Waiting for Rainbows: July 2013

Aubrey’s and Avery’s vocabulary has really started to take off. It seems that every day you hear a new word that they say. We always knew that Aubrey was going to be a talker, and well that still holds true. She is a bit more verbal than Avery, but nonetheless, both girls are accumulating words verbally or via sign language. Our top favorites are: “I Love You” (daddy was the first to hear this from Aubrey), and “Thank You Jesus.” We pray before every meal and before bedtime and our prayers always start with “Thank you Jesus.” Aubrey says these words so sweetly--it just melts my heart. When I ask Avery to say it, she excitedly folds her hands in prayer and babbles something that resembles the phrase. Aubrey says both names Aubrey and Avery with distinct syllables and Avery says their names as either “Aww” for Aubrey or “A” for Avery. She recognizes that the first sound is different, so she is definitely not far behind. Other words that they have added to their vocabulary, just to name a few are: ball, book, car, bus, go, cat, milk, blue, yellow, pink, chair, cup, bowl, diaper, dirty, shoes, toes, cheese, owl, door, close, eggs, hat, star and quite a few more. Their favorite animal noises are the coyote (howl), owl (hoot), monkey (ee ee), snake (sss), and occasionally the cow (moo). Who knew that talking would be so fun!

This month we have had a lot of fun at the library for mini shows in the afternoon. They do a wonderful job bringing in entertaining guests and things for kids to do. It also is a great tool for me to have the girls sit in my lap and pay attention for 30 minutes. This month they saw lots of magic tricks (including some with a bird flying around the library!), pet a snake, and played with balloons. Of course, we also spent plenty of time at the pool or splash pad or even in the back yard with all our water activities at home. The girls now can navigate the public baby pool on their own and move around. We also have practiced holding their breath and we dunk them under the water for a few seconds and they are doing well 90% of the time…the other 10% of the time, not so much! They enjoy being on their bellies in the water and kicking, kicking, kicking, but surely are not a fan of being on their back! Next year we will introduce swimming lessons.

Nana was able to visit this month and she sure enjoyed her time with her grandchildren. We pack our times full of activities, which keeps us all busy and hopping! We had a professional photographer come while she was visiting and we got a lot of great shots in our backyard. It was very hot, so we had to cut it short, but I think we got some good ones. Gramma comes this coming week and I’m sure she will love spoiling the girls just as much. The girls are very loved.

I had to work July 4^th and Jay had the holiday with the girls. He took them to a community event where they enjoyed watermelon and dippin’ dots ice cream. He said they LOVED the dippin’ dots ice cream—shocking!! Jay was so sweet to then visit me at work so I could get my loving in on the holiday to all my favorites. The girls enjoyed seeing the helicopter and actually sitting in the helicopter. They also reaped the benefits of eating some yummy food that our team prepared to enjoy for the holiday. Our building was empty except for our team because of the holiday, so we also had a good time running up and down the hallways, hiding behind walls and playing peek-a-boo. It’s the simple things in life!

For my upcoming birthday I requested that we have a family day at Palm Beach in Moody Gardens. We ended up taking advantage of it early because we wanted to go when it was less crowded on a Friday. Palm Beach is a fun place for kids that has a nice splash pad, a fun lazy river, and a wave pool. We definitely loved the lazy river a lot. Jay and I each took a daughter and had them ride along on the tubes with us. We loved all the water spouts that drenched us as we floated along. The girls also got their first real experience with soft, dry sand. Aubrey immediately was all in—rubbing the sand all over her body like she was preparing to exfoliate. Avery took a little while longer to warm up to it, but once she had some sand castle toys, she was ready to have fun. I’m pretty sure it took us 3 days to wash off all the sand! We then went to Rainforest Café for dinner and enjoyed our meal together. We finished the night off with Rita’s Italian Ice which was a real treat because this is the first Rita’s I have found down south. I would say it was a perfect day.

I was really excited about my big sewing project that I made this past month for the girls. They are library bags for us to put their books in when we visit the library. I added a special touch by adding a helicopter and their names on it. My other project that I just finished was hooded towels, inspired by my mom’s friend Maureen. Mine are definitely not as professional and fancy, but for the amount of times we are getting wet, towels are a handy item!

Enjoy the pictures!

Vroom, vroom! Enjoying the Children's Museum.

Move on over!

Having the time of her life!

My baby is all grown up!

My girls!

Fourth of July fun at the library....balloons, balloons, balloons!

Thank you Nana for our pretty dresses.

I promise, I'm not ringing her neck!

Having fun with momma at work on July 4th.

Check out these moves! I love Aubrey sticking out her tongue!
Sitting in the helicopter for the first time.

Laughing, laughing, laughing! These are the moments that I love.

These girls are just too sweet!

Avery is about to push Aubrey out!

It was extremly bright...Avery and I were not fortunate enough to have sunglasses!

I just can't believe how old she looks here! Yum, Yum.

Enjoying dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.

And her crown stayed on:)

While this isn't the best photo, it was the only photo at Palm Beach (Moody Gardens) after all our fun. Needless to say, the girls had a great time splashing around. I can't get over how grown up they look in the stroller these days!