My Children Love Shoes

As I've mentioned before, Joey doesn't have many words.  One that he has obtained lately, though, is "shoes."  This goes well with his sister's obsession with shoes.  They are both constantly trying on, trading, and playing with their shoes.  The picture above represents just a fraction of the shoes that are typically in this basket - these are the shoes that are in "first string" rotation for these two kiddos; only two pairs are Joey's.  It doesn't matter to him; he'll wear his sister's, mine, Jeff's, no worries.

Recently, Jeff bought Melanie a pair of $2 clearance sandals at Meijer.  When I gave them to her, she said "I never got new shoes before.  These are nice.  Do they light up?"  Shortly thereafter, I was presenting her with a pair of $7 brown dress shoes.  That receiving quote was "I'm so excited!  These are cute!!"

Zoo!

After Melanie's grumpy, mean, weekend, I decided to keep her home Monday morning.  She just hadn't napped well at all over the weekend, and she was in bed by about 7:45 Saturday and Sunday night.  Monday, she seemed sleepy, still VERY grumpy, etc.  I thought maybe some one-on-one time with Mommy might help.  We spent the morning cuddling, and then headed to the zoo.  We were guests number 15 and 16, due in part to our early arrival and part to school being back in session everywhere.

After the first ride on the carousel, where she didn't want me to touch her, she rode three more times ALL BY HERSELF.  Big time, I'm telling you.  I couldn't keep her off of it!

We also rode the train twice.  We were passengers #1 and 2 for that one.

She wanted nothing to do with animals.  We went in for the dolphin show, but she screamed and cried to leave.  You can tell she's excited to be with the giraffes....

She slept on the way home, and then for about three hours this afternoon.  I'm hoping we're on the other side of whatever has been going on with her for the last few days!  It was a gorgeous day to spend the morning at the zoo!

A Weekend Without Husbands

Jeff, Randy, and their parents drove to Arkansas for Richard Fernald's funeral.  Richard, Jeff's Aunt Barb's husband, lost his battle with cancer last week, after a very valiant fight.  He will be greatly missed.

While everyone was out of town, Cory & I devised a plan to keep each other sane.  Friday night, we had dinner, played, and stayed the night in Fishers.  Melanie liked Charlie's night-time ritual of watching TV in the big bed before bedtime!

Saturday, we all headed to the State Fair.  I was excited for Melanie to capitalize on the love of carnival rides that she developed at SetonFest last month.  Well, maybe we shouldn't have started out on the roller coaster.  After crying her way through it - "It's TOO FAST Mommy, I want OFF, Mommy!!" - she didn't ride any other rides.  Joey got giggles from all of the passers-by by the end of the fair, for his snack-time nap.  He was just too sleepy to get that piece of cracker to his mouth.  Similarly, on the way home, while he was dancing in his carseat, I said "Look at your brother, Melanie."  I watched her look at him, close her eyes, and sleep the rest of the way home.

After the fair, Cory and the kids came to our house for a yummy steak dinner (for the Mommies, at least), and they stayed the night with us.  I thought that might help my kids act a little more "normally."  After Joey had been really cranky for about a week, we have him on ear drops.  He's started feeling and acting MUCH better, but Melanie spent the weekend VERY whiney for her Daddy.  She was really clingy to me, and wouldn't do much by herself.  By Saturday evening, I realized she had a low-grade fever; she also hadn't eaten anything Saturday.  Sunday, she acted bizarre even with Gigi; both when I was there and when I wasn't.  We were all very happy to have Daddy home on Sunday evening!  

It was great to spend the weekend with Cory and the kids; nice to have that support system!!

College Friends!

We had a crazy weekend of college friend catching-up.  Friday night, the Boscherts arrived from St. Louis for dinner, and we enjoyed an evening with them, Randy, Cory, and the kids.  Saturday, as Joey went down for his nap, everyone else but me went to the Zionsville Farmers Market, and then we went, in waves, to Kokomo to meet up at the water park.   The Nutts, Boscherts, and us enjoyed an afternoon in the water, and then headed back to the Kokomo house for an evening of eating, cocktails, relaxing, playing, and catching up with old friends.  We (Shelly, Kate, and I) are almost to the stage where we have known each other half our lives, we determined during this photo!  We missed Gretchen during the weekend, but by the time we set a date, she and Corey had overnight plans!

The girls enjoyed hunting - first, Janie (via her dad) caught a frog at our house, and then we went hunting for more wildlife at Natalie & Abby's house.

Melanie and Joey had a great time on the swingset at Natalie & Abby's house - they must have gone down the slide 987 times

Melanie with her friends....she was much more comfortable Friday night than she seemed to be Saturday night.  I think that all four girls' being older than her slightly intimidated her - she seemed to be most content on her own, with Joey, or hanging out with us.  

Joey had fun too.....

Shelly was an excellent hostess - check out the spread of just pre-dinner goodies!

After dinner on Saturday night, as we were out on the back deck, the wind came through so strongly that it blew the umbrella out of its stand and nearly knocked Shelly in the head.  We were horrified to learn later that the same strong winds collapsed the stage at the Indiana State Fair, killing at least five and injuring many more.  Our prayers are with those families.

We had a great time spending time with everyone, but Joey did not sleep well at all on Saturday night - which led, of course, to a very sleepy Worzala Sunday.  We all managed to get at least one nap, (more if you're under two years old), and then Gigi & Poppy came over to watch the kids while we went to Devour Downtown at St. Elmo's. It was a nice date night, and everyone felt MUCH better Monday after a good night's sleep!

Sunday = Pool Day

We spent Sunday at the pool, until "the boomers" came through.  Jeff was so excited we were finally getting rain (like 8 minutes of it, but still....) he stood in the garage and watched it.

Melanie, above, is "being mommy," picking her kids up from school and going shopping.  She keeps herself very busy.

Joey's new trick today at the pool was to walk up to the side, and just climb on in.  No worries on whether someone was there to accept his entry or not...And Melanie does the same thing with jumping in - sometimes she counts to 8, sometimes she just jumps, not paying any mind to whether someone will be there when she comes up....

Happy Birthday Charlie & Sammie!

Mel with both of the birthday kids:  "MOMMY, I don't want Sammie to push me!!"

 Uncle Jeff & Sammie share a birthday, 30 years apart.  I try to get a picture of them together each year, as my mother-in-law reminded me :)

 Joey testing out his driving skills

 Melanie giving the birthday girl a kiss during a rare quiet moment for the cousins

 The kids - and Grandma - were pretty excited about the pinata.

 The bouncy house was a big hit!

 Hopefully we can ride the tails of Charlie & Sammie's awesome swingset without having to get one of our own! 

It was fun to spend the weekend with ALL of the Worzalas.  The guys played golf on Friday afternoon, and then we all gathered for family pictures - those will be posted later, after everyone has a chance to see them!  Then the women (Aunt Sandy, Becky, Diane, Cory, Brenda, Jen, and I) headed to Symphony on the Prairie for tunes from Billy Joel and Elton John - great show!  Saturday we headed back to Fishers for Charlie & Sammie's birthday party.  Randy & Cory picked a great house; it's laid out perfectly for entertaining, and is in a really social neighborhood.  A great time was had by all!  Happy happy birthday Charlie (5) and Sammie (3)!!

Brother Sister Love

Whether playing, fighting, or collaborating, the kids have been coming into their own this summer.  It's fun to see them interact as they get more on the same playing field.  The other day, I walked into the kitchen as they were sitting next to each other, with no one else in the room.  They were sitting there, collaborating, cracking each other up.  They also have a game where Melanie walks in the room and says "Mommy's home!!" - and Joey will come up and give her big hugs.   Sometimes Joey ends up with CLUMPS of Melanie's hair - sometimes Melanie ends up with teeth marks on her shoulder - sometimes Joey ends up with his finger slammed in a door - but at the end of the day, as Melanie so eloquently said, "Mommy, Joey loves me all the time."

Swimming

Of the last 14 days, we've spent approximately 9-10 of them in the water.   Mostly in our subdivision pool, but also at various friends' and families'.  Mel got to swim with bigger kids like friends Ethan & Lily, and with Wyatt.  She has been making huge strides in what she's doing.  She now jumps off the side without having to hold onto our hands (usually not even waiting until we're ready for her to jump), she lets us "let go" and have her "swim" by herself, which involves being totally submerged (just need to work on having her actually move her arms and legs!)  She generally starts out with her water wings or swim vest, but quickly sheds the safety net and swims on her own.  She hasn't had real lessons yet (just the lesson or two I took her to when she first turned one), but I think the repeated exposure has done a lot for her confidence in the water!  Since I'm usually in the water WITH her, I haven't gotten a lot of good pictures, but the above shows her dressed and ready to head to the pool, and playing in her backyard pool.  The backyard pool generally gets a half-day action on the weekends while the other half-day is in the big pool.

Joey has also been enjoying the water.  His main attraction is trying to take bites out of the "noodle"s and being fascinated by his shrively fingers.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Sunday was Jeff's birthday, and we spent it like we've been spending most weekend days and weekday nights - at the pool.  The reason Melanie looks less than thrilled in the official birthday picture (third one above) is that two minutes prior to the picture, she was sleeping soundly (second picture) from her pool antics.  Jeff turned 33, and Melanie wore her "3" shirt since it is "the birthday shirt" (so dubbed by her).  We celebrated by having the birthday boy cook us a yummy dinner of filets on the grill.

Setonfest

On the last weekend in July, we ventured to our first carnival "with rides" where Melanie could actually participate.  She was pretty excited to ride rides, and even more excited about riding them with Chase.  Mind you, she didn't really know who this Chase character was, but he sure sounded fun!  He had come over on NYE, but I'm sure she didn't remember him.  The kids started off with a bang - they wanted to go directly to the roller coaster.  Instead, we started off on the cars, and moved quickly to the roller coaster.  From there it was the carousel, a maze, and the rocketship.  After Chase ran home, she wanted to do the cars by herself.  While this picture is blurry, it was worth publishing for two reasons - 1, the fact she really could do the rides by herself, and 2, shortly after this was taken, one of the cars jumped the tracks with two kids in it!!  Everyone was fine, but that drew an end to the Worzala night at Setonfest.

One highlight was when the kids were in the maze, and they couldn't figure out how to get out of the ballpit and climb the rope ladder.  Mel had me hand her her sunglasses, and they gave her power to get out of the pit.