June 1st?!  Are you serious?  What have our days been filled with that I couldn’t get around to making a couple posts?  Well, I’ll tell you.  First there was Mother’s Day…which was wonderful! It included naps, shopping, and dad babysitting.  What more could you ask for?

Then, of course, there’s the sandbox…

And at least one of us is developing amazing stomach muscles while doing sit-ups and crunches in the bouncy seat…

I discovered that my daughter (who has feet too small to even wear shoes) has more shoes than I do, thanks to generous friends with girls!

Now that I’m finished with breastfeeding, I’ve started a diet which means a lot more trips to the grocery store for fresh fruits and veggies.  Luckily Costco builds carts for TWO!  (He was only slightly attacking her with tickles…I’ve never seen a girl more patient with being pestered.)

Sometimes Kyle and I act more like  a 62 year old couple than a 32 year old couple.  One weekend we even went to an RV Show, just to take a look around and see if there was anything we couldn’t live without.  And we’ve also been on more than a few fishing trips this month, but thankfully never had to leave the living room.

We had to laugh at how this fishing game perfectly exemplified how differently Kyle and I work.  Kade wanted a “new” game one afternoon so I told him we’d go fishing.  He was thrilled at the idea and of course, had no patience and wanted to play right then and there.  So I grabbed some construction paper and gave some to Kyle and we both went to work cutting out fish.  My fish were completely boring: I had about 7 fat fish and 7 skinny fish.  The end.  But they were ready to be played with in less than 5 minutes.  Kyle disappeared into the office for over half an hour, leaving me to wonder if he had forgotten about the whole thing altogether.  But then he emerged with perfectly detailed sharks, seahorses, whales, swordfish and lobsters (or “mobsters” as Kade calls them).  I always give him a bad time about having a disease that forces him “slightly upgrade” everything…but in the end it always benefits everyone.  So even though it sometimes takes AGES to complete, I really can’t complain.

Kade’s been reading a few books about being a big brother and loves helping with Berlin even more now.  She was so excited that he was there that not much eating took place.  We’ll keep practicing since I love the help!

Our flowers and plants in the backyard are doing great.  Kade is still waiting for the zucchini bread to start growing, but luckily the plants have managed to survive the snails, our arch enemy.

I grew up in Colorado, which is usually very very dry.  So I’m pretty sure I was about 25 before I’d ever even seen a snail in real life before.  Not so for Kade, he discovered these guys on a plant in the backyard.

Unfortunately, that’s not all he discovered.  He also came across a giant rusty stake which works brilliantly as a hobo pole or as a weapon to ward off attacks from various imaginary assailants.

Berlin is becoming more and more tolerant of playing on her stomach but is still not a huge fan.

Sometimes it just all becomes too much and she can’t hold that head up for even one more second…some days I know exactly how she feels.

We’ve also taken a few trips to the park.  Kade is SO outgoing and friendly, it’s really cute to watch.  He’ll tell just about anyone (kids in the park, people walking by on the sidewalk, checkout clerks at the grocery store), “Hi, I’m Kade.  K-A-D-E.  That spells Kade.  You want to be my friend?”  This little boy came to the park with two trucks and after Kade befriended him, was generous enough to share and the two of them drove (with motors revved!) all over the park, mostly up and down the slides…No, that’s not dangerous!

Berlin, is a little more quiet, at least for the time being.  And is content to chill in the stroller while Kade runs around like a madman.

I’m not sure if any of you have read  Sandra Boynton’s book Blue Hat, Green Hat but in it is a turkey that always gets dressed the wrong way.  It’s one of Kade’s favorites and sometimes the only way to really experience a book is to act it out.

This little girl is made of solid muscle!  A lot of times holding a baby can feel like holding a soft pillow, not with this one.  She LOVES standing, jumping, dancing with those almost chubby legs and every time she does she flexes her arms and torso.  I can claim a few of her traits came from me: eyes – check, dark hair – check, metabolism and muscle tone…definitely not!

I love how mischievous he looks in this picture, when in reality he was being an angel and wrote out the entire alphabet.  Not bad for a two year old, eh?  At Christmas time, I got him this dry erase activity book for the plane, and he thoroughly enjoys tracing the letters and numbers in it, but just in the last few weeks he’s started to write out the alphabet with no reference point whatsoever.  Since I’ve never actually “taught” him though, he draws each of them from bottom to top and right to left.

We also just closed on the refi of our condo down in LA.  Kyle and I were lucky enough to buy it at the very pinnacle of the housing market and although we still value it, it’s value has dropped considerably.  So it was time to try to lower that monthly payment as much as possible.  I can’t tell you how glad I am that that process is over – so much paperwork, so many phone calls, so much time – but, it’s done.  Crossed off the list!  Hallelujah!!

So that’s what we’ve been up to lately.  I’ve been putting together some homeschool projects for Kade and purchased a few more decorating projects from the thrift store, but those will get their own updates later on.  Meanwhile, I hope you get to end this day with a snuggle from someone you love.