- Happy Birthday, Derrick!
TODAY is Derrick’s birthday (so, he is the star of this week’s Abby’s Saturday photo!) Seeing him sit and hold Abby like this though brought back so many memories – we’ve had Abby forever (almost 11 1/2 years at this point) and she truly is HIS girl. He used to sit and hold her on his lap like this (back before we had kids) – so this photo is extra sweet.
(Just, pay no attention to how dirty my storm door is behind him – YIKES! I haven’t bothered cleaning it because we are getting a new one, but now that I’m looking at it and realizing just how bad it is, I might have to go wipe it down right now.) - Last week, we spent a few extra days at the Lake leading up to the weekend. It was so beautiful and wonderful and restful.
Braelynn and Leander went swimming every day – even though the water is still absolutely freezing! I never get into the Lake until at least mid-to-late July, but the cold water doesn’t seem to bother them one bit! In fact, after swimming and playing in the water for about 30 minutes, Leander was shivering and theatening to turn blue, but he still refused to get out of the water! I literally had to bribe him out – he is such a water-bug!
On Friday, my Aunt & Uncle & cousins arrived (as usual) – Braelynn loves her twin cousins (even though they are a few years older than her – they are so sweet to let Braelynn follow them around and play together!) On Saturday, one of the twins: Becca, sat down on the dock at the Lake and talked and played with Leander all afternoon. It didn’t take long and he was instantly smitten. He started calling her “my Becca” and he literally followed her EVERYWHERE from that point on.
We saw her again on Wednesday night at Ruby’s birthday party/graduation party and it was the highlight of Leander’s whole day. She is his new best friend (lookout Auntie Ruby!) - Speaking of which: my sister Ruby – my baby sister, the youngest of our family – has officially graduated high school (cue all the emotions) and had dual graduation parties this week! She had a party down at the Lake for all of my family’s friends from church down there, and then she had a smaller “party” here at home for our immediate family here! It also happened to be her birthday, so it was quite the event!
Ruby is my children’s FAVORITE Auntie (sorry everyone else) – she babysits for us at least once a week so I can have some dedicated time to work during the day (I normally can only work at night after the kids go to bed), and they look forward to “Ruby Day” with the most anticipation! So, her graduating from high school and it being her birthday was a pretty big deal. - So, on “Ruby Day” this week – it was a rainy, crappy day. Normally, the kids go for walks, go to the park, or simply play outside, but they were stuck inside this week. I had gotten out all of the stuff for them to make homemade playdoh and they had a blast with that (we use this recipe – it’s THE BEST). Leander really surprised me though with just how long he played – HOURS on end! He was in his own little world with that playdoh and his Lion King figures, it was so sweet to watch!
Of course, he also made a huge mess with it, but oh well. - I’m on a quest to hit 100 subscribers on my YouTube channel! I’ve been slowly gaining a follower here and a follower there, but it’s time I actually tried to garner some followers! SO – if you haven’t followed me yet, what are you waiting for? Go check out my channel and hit that “subscribe” button for me! (Mostly, I need to hit 100 subscribers so I can change the name of my channel. It’s a super generic computer generated name and URL right now, and as soon as I hit 100 subscribers, YouTube sees me as legit and gives me the opportunity to personalize my channel a bit more.)
- Oh? You want a potty training update?
Well, after one of Leander’s worst days (Wednesday), Leander had one of his best days (Thursday). He actually pooped on the potty (I know, TMI. This is my reality right now though!) So, we celebrated hard-core.
I’m crossing my fingers that it’s a sign that it’s FINALLY clicking in his head and we’re making progress!! We’ll see!