Summer Vacation

Well, it's on! Summer vacation! Brendan finished school with much fanfare from us, but relatively little from him. We thought "Oh good, he must just really like school" but it turned out the idea of "school's out" is just a bit early for a kindergartener since we woke up bright and early after the last day of school, and asked "is this a school day?". He and Dad had a very cute celebration after the last night of school sleeping out in a tent in the back yard. I think it was the best night's sleep Rob has had in a while. He's campaigning to do it again soon!

The twins have not dissapointed this week in their rapid progression of milestones. Harrison has learned how to pull to stand (!) and Bob and Gail (who were down babysitting this weekend while we went 4 wheeling for Canada Day) said Heidi even pulled to stand once. Harrison is pulling to stand on a few select items, not everything yet. The couch seems to be just the right size, as is the 18 inch high piece of plywood that we had put across Brendan's door. It's amazing how different babyproofing is this time around now that there is a slightly possessive 5 year old and his plethora of toys to consider. Brendan and I face off regularly in what I like to call the "Lego Wars". Lego is currently banned from the main floor, but mysteriously keeps appearing in his room anyways. The final item that is just the right size for Harrison to pull to stand on is, unfortunately, his sister. She doesn't like this. At all.

Keeping up with these twins moving in oppposite directions is every bit the nightmare I had imagined. I have no doubt that we will survive, but I also have no doubt my gray hair is accumulating at record speed. The other day we found Harrison stuck halfway across the plywood barrier, dangling, after he had pulled to stand on it, leaned forward in his desperate desire to get in at all those fun new toys and pitched over it like a too short teeter totter. I don't think I'm doing the mental image justice. Rob also found Heidi recently wedged behind the toilet, so now the bathroom door has to stay closed at all costs. Sigh.

No teeth yet for Heidi, still just the one for Harrison, but man is it sharp!

The milestone I would very much like Heidi to master is sitting up on her own. We finally discovered the reason she has been crawling from room to room to room quietly fussing for the last two weeks is that she doesn't know how to stop crawling and sit to rest. She can roll onto her back but that's not the position she would most like. So now she crawls for a while, but when she starts to fuss we sit her up and she's happy as a clam. We're just happy to have figured that mystery out!

So, we're in summer vacation mode now, and heading up to the cottage for a week of R & R. Well, sort of. We're taking the kids. So it probably won't involve much R or R... But it will be lovely scenery! Ha ha, we'll check in when we get back, Happy Canada Day everyone!

Nancy