The Best Time to Wean

Yes, Rose is still nursing. She's 3 year old, just turned in May. But the time has come (for me, not for her) that the nursing relationship needs to come to an end. Mainly because I'm too hot to nurse her anymore. Which is why July is the ideal time to wean- incentive to keep plugging along until the task is done! I still give her five minutes before bed, then I lie down with her for a few minutes. Usually Dave will lie down with her until she's asleep, but tonight 1) Dave's not home and 2) It's so hot she's having trouble settling down anyway. So she's in the bedroom crying and whining. I'm doing what I can to console her, but I can't lie down with her the entire time. I would like to have her in her own bed before another little munchkin joins our crew, and that's happening in the not-too-distant future!

But we'll keep plugging away. It will only get hotter, so my distaste for being touched will only increase. The next step (after she's mastered lying down in bed and falling asleep sans mama) will be to nurse before spiritual time, then brush teeth and stories, then bed. Then, cut it out altogether.

I weaned Lacy right around this age, too. It's funny that she seemed so much older and more mature than Rose seems.

Camping

We went camping the first weekend in June. Yeah, I'm a little behind! Like I said before, June is my worst month, and after this weekend campout, my allergies acted up like never before (since last year anyway) and I started getting the morning sickness. That combination wasn't pretty!

Here's where we stayed... beautiful Wynoochee Dam


But it was a little cold. The past few days had been in the 80s and 90s, so silly me only packed one pair of pants and one sweatshirt for each girl. And no jackets. Of course, Rose, who hasn't had an accident in months, had an accident within a couple of hours of arriving at the campground. Nice.

Fortunately, I did bring footie jamies. Which are actually difficult when you're camping and there are no working bathrooms, just outhouses. Bummer.

Lacy loved playing on this old tree stump. It was her platform where she would perform, do tricks, jump, climb, and just chill out. It was right by papa's campground, where everyone hung out most of the time.

This next one looks like we've been walking for hours. But really, we just walked down to the lake and back. I have no idea where my girls get their drama queen attitudes from. Really, none.

With Aunt Julie. Notice Rose polishing off a can of peanuts! That girl was so hungry all of the time this campout! And no wonder-- she just got weighed a couple weeks ago and she was right at 30 pounds! The little stinker gained 4 pounds on me!

The real reason we went to Wynoochee was because of the fishing. The fishing used to be good, but this year, only one fish was caught. And it wasn't even a steelhead, which is what we were after. Fortunately one of the kids caught it, so that was nice. Rose here is showing you the kind of bait you have to use to fish for steelhead. Just need a little cocktail sauce and we'll be set...

I love these girls! Is there anything cuter than three grubby little girls having the time of their lives camping?

I'm still working on getting out some of those stains in those shirts.

We had a little birthday celebration for Rose while we were there, and also for Justin, who had a birthday around the same time as Rose. They had cupcakes, and Rose got to open a present.

She got a stuffed pony, which she absolutely adores! She loves horses.



On the last day, we went for a nice long hike. Most everyone was already gone, so it was just a few of us there who hiked. The hike was absolutely breathtakingly gorgeous, and the kids were such troopers during the whole thing. Lacy marched right along and had a great time! Rose mostly rode on people's shoulders.


Pretty soon it was time to say goodbye. We had such a great time, and look forward to our next camping trip!

Poetry Slam!

OK, not really a slam per se... My mother asked us to all memorize a poem for her birthday, in lieu of getting her a gift. She enjoys poetry, and we don't have any money anyway, so this was a good fit for everyone!

Lacy's poem: "Rain, Rain
Went away
Sun came out
With pipe of clay
Blew a bubble
Whole world wide
Stuck a rainbow
On one side"

Lacy's had this poem memorized and ready to go basically since we picked it out a few months ago.

Rose's poem:

"The secret of the polar bear
Is that he wears long underwear."

Except she didn't really have it memorized (not for lack of trying!) and "underwear" comes out something like "unnywayr." She doesn't have her sister's gift of gab, but she does try!

Cooper enjoyed everyone's performances!
Leslie and I forgot to memorize poems ourselves! I recited the first paragraph of the Proclamation to the Family, and Leslie recited the second paragraph. Thank goodness we had something memorized, even if it wasn't a poem!

Dale recited a very animated poem that was a lot of fun (Dale: what poem did you memorize? It was a lot of fun!)

I didn't get a picture of Mark reciting his poem, but it was another long, dramatic poem. Very different style than Dale's poem.

I think Kurt recited Bob Marley lyrics. That was fun! But of course, could we expect Kurt to love another poet as much as Marley?

Dave recited a poem he memorized on his mission, and Dixon recited a poem he wrote as a child.

Regan recited a poem about hippopotamuses (is that how you make it plural? I have no idea.), and I can't remember what poems the rest of the kids recited! It was so fun, though. The kids were all so cute.

Then Regan had to sing "So Long, Farewell," with her mom. At least the first part where they cuckoo.
Lacy was attached to her Grandma

And the little kids rolled around and had fun playing.
Until Rose got so tired she couldn't take it anymore!

Then it was time to go to bed. We had a great time doing this, and hopefully we can have another poetry night again next year! Hopefully Rose can memorize something this time!

Glasses!

This one's all fluff, no substance. So we went to get Dave some new glasses because one of the eyeglass shops has a buy one-get one free deal going on. We had no idea that the "buy one" would cost $400! So we didn't get any glasses. But when we were still considering buying them, Dave tried some glasses on. Since he couldn't see himself in them, I took pictures of him wearing them. The girls wanted in on the action, too. Since they're much cuter than Dave, I will spare you the pictures of him :)



I'm actually going to get Lacy's eyes checked before she starts Kindergarten, and I have a feeling that she may need some glasses, so this may actually be an accurate picture of her in a couple months!

Kiss That Fish!

Yesterday we went to Fawn Lake with the girls, and Lacy reeled in a fish. We told Lacy she had to kiss the fish since she caught it. She obliged!


We met Uncle Chris and Aunt Kelly at the lake, who brought Allison, who is just a few months younger than Rose. They are good friends and love each other. I had to snap this picture when Rose grabbed onto Allison's hand as they walked down toward the lake together.
Lacy, Rose and Allison all played pretend for the rest of the trip, since the fishing wasn't that good and the fish weren't biting very well.
Today would have been a much better day to take the kids fishing-- they brought back an entire cooler filled with fish! Yesterday, we only brought home that one fish Lacy kissed. There were only a few other fish caught yesterday, none of which were keepers. Lacy's fish was a keeper based on the fact that it swallowed the hook!

Happy Fourth

Tonight on the drive home from my parent's house (oh yeah, my parents got home from their mission to Germany on Wednesday, so we've been over there every day since then), the Star Spangled Banner came on the radio. Rose yelled to us, "It's my FAVWIT!" (favorite) which was our cue to turn up the volume. She listened happily to the whole song.