Wednesday, July 23, 2008

June 2008

--june started out with a bang! we drove to jersey and then flew to cancun, mexico with billy’s mom and stepdad. met his sister leah and stepbrother ryan there. then took a taxi to playa del carmen to the resort. the rooms were nice, the food was awesome, and the scenery was beautiful. we spent the week having a blast. we went swimming in the lagoon and pool, played lots of beach volleyball, got some not-so-fun sunburns, toured an ancient mayan village at talum, went floating down a river at xel-ha, and went to the nature/animal park (i guess that’s what you call it) at xcaret. aidan and sierra had tons of fun. i’d say aidan’s favorite part was either the beach (with iguanas roaming freely) or the animals at xcaret. sierra’s favorite part was definitely the food…and uncle ryan was impressed at how she down’d the refried beans! she ate a ton over that week…i don’t know how she didn’t gain a few pounds! billy and i made some friends playing volleyball, and one night he and i and leah went dancing at the “discoteca,” and had lots of fun.



--after mexico, our next trip was to annapolis to visit my stepbrother and his wife. the kids and i met my mom and sister there for a catch-up weekend. while nick and stephanie worked friday, we all went to d.c. for some sightseeing. we went to the zoo and on a d.c. ducks tour around the city. it was lots of fun, but really hot! aidan loved the animals and was very excited for the boat section of the duck tour. however he was so pooped by that time, that he fell asleep immediately and was REALLY upset that he didn’t go (or remember going) in the water! actually both of them fell asleep on me during the tour, so i really didn’t get to move for about 90 minutes…such is the life of a mommy though, right?? :) anyhow, the next day we walked around downtown annapolis with nick and steph. we toured the naval academy, which was pretty cool. then we went to a festival in the park and let sierra run around in the grass while aidan jumped and slid and tumbled. then went to a yummy dinner.


--we drove home from annapolis on father’s day and met billy and his dad, stepmom, sister devlin, and her boyfriend jeremy at brunch. they stayed for a week and we spent it at the pool and beach mostly. we went miniature golfing one day. aidan managed to lose his ball through the fence, where it rolled into the middle of the street…after first (intentionally) tossing it into the “stream” that acts as an obstacle on the course! however, he did get two holes-in-one that day, so his ability to possibly fund our retirement plan overcame his little delinquencies of the day. tiger woods started golfing at age three, right??? haha! we also went on a dolphin-watch. the boat took us out for about a 90minute tour. we saw lots of dolphins, and aidan absolutely loved it.

--grandma and grandpa stayed for sierra’s birthday. we had a little family party for her. she had a ball. she got to open presents (instructed by aidan, of course), play with new toys, and dig in in her birthday cake!
--accomplishments of the month for sierra include pushing toys around the room, playing the drums, riding the toy car, pointing at what she wants or in response to “where’s mommy?” she also started standing without pulling up, is “running” all over, and has stopped crying at the gym. she was great for a while, then wouldn’t let me go for longer than 40minutes (25minutes being the shortest amount of time i got before the lady came to get me because she was screaming her head off). she still has an internal clock that won’t let me go much past an hour, but hey, it’s an hour now, so i won’t complain!
--some more things she’s started doing are giving hi-fives, dancing alternating between the head-banging motion and the squat-and-bounce. she dances when she hears someone say the word ‘dance’ or hears music. she claps when she hears someone say either ‘clap’ or ‘yea’ or when she hears others clapping. we taught her to throw too. the only interest she had on balls thus far was to try to eat them…as opposed to aidan who LOVED balls (throwing, bouncing, rolling) so much his first word was actually ball. anyway, she now throws the ball and claps for herself after each throw!

--we went to the doctor for sierra’s 12month check up. she was 30inches long, and 18pounds, 14ounces. she’s still up there in height at 75%, but has dropped in weight to 15%. doctor said “she’s getting skinny on us.” she doesn’t actually look skinny, and to see her eat, there’s no way she’s not getting enough calories (she eats as much as aidan these days…seriously.) she’s just thinning out, i guess. she had to get four shots and have blood drawn that day too…BAAAAAAD day. she screamed and cried, and just gives you that look, like “how could you?” terrible! and the guy who drew her blood…you’d think they’d require it to be done by someone less shaky…especially on such tiny veins. she had a nasty bruise after that, poor thing.
--aidan is learning about red lights and green lights. the arrow lights confused him at first…he wondered why we had to stop when there was a green light. he’s also started a lot of pretend play. he wants his animals to talk, which means he wants me (or whoever) to make them make conversation. when he has to do it by himself, it’s fun to listen to the things he says. sometimes he repeats things we’ve said to him: “you understand me” and “wait a second.” and sometimes he comes up with some weird stuff: “of course i want my cheese!” one day when he was eating raisins, he was telling them, “you’re going in the monster…you’re going in the monster too…” he’s started telling me what to say to him. when i’m teaching him appropriate responses, i’ll tell him to “say thank you” or “say yes” or whatever. now he’ll tell me something and then tell me to “say okay,” after asking “you understand me?”

--he and sierra still get along really well. sometimes they play together, sometimes they play against each other…meaning she wants to play with what he’s playing with, and he doesn’t want her to. i taught him that instead of just taking what he wants away from her, he needs to trade her for it. so, even if it’s not something he had first, but it’s something he wants, he’ll bring her some random toy. one time, she had one of his (seven) frogs, and he totally freaked out. he went running to the toy box saying, “here, sierra. here, sierra,” and gave her a jumprope handle. what a good big brother he is, right?? and by the way, she didn’t mind the trade at all!

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