Shower Fun

On Sunday, I had the treat of taking Gillian to her first official "Girlie Event!" Ok, so we took Colin too, but just because he likes the ladies.

My cousin Matthew is marrying the lovely, talented, and wonderful Rachel in October and her bridal shower was Sunday. We are very excited about Rachel joining our family! We think she's great! AND, Colin and Gillian are going to be a ring bearer and flower girl in their October 23rd wedding. Along with my cousin Becky's daughter, Sarah (age 2), and son, Benjamin (age 6). So, yes, that's three two year olds in one wedding. Could be epic.

So, C&G had a great time at the shower! They were totally spoiled by Rachel's family, as was Sarah. (Benjamin reluctantly stayed with his Dad, but I bet he had more fun at home than he would have at the shower!) The little girls got these cute aprons to wear while "helping" Rachel with her presents:


Rachel had an apron to wear too, and an oven mitt to assist in opening presents. She kept the mitt on the whole time and it didn't slow her down at all!


But, most of the fun came from the tissue paper "snow storm" that the little ones made for themselves. They threw paper up in the air, rolled in it, tore it, and just had a great time! Rachel's grandmother (whose house we were in) was, unexpectedly, in the hospital on Sunday, so she watched the shower on Skype and while taking pain meds. Apparently, she found the little kids very funny and kept saying "Weee, weeee, weee" as they played!

(Gillian is holding a cow dish scrubber, also very amusing to younglings.)

Great Aunt Sue also brought along her stash of kid toys, so Colin played with the magnet letters too!


Oh, and Gillian was wearing her adorable Sheep Sundress that Grammy Lynn made her, complete with sheep buttons on the shoulders! Everyone LOVED it and thought she was just a dollbaby!


So, Girlie Fun was a hit! Even with our little man! Bring on the wedding!

Gillian's Little Finger

That's where Daddy is....most days.



Oh yeah, we shake our sillies out quite frequently now. Pretty funny. And, in case you didn't hear, Colin is "DONE."

Mmmm, Corn on the Cob!

We had our first farm fresh corn on the cob from our CSA last week! I am so happy to be feeling well enough this summer to eat corn on the cob; it's been quite a few years since I've had that treat! The kids weren't big enough to try corn on the cob last summer, but they certainly are this summer! Colin said, "NO" to trying it, but Gillian had a blast with it!



We have more to have with super tomorrow night too!

This is why we don't get up at 5:00 am.

Or at least, this is why I don't get up at 5:00 am. Ask Gillian what her deal is. I'm sick of it.

Cerscels!

I got the kids a MagnaDoodle last week to take to the beach with us next month. I think it will make a good car entertainment toy, but I wanted to make sure the kids liked it!

Boy, howdy.

Colin took to that thing like a duck to water. Gillian likes it, but Colin L-O-V-E-S it! He quickly learned how to use the eraser feature, and Daddy soon taught him to draw circles, which he calls "Cerscels!" It is just too darn cute to stand it. Even cuter, he can only draw about two circles between "erases." Enjoy!



I feel I should add, YES, my kids do own pants and they frequently wear them. Just not at home.

Where have we been???

Well, busy, I guess. No real reason to not have some new blogs up, but there we are anyway. Sorry about that. I have some cute stories, pictures, and videos to share.

So, July 11 is about where we left off. A very important occasion in the Uhl house! It was our Schmo Cat's birthday, and this year it was his 10th birthday at that! It's hard to believe that the tiny, sad, runty little ball of orange cuteness turned into our big, fat, sassy, SAINT of a cat. He's lived with us a long time, in three houses, with a new kitten, and TWO babies. He's amazingly adaptable. As long as he gets some daily adoration and dinner on time, he is a pretty content fellow. As you can see....


(At last measure, he was about 16 lbs)

He had a nice birthday with a tuna surprise and REAL fur rat to play with. What more can you ask for?

Finally Finishing the Fourth

So, on July 4th proper, we went to see my Dad, Dickiedoo, and my step-mom, Noonie, in the morning. It was quite a warm day, so we were happy to take a dip in the pool! As soon as C&G saw they water, they headed straight for it.

I sat out the fun and chatted with Noonie, who is still recovering from breaking BOTH heels on Father's Day, but Daddy and Dickiedoo had fun getting wet!

Colin blowing bubbles with Dickiedoo:


Then for a fly!


Daddy tried to get Bean to kick-kick-kick!


Having so much fun!


But, then Gillian needed to warm up and spend some time with Noonie (I didn't think it was fair to take photos of Noonie with her double casts and wheelchair):


We headed back to Uhls' for lunch and a much needed nap. Oh, and Daddy got to go "Hold Services" at the firing range with Grandpa Frank, Uncle D, and the Keisters. That made him happy. After nap, we headed to GraGra and Grandpa Greg's for dinner. Uncle Stevie, Aunt Emily, Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma joined us!

After dinner we tried to get our Knee High by the Fourth of July photos. It took some wrangling to even get to the field!

Colin needed to be "fetched":


And Gillian had to stop to smell the (dead) flowers:


Ok, we made it, and Colin immediately said, "DONE, DONE, DONE!!" And honestly, if you hadn't eaten or pooped for four days, you wouldn't want to play in the corn field either.


Get me outta here!


Oh yeah, GraGra makes it all better!


Honestly, we had two very tired kids on our hands by this point so it was back for bed. Colin slept very restlessly that night, and woke up very groggy and out of sorts. Fortunately, after 12 ounces of milk and cuddling with Daddy, he bounced back. We think he was exhausted and a little dehydrated. He got back on track quickly once we got home, thankfully.

A very fun, hot, tiring holiday. Can't wait for next year!

Words, words, words

We have finally hit that elusive "18" month language spurt around here! Colin has been quite chatty for about 4 or 5 weeks now. He really is "Harold Ramblemouth," as Grandpa Frank would call him. It's such a relief to hear him talk so much and it makes it so much easier to meet his needs! He is even starting to put together two word phrases every once in a while!

Gillian is still not as chatty as Colin, but we've seen some encouraging signs in the past week or so. She certainly isn't lighting the expressive language world on fire, but she understands so much that it's SCARY.

Anyway, both kids are now saying new words on a pretty much daily basis, and this week they had quite a collection of funny words and I thought I'd share a few.

Peep - Yeah, not what a chick says. Think anatomy. I shouldn't be surprised since Colin has been quite fascinated by that particular facet of his body for a long time. BOYS!

Couscous - Gillian LOVES couscous. I put my plate down on the table last night with rice on it and she yells "COUSCOUS" (It sounded more like Choo Choo, but we got it). Luckily, she settled for the rice.

Patio - Ok, this one didn't even SOUND like patio, but it was definitely what Colin was trying to say. He also says brick and stone. Dickiedoo will be proud.

Bra - If she's anything like her mother, it will be a loooooonnnnngggg time before G needs a bra, but luckily she knows how to say it!

Those are the highlights from the week. Colin is also getting pretty good with the colors blue, green, and red! Ok, so they aren't at the top of the speech development curve, much to Mommy and Daddy's dismay. BUT, they are moving right along and they'll get there soon enough. We'll be begging for quiet, I have no doubt.

In Search of Normal Rockwell...

Last weekend we took our annual trek to The Brockway Olde Fashion 4th of July festivities. We will have you know it is the region's largest non-carnival family event with all day activities, or so says the brochure about town. You can find further explanation of Michael's love of July 4th in last years' post: July 4, 2009

Being as Brockway is a God-fearing town, all the drunken debauchery was scheduled to happen on Saturday. Before we could begin the patriotic fun though, we had a date at my step-brother, Zach's, graduation party. So, we hit the party a little early and tried to grab some lunch before heading back for a nap.

Grandpa Greg and Colin were thrilled to see each other!


GraGra tried to get Colin to eat some lunch. See all that food on his plate? He ate about two bites. And some chips and pretzels. He did not eat well all weekend.


Bean ate a smidge more than Colin, but not much.


Oh, but she ate a cookie with BLACK icing.


The kids had fun running around the picnic pavilion and I had fun eating some AWESOME cake. Soon, though, we headed back to Grammy's house for nap before another picnic and parade!!

As with lunch, neither kiddo ate much dinner. I did get them to eat a small bowl of Cheerios though. Desperate times, right? After dinner and visiting with lots of friends and family at Grammy and Grandpa's house, Daddy and I took the kids "downtown" for the parade.

We met Matthew and Rachel under some shade trees, and soon the kiddos had lured Uncle Willis, Leah, Aunt Emily, and Uncle Stevie from the street to sit with us!

Since both C&G are really digging vehicles right now, we were pretty sure they would love the Firetruck Parade that Brockway throws. We were a little concerned about the noise factor though. Gillian wasn't bothered at all; Colin was nervous, but he braved it out! No crying!

He did stick pretty close to Daddy though!


Gillian was content to explore the grass around us, visiting her uncles and aunts, and finding a snack.


The local garbage company was in the parade and they handed out push up Popsicles to the crowd as they went down the street. This was Colin and Gillian's fist Popsicle experience!

Uncle Willis lends G a hand:


Colin had Daddy's help (we think that he was concerned about a loud noise in this picture; he DID like the Popsicle):


We stayed until nearly the end of the parade, and were up considerably past our bedtime! The kiddos did really well though and got a pretty good night's sleep. Good thing, they had a busy Sunday too! That's up next!

Bean and Grandpa

Michael and I think there are a lot of similarities here....



Although, Grandpa doesn't usually carry a baby doll around every where.

Nesting

No, not me. Never again.

Gilllian? Yes. She has this odd habit of building nests with her toys pretty much on a daily basis. So, I've been following her around all week taking quick pictures of her nests.

First up is a pretty tradition nest made up of stuffed animals and babydoll gear. This location is a favorite too; it's behind the "playhouse."


The next day we had out the tunnel after breakfast. What better place to build a nest?


Next up we have the Mobile Nest. I particularly like the winter scarf and bunny ears!


This morning Bean just had time for a quick Mini-Nest before we headed to the park!


But, this afternoon she made Mega-Nest!


What a goofy kid!