My other babies...

Is it time for school to start yet? I find myself asking this on about half the days with this lovely boy of mine. Carter is so busy and always asking "What's next?" He also cannot leave everybody alone! He is always touching and poking and prodding and pestering everyone. It's mostly nice, until it's not. We are also in a hitting phase. I don't know if it's due to the fact that we are all around each other a whole lot, or if it's just his age. He has been better the last week or so, so let's hope that lasts. He likes to be in charge and dictate the rules of play. He knows he's the oldest and definitely plays the part.
It is such a joy to do our reading or summer schoolwork and see what a smarty pants he is. He really is such a phenomenal reader. He is also an incredible swimmer. It helps that we have a swimming pool out our back door that we swim in almost every day. He can swim the length of the pool under water and can dive to the bottom to collect diving rings.
Banner news: he learned how to ride his bike on Friday the 13th! He has had his training wheels off for months and months, but we just haven't been out riding like he needed to be. Finally, while we were in Sunriver, he was out on a walk with Jefferson, my brother Ben, and Ben's two boys who just learned to ride their bikes. Carter grabbed his bike and it wasn't long before he was off and riding. You would never guess that he just learned how to ride. He looks like a pro out there and begs to ride every day.
One more thing, Carter is a very detailed story teller. It takes him a long time to get information out. He particularly loves retelling episodes of Tom & Jerry, and I think I could watch the episode faster than Carter describes them to me. It makes me laugh. I am hoping that if I listen to his long, detailed stories about frivolous things now, that he'll continue to talk to me about the important things later in life.

 Andi Moo. She remains my little helper and wants to help with everything! Cooking, cleaning, laundry, you name it. If I leave the room she will always come and find me. A couple of days ago she just sat in the bathroom while I was taking a shower and talked my ear off. It was so adorable and made her feel so grown up to me. She really hasn't changed much in the fact that she still loves make-up, lips, purses, money, dresses, and all things girly. She loves having "special time" with mom or Gramzee. She is also a hoot to watch talk. She is super expressive with her hands and it makes me laugh. She also likes to explain the why of everything. If I ask the kids not to do something she'll say "Yeah, because...." and then go into some long, made up explanation. It's endearing and obnoxious all at the same time. Andi is loving pool time. She is definitely cautious, but will swim around anywhere with her life jacket on. She is great at doing cannonballs and even got a little brave today (with much prompting and letting go by Dad) and swam by herself without her life jacket.

 Oh Taytum. This girl is getting some sass. She is definitely not as passive as she used to be. She is speaking better every day. There are some words that she says that make her sound Hispanic, like "leezard" (lizard) and "cheepmunk" (chipmunk). It's hilarious. We cannot get her to stay in her bed at night if our lives depended on it. Once she's asleep we won't see her til morning, but until she falls asleep she will be out of her bed so many times. It's usually not for anything at all, she'll just come sauntering upstairs and meander around awhile to see what we're doing. Or we'll hear her running around downstairs trying to recruit Carter and Andi into her trouble making ways. She has turned into a mama's girl and I love it! She always wants to hold my hand everywhere we go. Often she'll run up to me in the house and grab my hand and say, "I caught you!" Every once in a while she'll be looking for me and just call out, "Mama! I need you!" Not because she needs me for anything, but because she wants me. She always wants to be the bad guy or the monster to any game the kids are playing and goes around growling. She is in a clumsy phase and has fallen so many times this past month. Her knees are so scarred up and there are a couple of scratches that will not heal because she keeps falling and reopening them. Taytum is really comfortable in the pool with her life jacket on. In fact, she loves swimming and is always the last one in the pool.She is such a fish.

These kiddos are in such fun stages. I keep having these overwhelming feelings of being so blessed as I just sit and watch them be their amazing selves. Lucky me.