Father's Day

We had a pretty quite Father's Day. The kids snuggled up together for a show while we let Daddy sleep in.

Daddy and his girl enjoyed some ice cream cones together. 

But, Gianna spent most of the day tending to the needs of this caterpillar (the green thing toward the top right), who she named Lisa, for some reason. She literally spent hours rearranging Lisa's "house" of rocks and feeding her parsley (Lisa's favorite). Gianna was pretty sure Lisa wanted to eat and swim in that cup and shovel of water, but finally Doug was able to convince her that Lisa prefers dry parsley. Lisa ate a ton of it and by evening Lisa was gone, but left behind lots of poop, which was fascinating to Gianna ("Daddy, she pooped again!). It was very cute to see her so interested in this caterpillar even though there were moments of extreme dismay. Like when we told her that caterpillars don't like, want, or use pillows and blankets, even if these items were pebbles and leaves. I can just imagine us trying to force poor Lisa's head on to a pebble or to force her to keep a leaf on her. Good luck, Lisa, where ever you are!

Town Festival

Our town has a festival every year with free bounces, train rides, pony rides and games. It's pretty awesome. We invited Doug's brother's family and Nonna and Pop-pop to come check it out with us.  Last year it was about 1000 degrees I think. This year it was cold and rainy, which I preferred! The girls could get right on everything without waiting in line. And Gianna got on a horse, I think her cousin Bella showed her that it wasn't scary! Doug and I were very impressed! All in all, it was a fun day and we were thrilled to spend it with family.

Video catch up

I forgot in my last burst of postings that I had a bunch of videos on the camera. So here they are.

Mark celebrated his half-birthday on May 20th and shared his donut treat with Gianna.



He also has been working on his words. He's not the verbal master his sister was, but he's definitely trying. And I definitely understand more than anyone else, though Gianna has a good ear for Mark-speak.


And here's what we've been doing to keep cool. I should call this video, "Win-win." Doug wins because he enjoys spraying the children and the children win because they LOVE every minute of it! Oh and yes, Mark is wearing a swim diaper and yes, it is a pink, Dora one. He'll hate us for it, but hey we had them leftover. Don't judge. :)

Miscellaneous news and cuteness

Since this blog serves as my diary, I'm going to include some general things that have been going on around here. Doug started a new job last month. It's been a big adjustment to the longer commute, but we're getting used to it and Doug thinks he'll be much happier now.

On May 21, we celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! But had to save our actual celebrating for June because I left Doug and the kids and went to a girls weekend with my college besties. We had a wonderfully relaxing time. I wish we could see each other more often. Doug and I did finally celebrate our anniversary with a dinner out at a local Spanish/Portuguese restaurant that we'd never heard of before. It was AWESOME!

Okay, back to the usual blog subjects, the children!

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Gianna's gotten to be a really competent mouse user. She loves playing the games on our library's computer. Very serious.

We went to a friend's Memorial Day party and the kids got to make their own hats. She loved it!

If you remember, Mark was hospitalized a year ago for Kawasaki's disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. We will never know what he really had, but we have to proceed as if he had both. There is no follow-up for RMSV, but since Kawasaki's disease can affect the heart, in ways doctors can't fully know yet, Mark has to go for periodic checks. So last week I took him to the cardiologist for his echo. He hated it of course, but he was actually pretty good. And he looks so stinking cute in his gown. His results were all totally normal so we're very glad of that. He's such a happy little guy I often forget that he was ever so sick! So now he doesn't have to see the cardiologist until he's 5 and then when he's a teenager, they'll do a stress test. 

Unfortunately, right after this doctor visit, Mark got a fever and seemed to be feeling pretty bad, so when we took him to our regular doctor for his 18 month check-up, she found some bumps on his throat, which may or may not have been hand, foot, and mouth disease. He never had any other symptoms, so it was probably just a regular, old virus. In any case, he wasn't sleeping well, so when he did sleep he was super tired. I usually can't walk into his room without him popping up, but this week I did, so I thought I'd take a picture. So sweet.

Anyway, he seems to be feeling much better now. His stats for 18 months are 29 lbs, 1 oz and 35 inches tall. That's the 84th percentile for weight and the 97th for height. Where did our little giant come from?

Summer is here!

Okay, summer my not have officially arrived, but school is over for Gianna and we've busted out the pool, so it's summer at our house.

Gianna loves her new bathing suit.

Mark loves wearing his "suit" too. And he likes pouring water on my feet, or shorts and chair if he forgets himself.

But sometimes we have to beat the heat inside and make projects. When Mark's not eating the crafts, he loves to draw. 

Cousins!

Last month we visited Doug's brother and sister-in-law and their kids. I'm so glad they live close enough that we can see them on the weekends. The kids definitely love seeing each other. It was great to catch up and let the kids do a lot of playing.

The boys waiting for the bubble fun to begin.

Isabella gazing at the bubbles. I think her face is so precious in this picture!

The girls goofing around.

Mark and Jack enjoying a meal.

When some other friends came over, the children were enamored with baby Annabelle. So cute! I hope Mark doesn't always greet new lady friends without pants on.

Conversations with Gianna and Beans

Here are a few of Gianna's latest funnies:

(Doug walks in the house with a 2 liter bottle of soda)

Gianna: Whoa Daddy! That's a big chunk of beer!

(One day at the park (i.e. no bathrooms) Gianna really had to pee so I took her to a nearby bush.)

The next time at the park, she says, "Is that where I peed like a dog?"

(Mark puts on a toy necklace.)

Gianna: Mark, you look like a grown up girl! Big girl, big girl!

And, so we don't leave Mark out. Here he is. He likes black beans.