I thought I would update you all on our trip so far.  We have had a great time here in the Portland area with Andrew’s family.  Our flight was great and the kiddos were amazing.  So I was very thankful for that.  I hope that will be the same when we return home since I will be with the kiddos by myself.  Andrew will still be in Singapore.

We enjoyed our week doing multiple things which included a fun day at the beach.  We flew kites, jumped the waves, played in the tide pools, visited the outlet mall and ended the day by cooking hot dogs and headed to the beach for one last time, so Andrew could dip Anna’s toes in the Pacific Ocean.

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Andrew and Evan headed to New York on Thursday to go to their first Yankees game.  Andrew got Evan out of school a little early, took the train into the city and then jumped on the subway and headed to the game.  They got there during the third inning and stayed to the very end.  Evan had a great time.  He stuck it out the whole time and had fun eating cotton candy and enjoying the game.  And yes, the Yankees won against the San Diego Padres.  After the game, they decided to avoid rush hour train traffic and hung out in Time Square and  Toys R Us.  Then they had pizza and headed home.  It was a great father/son day and he’s already talking about doing it again next year.

Anna turned six months old on the twelfth but today was her six month checkup at the doctor. She is keeping pretty steady on the growth chart now weighing 17 pounds 6 ounces and 26 3/4 inches long. That is 82% for height and 75% for weight. She is doing well and doing all the appropriate things for her age. She still isn’t rolling from back to tummy but the doctor said a lot of babies do that between 7 and 8 months and her baby didn’t roll until 7 months. Anna is just a content laid back baby so she is in no hurry and neither am I. She has started eating solids and loves it. She can’t wait to get the next spoonful. Just like Evan was. Always ready to eat.

We had a great time during our trip to Wisconsin. We started out June 4th and drove to Youngstown, OH where we spent the night in a hotel. The next day was very, very long. But we finally arrived in New Berlin, Wisconsin and were so glad to get out of the car. It was so fun reconnecting with our friends from college that we hadn’t seen in almost 2 years. They have kids that are 4 and 6 years old so Evan was right in the middle. He had a great time playing with them.

The first day there we headed to the Milwaukee Zoo and had fun looking at animals and dodging rain storms. The weather was quite a factor in determining what we would do each day. There were massive thunder storms, tornado warnings, and eventually some flooding but nothing close enough to my friends house except for just massive amounts of rain. So we had fun watching the news and determining whether we should go down to the basement for cover. (more…)

I had to post this picture that we recently had taken.  Andrew was actually in the original picture holding Anna up but he doctored it on photoshop and took himself out.  Anyway, I just had to share this cute picture of little Anna.

On another note, we leave today on a long two day road trip to Wisconsin.  We are going there to see some friends from college and we are so excited!  It’s been almost two years since we have seen them and that’s just too long.  They used to live in Idaho and moved to Wisconsin a year and a half ago.  I’m sure there will be lots of pictures to post when I come back.

This past Friday Evan graduated from Pre-K. It was really cute. They had a little ceremony with diplomas, a speech, and songs. It was great and the kids did so well. Mr. Allan gave a speech reciting some wise words from none other than the famous Dr. Seuss. The kids sang a couple songs and even had sunglasses and instruments that they played during the interlude. There was even a red aisle runner to walk down at the opening of the ceremony. So here are some pictures of the event. I can’t believe he is off to Kindergarten in the fall. He’s growing up too fast. (more…)

Despite my efforts to encourage Anna to roll over she has proven herself to be talented in other areas instead. Evan rolled over very early, but Anna doesn’t have any desire at the moment. So Andrew decided to try something else, of course while I was gone, knowing that I probably wouldn’t approve. So here is Anna’s balancing act. Yes, I’m the one taking the video so I indeed am encouraging it. But this isn’t a new phenomenon. You can see my friend’s husband balancing their son here. And you can look on you tube and see all kinds of balancing babies. Anna just happens to be one of many. (more…)

Yesterday we took a spontaneous trip to Atlantic City.  Actually it wasn’t completely spontaneous, we had a goal in mind but this goal was not discovered until Sunday afternoon.   In a few weeks we are heading on a two day road trip to Wisconsin to visit our friends Brad and Cheryl.  Because we will be driving for so long, I wanted to go ahead and get out the next step up carseat for Anna.  Mainly because we already had it and it is so much more comfortable than her infant seat.  So Sunday, Andrew went down to the basement to get our carseat which was still in excellent condition we thought.  Only to discover it was completely covered in mold.  Yes, these lovely apartments we live in her contain an insane amount of mold.  We had the seat all wrapped up but the mold still found it’s way in and was so bad there was no way to salvage the seat.  Anyway, I won’t go into details about that but Andrew immediately got on craigslist and found a barely used seat that was the same as ours except a newer version.  So Monday we headed down south to pick up the seat and decided to make a day out of it and go a little bit further to Atlantic City. (more…)

Anna was 5 months old on Monday. She’s not much different from 4 months but I will add some pictures anyway. I think she is my laid back content child. Evan was never like this. He was always on the move and still is. But Anna is just content to sit and watch what is going on around her. She is in no hurry to roll or do much of anything. However she can already stand at the couch and hold on and reach for things for several minutes (of course with mommy right there to catch her if she falls). (more…)

Yesterday I took Evan over to the elementary school where he will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall. They had an orientation for both kids and parents. So I dropped Evan off in the small gym and headed to the cafeteria for my meeting. It was a little overwhelming seeing how big the school is. I know Evan will be fine but he just seems too young to be heading to such a big school. The school in fact is so large in numbers that it can only hold K-3rd grade. I am very grateful that he will be in a school with younger kids and not 4th, 5th or 6th graders. But even with just K-3rd grade there are 872 students. Crazy. (more…)