Random stuff

One of Becca and Richie's favorite parts of the library is the fish tank.

I need to thank Amy for changing her background, which made me see what site she used and that made me change my background about a half dozen times. What fun!

We really have no plans all week. This is really unusual for us. Richie is still a little sick though. Just a runny nose. We have a lot of fun parties to go to this weekend to make up for this week and hopefully Richie will be back to full strength by then.

When I took Becca to see the In Between the Lion show, they gave us a free CD. Becca has been obsessed with it so much that we have lied and said the car's CD player is broken in order to listen to anything else. This week, I brought Becca her very own CD player for her room. The past two days she has listened to her CDs in her room for an hour each time. This is so nice. We took Becca to the library today to borrow more CDs.

Becca has pretty much given up the nap :( She naps every 3-5 days. So more often than not she is up all day. It is nice to get her to have quiet time. The CD player will hopefully keep that going. The whole nap thing is difficult. She seems like she still needs a nap most days. She is often miserable by 5 which makes for a long night even with the earlier bed time. When she does nap it makes bedtime hard. She will get up several times to get an extra kiss or because she needs one more story. Sometimes she is up and down till 10 which is much too late. It is a no win situation. I think I prefer the earlier bed time because dealing with her at night is just too much.

The Animal

Ignore the weird shadows in the photo and the doorway that needs repainting.

We spent far too much time yesterday investigating vacuums and prices. I think it was all worth it. We ended up buying the Dyson DC 07 at Target. It is usually a $500 vacuum. Yikes. It was on clearance for $249 but they only had the floor model and didn't want to sell it to us. We went to another Target but the vacuums were not on clearance there. We went back to the original store and talked to a different person. Not only did they sell us the vacuum but the marked it down another 10% because they didn't have a box. We opened a store credit card to save more. The vacuum only ended up costing $214. Not bad for a Dyson. Dyson will spend us the warranty info to our house and an attachment that was missing. The warranty is for 5 years. We have been going through vacuums at the rate of 1 a year. This should save us money. I'm excited. But I can't figure out how to use the wand yet without the manual. They surprisingly don't have them online.

We missed playgroup today since Richie still has a runny nose. I got his cold too. Luckily summer colds seem to be mild at least. Nothing else to report.

Impromptu Visit to see Nanna and Granddad

Rich had to go to a stag last night. So I called my parents and we met at Friendly's for dinner. They kids ate well at the restaurant but even better when we got to Nanna and Granddad's house.

Fooling around.

Finding the freshest produce.

Telling secrets.

Stealing tomatoes and eating them like a big boy.

What's better than green beans from the garden?

The bounty from the garden.

Sunflower Maze

We went to enjoy the Peach Festival and sunflower maze at our local orchard. We had a lot of fun. Last year Becca freaked out in the maze because of the bees and I had to carry her through it all. It is a lot easier to enjoy without lugging her around. She enjoyed smelling the flowers and racing through the maze.

The family in the maze.

Becca

View from the maze.

Richie relaxing in the stroller.

Cold and Doctor Visits

Tuesday I took Morgan to the vets. He looks good but too chubby. He was actually down to 100lb. from 103lbs. last year. We are going to try giving him a handful of carrots with dinner to help him feel fuller and less likely to steal food. I have started the jammie walks again. Jammie walks are early morning walks with the kids still in their jammies to save time. We go early so Morgan, the temperature sensitive dog can tolerate it. The kids get a kick out of walking in their pjs.

Wedneday night Richie was up 4 times between 1-3:30 am. I wasn't sure what was wrong with him. He just wanted to lie on my chest. The next day I could tell that he was getting another cold. Ugghh, summer colds stink.

Thursday Richie had his 15 month old checkup. The doctor checked him out and his cold is only in his head/nose. That was good news since he was rubbing his ear the way Morgan does when he has an ear infection. I think he likes to mimic him. Richie is growing like a weed. He grew almost 2 inches since his year checkup. He is 33 inches tall and 26.6 lbs. He is holding steady on the charts at 95% for height and 75% for weight.

Happy Birthday Great Nana!

Happy Birthday Nana. Have some extra cake for us.

Fun at the Track

I took the kids to the high school's track today. I thought that Richie would love it. So much open space and it is fenced in. I let Becca bring her stroller for her baby. They loved it. Next time I'll have to bring a push toy for him too. Here are some of the pics:

We have nicknamed Richie "Forest" as in Gump because he loves to run.

Becca stopped to rest from all that exercise.

Becca showing off her gymnastics skills.