Meet Spencer

Aunt Alissa is in town for a few days.

It's been fun to catch up with her, and finally meet Cousin Spencer.

Joy helped Grandma cook . . .

. . . and Spencer discovered that uncles can be a lot of fun.

You Can Take Me to the Fair

Our stake hosted its annual fair this weekend. I love that there is always so much to do, and it's all free.

Joy had fun checking out the petting zoo,

. . . riding a pony,

. . . playing in a bounce house with Daddy (we assumed there would be fewer rowdy boys in the "Disney Princess" one, but apparently boys think ANY place is a good place for a wrestling match),

. . . and eating snow cones. Mmmm . . . bubble gum. Phillip thought that flavor was DELICIOUS. Just ask him. ;)

Overachiever

Notice anything special about this photo?

I mean other than the fact that Daniel looks half asleep. Look closer.

The kid's got a tooth, and another about to break through! Good grief--he's not even four months old and he's got teeth already. Joy got her first tooth around Memorial Day, too, but she was two months older at the time. I wonder if Daniel will talk sooner as well, or if he'll be just as content to communicate via grunts until he starts nursery.

The Day the Sky Fell

Years ago, a college friend told me that the Viet Cong often staged ambushes from trees because American soldiers were so intent on what was ahead of them that they rarely looked up. Over the years that conversation has occasionally resurfaced in my mind, and when it does I usually look up, just to see if there's anything interesting there. Usually there isn't, but sometimes there is. Like this:

A few nights ago I noticed our bathroom ceiling was bulging downward, and the plaster was cracked at the bottom. The roof had always sagged a bit there, but I hadn't remembered it being that bad. I decided to keep an eye on it.

Later that night after I woke up to feed Daniel, I checked on the bulge and discovered it had sunk several inches lower, and the crack that was the length of my finger was now the length of my hand. I tried to go back to sleep, but I kept hearing ominous creaking noises from our bathroom. I finally woke Phillip up to let him know what was going on, and the moment he looked at our ceiling he agreed that it would break before the morning did. Sure enough . . .

Around 4am several square feet of our ceiling caved in. It was kind of a relief--now that it had finally happened I didn't have to worry about it anymore. We inspected the damage, and noticed a leaky pipe that was no doubt the cause of the problem.

I'm glad to report that when we contacted our apartment managers the next morning, they promptly arranged for the fix-it guys to come work on our bathroom.

They tore out a huge swath of our ceiling, fixed the leaky pipe, hammered, plastered, and painted . . .

. . . and now our bathroom is as good as new. Huzzah!

Moral of the story: Don't forget to look up. You never know what you might see.

Joy Meets Chalk

Joy recently discovered the delights of sidewalk chalk. She does little of the actual drawing herself, though.

Mostly she delegates the practical applications of chalk to her Mama or any neighbors who happen by, . . .

. . . while she focuses her energy on chalk-related research, such as "Does chalk draw in dirt?" (it doesn't), or "How many pieces will chalk break into if we drop it?" (two pieces most of the time, but we did mange to produce three fragments on one of our drops).

Smiley

Daniel has lots of reasons to smile these days.

Here are just a few . . .

1) His mom finally dressed him in spiffy Sunday clothes, instead of just taking him to church in his pajamas.

2) He has lots of books to read (someday).

3) He discovered that his hand makes a great pacifier (much better than all those plastic imitations).

4) He possesses the power of levitation.

5) He has a really fun big sister.

If you can't use the arms, then be creative!

Daniel spends some of his time each day in his little green baby-sized seat, and one of the things that Joy has decided that she likes is to put the arch on the seat and swing the toys around for him. He has become quite captivated by these swinging toys, but still doesn't have enough control over his hands and arms to move the toys himself. Never fear, though - today he showed his problem-solving skills when he discovered and capitalized on the fact that if he kicks his legs vigorously, all three toys will swing wildly.


Even though it was close to his naptime, he entertained himself for a good 15-20 minutes kicking his legs. You can see from the picture that he's pretty concentrated on watching the toys. Fun times, for both father and son.

Mother's Day Lessons

In the spirit of Mother's Day, our kids are learning important lessons from some of the women in their lives.

Here Grandma teaches Joy the importance of nurturing others . . .

. . . and Aunt Emily teaches Daniel the importance of smiling for the camera (we're still working on that one.)

At the Lake

We spent this weekend with my parents up at the lake.

It's a lovely place for quiet walks, . . .

. . . interacting with local wildlife (though it's debatable how wild they are if they don't even care that you're throwing food at them), . . .

. . . and just relaxing with family. :)

More Baby Fun

After three months as a big sister, Joy still thinks that baby stuff is pretty cool.

Like laying on blankets . . .

. . . and sucking on pacifiers. Actually, she finds pacifiers much more interesting than Daniel does--he always sucks for about five seconds, then grimaces and spits them out. Joy never liked them as a baby, either, but now she'll walk around with one in her mouth for an hour if we let her.

Joy also recently gave us a preview of the face-painting fun that will soon become commonplace once Daniel starts solids in a month or two. Rice cereal, here we come!

Baby and Bear 2

Babies sure change a lot in a month's time.

Here's Daniel at about two months old. At that point he was cute, but not very interactive.

Fast forward a month, and our little man is bigger, more aware, and more engaged with his surroundings. He's also starting to babble a bit. Our little conversations (comprised mainly of coos, gurgles, and smiles) are among my favorite activities these days.