June update

We are happy that Parker can be awake without always crying.  He even smiles and laughs here and there.  Kira has been a great help to him but she struggled to be by herself at church and the gym.  She was real clingy and cried a lot, which made church and the gym difficult.  Then one day, she said, "I'm done crying."  Nice.  

The other day, Parker slept through the night.  It was amazing.  He still sleeps in the swing, and the batteries it came with have died, so I put on a Duratrax 3 Ah 7.2 volt NiMH battery pack with alligator clips.  I would like an AC adapter instead, but we don't have one of the correct voltage and I'm not willing to purchase one.

Scott had cub scout camp at the stake center all week.  He went from 4:45-8:10 and the theme this year was Knights of the Round Table.  He enjoyed shooting the BB guns the most.  On Thursday, he hosted a sleepover with some of his friends from scout camp.  I set up the tent in the backyard and we lit a fire in that little kettle and they roasted marshmallows and made lots of noise.  At ten, I told them it was time to come in due to quiet hour.

I went to bed an apparently, they were up until midnight.  The next morning, a little before six, they were jumping on the tramp and making lots of noise.  I had them come inside and play the Wii just so they wouldn't bother the neighbors.  I was afraid that due to their lack of sleep, the kids would be emotional disasters but they weren't too bad.

I was glad that Scott had over his friends.  I remember going to sleepovers but not hosting them.  Well, maybe one for my tenth birthday.

Blake is still having the hardest time with Parker's arrival.  Blake has been averaging at least one tantrum per day.  When he's with me, and discovers that Mommy isn't around, he'll go nuts and leave the house or gym to find her.

We are observing our drought restrictions.  If we don't cut our water consumption by 35%, they penalize us.  We are already below the 11000 gallon cap but I don't want my trees to die.  The grass is somewhat alive but mostly yellow.  Okay, that's all for now.

Borges Ranch

Danny has off on Tuesdays which is so wonderful for everyone.  We were going to go to Rock City in Mt. Diablo and last minute decided to go to Borges Ranch which is essentially an open space with some animals and historical buildings in Walnut Creek.  They have a little pond that the kids loved.  It is something you would look at as an adult and think that it is kind of gross, definitely want to stay out of and too small to really enjoy, but of course the kids LOVED it.  They explored, played with hundreds of baby toads, threw rocks and got to be kids.  I love watching my kids enjoy being kids.  The beginning of June means all the babies are out.  I love it.  We saw deer with two little babies, we have baby cats that were born in our neighbors yards that our kids love to watch and now baby toads. The kids played with the RC cars which was fun and said hi to the farm animals.  The sheep had some major wool that needed sheering.  Fun day for all!  So grateful we got to spend it together. Love making memories with the family and having Danny around for a day.

Saturday

Overnight our Saturdays have switched from baseball to swimming.  Scott is the only one swimming this season.   Kira is a good swimmer but is scared to swim with her little group or at meets so I am just going to teach her to swim this year and hope that next year she will want to swim on swim team when she matures a bit.  Tyler doesn't want to swim but asked to sign him up for the next meet, so we shall see.  We had the 9&Under Invitational which Scott did great at.  Danny was off which was so nice.  I got to see some swimmers I used to coach that are now swimmers and many familiar coaches and swimmers.  It is always fun to be in the east bay again.  Scott wasn't entered in the meet because they didn't get our entry addition.  They got him into some empty lanes and I was proud of him for racing.  Usually he swim slow if he doesn't have kids to race.  So that is an improvement.  He went a best time in his free 31.9 and was just a little bit off his other races which was great considering he was racing himself.  The best part was that he was happy no matter what.  He just missed a record he was going for by 3 hundreths and laughed.  The old Scott would have probably gotten upset.  Scott hates 50 fly, did a nice build up an was happy when he got a third in fly and is getting a little more comfortable swimming it each time he races.  Overall super proud of his maturity in having fun and not getting upset over what he places but how he swims.  

After swim we usually rush off to some activity whether it is a birthday party, get together, co-op or something.  Dedicating Sunday to church and family means saturday is usually fun filled.  We went to Jonathon and Christophers birthday party which is always a blast.  It is always for the whole family which is so nice and great to catch up with friends and see our kids play.  The backyard is a great place to play with the coolest hand built ship.  The kids had a blast playing in the water.  Parker is growing up so much!!  Love that little man and my big man so much!