DC History

Last week we made it to the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Air and Space Museum, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It was so fun to be with friends and family, especially while Beth was here for the week.

Working

So sometimes John needs to hire an illustrator for projects that he is working on, and sometimes that illustrator ends up being me. This old time milk man and his cart is for a line of gourmet cheese packaging along with a mountain range I did recently, and a while back I did a project that got published in a magazine. I usually end up doing wood cut illustrations or hand drawn type. I'm not really all that good but I am fast and cheap and that is usually just what John is looking for.

Summer Fun

Hair Cut

There is nothing better than waking up to a kiss and an "I love you" from this freshly trimmed boy.

Fathers

I found some great vintage maps at the downtown market of the states we have lived in so far. Some of them are from the late 1800's. We gave them to John for father's day and hope to hang them up in a new house sometime soon.

As a father, John has far exceeded my expectations and continues to impress me all the time. He cares for us, his little family, so much and works so hard to keep us well and happy. I love John as a husband and father, we are so blessed.

A house of peace

My favorite day of the whole summer so far. A well needed trip to the temple. It was so peaceful, so relaxing, and so fulfilling. Such beautiful architecture, artwork, and people (not us, the people inside, who were so nice and willing to serve).

Wes and a Mess

This is the third box of baby cereal that I have found dumped all over the floor in the last few weeks. Kind of an expensive activity.

Nottoway Park

We all got together and took the kids to the park. They found the only dirt in the huge meadow and spent most of the time playing in it (Grace eating it). It was such a nice evening.

So Pretty

These are in my kitchen right now. I love spring.

Excuse Me!

Sometimes Wes can be quite demanding, always wanting to eat or drink or watch a movie or get something for him and sometimes he just yells what he wants. So we taught him to say "Excuse me Mom, I have a question" then I say "Yes Wes, what is your question?" and then he should say "Can I have a drink please?" and I say "Oh, yes I will get you a drink" and then he says "Thank you" all in a nice polite way. Well this is how the conversation usually goes:

"Scuse me question LICORICE!" or "Scuse me question DRINK!" in a half yelling run on sentence, and I say "What else do you say?" and he says "Please!?"

Close enough right?

Also this was John and Wes' conversation this morning when John was leaving for work, and is a typical conversation he has with anyone as they leave.

John: Ill see you guys later

Wes: Bye Dad, love you

John: Bye Wes, love you

Wes: Good day, love you

John: love you too

Wes: love you too, love you, (as John goes out the door) love you! (after the door closes) love you!

Wes has also become really into orange taxi's, which he sees all the time as we are driving around. He yells out "Orange taxi car!" whenever he sees one as we are driving and cries when they drive away. He has gotten really good at finding them from pretty far away and he always thinks they are going to get gas at the gas station since he saw one there once.

Oh and Wes has also become pretty comfortable climbing up on the toilet and then the sink in the bathroom to get whatever he thinks he needs. He usually gets his toothbrush, puts toothpaste on it and then runs it under the water and starts brushing his teeth, like ten times a day. He also likes to find John's razor, and will shave off his peach fuzz if we don't catch him soon enough. He takes the q-tips and rubs them on his eyes like he has seen me do. And today he came and asked me for a drink while I was busy and I told him to go and get a cup and see if he could fill it up in the bathroom sink. So he came back to me with a cup full of water that he was drinking, except I never heard the sink turn on, so I asked him to show me where he got the water and he took me into the bathroom and showed me how he filled up his cup in the toilet, so gross. Then later I saw him with another big cup of water that he was drinking, which he told me also got from the toilet, I'm gaging right now.

Fishing

Wes likes to sit in the window that overlooks the swimming pool at our building. He watches the people as they play and swim and says "Mom! Fishing!" He thinks that swimming and fishing are the same thing.

Eastern Market

We went to DC's Eastern Market this morning and had such a blast! I am so excited about the awesome fathers day gift I found. It was fun looking at all the fresh produce and vintage things for sale. We had a white chocolate, strawberry and almond crepe on our way out which was to die for. Wes fell asleep on the way home with his face in a cracker box, pretty funny.

When we got back we made our way over to the pool party and had hamburgers, Wes was too afraid to get his arm painted by the face painting lady so he got a balloon elephant instead. The kids had fun jumping in the jump house and Wes now likes to wear his life jacket everywhere he goes.

Broken

Wes loves to play with Taya, who he calls Cana or Tana even though he can very easily call her Taya. They are so cute together, I love having friends so close, it makes everything so much more fun.

I took Wes to the doctor today to get his shoulder checked out again. He does infact have a broken collar bone, there isn't much that can be done but I was glad to get it all figured out. Poor Wes, I hope it heals soon. I have a feeling this is not the last I will see of my kids breaking bones and getting hurt

Grief

We went to the pool opening last saturday and I thought it would be easy enough keeping my eye on both kids, Wes is pretty cautious around water, but sure enough I looked down for a second and when I looked up Wes was floating in the pool waving his arms around. Luckily Hailey was right by him and grabbed him, I think he was only in for a few seconds but it sure gave me a scare.

Later that day Wes and Grace were playing in his room and we heard a big bang and Wes crying. He hit his head and started swelling up like crazy so I had to rush him to the emergency room. He was fine, so I felt a little silly afterwards that I was so worried.

Then a few days later Wes fell off the couch onto his side and was complaining about his shoulder. He started waking up in the night screaming, it seemed to be getting worse so I took him into Urgent Care where he got x-rays on his collar bone and shoulder. The x-rays came back negative but he still has a big bump on his collar bone and is pretty sore. It just kills me to see Wes in pain, I almost cried when the doctor was feeling his shoulder.

I have sort of had a bad mom feeling in the back of my mind this past week and we have had to pay so much money for all of these visits but at least my kids are healthy and happy and playing and snuggling in bed with John as I write this.

Downtown

Last weekend we took a little trip to see the Washington Monument and the Capitol. It was fun walking around the city and the Natural History Museum.