Checking in

Hello good people of the world outside of my home!

I haven't got any big news or funny story to tell, but just thought it was about time for an update and time to post about the kids' growth and development.

Recently my brood went in for their well-child visits. Not much to report there, except they are both growing like weeds. Jack was a perfect square – 45 inches tall, 45 pounds. His vision was 30/20 {I didn't even know that was possible, but assume that is good since 20/20 is perfect vision}. He was all up on shots since we took care of those at the age of four, so he didn't have to have any "Batman shots" as he calls them. We got our vaccine and physical forms for school, so we could complete the registration process - which we took care of last week – and we are on our way to kindergarten.

Paige was officially too long for the baby scale and we had to find another scale to measure her 32 inches of length. She's up to 26.5 pounds, which just means that she is getting harder and harder to tote around. She is still on the upward end of the growth chart for girls her age.

Paige is all talk these days. She has tons of words and is stringing together small sentences. She's parroting like crazy and picking up phrases. Her favorite phrase of recent is "Awe, man!" – courtesy of Jack. She has a harder time pronouncing words than Jack did, but it's cute to hear her drop an "L" and replace it with a "W".

She enjoys exploring her world, which sometimes ends up getting her in trouble.

She's interested in potty training. She tells me when she's got a dirty diaper, and sometimes she even tells me before. She hasn't made the differentiation though between being wet and being dirty {it's all being "poopie" to her}. Mommy's not quite ready for tackling potty training and the mess that comes with it, so we are just casual about it right now, allowing her to sit on the potty between diaper changes or just play with the potty when she wants. She pees on the potty right before her bath pretty much every night.

I have a real feeling that if I don't push her to train that she'll do it on her own and it won't be nearly the struggle that I went through with Jack. And with starting the two-year old classroom in August {4 months before turning two}, I really think she'll pick it up quickly from her older peers.

I love this photo of Paige; it tells all about her in one snapshot. My girly tomboy who loves to play dress up in Mommy's heels, but much prefers her brother's Cars sippy cups over her own pretty, pink, princess cups. She's so into her brother that she wants everything that he has, usually when he has it.

She's a dancing fool. She loves playing the music on her fridge farm, then dancing around in circles, bopping her head, waving arms, clapping hands, kicking legs and all.

And she usually ends up falling down on the floor like this, because I guess every song must end like "Ring Around the Rosy". It's more fun that way, isn't it?

She's not only a dancing queen, but a singing queen, too. Her favs are "Kwinkle Kwinkle" {Twinkle Twinkle Little Star}, "Itty Pider" {Itsy Bitsy Spider}, "Pat Cake" {Pat-A-Cake}, "Roun Roun" {Wheels on the Bus} just to name a few. She loves to play this game where she says, "How 'Bout...." then names a song. Then as soon as you start singing, she tells you "NO!", then the game starts all over again and on and on.

She's not a movieaholic like her brother, which means Mommy getting a few minutes to take care of things isn't a possibility. She does like watching "Elmo" {Sesame Street} and maybe the occasional Baby Einstein "Baby Noah". Although she asks for a "moo-moo" a lot, her interest usually wanes after a few minutes.

I've recently discovered the farmers' market that is held in my neighborhood every Monday afternoon. So after my weekly trip to the grocery store, I get a little cash back and stop by the farmers' market on my way home to pick out some locally-grown produce. Everything looks so good and is in abundant supply. It's amazing how much better everything tastes, too {especially the tomatoes}. I go a little crazy and have to work really hard to eat all of this wonderful produce before it goes bad.

As you can tell that the zucchini started to go downhill before I had the chance to prepare it for dinner. So I decided to put the slightly-past-prime veggie to good use in a zucchini nut muffin recipe. It was a hit with the kids and provided a not-too-sweet snack packed with lots of hidden green veggies. I just replaced the walnuts with pecans {because I had them on hand} and omitted the raisins {which aren't a huge hit with my kids}.

I didn't even have to get Jack to pose for this –

I was just taking a photo of the muffin and he tried to sneak up and steal it. He's a stinker, too, like his sister.

This is how Paige eats everything –
shoves as much food in her mouth as humanly possible.

The recipe made almost 2 dozen,
so I have plenty of muffins to either freeze or share with friends.

Jack has only about a week and a half left of preschool. Next week they will take the pre-K kids to the church's vacation bible school. I knew this day was coming, but it's going to be hard to think of Jack leaving Little Lambs.

Ben's youngest sister, Kim, is coming to down to stay with us in a week – we are considering an impromptu beach trip for her visit. Then we will be heading to Tahoe, Calif. for Ben's step-brother Jon's, wedding.

August is just around the corner! Seriously, where is the summer going? I'll check-in again when time stops flying by!