May 31

These kids are sick. Really, really sick. Coughing and fevers and runny noses and whining - oh, the whining - and constantly wanting to be held and snuggled. It's exhausting and demoralizing and did I mention exhausting?

I am so sick of them being sick.

Yesterday, the sun shined and Caleb wasn't quite so sick.

He lounged on the deck and pretended my clothes line was a microphone. Funny boy.

Also yesterday, I went in to get Daisy up from her nap and found her sitting up in her crib. That's not a big deal for most babies - it's a natural part of development that usually occurs around 7 or 8 months. But this was the first time I'd found Daisy this way. I was so excited! Once she saw how excited I was, she got pretty excited, too.

See the crusty nose? Poor girl.

She has been rocking and rolling with the gross motor skills the past few days. She finally knows that she can get herself up to seated, and it's a fun game for her now. When we play, she'll scoot over to me, pull up onto one knee and one foot, throw herself down, then get up on her hands and knees, sit up, and do it all over again.

It seems little, but it's huge for us.

Yesterday First Steps emailed me their evaluation of Daisy. She didn't qualify for their physical therapy services. I was disappointed, but not surprised. Her motor development (not just gross motor, but overall motor) would have to have been at the level of a six-month old for her to qualify. But their test didn't differentiate fine motor from gross, and Daisy's fine motor skills are pretty fantastic. She tested at the level of  an average 10-month old, so her delay isn't as major as we feared.

But the good news (aside from her late-breaking gross motor development spurt)? They tested four other areas of development, and she was advanced in all of them. Way to go, Daisy! It's funny - Caleb is our benchmark for most things, and I think we can all agree that he's not a normal child. His language has always been off the charts, so it's hard for me to have a normal frame of reference for Daisy's progress. But the First Steps test put her communication skills at the 20-month level. Guess I don't need to be concerned, after all. So even though we didn't qualify for First Steps' services, it's nice to have quantifiable evidence of Daisy's progress. It's also always nice to hear that, though my baby doesn't crawl, she's a rock star in every other area.

Except the immune system area. Today was gray and gloomy and cold and sick.

She only wanted to be held, all day long.

Later, she just wanted to chew.

If my baby wants to chew, I'll give her something to chew on! These teeth have been the longest, most drawn-out drama session ever. I will absolutely appreciate them when they're in. They also make me almost willing to try the new-agey hoo-doo magic of amber teething necklaces. I'm skeptical of them, and I'm generally annoyed by babies wearing jewelry of any sort, but I'm nearing the point of being willing to try ANYTHING to make this nonsense stop! Almost.

May 29

Daisy is broken. She must be; it's the only reason I can think of that she's decided to spend several hours a night screaming for the past few nights. Actually I've come up with a few other possibilities: she could be teething, she's definitely sick with a runny nose and a cough, and I'm starting to wonder if she's been possessed by the devil. (Kidding on the last one, really.)

She's fussing now, so here are a few pictures from the past few days:

Sunday night I put Daisy to bed early. Caleb wasn't ready for bed, though, so I sent him with Daddy on an adventure. They ended up at the track at the local high school, where Caleb ran bleachers, watched soccer, and sprinted 1/2 mile on the track.

Monday, Daisy watched from the deck while the boys put dirt in the garden.

Caleb did a pretty good job  shoveling, despite the fact that he insisted on using a rake instead of his Caleb-sized shovel.

My men. You know it's love when someone is willing to rake organic dirt and cow manure for you.

He's a good little helper!

Today, Daisy played with Caleb's cars on the front porch while Caleb napped. See how she's sitting? Bottom up in the air? We're making real progress on the gross motor skills!

Her fine motor skills are at the 24-month level. Boo-yah.

Zoom!

May 27

Today we continued our Memorial Day/Beginning of Summer celebration. After church and naps (for the kids, not for us, unfortunately. Daisy has been having a hard time sleeping the past few nights.), we visited our neighborhood pool for the first time.

Since our neighborhood is between forty and forty-five years old, we were nervous that the pool wouldn't live up to our expectations. After all, we did come from a pretty new subdivision with not one, but two neighborhood pools. Luckily, the new pool exceeded our hopes.  It has a kiddie pool, a big pool, lap lanes, a diving board, and fountain and a fun sprinkler/wading area. Plus, the pool area also contains 3 Weber grills for cookouts and a swingset. Fun, fun, FUN!

Caleb practiced his kicking on the edge of the kiddie pool.

Daisy was entranced by all of the sights and sounds of the pool.

Doesn't she look sweet? She didn't even wear a suit - just a swim shirt and her swim diaper. Have I mentioned that we even do cloth swim diapers? We do. The sad thing is that today Daisy wore the same diaper that she wore here, when she was four months old. It's size small, for 6-15 pound children. Not only does it still fit perfectly, but it's a little big. 

*sigh*

Even worse? The pool chemicals bleached the thing! It was adorable, with brightly colored polka dots in pink, orange,  yellow, green, blue... Now you can only see faded pink and orange dots. Not only am I annoyed that a darling diaper is now not-so-cute, but I'm also concerned about what those chemicals could be doing to my children...

But they had so much fun that I can't allow myself to stew too much. Pool chemicals won't kill them, right?

See? Fun, fun, fun, even while your diaper is being bleached.

SPLASH!

May 26

Maybe you should go get yourself a nice cup of coffee or a sweet snack before you sit down to read this post; I have lots of pictures today.

We kicked off Memorial Day weekend in style, with a lot of outdoor time, despite the ridiculously high temperatures.

Caleb asked to play with the hose. I told him to ask his Daddy. He said, "Daddy might say yeeeesss!" 

And Daddy (who was busy building my little vegetable garden) did say yes. 

(Can you tell that Caleb picks out most of his outfits now? It's sad for me, because his fashion sense could use some fine-tuning. But it's wonderful to see him gaining independence!)

We have a random drain in the middle of our yard. It didn't take Caleb long to find the drain and begin pouring/spitting water into it.

When Daisy woke up from her morning nap, we went strawberry picking at a nearby farm. It was nearly noon and over 90 degrees by the time we arrived, but it's the very end of the season and we just couldn't wait any longer.

I'm not sure why, but I adore this photo. I was thrilled that the farm had wagons for us to use, and even more thrilled that Daisy was willing to stay put in it.

How sweet are they? How darling is Daisy's little hat? Sigh.

This is about as long as Caleb's interest in strawberry picking lasted. He was very frustrated that he couldn't eat every berry he picked. We thought that Daisy would enjoy berry picking since she loves strawberries so much. Wrong. It was a special kind of torture for her to see all of those berries and not be able to get her hands on any of them. Add in the heat and the hat, and... well, poor girl.

She didn't complain, but I could see the anguish in her eyes. Luckily, Chris took on the task of entertaining the kids while I picked berries. We were able to collect just over four pounds before the kids had had enough.

Caleb found a berry! Can you see it?

How about now? Can you see it now?

No? Then he'll just throw it at the camera. That should take care of things.

Chris made a game of running up and down the rows of strawberries with the kids. He's a good man.

Then they found a tractor! The driver waved, and both kids were delighted.

They love running!

I know Daisy is out of focus, but you can still clearly tell how much she loves her Daddy.

Finally, after we paid  for our berries, we found some shade under a piece of playground equipment and had a picnic. Daisy was in heaven with those ripe, juicy, delicious strawberries.

See what I mean about the juicy?

This might be my new favorite picture of the girl.

A picnic-eating Caleb. He was hot and sweaty, but not sunburned. (Don't worry, Mom!)

After lunch, Chris grabbed the camera and took a few pictures of me with my kiddos.

And then we went home and they both took long naps. What a good start to our summer! Tomorrow we may try out the neighborhood pool!

May 24

Caleb "helped" me make these Glazed Lemon Chia Cookies today while Daisy napped.

We put the cookies in the oven, and I turned away for a moment. When I looked back, I found this:

Based on the expression on his face, and the delight with which he was emptying the contents of the jar into his mouth, you'd think the container held some sort of sugar.

Nope.

Flour. Plain old all-purpose flour. And it was EVERYWHERE. My fault, I suppose. At least the cannister was almost completely empty anyway.

May 23

Just a normal, boring day around here. Fun, but nothing exciting.

In the morning, we played outside.

Caleb runs from our from Mrs. Murray's driveway on one side to Curtis' driveway on the other. Over and over and over. He's such a good boy - he knows his limits well, stays on the sidewalk, and always stops running and steps into the grass if a car comes. 

Daisy is always delighted to watch her brother play. She was laughing in this picture because Caleb was reenacting a scene from Cars in which Mac, the semi trailer, starts to fall asleep while driving. Mac then shakes himself and makes a silly noise.

Daisy thought Caleb's interpretation of the shaking and silly noise was hilarious.

Focused on watching her brother run laps.

Seriously. The girl has to be working on some teeth.

After a lunch-induced wardrobe change for Daisy and naps for both, we had snacktime on the porch. Daisy loves to sit right on the edge of the porch and let her feet dangle into the mulch bed. Today she experimented with patting the little boxwood with her feet. Today she also managed to scoot off the porch step for the first time. She landed right on the sidewalk, and did it so gracefully you'd think she knew what she was doing.

Oh, she adores him.

Caleb was being silly about something. Earlier, while Daisy was napping, Caleb and I sat on the porch swing and "read" this month's National Geographic cover to cover. Apparently he's very interested in sun flares and North Carolina's Outer Banks.

Apparently he also makes a pretty good foot rest. I'm pretty sure he adores her, too.

May 22

I have too many pictures today. Sorry.

Caleb and I took his giant Legos onto the porch today. He had a lot of fun while I drank my coffee and Daisy napped. Here, he's telling me all about what he built.

Later, I told Caleb, "I'd like to take your picture. What do you want to be doing in the picture?"

He responded by doing a crazy twirl/ball throw. It was impressive, but hard to capture on film.

This is the end part, after the ball has left his hands. He did it a few times for me.

Daisy thinks everything is a phone now. I really don't use my phone that much, but somehow she's caught on. Here she's holding a plastic Easter egg to her ear and saying,  "Hi!"

She has a new word:

Uh-oh. 

She says it when she's eating in her high chair and drops her food, and it is the sweetest thing ever. EVER.

Looking through the bucket o' toys for something to play with.

I swear those top teeth are coming in. It's either that, or she's turning into a crabby monster. 

Still not pulling up or standing up. This is as close as we get.

I kind of love this girl.

Though she looks pretty threatening with this (miniature) baseball bat...