm wishing we would have added one more to that since they were so awesome. It was my first time picking blueberries, and after trying them, I don't want to ever eat grocery store blueberries again ~ farm fresh ones are sooo much better!

We had a bit of a scare when we got home. I gave Vivi her lunch and as she was sitting in her highchair, I stepped out onto the deck to pick up two tomato plants which had been blown over. As I pulled the sliding door shut behind me, I heard the bar that locks it fall down and into place.

I was locked out.

I tried to open it for a minute, but it wasn't budging. I ran over to one neighbor, not home. Ran to another - not home either. I was starting to panic. Ran to another neighbor and the contractor who was working on their house answered the door since they weren't home. I asked him if I could borrow his phone and he said sure, he'd go get it. I asked him to meet me on the deck since I knew Vivi would be crying by then.

I was right. Poor baby was in tears. I calmed her down as I dialed Ben, knowing I probably wouldn't reach him since he's usually between offices in the afternoons. I left him a message and then also left a message on his cell. At this point I was thinking I'd have to wait for him to get the messages and come home to let us in.

Then I remembered that our neighbor directly across the street has our key. I didn't think she was home, since there was only one car in the driveway and I thought her girls were in summer camp this week. But I immediately ran over and rang the doorbell. I heard footsteps! Thank goodness their nanny was home with the kids. Got our key and ran into the house to console Vivi who was crying big tears by this point.

She had managed to finish her entire lunch though. That's my girl. :)

I thanked the contractor and we had just enough time to pick up Owen at 2pm. What an exhausting day it was.

Coffee can drum @ 18mo

Caught my little lady in the middle of a drum set this morning. Our happy baby girl is almost completely back, thank goodness. All four canines have pierced through the gums and now it's just a matter of them coming out all together. At least it seems as if the major pain she was in is over. {Fingers crossed.}

Weight ~ 25 lbs, 5 oz {50-75%}

Height ~ 32" {50-75%}

Had her 18-mo check-up a few days ago and she's doing great, other than we need to work more on her words. She only has about 3-4 verbal words. (mama, baa for sheep, and bye are the only ones I could think of that she says currently) and the doc says she should have 4-10 by now. I'm not too worried (and neither was the doctor at this point) because she knows a bunch of signs and Owen usually does a lot of talking for her, which is common with second kids.

So we're going to do more books and more talking during the day, and more one-on-one time with just Vivi while Owen is at his summer camp on Thursdays. And if she doesn't show some improvement by August/Sept, then we're going to have an evaluation done by the county and a hearing test too. I have a feeling she's going to start talking a lot soon, since I've seen some strides even just since she's gotten past this recent teething pain.

At night when we rock and sing Twinkle, Twinkle before bed, she has started to try to sing it with me. It's neat to me how when I watch her mouth it reminds me exactly of the way Owen's looked back when he was 18 months old and the vocalizations he was making at that age.

I can't wait to hear her sweet little voice say stuff to me more often.

Mommy's shoes

Reminded me of this post and made me smile.

Mr. Knicknack with Neil from preschool

Owen started talking about his buddy Neil during the second half of his preschool year at Little Sprouts. Except, he couldn't exactly pronounce his name right, so it sounded like "Meal". I asked his teacher one day in February if there was a kid named "Meal" in his class, and she said no, but there was a "Neil" and she was certain that's who Owen was referring to.

We talked about Neil and how they loved playing together. Neil only went to the Mom's Morning Out program that Owen did on Wednesdays, but they would always play together on that day each week. His teacher said they had a "love/hate" relationship because they would play so well together, but sometimes could fight like puppies. I found it interesting that Owen gravitated towards a friend who is a whole year younger, but it's so cute that they talk about each other after school {Neil's mommy said that he talked about Owen just as Owen talked about Neil}.

So when we were at Mr. Knicknack last week, we were so excited when we bumped into Neil and his mommy and new baby brother Nathan! His mom and I decided to try to meet up there again this week and the weather was perfect today so we got to hang out and see the kids play together. We're going to try for another playdate next week too. Vivi even had fun trying to do what they were doing {pulling flowers out of the decorative pots ~ oops!}.

We've been working on his pronunciation of his buddy's name, and these days he says it the right way about 75% of the time. Luckily, it doesn't seem to bother Neil one bit. :)

Dinner at Kel & Matt's

Kel and Matt invited us over for dinner tonight since they had a 3-pound pork loin from the farmer's market that they needed help eating. We jumped at the chance to hang out and enjoy each other's company and their fine culinary skills.

Ryan enjoyed two ears of corn while Kelly finished putting together the meal, and Kayla took a break from firing her water shooter to let me take her picture. Such cuties.

You had to watch out on the patio, or else this guy squirted you:

Even Vivi took a break from being miserable because of her teeth to enjoy the water festivities. 

Although she prefers her birthday suit these days to a swimsuit. Here she is with her hand in the chip bowl while going sans suit that I had brought. {Really, I did. She ran away from me kicking and flailing her arms when I tried to putting it on her. So I just let her be a baby, in the summer. Matt said I should put some clothes on her because his home isn't a nudist colony. I guess Vivi thought it should be.}

Owen took the water gun battle quite seriously. Here, he's trying to figure out where Kayla is, so he can plan his next water launch:

A huge thank you to Kel & Matt for hosting another fantastic spur-of-the-moment dinner party {our favorite kind}.

Happy Retirement Grandma Marshall!!!

Today was Grandma Marshall's retirement celebration picnic at the marina! We had so much fun meeting her colleagues and enjoying delicious grilled brats, hot dogs, burgers and amazing sockeye salmon on cedar planks!  For dessert, Aunt Hillary baked incredible cupcakes to celebrate Stephanie's birthday which she graciously allowed Owen to blow out her birthday candle. Such a beautiful afternoon to help send Grandma off into retirement with a smile. :)

We love you and are so proud of you!

Broadlands Live ~ take 2

The grandparents opted out of the concert, so we left them at home while we packed up some munchies and drinks to enjoy while listening to the music. This week we picked a perfect spot on the left side where we could see the big kids on the playground from the comfort of our picnic blanket. We randomly ended up sitting right in front of my friend who I met while recruiting at Patch! It was fun catching up with her and introducing her and her husband to the kids since she's heard me talk so much about them.

I didn't get any pictures of Owen, but if you look closely at the one Kayla is in, you can see his orange tee shirt behind her left shoulder. He was on "repeat" all night: climb up the ladder, slide down the fireman's pole. He'd do it ten times {or more!} and then run up the hill to ask us if we saw him. So cute and such a wonderful activity for wearing out your preschooler before bed! :)

The Playseum in Bethesda

This morning we took the kids to the Playseum in Bethesda for something new and different. It's a children's new and used bookstore which has been converted into a bunch of different rooms for the kids to explore and play in. There was an "Eastern Shore" room with a sand box and crabs on the wall, connected via tunnel to a fire engine room that had fire jackets and hats and a mini fire truck, and a beauty salon where girls can get their nails done or make lip balm, and also a pet shop and grocery store to go shopping.

Owen and Vivian had a ball, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get many pictures because I forgot to charge my camera before we left the house. I did get this one cute shot of Grandma & Vivi before we went in though:

After the museum, we ate lunch at a Cosi in downtown Bethesda and then walked around to check out the shops. We were drawn into a toy store and Grandma picked out a board game for the kids and two tracing travel games which we'll take on our beach trip in August.

Then it was over to Rockville to visit with a good friend of ours and his two grandsons. It was so fun to see the kids interact, especially Vivi trying to hold her own with the three boys throwing the football and tennis balls around. Dave's younger son JP who is three weeks younger than Vivi, went over and gave her a kiss on the cheek at one point ~ completely un-prompted. It was so cute! Such a fun afternoon and the kids took great naps on the way home to top it off.