Going To Ohio!

We are excited to be able to go visit Ohio and see Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Bo and some friends.

It's been up around 116F in Scottsdale for several weeks now and the Ohio summer beckons, too. Grandma told us to pack sweatshirts because it's been kind of chilly!

We have a big list of things that we want to do when we are in town, but none more important than spend time with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa is now 73 or so and has lived longer than anyone in his recent family heritage, and we always worry about what visit will be his last. But we are hopeful that his recent heart device will help him live many years to come.

Stephen Learning How To Dribble A Basketball

Sarah And Stephen Fly A Kite

The kids' first time flying kites. Wind was a tiny bit low but we had fun.

The Tri-Sarah-Tops

 The kids discovered their favorite dinosaur the first time they heard of the triceratops.

Papa: ... triceratops ...

Stephen: Sawah?

And so was born the tri-sarah-tops.

Both kids instantly recognize the trisarahtops. For example, yesterday at the Arizona Museum of Natural History, where we went for Free Day.

Stephen loved the rocks there (last time we bought a bag of shiny rocks for the kids to share) and Mama looked dubiously at the painting of the hairy pre-human primate woman from 4.4 million years ago.

Easter Eggs

On Easter Mama hid some Easter eggs that Grandma so kindly sent us in the mail, and filled them with chocolate M&M's and jelly beans that Grandma also sent.

The kids had a blast looking for the eggs in Sarah and Stephen's room.

A couple of days later, Mama did it again, and a few days after that, we had Sarah hide eggs for Stephen, and then Stephen hide eggs for Sarah.

Grandma also sent some very nice clothing for the kids that I will try to photograph soon.

Garden

Mama and the kids have planted a garden in the area in front of our house. Papa got some plant starts from Rio Salado College, and Mama got some very stinky soil from the store to make a small plot.

Included in the garden are two mystery tomatoes (they plant start people got the tomatoes mixed up so they did not know what kind they were), a jalapeno, rattlesnake watermelon, basil, Mexican chili, and chichicolites, a sort of Mexican blue berry, and mother of a thousand children (a small cactus).

Bus Rides! And the Grand Canyon

We (finally!) took a day trip with the family up to go visit the Grand Canyon. The kids' favorite part, without question, was being able to ride the shuttle bus from view point to view point.

Stephen could hardly contain his excitement when we arrived at the Grand Canyon South Rim Visitors' Center. As we exited the doors, he excitedly burst out, "Bus!"

Also, we got Sarah a pair of handmade Native American dolls that she was looking at at the gift shop, as it was one of the only times so far she has shown any interest in dolls.

Trip To Ohio, Christmas 2013

We are very excited about travelling to visit Grandma and Grandpa (and others) for Christmas 2013! Our flight will be a red-eye where hopefully the kids can sleep. We were going to drive (36 hours each way) but scored some cheap airplane tickets so got to fly instead! The kids are very, very excited for the trip.

Cochise County Fair!

We visited the Cochise County Fair in Douglas, AZ. The kids absolutely loved it. We saw bunnies, chickens, sheep, goats, animals that I could not tell whether they were sheep or goats, pigs, cows, and even some horses!

Also, there was a decent Johnny Cash cover band playing that the kids were dancing around to.

And the kids got to ride on a carnival ride, a train going around in circles.

But their favorite part was attending the rodeo and watching cowboys run out on horses and fell calves with rope.

Sarah (at rodeo): I wanna leave! Let's go somewhere else!

Sarah (the next morning): My favorite part was when the horses ran out and they threw the rope around the cow's feet and it fell down!

Stephen: Run! Run! Run!

Yep, The Money Spent On Those
Photography Classes in College
Was Pretty Much Wasted

We couldn't help but compare it to our "home" fair, the Great Geauga County Fair. It was much smaller and there were no tractors, but it was still a ton of fun, especially for the kids.

One favorite memory was when Stephen was getting sleepy and glazed-eyed, and I asked him if he wanted to to see some tractors. He bounced back to full strength so fully and so instantly and with such enthusiasm in his eye that it made me laugh. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, there turned out to be no tractors, but we did get to see plenty of other exciting things.

Congratulations Marlenne!

We were able to celebrate our niece Marlenne's graduation from high school.

Highlights:

1. Trying to catch balloons for the kids.

2. A dove flew into the graduates seated on the football field, seemingly targeting a particular girl and causing chaos for several moments.

3. Firefighters setting off fireworks intermittently behind the bleachers accidentally set one off exploding through the crowd, exactly where we were walking below the bleachers, freaking out both kids and forcing us to almost leave.

4. Stephen chasing a lazy, helium-filled balloon that kept trying to very slowly float away.

5. Marlenne graduating!

Swimming

The kids love going to the pool to swim. They have been using little plastic "floaties" on each arm and can jump in from the side and swim the length of the pool.

Stephen is able to hold his breath under the water and has no problem dipping his head underwater. In fact, he jumped in to the pool a couple of times without his floaties and had to be retrieved from under the water by nearby Papa, and each time he popped out of the water with a big smile on his face.

Sarah is not as good at holding her breath. She does not like to put her face under the water at all and is a bit more afraid of the water.

But we all have fun splashing around. And Mama is slowly improving her swimming skills as well.

Papa: Stephen, do you want to go to school today?

Stephen (grinning ear-to-ear): No! Pool!

Papa: You want to go swimming in the pool?

Stephen (still grinning): Yeaaahh!

Peter Pan in the Park

We discovered Kiwanis Park, a big park in Tempe where they were showing family movies on Fridays in May. Papa escaped early from work in time to head down with the whole family.

Now, Sarah was drawn to screens since she was a baby and was captivated by a TV screen at the grocery store. Stephen, on the other hand, has shown almost no interest whatsoever in watching anything on a screen.

So Stephen had no interest whatsoever watching the movie in the park. He was much more interested in the girls sitting in a wagon nearby, or tumbling around, or getting up to walk around. Not even the doggie on the screen could capture his interest. So Papa and Stephen got up and walked around instead, and went to play in the big, nice play area nearby.

Halfway through the movie Mama and Sarah followed and we all had more fun playing on the playground.

Stickers

This afternoon at In-N-Out:

Mama: Who wants stickers?

Sarah: Me!

Stephen (smiling, pointing to self)

First Week of Head Start

Well after her first week of Head Start preschool, Sarah is still loving every second of it. She seemed especially happy all week. (Sarah AND Mama. Although it was extra work for Mama all week since Papa was recovering from his back injury, Mama gets a breather in the afternoon that is helping her a lot.)

It is helping us as a family to get a more regular routine, too:

Get up, breakfast, YMCA in the morning, come home, get ready, school, mama breathes & gets caught up at home, pick Sarah up, go to the park or play outside, dinner, story, in bed at 8pm. This week we will be instituting a brief, after-school nap, too.

Now, if we could just get Stephen to sleep all night again like he was doing before!

School (!)

Yesterday one of Sarah's dreams came true - she started going to school. A Head Start preschool, to be precise. It's a couple of hours a day, four days a week. She has been on a waiting list for 6 months. It did not look like she was going to get in until she and Mama visited the classroom a couple of weeks ago and inquired about volunteering. That seems like it may have helped her get chosen from the pool of applicants. She was so eager to get in that she cried and cried that day when she had to leave. Since then she always referred to it as "my school". "Papa can I go to my skowol?" But she is happy - should I say - ecstatic, to be in school.

Ready To Go!

Owie Papa

So Papa was exercising, without warming up, and threw out his back.

While taking a hot bath to try to feel better, Stephen immediately knew what to do - bring over the bath toys and dump them in the water.

Papa: Thanks, Stephen! No, no, that's enough. Thank you!

Railroad Park

Mama and kids went to the railroad park with another family, old friends of Papa's. Looks like they had a good time.

Red Light

Sarah enjoys playing a game called Red Light Green Light. When we say Red Light, she has to stop. When we say Green Light, she can go. It is designed to build executive function (think self control or impulse control.)

It is fun, too, except that Sarah likes to say Red Light every 3 1/2 milliseconds.

Our Favorite Places

The kids' favorite places to play:

Children's area of our awesome local library
ArchitectureKIDS, "the houses place" at our local mall
The nearest McDonalds with play area
The nearest park
The old couches piled outside our front door
Any store with shopping carts that look like cars

Bicycle

Sarah's Christmas wish for a bicycle was fulfilled the other day at a garage sale. It's a nice pink one with training wheels that she can already ride. She has been riding it around the apartment all by herself and today she rode it all the way to the park and back with Mama.