Summer fun, packing begins . . .

We have officially started packing. It's only something like 10 boxes, but it's a start. I'm pretty sure I'll start feeling the time pressure that I need pretty soon, and the progress will pick up. We talked to the last of our neighbours about the fence today - everything seems to be a go (although there was a severe language barrier! They seem really nice, though:)). The sellers of the house are being really difficult and not responding to our requests to get in and measure for blinds. I'm annoyed about that because it's July and I don't want to be without window coverings (and air conditioning) for weeks because they can't be bothered to fulfill our purchase contract (which clearly states we can get in twice before possession). They have been so difficult to work with from the start - less than two weeks and we won't have to deal with them anymore!

Adam now gives me kisses when I ask him:). They are quite open-mouthed, but he is definitely purposefully showing affection and I love it! He was really sad in the church nursery today for some reason. I don't know if it's his eye teeth (working on the third one at the moment) or if it's just increased separation anxiety, but there were a lot of tears today.

We've had a lot of fun days the last few weeks! We've finally had some summer weather (over 20 degrees once or twice!) and we've taken full advantage - zoo, wading pools, and yesterday we went to Calaway Park! We were there for 5 and a half hours, and Lynsey was still disappointed when it was time to go! Adam did really well - even had a little nap in the stroller, which shocked me! He pretty much just sat in the stroller and munched on popcorn all day (I think this is the life for him!). He went on a few rides with us, but he didn't seem to care that much about them. There were a few smiles and even a few giggles, but all in all, this day was for Lynsey:).

Our dancing girl and newly climbing boy!

Adam has been making some welcome advancements in his mobility over the last week or so! He has started trying to climb on things at the park, and actually made his way up the stairs to the slide the other day and slid down backwards on his tummy on the slide, unexpectedly on his part:). He now gets in and out of his car by himself and gets on and off his alphabet train as well. It seems he finally realized that he could climb more than just stairs! He's not as cuddly these days, which makes me kind of sad, but I knew it couldn't last forever. Music has such an effect on him to calm him down - he was totally freaking out yesterday for quite a while, and I turned some music on and it wasn't long before he was calm and playing again. Again, I think we might have a musical child on our hands! I'll try not to get my hopes up too high haha:). We have also started letting him feed himself with a spoon sometimes - he's doing pretty well! He's not that messy, although he doesn't often get much food into his mouth. I remember this when Lynsey was learning how to feed herself, too - he turns the spoon upside down before it gets into his mouth! He is getting better, though - practice makes perfect! One thing we've noticed is that when he's feeding himself, he chews a bit faster - he has been the SLOWEST eater lately! He'll cheek food for hours after meals sometimes - Brian has started emptying his mouth before letting him leave the table.

I don't think I've adequately talked about Lynsey's imagination so I need to talk about that today! Jesse and Bullseye (from the Toy Story movies) have been her imaginary friends for some time now. She just loves to run around with them, and was doing so at the park the other day, causing some older girls to make fun of her a little bit. They were telling her that Bullseye and Jesse weren't there, and this caused our poor girl to get quite upset - she adamant that they WERE. I tried to tell the girls that she was just pretending, subtly suggesting that they should just leave her alone - it's not Lynsey's fault these girls had no imagination! She also has started concocting some elaborate stories when trying to get out of something. The other day she came downstairs with a shirt that I knew for a fact had to be from the bottom of our laundry hamper (she has two favorite shirts and they always get worn right after I do laundry). I asked her where she had gotten her shirt and she insisted that it was from her drawer. I went up to our room and sure enough, all the clothes from our hamper were scattered on the floor. I asked her to come up and explain that, and she exclaimed that Adam had done it. When confronted with the cold, hard facts, that Adam was in fact not tall enough to have committed this offense, without flinching, she launched into a story about how Adam had SUDDENLY grown really tall, emptied the hamper, and then shrunk back down again. Eventually, after asking a lot of questions, I got the truth out of her. I'm not convinced that she is being at all devious in her deception at this point, but I do think it's important that she learn that it's important to tell the truth when we ask her questions.

Speaking of clothes, I have to talk about how frustrating the clothing battle has become. She has so few things that she actually wants to wear, and the battles to get her to wear something she DOESN'T want to wear have only intensified. I've actually thrown up my hands a bit, and bought her more pink dresses yesterday. What's the point in arguing with her for an hour before going somewhere! It only puts both of us in a bad mood. She has chosen pink as her favorite colour, and dresses and skirts as her favorite thing to wear, all with no pressure from me. She is a girl through and through, and I'm just going to let her be (for now anyway:)).

Our little girl loves to dance. Several times in Sunday School, she has forgone the opportunity to colour her picture in favour of "dancing" (so she says, and Brian has been in the class and testifies that this is true! She just dances around while the other kids are colouring!). I'm going to look into the different options there are for dance for her age and get her enrolled in something in the fall. I don't want to start with a lot of different things, but I decided we would pick one for the fall, and dance seems to be what she's the most interested in!

We are just over three weeks away from taking possession of our new house. I guess that means I get to start packing soon. Anyone want to trade places with me over the next few weeks??

Home hair cuts make for stressed out Mommies

Well, we had our first experience with Lynsey cutting her own hair last week:(. It was devastating to me. I came out of the shower and she was leaning over the garbage in the kids' bathroom, and the first thing I saw was the hair in the garbage - so much hair. She looked up all happy and showed me the scissors (the nice hair scissors which we trustingly had in her reach - I never would have thought she would do something like this). I literally fell to my knees and cried "NOOO" several times - kind of like they do in the movies when something tragic happens. I kept saying "No!" over and over and I was bawling and it didn't take Lynsey long to realize that something was horribly wrong and she started crying, too. I thought it was really bad at the time, but when I took her to Beaners to get it fixed, she layered all her hair and it actually didn't turn out that badly. She had just cut a bunch of hair in the front really short which still looks a bit funny, but when she has a clip in, her hair actually looks just fine. I realize now that I totally overreacted, but I was seeing visions of having to cut her hair boy-short and she's a flower girl in less than a month! Everything is okay now and my heart is off the floor and back in my chest:).

In other Lynsey news, she got her cavities filled on Friday and did great! They weren't too deep so they used these white plastic fillings so you can't even see them. She was under General Anesthesia and came out fine, thank goodness:). What a little trooper!

I think I mentioned this once a long time ago, but I feel it's worth repeating - my little buddy Adam is obsessed with doors. Closing them, getting mad when they close so we have to open them, closing them again and getting mad again . . . and so on it goes. Again I am struck by his one track mind. Yesterday at the play area in the mall, he climbed up and down this little flight of stairs up to a slide for a good twenty minutes - over and over. This morning in the pool he sat there in the shallow water literally just watching what was going on around him for at least twenty minutes. Later on when I sat in the same spot again, he did get up and start walking around in the shallow water, sitting down and getting up every ten to fifteen seconds or so. What a kid - still can't figure him out!

We just got back from talking to our future neighbours about putting the fence up - what a load off our minds! One of them wasn't home so we left them a note, but the other two seemed nice, and agreeable to hire it our which is nice. This week has been busy with trying to book everything - A/C, deck, fence, cement. So much to get done this summer! It's all coming together, though, which is nice:).