Mealtime with Summer

During mealtime, Summer so badly wants to be "in the conversation"!  She will often ask for "questions" which mean Daddy and I ask her various things like what she did that day, what day of the week it is, what color things are, what sounds various letters make, etc, etc.  Mealtime often turns into "school time" as she soaks up the one-on-one attention and the feel of being included in the conversation! 

*This week she mastered counting from 1-10 in order (she used to count 1,2,3,9,10,4,11, 8, 9, 10) each time we asked her to count). 
*She has also mastered most of the sounds of the consonants of the alphabet.  "S" is her favorite letter, as it stands for "Summer"!   She will randomly say words that start with the letter we are talking about, and sometimes she will surprise me with the ones she comes up with!  Today she mentioned "Walmart" when we talked about "W" (I guess she sees it on the store front?!?), she mentioned Mr. Todd when we were talking about "T" (Kristin's fiance's dad!), and Ms. Lori (a friend from church) when we were talking about "L".  I usually use more common examples like "water", "Tucker", and "ladybug" when we go over these letter sounds, so it surprised me a bit when she came up with her own to add to the mix!
*She can tell time on a clock, as long as it is time "on the hour". 

She is so funny, however, because whenever I turn on the video camera, she gets silly, so it is a challenge to document what we have been working on!!  Here are various clips (with most of the silliness cropped out!) of the things we have been working on lately.

During dinnertime, there are times when Daddy and Mommy want to talk, and Summer is asked to wait quietly while we finish a conversation.  This has been an interesting challenge to teach Summer what it means to not interrupt and to be quiet while the attention is not on her ;).  We started using a sand timer that we now call the "talking timer".  We practiced one day at lunch being quiet while the sand is falling through the timer.  She caught on right away.  She LOVES watching the sand fall through the timer, and she will sit quietly and watch it until it is done falling.  This gives Mommy and Daddy a few brief minutes to talk ;), and then it is Summer's turn to talk again!

Here are a few more "Summer-ism's" from lately...she keeps me laughing!
-We use Desitin if Summer gets a diaper rash, and while I am applying it she will say, "Mommy's fingers are all Desitin-y".  Her "made-up" word makes sense, and made me smile!
-She was curious why we call little cats "kitties" instead of "catties".
-While I was stirring a brownie mix, Summer asked me if I was going to use the "little vacuum".  After a bit I realized she was talking about the mixer!

Colton's new buddy!

On July 26th, Ms. Rachael had her little baby Rylan.  While we have gotten to see them a few times since he was born at various birthday parties, this morning was Colton and Rylan's first "playdate" :-). 

Colton (4 months) and Rylan (1 month)

Big sisters Summer and Adry

Daddy's Day

On Saturday,  my mom, sister, and I went WEDDING DRESS SHOPPING for my sister!!!  It was so much fun!  We found the PERFECT dress....and that is all I can say at this point.  I will post pictures after her wedding on April 27th ;) but until then it is a secret!

Anyway, while Mommy was out shopping, Daddy had the day with the kids!  He took them to Mall of America and they had a ton of fun.  Mayo Clinic had activities set up for the kids...here are a few pics...

Summer got to see some puppies that help kids who need to have surgeries at Mayo Clinic...

color....

glue healthy foods to a plate...

and make a bracelet and a butterfly!

Lego land is always a hit....

She was pretty excited about the Lego helicopter!

The kids!

Lunch stop at Burger King....

Yum!

What a fun Daddy date!

All about Summer

Summer has been so much fun lately!  We play all sorts of things, but her favorite thing to do is play with her babies and stuffed animals.  She probably spends 80% of her time carting her babies/animals all over the house, feeding them, changing them, taking them shopping and to the doctor, giving them tummy time, putting them down for naps, giving them time-outs, tucking them in, giving them baths, pushing them in the stroller, packing their bags to go on a trip, singing to them, reading to them, putting them in Colton's swing/jumper/bumbo/etc and more!  Her babies names are Noah, Noelle, Nora, Nicky, Nelly, and Nan and she always calls them by name as she plays with them....it is pretty cute!  She also loves her teddy, giraffe, Pooh, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Polar Bear, Mr. Bear, Bunny, and multiple other nameless stuffed animals.  Here is a picture of a few of them....

From left to right is Noelle, Nelly, Nicky, Noah, Nan, Bunny, Cuddle Bug, and Dolly (the bedtime favorite).  Nora is napping and Elmo is currently in time-out.

She also has been enjoying playing "dress-up like a princess".  For her birthday, she received this fancy skirt from her friends Noelle and Faith, she got the earring and crown and high heels from her friend Adry, and she got the butterfly wand from Gee-Gee Sandy.

Here are few Summer-isms from lately...

-While watching football with Daddy, and pointing to the TV...."They fall and go boom-booms"

-While holding her silver princess sceptre/wand..."Gonna get a buggy" (She thought the wand was a fly swatter)

-I told Summer we were having tacos for dinner and she started talking about Daddy....I finally figured out she thought we were having Daddy's fishing "tackle" for dinner!

Done with naps?

We are beginning the transition from naps to quiet time.  In the last 3 weeks, while Summer still "goes down for a nap" each afternoon, she has only fallen asleep a few times.  I am amazed at how well she happily amuses herself (for 2-2.5 hours!!) in her bed with only her animals and pillows, and the one thing she can reach from her bed, her kleenex box!  She takes them all out, and puts them all back in again!  After several days of no nap, I decided she might be done with naps and started letting her have a basket of books in her bed during naptime, and thus begins her transition out of naps!  Yikes!  She just turned 2!!!! I thought naps would last longer than that!

All about Colton

Summer didn't crawl at all until she was 11 months old, but it appears right now as though Colton will crawl a bit sooner!  He is four months and is starting do an "inchworm" sort of crawl....

Here is a little video of him "crawling" across the blanket...it's not really a normal crawl, and it's pretty slow, but I would definitely say he is mobile :-).

Here is a cute video of him being smiley :)

Here is a video of him in his jumper (this one is from a few weeks ago, but I never posted it).

Right now he LOVES sucking on his fingers, and almost always falls asleep sucking on them.  Here is a picture of him in his swing with his favorite two fingers in his mouth :)

 

Colton is now had several successful nights in a row sleeping from about 8pm to 7am!  On Monday we took him in to check on his eye (he poked it with his finger, but it is just fine), and he weighed 15 pounds 3 oz!!  I love my little chunker!

At the Park

We went to the park tonight with Daddy, and he had fun with his new camera :-)

Garbage Trucks!!!!!

Summer absolutely LOVES watching the garbage trucks at our house.  We look forward to Tuesdays (garbage day) every week and they are our favorite day to go on a morning jog because we get to see LOTS of garbage trucks in action!  This morning we went for a tour of Dick's Sanitation in Lakeville with Apple Valley Mom's Club so we could see garbage trucks up close!  Funny how I never noticed or got excited about garbage trucks before, but I suddenly do now because Summer does!  Here are a few pictures from this morning....

By the BIG garbage truck (that picks up dumpsters)

Summer was too nervous to sit up in the big chair and "drive the truck" so we just posed for a picture by the truck instead :-)

Family Vacation at the Cabin

We are so blessed that my parents let us stay at their cabin this past week!  We have had such a blast so far spending quality time together with us four at the beach, park, reading books, taking walks, and just hanging out.  I love our family!  Here are few pictures so far....

The first night was a little chilly and Colton looked soo cute in his sweatshirt and swaddle that we snapped a picture!

Summer absolutely LOVES the water and the sand and spends hours playing with the beach toys.

Tucker loves running all over and playing with the neighbor dog, We-Go, but he also enjoys relaxing in the sun.

One of my favorite snap-shots of Summer

Daddy and Summer had lots of fun playing in the sand

Reading at the cabin...:-)

Colton helping Daddy drive the boat

Summer and Tucker watching the lake from the boat

Colton gets pretty excited about LIFE cereal just like his mommy.

Smiley boy

Summer!

Hey look!  I can stand up!

When I packed our very full car for our 9 day trip with two kids and a dog, I found a small niche in the trunk to place Paul's camera....unfortunately that niche was where the trunk hinge needed to go when the trunk closed....:(....so I cracked his camera.  (I'm sorry, honey!!!)  So we got a new one for him, and Paul had fun trying it out at one of the parks we went to....he is very good at taking pictures!

We got to try out several new parks near the cabin, and this was a favorite

Climbing

A 2-story slide!

Sticks!

Tickle-time....

I'm gonna get you....

Tickle, tickle....!

Giggle, giggle....!

I love my Summer!

Colton!

Kisses for Colton