Budding friends and binkies

Lately Summer and Chase are interacting and playing with each other so much more, I love it! They reach out for each other, talk back and forth to each other while in their cribs, they sit and play with toys together. It's really sweet!! Now, don't get me wrong, they can also do a pretty good tug of war over a toy or a hair brush or a pair of Mommy's slippers. But hey, I'd be more concerned if they didn't do that!

Summer's always been a binky loving baby. She's down to just using them in the crib now. My nerves are not honestly ready to wean her from that right now (I'll save the crying and screaming for another week!!). But sometimes she seems to sneak one downstairs, I think she must have it in her hand and I don't notice when bringing her down. She must then stash it somewhere because she never puts it right in her mouth, it shows up like an hour later ... out of the blue.

I think this was Summer's way of saying, "Hey, I have my binky and I love my binky and you aren't going to get it from me!!!" Of course, I could be wrong. She could have just accidentally gotten stuck in the clothes hamper too.

Father's Day 2008

We took Frankie out for a special Father's Day dinner at The Outback last Sunday. Lexi, Skye and Brad made and bought him cards and we made him cupcakes and had a little celebration at home. Erik's gift was to stay home with Summer and Chase so Frankie could have a stress free meal. I kind of felt bad about not taking them, but it really is nice every once in a while to have a quiet meal, we don't have those very often around here!!!
Of course, Frankie shaved the day after we took the pictures but even with all the grey in his beard, he still looks so much better than last year at this time. Hopefully he will still continue to improve every day. He's still such a caring and patient Daddy it really is amazing! He is truly a very special man who I love with all my heart.

Summy's signs and Chasey's new chapter

Summer is signing more than ever. She's also pointing to things all the time asking what they are. She now signs eat, more, cup, drink, night night, cat, hello, bye, thank you and grapes. Tonight, at 6:30 she signed to me "night night". I asked her if she wanted to go to bed to go night, night and she signed it again. So I got her dressed and in bed at 6:45 and she went right to sleep!!

Chasey is now able to balance himself enough that he can ride on the zebra all by himself! He's also steady enough on his feet to rummage through the toy bins. This is really good progress for the little guy. He seems proud of his accomplishments! I know I am!!

That's using your head Chase!

So we've been working on eating out of bowls, without Mommy holding the bowl. As you can see, Chase has it mastered! He's such a little genius!!

We've had to resort back to the darn cloth bibs. For some reason, the plastic ones with the pockets velcro on the side of their necks and they rip those off like there's no tomorrow. The cloth ones velcro in back and they don't mess with them. Go figure??!!

Flashback Friday

Here is a picture of Frankie, his Mom Carol and Summer and Chase last year over Father's Day weekend. Frankie had been home from rehab for 4 months, had been back in the hospital the month before for a broken hip and was still in a wheel chair. He looks so much healthier now looking back at this picture! This year will definitely be a better Father's Day!!

This is Summer and Chase at this time last year.

Beached

As a reward for Lexi and Skye's final report cards and all the awards they received I took them on a girls day outing to the beach! They both were on the A/B honor roll, Lexi received the 6th grade Triple R reward for highest level of Responsibility/Reliability/Respect. Lexi was in an advanced class this year (meaning she was working at the 7th grade level) and has tested for and been promoted to be in an advanced class again next year. Skye got awards for the highest GPA in both science and math. She also had the highest overall grade point average of her 5th grade class. They also both received several service awards.

So we picked a picnic lunch and spent the afternoon at Isle of Palms. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather and we all had fun swimming and sunning all afternoon. I can't wait to take Summer and Chase next time! I wish Frankie had come with us, but he had a really bad cold and wasn't feeling up to it. We all got a little too much sun, despite several applications of SPF 30 lotion. I even did a little souvenir shop browsing to get out of the sun a little bit and I still came home a lobster. It was well worth it though!!