July and... vacation?

This picture pretty much sums up our trip to Reno: lots of driving which was torturous. Between the kids crying, the car hemorrhaging antifreeze (turns out we have a blown head gasket) and Tupp burping and gagging which caused her to barf all over herself, her car seat and the back seat I think we've decided to not drive long distances any time in the near future. We did have moments of fun though- Cash enjoyed playing in the arcade at the hotel and going swimming, I got to ride the ski lifts (closest thing to heaven!) and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting Auntie Linda. Mental note: go see her and Dawn and Brian more often.

This is the first picture I've ever taken of Tupp in the bath. Due to my minimalist approach with having children (adopted more recently, mind you), I got rid of everything I didn't absolutely need, which includes those baby baths. It just means I never have a hand free to take pictures, which really isn't that important (how many nude baby pictures is she going to want to see when she gets older, eh?) in the grand scheme of things.
It was also the first bath that they'd ever taken together, and boy howdy they loved it.
Kisses for sissy :)
Before we took our whirlwind trip to Reno we went to a Giants game. We had gone to a Reno Aces game last year, but Cash couldn't really appreciate it, we had horrible seats and being that they weren't our home team we lacked enthusiasm as well. Totally different this time around. Here we are at the start of the game, glove in hand in case a foul ball should happen our way...

Our great viewAnd rally time! I have video of Cash yelling along with the rest of the crowd and will post it soon. Pure awesomeness! And at this point Tupp was sleeping...
Our 4th was fantastic. On the Sunday before we watched the Windsor fireworks from a friends house. They live on 5 acres and Cash ran around with glow sticks chasing the other kids. On Monday we spent most of the day working on organizing our office and then ran up to Healdsburg and watched fireworks again (Healdsburg's rocked!) and then came home and played with sparklers in our backyard (ssshhhh, don't tell :) Cash pretty much spent those two days saying the Pledge of Allegiance to every American flag he saw.

I took Tupp swimming at the start of summer, but since summer weather hasn't really started until the last week or so, the pool was freezing. My usually water loving lady had a fit. Thus, I was hesitant to even get her a swim suit. But when I saw this suit and swim hat on sale ($2!) I couldn't pass it up. It's a good thing I got is since now that the pool is warmed up she's loving it.

Cash got a surprise the other day. A little 10 year old boy at church who Cash has talked to incesently gave him some of his old costumes the other day. Now it's all Ninja and Batman all the time. Usually Batman, especially since the gloves make cool combat sounds when you move around. He's in seventh heaven. He even wore it on our road trip (see first picture).
In honor of 4th of July, Tupp wore her sailor dress on Sunday. Oma and Opa were out of town and didn't get to see it so....
Cash is really starting to incorporate Tupp in his play these days, probably because she won't leave him alone now that she's mobile. The other day he was rubbing her feet with the baby hair brush and saying,"brushing Abiyoyo's stinking feet!" Can you tell we've been reading Abiyoyo Returns?
Auntie Britt is visiting! On the really hot Saturday before the 4th we went to the beach. It was beautiful weather and we really enjoyed spending time with Auntie Britt. Cash now expects her to always have Belgium chocolate on hand for him :)

I call this picture "The Wake Up Call." Who needs an alarm clock when you have Cash? And Tupp always wakes up on the sunny side of things which makes it so much easier. Love that I have morning babies. For now anyway.
Our garden is... alive. I kind of neglect it since it hasn't worked out the way I'd planned. Out of the fifteen sunflowers only 5 have survived the snail onslaught, the two surviving squash turned out to both be pumpkins (thank you Oma and Opa for sharing your zuchinni), only three lettuce sprouted, I still have two unknown plants and Cash just beheaded my two spinach plats last night. But the peas, which I only planted since Cammie and JP pawned them off on us, have proven to be the best thing so far. While they've produced less than enough for one adult serving, I've used them to make a little for Tupp to eat and Cash has played with them for hours. Pour em out, pick em up, counting as he goes, over and over again.
I find moments here and there to work on sewing and crafting projects. I wish I had more time, but life just doesn't make that possible at the moment. Here is a onesie I refashioned for Tupp. On the back I did the ruffles and on the front I drew an Eiffel tower. It's still a bit big on her (she's working her way into 9 month clothes) but I think it will be awfully cute.

And to end it, a bit more about the sweeties:
Tupp sits easily on her own and can get to crawling. She can't quite manage to get to sitting position from crawling but rather climbs things to get to standing position. Today she crawled up the boppi pillow to the entertainment center, crawled up that and started attacking the TV. Maybe I should have made her middle name Trouble? She hasn't really liked solids, but I think she's just starting to come around to it. Water, however, she loves to guzzle. As long as it's not cold, anything having to do with water and she's there. She just got her second tooth and given the way she gnaws on everything I suspect more will be on there way shortly.

Cash holds people hostage with speech. He loves to talk to anyone and everyone and about everything and anything. The Jehovah's Witnesses that stopped by yesterday probably regretted doing so when he talked their ears off. Thanks to Auntie Linda, Cash is now able to undress and dress himself. Quick rehash: Cash is left handed because his right hand has never worked properly (she thinks it may even be a slight case of Cerebral Palsy) . When we visited the other day she took a look at it and walked us through some ideas on how to help him develop the dexterity and strength in that hand. I confess that after trying various things (tying up his left arm, etc) and him getting discouraged and becoming unwilling to try I needed a boost to get me back on track to work on it. Between the ideas (do the dance!) and him feeling more confidant because of the successes he's more willing to try. Even when it gets hard and he says he can't I remind him of what she said about just trying our best. I've even added that no one rides a train that says it can't. His train loving side seems to be persuaded by that argument. More importantly, she reminded me that as a mother I can't afford to be discouraged, for my children' sake.

We set out this last week to have amazing and fun experiences but the best parts were the simple ones- spending time with family, resting, slowing down (which only happened some of the time). As I look ahead at the busy season about to hit me, and nothing I can do to change it, I remind myself that my family is my priority and not to let things push me down into discouragement. I can only do what I can do, and that is enough.

Here's to taking one day at a time :)