6 Month Weigh In

Gavin had his 6 month appointment this morning. He weighed in at 23 pounds 5 ounces, yes that's 99th percentile. He was 27.75 inches long, that's 95th percentile. He got his shots and just cried for a little bit. He still has his clogged tear duck and they won't do anything about that until he's at least a year old. This weekend I think we'll try dunking him in Alyssa & Joe's pool - my mom tells me I had a clogged tear duct, was scheduled for surgery, they took me to a swim class and dunked me and the tear duct cleared up. So if it means we could avoid surgery, we'll be dunking Gavin.

Jacob and Fred had a blast at Valleyfair on Monday. Jacob loved all the rides and went non-stop. Fred didn't get to go on too many big rides because Jacob wanted to go with him on them and he couldn't and I guess Fred decided it wasn't worth the fuss.

Jacob has been doing really well at swimming lessons the last two days. He's the fish I always knew he was. He been dunking himself under. Practicing his arm circles. Doing everything the teachers tell him to do. Right on schedule, tomorrow is our last day of lessons.

I had a fun night away with my MOPS steering team last Friday night. We did some get to know you activities, talked about the upcoming MOPS year and played a new game to me called "Buzz Word". Then on Saturday we did a scavenger hunt around Chaska. I am the only one that lives in Chaska and yet my team still lost. I guess having the writer of the scavenger hunt gave the other team the most unfair advantage.

Our CD player and radio are no longer working in the Explorer. Jacob decided to put some money in the CD player the other day when he was "driving" it while it was parked in the garage. At first just the CD player didn't work, but now the radio isn't working either. Its a very peaceful ride now, except for Jacob asking for "his songs".

I am getting at least 10 inches cut off my hair this evening. I have been growing out my hair to donate to Lock of Love. I wanted it to be longer than it is now when I cut it, but I am done with this long hair. So I'll have pretty short hair tomorrow and it'll be pretty blond too. I haven't had color in my hair for a long time, it'll be so fun.

I'll leave you with Jacob's latest random thought which was shared one morning at the breakfast table when we were neither talking about giraffes or poop (if you know the morning person I am, you know we probably weren't even talking). But Jacob tells me, "Giraffes only poop in the winter."

Swimming Lessons

Jacob just finished his first week of swimming lessons. One week to go. I thought he would love it and be a fish as he loves the splash pad and was practicing swimming at the lake last weekend, but at the end of the first day he jumped in and got water up his nose. First he was so mad at his instructor about it. I tried to explain that it wasn't the instructor's fault and told him how he could prevent further water up the nose, but that did not help. The second day of class, he clung to the wall crying. He did end up doing some of the stuff, but cried through most of the class. Yesterday he was better with Grandma watching and wanting to show her how brave he was and today he even seemed to enjoy it again, but he still didn't want to go this morning. I assume by the last day of class he'll be loving it and then it will be over.

Fred is done with his summer class. Yeah! We went to Canterbury Park tonight to the horse races to celebrate. Jason and Amy Michael were there with their kiddos too, so that was a fun evening. Jacob was the big winner, raking in over $16 one race.

I get to go on MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) retreat this Friday night and Saturday. I am on the steering team and we are getting together to plan for the upcoming year. I will be travelling all the way to downtown Chaska for the retreat. With gas prices, I guess that is far enough. I hope by the time I return home I am no longer sore from my tubing experience last Sunday, I have been feeling it all week. Ouch.

Jacob and Fred are going to Valleyfair on Monday with Fred's brother Joel, his boys, and their rock pickers (aka Fred's nephews and nieces and their friends). Fred's mom will be there too, so Fred will be able to go on some big rides while Mary Ann watches Jacob.

Gavin Sits!

We shall declare June 29th, 2008 the day that Gavin sat. He is now a pretty good sitter. He'll sit and play with toys or, as always, watch his brother. He still hasn't rolled over at all, but he's getting closer.

Jacob finished a 2-week summer preschool sampler last week. The only comment I got from his teacher was that he is very enthusiastic. He has the same teacher this fall when he starts going to preschool three days a week. They had lots of fun going on "hunts" to find different shapes, colors and textures. They did lots of crafts, or tried to get them to do crafts - Jacob's one art piece contained a plain piece of cardboard with one plain wood block on it. They also sang lots of songs and one day Jacob got to be the song helper, perfect for him.

Next week Jacob starts swimming lessons. We've been at the splash pad a few times this summer and he seems eager to be a swimmer, going underwater, blowing bubbles and all sorts of things.

We had another fun weekend in Melrose. We went to our sister-in-law Mary's 40th birthday party on Friday night, surprise! Then we took in the parade and fireworks in Melrose on Saturday. I also got to play Bingo for a couple hours and finally won the last game. On Sunday we had Maddie and Isaac's birthday party, we all had a good time there and all the kids were so good.

We are heading up to Melrose again on Thursday and we are just going to bum around and enjoy the lake. It looks like the weather is going to cooperate with our plans, yeah!