Week 1 of Summer: Creating

Dear Nathan and Hannah,

Week 1 of summer vacation officially starts! It's been nice not having to prepare lunches the night before and not have to rush out to get to school on time, (although, it seems like we've been leaving for activities earlier than on school days). 

The theme of this week seems to have been creating. This week you guys got to build your own pizzas, and I was so surprised to find that Hannah's pizza turned out to be more tidy than Nathan's. Hannah, your fine motor skills are pretty well developed. You love playing with small things. 

 We also got some beads at the store earlier in the week and we've been making necklaces, lots of them!

 The weather in Austin remains mild and so we've been taking advantage of these nice mornings to go out and play. We went to one of our favorite playgrounds in town and got to swing on the giant tree swing.

 Last time we were here, Hannah was not yet big enough to reach the two ropes that the swing is attached to.

 You two played obstacle course and pretty much did everything together. It was one of those mornings where you both did such a great job taking turns, sharing, and simply were very pleasant to be around. We also found a bunch of fossils and gravel and maybe even arrowheads in the gravel. We have collected them and maybe we'll use them to build part of our fairy garden.

 You two continue to love eating fruits. Raspberries, blackberries, and mangoes are both of your favorites. Nathan likes green apples and Hannah likes "rainbow" or fuji apples.

 Our garden is thriving. We are getting quite a good yield of cherry tomatoes. Hannah you have pretty much decided that you don't like tomatoes, but Nathan will always try one after picking them from the garden. Most of the time, you end up saying that it makes your mouth tingle, but there have been a couple of times where you say that you like it.

 Yesterday we met up with some friends and went to explore the botanical garden's fairy garden exhibit. We got lots of inspiration to build our own fairy garden. So far, we've collected twigs and we've build a ladder. I think the next thing we will be building are little houses. We'll have to see what materials we can find in the greenbelt that will work.

 As we were exploring the trail, we came upon this structure and all of you could've just spent the whole morning playing in the "cave." In the end, there were lots of muddy fingernails, but you all really enjoyed the experience.

 A friend dropped off a bunch of toys for you guys. 3 boxes of duplos and an entire bag of little dolls. As you can imagine, Hannah absolutely loved playing with the little figures. You always love little things.

 We also received a bag of beach treasures (shells and sand dollars) that our friend picked up for us while on a trip to California. Nathan, you were so moved by the gesture that you wanted to go outside to look for treasures for your friend. In the end, we decided on a few of the cool fossils and crystals that we found to give.

This morning we went to one of my favorite summer events in Austin. Austin Symphony puts on a Children's Art Day every Wednesday in June. We sit by the ampitheater and watch live music performances on the other side of Waller creek for about 30 minutes. Usually every kid receives a balloon and the whole audience explodes with little spheres of happiness. Who doesn't love balloons?

 Afterwards, we go across the street to complete crafts

 and play with different instruments. It's a lot of fun.

Nathan, you've been very focused on earning money recently and you have been asking for jobs to do. So far, you've earned 3 out of 4 Transformers and you have earned $2 out of the $8.50 that you need for the last one. One way you can earn money is by keeping your undies dry over night. For the past month, we've been trying to night train you by taking you potty right before we go to bed at 11. Most nights, you wake up dry and even recently, you are waking up on your own around 6:30 to go potty and since Hannah is sleeping in the same room as you, and is a light sleeper, she ends up waking up at around 6:30, ready for the day. I know you would probably go to sleep yourself afterwards, but Hannah starts talking and you don't get to fall asleep. 

Hannah, even though you are waking up at around 6:30, you are doing a great job waiting until 7:00 to get out of bed. Usually I hear you say, "Mommy, the light is on, I can come down now!" 

As far as pregnancy goes, I am almost at 25 weeks. I feel like the bump is pretty big, but I know that most of the growth will happen in the last 3 weeks of pregnancy for me. So in the meantime, I'm enjoying nights of restful sleep and getting to eat lots of yummy food. 

We have an even more exciting week coming up so until next week,
Love,
Mommy