July is Flying by....

July 2013, in Amarillo Texas has been an unseasonably cool month, Praise God! Rain and cool temps have been amazing!! So as for the boys, we have been trying to stay super busy, which is quite a bit easier now that Eli is down to two naps for the day. He wakes around 6:30, 7am and naps at 9 and 1 then goes to bed around 6:45. So we have a couple of slots that we are able to get out and about.

Some of our favorite activities this month include:

• Laugh and Learn at the NW library--"Dinosaur March" and "Firetruck" are our 2 favorites!
• 'Mommy and Me' Gymnastics--Edward has been taking a gymnasitics class at AC and has loved getting to jump on the trampoline and walk on beams and do so, so much more! Nana has been watching Eli :)
• LaDeeda--Music class with Miss Celeste. We love our Wednesday's and the time we get to spend exploring new music and instruments!
• Canyon library--checking out new books each week and playing in the kids area. This month they have had a big train and some birds on display. Both Edward and Eli LOVED the birds this past week, they even had Eli giggling :)! Out of all the books I check out, the car, train and Curious George books are the biggest hit! One of Edward's favorite books is "Goodnight, goodnight Construction Site" and it really is a terrific book! I even have Edward, Eli and myself enrolled in the summer reading program :)
• Swimming at the Amarillo Town club--We try to go swimming twice a week, one during the weekday with Nana's help and then once on the weekend when Daddy is home. Edward is getting better each and every time we go.
• Splash pad--this is a great afternoon outing when I don't have anyone to help me with the kids. We can run through the water then go to the playground and ride down slides!
• Wonderland Park--Edward's first amusement park (Eli stayed home with Nana)! It was a perfect night for a 2 1/2 year old to ride the horses (carousel), cars, boats, helicopters and the Log ride! He was in Heaven!! And we never had to wait in line, so we got to ride almost non-stop for 2 hours!

Here are some really neat things about Edward this month:

• On July 4th, we were eating at my parents' house and had all started to eat with out saying the prayer and Edward said "Prayer", he reminded us to pray, Amen!
• He will occasionally read/draw with Eli and now will try to actively play or show Eli what he is playing with.
• He will say and said "bless you" after Eli had sneezed
• "Roar" we "roar" a lot around this house right now. Especially towards the end of dinner and Eli , Edward and myself all end up cracking up.
• Edward will randomly perform a front roll anywhere at anytime.
• Around the middle of July, Edward started waking up in the middle of the night screaming, so I began to discuss with him what it meant to be a "big boy" and if he ever wanted to get a "big boy bed" he needed to sleep through the whole night without screaming. So on July 29th and 30th, when I went in to get him the next morning I congratulated him by saying how big of a boy he was and he said "bed, big boy bed" "no scream". He is so incredibly smart and NEVER ceases to amaze me!!
• Just yesterday after dinner (31st), me and the boys were playing and I was pretending to be asleep on the couch, Eli was jumping in his jumper and Edward would climb up on the couch. Well Eli would let out a happy scream and I'd pretend to be completely startled and Edward and Eli would just start cracking up, laughing so hard! I am so blessed! Thank you Lord.

Here are few tid-bits about Eli:

• He now has 4 teeth, 2 top, 2 bottom.
• He wants to be where Edward is (that's usually where the action is)
• Jabbering quite a bit and definitely reacts to different situations.
• Loves be sung to and read to
• Rolling and scooting all over the place and he will rock back and forth on all fours, just hasn't quite transferred all the motions to a full out crawl yet...soon, very soon....then life will change...

Being a mother of two beautiful Boys rocks!!