4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July--complete with a morning bike ride (Note: this was NOT the highlight of our day; we have yet to get to the point where bike riding is truly enjoyable!), an afternoon of swimming with friends and then a concert in the park. The kids hadn't napped for a couple of days (too busy with summer fun!), so they didn't make it to the fireworks--maybe next year! Everyone was (reasonably) well behaved and very happy. Wish that we could've taken more pictures-but the camera stayed firmly in the backpack while we played and chased the little ones around! We are loving summertime!

Swimming

Delaney and Elliot love taking swimming lessons together. And I love to watch them; there is just nothing better in this world than watching my children enjoy their lives. Nearly everyday Elliot asks me---'Do we having swimming lesson today?', and if I tell him no, then he starts begging for a lesson. Elliot can get pretty goofy and silly during swimming (no surprise!), so he's working on being a better listener. He's pretty comfortable in the water--sometimes a little too comfortable!

It took a couple of months, but Delaney has learned how to put her face in the water and blow bubbles. And man, can she ever blow bubbles for a long time! Literally two weeks ago, she wouldn't put her face in the water, and now, she can stay under water for a sometimes alarming amount of time. This is so typical of Delaney-once she makes up her mind to do something, she'll do it perfectly.

Delaney is super happy with her new swimming skills and literally, everytime that she comes up for air, she looks over at me with a huge smile and yells across the pool--'Mom, do you see me??? Are you sooo proud of me???' It's adorable and vulnerable and so endearing. Moments like these make me really question if this sweet child is really the same little girl whose tantrums can shake the walls of our house. I don't get it. She is absolutely the most adorable and delightful little creature but then she also is so infuriating, frustrating and demanding. So complex.

I love my little swimmers!

Beach Days

We've been spending a lot of time at the beach the last couple of weeks. Lake Tahoe is amazing--I can't believe how lucky we are to live so close and I can't think of anywhere else that I would rather live. And the kids seem to love the lake as much as I do!--This summer has been so much fun because the kids can easily spend 5 hours on the beach, digging, jumping, wading and just being kids. And the baby has been wonderful---happier than anything while playing in the sand and when she needs to nap, I just pop her into my front carrier and she'll snooze for 30 minutes or so and then be ready to go---she's great. Granted, it's a lot of work for me to take the kids to the beach by myself--but we do it a number of times a week, so I've got my system down and it's totally worth the effort.

Today, we headed to the beach with Dave and it was so nice to have an extra set of hands on the beach! We had a great day.

Operation Chunk-Up Louisa

We needed to put some weight on this little girl. A little over two weeks ago, I took Louisa to the doctor for a nasty cold--when she was weighed, the doctor and I noticed that she had only gained 8 ounces in three months--definitely not adequate weight gain for a growing girl! Louisa eats very well but obviously isn't getting the calories that she needs. So--we started adding a considerable amount of calories to her diet---adding formula and oatmeal to her baby food (initially this was really hard for me--Louisa is breastfed and I know that breast milk is the best for her, but I'm really not up to pumping at this point--so I copped out and bought some formula), feeding her a ridiculous amount of baby yogurt and giving her a number of spoonfulls of cream cheese!

We had a weight check at the doctor's office today and she has gained 1 lb 4 oz in 17 days! She now weighs 14 lbs 4 oz---still tiny but growing well. Go Louisa!

Mornings

Mornings can be ridiculously chaotic at our house---everyone wants / needs something NOW---drinks, breakfast, diaper changes, a ridiculous number of trips to the potty, clothes picked out, clothes changed, sunscreen on every square inch of three little bodies, snacks packed, extra clothes packed and oh yes, Louisa likes to be held 24 hours a day. It's stressful and not my favorite time of day. But even in the mornings there are glimpses of peace--I've been working out very early a lot of mornings and when I arrive home at 7 AM or so, all three kids have been in bed with their daddy--the girls snuggle and Elliot jumps. It's pretty precious.

Once everyone is herded out to the family room, the real day begins---Elliot gets extra hyper and the kids start playing, playing, playing. The interaction between the three kids is so cute.

Finally, The Beach

This Spring has been unusually cold. Last year, we were on the beach by Mother's Day--but not this year. In fact, the weather has been pretty wretched until recently. But I think that summer is finally here. The kids and I headed with a friend to Cave Rock today and it was great---the kids played and played and played. Louisa was a great sport and happily played in the sand---this child puts nothing in her mouth, nothing---not even food---it's pretty amazing---I sat her in the sand, and she just played with the sand, picking up little rocks and everything, but never once put anything in her mouth--crazy. Laney and Elliot had a blast playing with their buddy, jumping into the water, running everywhere and rolling around in the sand.

After the beach, we headed to another friend's house to play in the sprinklers and slip-and-slide. No one napped today and the kids were exhausted, but again, super well behaved and very happy.

Aces

We went to our first Reno Aces (minor league baseball) game. I must say that I was pretty impressed--and not with the actual baseball playing-I hardly watched a single play-this happens when you take three little ones to a game, but with the stadium and the experience as a whole. I'm not sure what I was expecting---but the stadium was super nice--complete with a bouncy house and little playground. We bought general admission tickets (throw-your-blanket-on-the-lawn)-which was very, very smart---we really only sat for a few minutes. The weather was perfect and Laney, Elliot and Louisa were very well behaved---which made for a very, very nice day.