A Week In Pictures

A few (or more) pictures from our week...

Summer, stripped down, trying to wake her up. She's laying on her "Grammy quilt." I'd been meaning to post a picture of this anyway. This is the quilt my mom made her. She makes one for every grandchild and we lovingly call them "Grammy quilts" thanks to cousin Dylan.

Brooke was having a great time "cooking" in her "kitchen." She wouldn't let me get any more pictures after this.

Some Summer and Mommy time. I was trying to get her smile on camera...didn't happen.

Wednesday afternoon we had a great session of silly time. Brooke was in quite a mood.

Funny faces with Daddy.

Daddy and his girls

This is a terrible picture of me, by I love the expression on Brooke's face. I don't know what got in to her, and she'd never done this before, but she kept climbing all the way up my back until she was on my shoulders.

The girls

Wednesday night was dinner with Jesika and Hannah.

Brooke and Hannah enjoyed popsicles after dinner.

And then a session of nail shop

"You want, I do you fingers too? Only five dolla mo."

Loves from Daddy!

A Day In McAlester

Tuesday of this week we loaded up and took the girls to McAlester for a day trip. This was Summer's first time to go. It became a very long day since we tried to get as many visits in as we could. Most of the day we were in the car going from one house to another, but it was a good day anyway. I, however, ended up with a terrible headache and completely lost my mind. We only got pictures on our first stop which was at Grandma and Grandpa Aguilar's house. I didn't take a single picture after this stop so I owe my apologies to Papa and Mema, Aunt Yaya, and Tisha and Whitney. They all got to meet Summer but I didn't get any pictures with them. Anyway, both the girls did really well for being in the car all day and thankfully, Summer slept all the way home and went right to bed when we got home (not until 11:00). On our next trip, I will do a better job of capturing pictures.

Summer with her great-grandma Aguilar

Grandpa and Grandma Aguilar...Brooke took this picture...it may be one of the ONLY pics I have where Grandpa is looking at the camera. All the times we've taken pictures of him with the girls, he looks at them instead of the camera.

Like this

This is cousin Jerry. He has been in town visiting his parents so he came to meet Brooke and Summer.

And then, I flaked...no more pictures:(

Sweet Sayings

Yesterday, the girls and I were in the kitchen eating. Summer was in her usual place in the kitchen, her swing. When I left the room for a minute, Summer started crying. As I was coming back, I heard Brooke saying, "Okay. Mommy be rike back." She is such a sweet big-sister!

Don't Wake the Baby

I've never been one that thinks you shouldn't wake a sleeping baby. I always wake Summer during the day when it's time for her to eat. This is what I get most of the time...a limp rag-doll baby.

All About Brooke

With all the stuff to talk about regarding Summer, I feel like I've neglected talking about her sweet big-sister Brooke. Now that she's not "the baby" she seems like such a big girl, and I don't want to forget all the sweet things she does at this age.

Brooke still LOVES to do puzzles. She'd been getting bored with the puzzles she has; so much so, that she would dump out three or four at a time and do them all at once (if that makes sense). So, during our nightmare trip to Lakeshore and Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago, I bought Brooke her first jigsaw puzzle. When I got it home and opened it, I was afraid it might be a little too advanced for her. It's a 35 piece puzzle and is meant for ages 4&up, but she's a whiz at it already. She needed some help and guidance the first couple of times, and now she can complete the whole thing by herself. She's hardly touched her old puzzles since we got it.

I was trying to get the "ABC" song on film...no such luck

Just recently she's begun to think she's funny. She'll say some random thing and just crack up laughing at her self. A few weeks ago, it was the word "pinkie toe." She would just randomly say it and then crack up laughing. You know, that kind of laugh that is contagious even if the joke isn't funny. Last night in the car, she said she was a "super turtle" and thought that was hysterical. Then we started saying "cowabunga dude" and she went nuts.

She loves to help Bill with anything and everything. If he's going outside to unload his trailer, work on his mowing equipment, the jeep; whatever it is, she wants to go along and help with everything. She loves to have a playing partner these days and constantly says to us, "lesh pay bocks," or "lesh pay puzzle."

I've been wanting to get Brooke her first bike for her next birthday but haven't found one yet. Last weekend we were celebrating her Aunt Jesi's birthday at her brother-in-law's house. His little girl, who is almost four, had a little scooter that Brooke decided to try and she LOVED it. I was so impressed that she figured it out so quickly. We might look for ones of these for a Christmas gift to go along with a bike. After hearing the older kids say this to their parents, Brooke said for the first time, "watch this mommy," as she went down the sidewalks.

Rayley's helmet was a little big on Brooke.

Brooke really likes to sing lately too. Her favorite songs are, Jesus Loves Me (she calls it Jesus Loves You even though she sings "me"), The BIBLE, 5 Little Monkeys, and 5 Green and Speckled Frogs. I've tried desperately to get her sweet singing voice on film, but instead, I got this....

So that's what I have in my head now about our not so little, Brooke!

I Almost Forgot

I can't believe I forgot to mention it, but Summer smiled for the first time yesterday. Or, at least the first time I was CERTAIN it was a responsive smile instead of a reflex. It was so sweet to see her smile at me! Now I can't stop myself from trying to illicit another!

A Catch Up

The last few days have been good, fun days. Bill has been off on Tuesday and Wednesday since he went back to work, so we try to use those days (if he isn't mowing somewhere) to do something fun together.

Monday, after he got home, we went to the hospital to visit Bill's mom and see how Ron was doing. Ron, over the few days previous to our visit, had been more responsive to people and trying to communicate more. We'd hoped that we would get to spend some time visiting with him, but we didn't choose a very good time. He'd just come back from radiation, and was still sleepy from the sedative they give to keep him still. Tuesday morning, they did a trach surgery so that they could take the ventilator out of his mouth/throat. We haven't had a chance to get back and see him, but we hear that the surgery went fine and he is really communicating a lot now. Perhaps we'll get to visit tonight or tomorrow.

Tuesday was Summer's one-month check up and she's doing great. She was up to 9lbs 9oz and 21 3/4 in. Dr. Moore added it all up, and in 32 days, she's gained 36 ozs; or maybe it was the other way around, now I can't remember. What I can't believe is how much length she's gained. Tuesday night, Jesika and Hannah came over and had dinner with us. It was a fun visit and the girls had fun together as always.

Yesterday, we took a nice trip to the zoo. The tiger spent a lot of time growling REALLY loudly. I kept trying to get it on video, but he would stop every time I came up to do it. The bears, who are usually roaming around their enclosure, were right up at the glass lying on the ground relaxing. The young orangutan was being silly dangling from ropes and swinging into the window. Brooke stood up on the ledge to get a closer look and when she put her hand to the glass, the orangutan did the same. Brooke got nervous and tried to step straight back but the ledge she was standing on was taller than she realized so she fell down instead of stepping down. She was fine though, and laughed about the silly monkey.

And then, last night we had our lifegroup over. The study we're doing is called "Making Children Mind Without Loosing Yours." It's been great talking and brainstorming with the group about the things our kids do, and how to correct them.