Darby

We were gone for a weekend, and when we came home we were surprised to see that Darby, our caterpillar, was now Darby, our butterfly. She was beautiful! Lucy was just so excited and amazed by the whole thing. She just kept starring at her and smiling. So, of course, we needed to let Darby go. So we took her outside, said good-bye to her and asked her to come visit, and Lucy set her free. We were hoping that she would settle on some of our flowers, but she had been trapped for too long and just wanted to fly, so she took off over the fence and was gone. Lucy would ask me every day after that if Darby was going to come and visit, and I would just say we could watch for her but I don't know. Well, the other day, we took a 5 mile walk with the kids, and I can't even tell you how many "Darby's" we saw. We just kept telling Lucy, "look, there's Darby," and she would yell "hi, Darby." She was so happy to see her Darby. We even saw Darby flying with a yellow butterfly and Lucy said, that's Darby's friend and gave her some name too. I was just thanking Jesus for sending all those "Darby's" on our walks because it made a 3 year old little girl so happy. He cares for our smallest needs... so cool!

2000 miles

My sister and I drove the kids up to Wisconsin for a week earlier this month. My Grandma had flown in earlier that day from Florida and she didn't know we were coming. My parents kept her up late playing skip-bo so we could surprise her. She was so confused when my Mom came walking in the kitchen carrying my nephew, Preston, at 11:30 at night. She said, who is that, is that Preston, where did you get Preston.... and then the rest of us came in. We had a great week. We went to the Farmer's Market and Lucy had cotton candy for the first time... what a mess!! We went to the Milwaukee County Zoo... I had forgotten what a great zoo it is and so beautiful!!! Two peacocks opened it's feathers for us, which was fun to see. We rode the train and saw a lot of animals that we don't have at our zoo. The kids wanted to go back the next day.

We also went up to our cottage in northern Wisconsin for a few days, and we all have so much fun up there. We fished, caught frogs, ran around in the woods and just enjoyed the solitude. My Grandma, who is almost 90, got in our boat and went fishing with my brother and nephew, Riley. I think it added a few years to her life because she was so excited about doing that. Once again, Lucy loved the frogs... she wanted to hold them all. She also surprised us by trying to take her own fish off the hook. The girl is brave... I don't even like to do that.

Lucy also went to her first bouncy house place. She had a ball! She headed to the huge slide first, which scared her so badly that it took a lot of convincing that it was okay to go down some of the other slides. My nephew, Preston, who is the same age as her, would be at the bottom of the slide yelling, "I'll catch you, Lucy." So she would come flying down the slide, knock him over and then they would laugh. So fun!

So, we drove 2000 miles that week. I am so thankful for great travelers. It might take us a few hours longer to get somewhere, but at least the kids love to travel, and look forward to the playgrounds at the rest stops. As for Brandt, he could care less about the playgrounds, but he is a great little sport in his car seat. It does help, that my nephews think he is just the greatest and they all wanted turns to sit next to him in the car. I love my family.

Funny things you say

The other day it was storming, so I turned on the t.v to see what the weather was saying and ESPN was on and they were showing the Packer game highlights from the weekend. So I watched it and then said, great, they won. All of a sudden Lucy comes right over to my face, grinning from ear to ear, and says "boo, Packers." Then she proceeds to laugh so hard. I said, what did you say... she says it again. So I tickled her until she said "go, Packers." Thankfully, she said "boo, Cowboys" that night when Mike got home, just to tease him a little too. It was so funny because it caught me so off guard... such personality.

Randomly, kind of like this blog, I will remember something we need to buy next time we go to the store, so I will ask Lucy to remind me to buy whatever. So the other day, she said next time we go to the store we need to get some pears. I said, you want pears, she said, yes, remind me that we need to get pears. The things they pick up on. So that night, her and Mike were sitting on the swing set eating Popsicles and Mike was asking her about her day and she was telling him and then all of a sudden she said, "and tomorrow we are going to go to Walmart and get some pears." I am thinking she really wants some pears.

I am finding that Brandt really loves to eat. It must be something about little boys that love food. He will scrunch his face up and close his eyes and make mmm sounds when I am feeding him solids. It's just so sweet and funny! I never want to forget these days

Caterpillars and stuff....

The other night, Lucy was doing something that she shouldn't, so Mike said, "Lucy, you shouldn't do that and if I have to tell you again, you are going to have to get a spanking." So she said, "well, then don't tell me again." I guess she has her Daddy's quick whit.


I love the way Lucy begins most of her sentences with "actually...." Is it a first-born trait to be all-knowing? She also started talking like a Wisconsinite while up in that beautiful state... she now ends her statements with "you know" or "hey."

We found a caterpillar out in the flower garden today, so we built a habitat for Darby. Lucy just sits and watches Darby waiting for her to turn into a butterfly. When she had to go to the bathroom she told me that maybe the caterpillar will turn into a butterfly while she goes pee. It didn't happen.

Dates to remember

July 6... Brandt got his first tooth

July 11...Brandt got his 2nd tooth

July 11... Brandt says "mama" and we will go on and on with mamamamama when he is tired or hungry. He knows who he wants! So precious to hear, thank you sweet boy.

July 15th... clapped

July 22nd... had cheerios and was signing more

Happy 4th

We took a trip to Kansas over the 4th. Mike was hoping to get to help his Dad cut wheat, but it kept raining. Our brother-in-law was cutting, so Lucy did get a chance to ride the combine...I would have loved to seen what was going on in that combine with Uncle Randy and Lucy... was she quietly sitting or asking questions. Lucy also had her first dinner out in the field, which was fun.

Grammy asked Lucy if she wanted a tea party. Lucy was very excited and said "with real water." Usually, we pretend to have tea and every now and then we will use water for a tea party. So Lucy was extra excited when she found out that we were wearing hats, drinking real tea with Grammy's pretty tea cups, and she got to wear some lipstick. We had a lot of fun!!

Here's my 4th of July babies! We went to a bbq in town at a ladies house who loves to feed people, then drove out to watch fireworks at the neighboring town 25 miles away. Lucy even got to use sparklers for the first time. I thought she would get scared once Mike lit it, but she didn't. Brave little girl.

Space Shuttle

I came up with the brilliant idea of playing space shuttle today while playing in her room, mostly, because I was tired from being up with both her and Brandt last night for some strange reason, and playing space shuttle involved lying down with our feet up on the bed because we were strapped in for take-off. A Mom's got to do what a Mom's got to do in order to lie down, right. Anyhow, so we started our countdown for blast-off, then took off. I looked over at her and said, wow, Lucy, did you feel those G's? She said, well, no, but I did feel the U's and the J's. I laughed so hard because not only was she funny, but she said it so matter of fact like she knew exactly what I was talking about and without missing a beat. Miss Lucy, you are hilarious and I love you so much!!!

Today Brandt is 7 months old and he showed off his age by sitting up all by himself.... such a big boy! He also said "dadadada" on Father's Day for the first time, so that was a pretty special gift... such a brilliant child we have :)