Happy Independence Day!

4th of July

This year was so much fun because there was a chance to explain why we celebrate this holiday to Claire and Shay, and they seemed to understand it! We also got to join in the hometown celebration in Star with a parade in the morning. There are a ton of other things we could have joined in that is hosted by the city that we can do in the future, and our neigborhood started a block party that everyone wants to do every year. I think the city has grown a lot over the last few years and they haven't quite figured out how to handle it because we were a little disappointed in the parade. The instructions they gave the floats were not throwing candy because our main street was widened recently and if any dropped in the middle of the road it would be too tempting for kids to run out so they could only hand out candy on the side. There were also huge gaps in the middle and I think it was because they had to make a turn. We did our own sparklers in our backyard and had the neighbors fireworks fall on us...but got a front row seat to some bigger ones. 

Adrian

Adrian is getting back to sleeping better and has a pretty regular wake up schedule during the night. Its predictable but still keeps me from getting sleep all through the night so I've just accepted he's a very hungry boy! He is already so big and it is hard to carry him around all the time espeically in the car seat for very long. I usually keep Buttercup away from him but she has been really good recently and he reached out to her when I was changing his butt that looked so cute. I don't like choosing between spending time with my two babies, but at least the girls play with Buttercup and I can have time to play with just her during his naps. I got to try our first outting to a big gathering because Chris stayed home while he was napping when the block party started

Claire

Swimming this week was a good time and there were a lot more people because they had to make up for being closed on Thursday. I don't get to see if they are actually learning anything because I'm with Adrian in the baby pool but I have them tell me what they have learned. We also get to have fun times when we go to the park and get to have activites that the library sponsers before lunch is served. We've seen our neighbors there a few times this week. We started a marble reward since the other ones I've tried hasn't worked so we will see if this one does eventually. I liked the idea because they earn them easily by doing things I'm going to make them do anyway and I can also take them away if they do things I've told them not to do a million times. 

Shay

There has been a few bad instances of Shay biting and getting violet when she is upset so I'm trying to figure out ways to remind her to stay calm. She knows it's wrong, but in the moment I don't think she can control herself. It might be that I always expect her to be as advanced as Claire, but no matter how many times people mistake them as twins they are a year and a half apart! She has had to take a few naps this week even which I don't think Claire ever had to do once she turned 5, she just sleeps more at night. We are so close to starting school and I think once we go school shopping at meet her teacher she will talk about it every day and I need to get a count down so she won't ask how much longer as often.