Update on the Kiddies

Let's start with Olivia. It is now summer vacation, so she is home all the time. She is a great helper with the babies when she wants to be, but sometimes she has random episodes where she just freaks out for no reason. I don't get it. She's been learning to ride her bike without training wheels. It took her a little while at first, but now she does great. Her latest achievement is going around people on the sidewalk instead of screaming at them to move. We recently borrowed some books from a neighbor. They're called "Bob Books". They're very short, maybe 6-8 pages with only 3-6 word sentences on each page. And the words are very short and easy to help beginning readers. It's mostly to teach how to put the sounds together and Olivia has been doing pretty good at it. I highly recommend these books. You can get them at Barnes and Noble if anyone is interested...And this weekend Olivia is going to go on a short vacation with just her grandparents. It will be the first time she'll ever sleep away from her mom and dad. She was so excited about it that she wanted to pack today, even though she isn't leaving until Friday. So she went upstairs and pulled out a couple of bags and put some random things in, like dress-up clothes, a tea pot, a couple of dolls, a few pairs of shoes, some socks, a baby blanket, and I think she even managed to get a few items of clothing into them as well. It was really cute.

On to George. Today George did something he'd never done before. He went potty in the toilet!!! He'd been refusing to even try, so I just stopped asking for awhile and then I today after nap I had him sit on the potty and I said, "Maybe if you go, you'll get something special." And he said, "Like maybe I'll get a bouncy ball?" And I said, "Maybe." And just like that, he peed. It was pretty funny. So we called his mom, who was out at the store, and told her and she picked him up a couple of little presents. I'm just so proud of him. And he was really proud of himself.

The twins: They had their 2 month check-up today. Joey is 9 1/2 pounds and Jimmy is just over 9. And they're finally in a percentile. 3 for their head and 5 for height and weight, (except Jimmy whose head doesn't register yet). But hey, it's a start right? They didn't register for anything before. They both have colds this week and ear infections, so I know Carey has been up a lot. They get so uncomfortable and they're so stuffy it must be hard to breathe. But I guess yesterday they were a little fussy most of the day and didn't sleep much, so last night they slept for 6 hours. I'm sure that's just a fluke though. I cannot wait for them to become more interactive. They smile occasionally now, but soon they'll smile a lot and start to laugh and play with toys.

My own (not so) baby boys. I actually don't really know how Bryce and Blake are doing. Bryce is 5 now. I got him a cute little outfit at The Children's Place, my absolute favorite kid's clothing store. Their stuff is way cuter than Old Navy, and about the same price as you'd pay at Target, except for sometimes they have terrific deals. They'll be coming out to visit next month. Josh will be home for leave mid-late July, and Heather, and possibly Mike, will be bringing the boys out. My dad is planning on coming, too. So it'll be just a grand ol' time here in Iowa.