The Bug Catcher

Last week I was mopping the kitchen floor. Since Garrett has recently given up his afternoon naps, he was hangin' with me. As I was mopping he said, "Are you gonna get those bugs over there?" I looked over near our patio door and there were 5 dead flies lying on the floor. We seem to have a ton of flies coming in from our garage every time we open the door. Maybe our bug spray is affecting them because they are moving pretty slowly and Garrett is able to smash them with his fingers. Later that day I caught him trying to smash some more of them in our window. I said, "Let me do that. Don't smash them with your fingers." He said, "But I want to help you. I'm the bug catcher."

Role Models

Garrett has a wild and creative imagination. He plays all sorts of imaginative games and can easily entertain himself with his creativity. A latest favorite is to pretend that he is Greg or I. He will say, "I'm Dad and you be Mom." So I will say, "Hi Dad, how was work today?" He says, "Pretty good." "What did you do today?" "I fixed some stoplights." This conversation can go on and on. He puts a lot of thought into how Greg might respond to my questions.

The Screamer

Avery is becoming quite a screamer. It seems to be her way of communicating, "I don't want to," "I want that," "I had it first," "Don't touch that," "Stay away," etc...
Last week at the library Garrett was playing with a big wooden toy. Avery was sitting in a rocking chair nearby, watching him play. A little girl came running up to join in the fun. Avery looked straight at her and let out one of her bloodcurdling screams. That poor little girl started crying and ran away. I had to explain to her mother why she was crying.
We've been telling her to us a nice voice every time she does this and this week she says, "Otay" (okay).

Responsible Parenthood

Last week Avery stumbled on our steps on our front porch and bumped her head on the concrete. It didn't leave a visible bruise or bump, but I heard her head hit the concrete so I called the nurse at our doctor's office to see what we needed to watch for. I was talking to her on the phone as I watched the kids play in the backyard. She said to keep a close eye on her and wake her several times that night to make sure that she was okay. As I was speaking to the nurse, Greg hollered out the back door, "Hey, you wanna beer?" That nurse was probably thinking, "No wonder their kids are falling down the stairs...."

Surrogate Grandparents

I think Avery is missing her grandparents. Last Friday we attended the opening ceremonies to the Cornhusker State Games which is much like a smaller version of the Olympic opening ceremonies. The kids had a blast. We were sitting in the stadium and there was a little space between us and the next couple, an older couple with their kids and grandkids sitting around them. Avery kept wandering over to them, giving them cute little smiles. It wasn't long and the lady was tickling her and Avery was showing off her belly button. The next thing we knew, Avery was sitting on her lap and a bit later on her husband's lap. I think she found some surrogate grandparents. We were fine with this and Avery was obviously enjoying it. Although I think this couple's own grandchildren were getting a bit jealous. Avery, however, was refusing to come back to us! Apparently this family was more fun than we are! We decided to sneak out a little early to beat the parking lot rush and I had to pry Avery out of this woman's arms, kicking and screaming because she didn't want to go with me.

Big Brother

A sweet thing happened last weekend...Garrett gave Avery a big hug and said, "I love you, Avery." This hasn't happened in quite awhile.

When I was a kid...

Today Garrett and I were reading a book about 5 little ducks. I said, "When I was a kid growing up on Grandpa's farm, I had ducks and chickens." Garrett chimed in, "When I was a baby, I had a farmer a long time ago and a combine and a tractor."

Rough Times

Garrett always has a rough time adjusting to changes. And coming home from Grandma & Grandpa's house was no exception. We expected some major grumpiness. On Sunday Greg and I took the kids to the zoo. It was a cool beautiful day and we had a great time until it was time to leave the Stego Dig site (where the kids dig for dinosaur bones in the sand). The zoo day ended with Garrett being carried out kicking and screaming. Now Garrett is usually a pretty well-behaved kid in public. Luckily we have never had to do this many times. We went home and he crashed for a 3-hour nap. We chalked it up to exhaustion. So the next day I decided to take the kids to the public pool. We had never been to the public pool, only our backyard pool! I had been tempted to wait until Greg could go along, but we have summer fever so off we went. The closest pool to our house is pretty incredible, more like a water park than a typical pool. The kids had a great time for abour 4 hours. However when it was time to go, Garrett decided that he was staying. I ended up dragging him out of the pool, kicking and screaming with Avery in the other arm. This continued the entire time I gathered up our towels and shoes and headed for the door. Luckily he followed me because my arms were full. Although he was still screaming and running in place. When Greg got home that day I said, "I think everyone was staring at me. Actually I KNOW they were staring at me." So I think we'll wait for Greg to come along before we attempt the pool again.

Speaking the Same Language

Avery is quite the talker. Most of the time it is quite a bit of "jibber-jabber" with some recognizable words mixed in. Apparently Garrett can understand her better than me based on this conversation:

I made baked beans with our lunch and as I was setting the table, Garrett proceeded to tell me, "I don't like beans." After he said this Avery jabbered off a nonsense sentence. Garrett replied, "No Avery, I DON'T like beans." She repeated the same nonsense sentence and then Garrett yelled, "I DON'T like beans, Avery! Mommy will you tell Avery to stop saying that I like beans because I DON't like beans!!"

A Week at Grandma & Grandpa's

This cute little man spent the week at Grandma and Grandpa Stohs's. We visted them for the 4th of July and then headed home on Monday. Garrett has been going to Vacation Bible School with Grandma all week. Avery and I are headed down Friday evening to watch him perform some of the songs that he has learned in a church program and then we'll be bringing him back home on Saturday. Unfortunately Greg is on-call so he can't go with us. It sounds like Garrett had a fun week! Grandma said he wasn't homesick at all. The house has seemed so quiet. Avery and I hardly know what to do with ourselves! She has had a bit of a virus and hasn't been up to par, so it was nice to be able to focus my attention just on her. But I can't wait to see my little man tomorrow and give him a huge hug and kiss! I have missed him dearly!

Look Mom!

Yesterday, I took Avery inside to change her diaper and left Garrett playing outside in the sandbox. When I came back out he said, "Look Mom, my ears are full of sand!" And sure enough, they were. I brushed the sand out as well as I could. My first thought was to flush the sand out with water, but I decided to call the nurse's line since it was after hours. The nurse said that's a new one that she hasn't heard before. She said, DO NOT flush them since I could do more damage. Instead we visited the dr today to have his ears checked. Luckily there was not much sand remaining in his ear canals and she easily removed it.

Back from Vacation...

We are back from Colorado. We had a wonderful time. Thanks to Kimberly and Tucker for taking us in with 2 rowdy kids and a dog! They were great hosts and we loved spending time with our family at their house. We also attended Greg's cousin Kelly's wedding at a beautiful lodge in Estes Park. The reception hall had a nice deck wrapping around it with beautiful mountain views. We spent a lot of time socializing with family outside.

On Monday we did something special. We rode this:


the Georgetown Loop Railway. We rode over that bridge in the picture! It was a bit scary for me, but the rest of the ride was beautiful. Garrett loved it and has been making his "train sounds" for days now!

On our way home from Colorado we stopped to visit a friend. My friend and former co-worker, Julie, just moved to rural Paxton, Nebraska with her family as her husband begins a farming operation. We had a great time and explored some of the outbuildings on her property. It was a bit reminiscent of my childhood days.