The Enchanted Garden

My girls refer to Botanica as 'The Enchanted Garden'

We spent a morning there one day this month and they were delighted by the entire experience.

Swim Lessons

This year's swim lessons went much much better than last year. Last summer, Lexi would NOT put her face in the water, let alone go under it. This year she found her courage and will go under and try to swim a bit. A very little bit, but progress has been made.

Emma takes a parent and tot class that is at the same time as Lexi's class. She is a little fish and will probably pass her sister at some point.

The best/worst part of swim lessons is that Emma mixes up her F's and B's when she talks. She generally likes to exclaim, "I'm a little fish" when she first jumps into the pool. This is a problem since Fish starts with an F, and Emma pronounces F's like B's so it sounds like "I'm a little B*&^%"

Oh Emma.

Summer Finish Line

Considering the last post was entitled "Summer Starting Line" calling this the "Finish" seems appropriate.

This was a summer of long, lazy days. We spent our time together doing everything and nothing. No major trips or fancy vacations - just time together. After a particularly exhausting and draining school year, this summer of hibernating with my little family was perfect.


Cousin time at the beginning of the summer:








Lexi lost another tooth - this was just as dramatic as the first time around, except this time Paul was here (not in Canada) to witness.






Emma is really really into matching right now. She LOVES to match what she is wearing to what Lexi is wearing: clothes, accessories, nightgowns - even underwear! One night, she wanted to match Daddy. Luckily, we have a few coordinating Newman University t-shirts.





We found out in June that Emma is allergic to Penicillin. She had managed to get a full upper everything infection in late May/early June. It was disgusting: a total snot-splosion! She had gunk coming out of her nose and eyes and visible goo coming out of both ears. When I got her into the doctor, the prescribed her amoxicillin which really took care of the problem. It took about 8 days before the medicine caused her to wake up with a disgusting rash that made her super puffy and covered in red welt-like hives. She is allergic. 




For Lexi's birthday, all she wanted was a tree house. ALL SHE WANTED. Being that she has her daddy wrapped around her precious little finger, he caved on building her a swingset pretty quickly. It arrived in three large boxes that contained approximately eleventy billion pieces. He spent a day and a half constructing the new playset and the girls love it. They don't love the bugs that also live in the backyard, but they love the swingset . . . and the daddy who built it for them.






Emma had her first trip to the dentist this summer. I did not have high expectations. Lexi squealed and screamed the first time I took her and she had been the same age as Emma is now. Emma Jo, true to form, surprised me. She was perfect - letting the hygenist clean her teeth, floss, and of course she charmed her way into getting to play with the "slurpee" tool for most of the visit.

 

Paul remodeled our downstairs bathroom which was in terrible need of TLC. When we bought the house, I affectionately referred to this bathroom as 'Hunter's Hideaway' because it was festooned with brownish-grayish wallpaper featuring mallard ducks and various ugly duck habitats. We tried to peel the wallpaper, but it wasn't budging. Eventually it was painted over but the seems were extremely visible (as were my attempts at patching and puttying over the seams). The paint color I picked to cover the ducks was an awful mud brown, too.

Thankfully, my husband is handy and he was able to texture the walls, paint them a beautiful shade of linen white (Woodrow Wilson Linen, to be exact. I like my paint to have historical names. WWL goes nicely with Churchill Hotel Wheat and Betsy Ross House Moss, my historical home color palette).

While we were painting, we went ahead and replaced the light fixture, vanity top, and got some new artwork to finish the space up. It's beautiful and I love it.

Finger nail painting party:

Haircut day: Lexi's 'makeover' wasn't super drastic. She got a few dry inches cut off but it is pretty tough to tell she had anything done. This girl has long hair and she likes it that way.

Emma's little bob was a huge change for her! Since she is starting preschool this August (and refuses to keep her pigtails in) I needed her hair to have some type of deliberate look to it. She loves her new do and frequently flips her hair and says, "don't I look great?"

Summer Starting line

 

This has been perhaps the LEAST epic start to summer vacation that there ever was . . . 

As per my usual, I spent the first 5 days in a haze of overwhelming exhaustion. The end of the school year is a flurry of activity and deadlines and I am generally guilty of pushing myself so hard to get it all done that by the time I am "officially" on summer break I am too tired to do anything for at least a week. 

We made a day trip down to Southeast Kansas on Saturday May 24th. We spent a few hours at Paul's Grandma's house where the girls played with their cousins then we headed over to Chanute to see my grandparents. 

Emma has not fallen asleep in the car since she was maybe 4 months old. That is, until THIS DAY. She fell asleep when we were about 10 minutes away, and this teensy tiny nap was all she had for the day. 

 

Aside from the one day trip, we haven't done much else. The girls and I have been keeping mostly to the house - an errand once or twice a week, but so far no pool, park, or zoo trips. 

I'm sure you are wondering "why?" 

 

I promise it's not that I am trying to impose my hermit-y ways upon them (but you won't catch me complaining about the lack of activity). In the past, when we have ventured from our house, I have preferred to go out in the mornings when the weather is still relatively cool and the crowds aren't too obnoxious yet (in addition to my hermit-like qualities, I also detest large groups of people and sweating).

Mostly we haven't been out in the mornings because my dear Alexis has become quite the sleeper. She is still going to bed by 8:00 at night, but she has been sleeping in until 8:00 am or later every day. It then takes her at least an hour, maybe more to eat breakfast and truly wake up. So most days, it is 9:30 or 10:00 before we could even think of going anywhere. 

Emma has been sleeping in, too. But for Em, sleeping in means 6:00 or 6:30 (instead of 5:00 am). I could choose to get up and get ready before my children wake up, but I just can't seem to make myself. 10 months out of the year I am awake by 5:00 every morning - either to get ready for work or to run. Right now, I am letting sleep win . . . and not feeling too terribly guilty about it. 

Another huge reason we haven't been out and about: Emma's horrific head cold. She started coming down with this about a week into summer and by yesterday, she was a snot-splosion! She was leaking from her nose, eyes, and ears! I took her to the doctor and a few antibiotics later, her infections should be clearing up. I haven't wanted to risk her getting worse (her seasonal allergies are pretty sensitive) or causing a West Wichita epidemic. She might be the carrier monkey from outbreak.

So the Holding girls have been taking it quite easy these first couple of weeks of summer - lots of coloring, painting, dolls, play-doh, blocks, and movies.  

Lexi also lost her 2nd tooth this week! This time was just as traumatic as the first one - we had to coax her into letting us pull it for a full 30 minutes! Once it was out, she dramatically sighed and put the back of her hand on her forehead and declared, "Whew! I'm glad that's over!"

River Run 2014

 What a humid, hot, sticky run this was! Paul and I ran the the 10k and Lexi and Emma ran the Tot Trot. While I was just out for a "fun" run, Paul was out to push himself and set a personal record. 

Finishing times: 

Paul - 45:08, 7:16/mile

          21st of 118 in his age group 

          100 of 1,533 overall runners 

Megan - 54:04, 8:42/mile 

              26 of 183 in my age group

              390 of 1,533 overall runners 

Paul KILLED it, and I am so impressed! 

I probably could have pushed it a little harder but I was too busy rapping Iggy Azalea for the entertainment of my fellow runners at mile 4. 

And it was hot. 

Really hot. 

And I'm so "Fancy."

Lexi and Emma ran the Tot Trot later that morning. Lexi was very excited and just smiled her big beautiful smile the whole time! 

 

 Emma was not feeling well at all. Paul had to run with Emma, and for the 20 minutes before and after her race she was crying and tired.

no pre-race pics for this chickadee!

Emma's 3rd Birthday

I feel like I've been behind since the day Emma was born, so it is only fitting that her 3rd birthday post happens 2 1/2 weeks after the actual event, right? 

 

Em's birthday was on a Monday this year. When Lexi turned three, Paul and I took her to Build a Bear and it was such a fun, sweet experience that we wanted to do the same for Em. Nana and Papa took Lexi for the afternoon and we took Emma. She picked out this sparkly kitty and named her Lily. Notice the Sofia the First dress she chose for the stuffed animal - so Emma!

Lexi had "planned the decorations" for Em's special day and I could only describe it as a color explosion. Part Luau, part rainbow, part pink and purple - it was random but somehow deliberately captured the spirit of our newly minted 3 year old! 

Nana and Papa came over for dinner, cake, and presents Sunday evening and Emma loved opening her tutus and new outfits from them! Grandma also sent new toys for Emma's dollhouse. 

 

 

Lexi was either starting to not feel well or was not enjoying Emma being the center of attention.
 

And it just wouldn't be a birthday around here, if we weren't giving the gift of germs! Emma had some "tummy issues" Sunday evening, but Lexi started throwing up in the early hours of Monday morning. So even though I had thought I would have to spend Emma's birthday at work, I wound up staying home with two sick little girls that day.  I also landed my very own sick day Tuesday after I caught whatever little bug the girls had the previous days.

Emma was mostly unaffected by Monday evening and thoroughly enjoyed wearing her new roller skates and Pirate Fairy dress around the house! 

 3 year old checkup stats: 

HEIGHT: 38 inches (75th percentile)

WEIGHT: 34 pounds (75th percentile)