June 3, 2014

Well, it's been quite a couple of weeks. Both boys were sick last time I wrote, and they have been healing on and off since then.

Robert is just as happy as ever and is getting to where "proper" crawling is coming more naturally. I was getting used to him being slower because he was trying to crawl correctly, but now he is just as speedy as ever. Watch out world! He also successfully climbed the stairs this week and can be found standing in his crib any time I don't come and get him soon enough. He is cruising along furniture, animals and people with greater ease each day. He is getting close to standing himself up from the ground (just needs a tad more balance) and can stand by letting go of an object for many seconds at a time before sitting. He just holds onto my fingers now to walk (run) around and I have trouble keeping up with his movement in my bent over, wide leg stance. Robert almost took his first steps yesterday to his Little Gym Teacher yesterday. He certainly tried, but my arm was in the way. I'm not saying he has the balance to walk far, but he sure had the determination to give it his all-out try!

William, I have discovered can read much more than I realized. At the Dr. office the other day, he was holding a book and said, "I love my mommy." I quickly responded, "I love you too!" "No mommy," he responded, "Look!" He turned around the book and sure enough, the title was I Love My Mommy. It was not a book I'd ever seen before. The nurse and I just looked at each other, not sure what to do with that. I had almost forgotten it had happened when a few days later, William brought me a napkin and said, "look mommy! It says happy birthday!" And yes, that is exactly what it said. I had bough the napkins for my sister-in-law's birthday, but hadn't read them to William. Oh and he can spell Mom, Dad, Nana, Robert and William. He reads another word about every other day, and I am so amazed and impressed by him.

Weekend before last, Francis, the boys and I met my in-laws as well as Chris and cousin Abby in San Antonio for Memorial Day weekend. We spent two days at Sea World. It rained both days, but I wouldn't have it any other way, as it kept a lot of the crowds away. We did Aquatica (the water park) the first day and it was empty enough that we were all able to ride all the rides at least once with little or no wait all day long. It was awesome. My in-laws rented a Cabana and so we had a dry place to go when it was raining (though we were in a water park, so a lot of the time it was fine to be wet). The aviary just opened that day and seeing the birds was spectacular! Sunday Cyndy joined us (she flew in from a mission trip in Montreal the night before) and we did the main park including the penguins! We took a nap in the afternoon and caught the last showing of Shamu that night and also saw some fireworks. It was a great day and a pretty great weekend! The only sad part was that poor Francis fell Saturday night while holding William and they both got pretty beat up. William's face was completely scraped up for a week and he had two knots on his head slightly smaller than a golf ball. After an initial hysteria, he settled down and didn't let it bother him. He felt good enough the next day to ride his first roller coaster (Shamu coaster), and he LOVED it, yelling whee the whole time. We celebrated Cyndy's birthday on Monday before leaving with a black forest cake I assembled in the hotel room. It wasn't too bad! Oh, and we finally got to give Francis's mom the canvasses of her three grandchildren that we ordered for mother's day. She said they were the best present ever. Now we wish we'd saved them for her birthday next month, hehe.

Life since then has been relatively routine with us frequenting North East Metro park many times now that we have discovered it. It's close enough we can be gone for an hour and spend 45 minutes there, and I like that. We've also been back to the Aquarium and like the improvements we've been seeing. Hoping they continue! That's it for now!