Daniel's 5th Birthday

Daniel is five!

He had a party here at the house with some of his friends.  He requested an "orange" party and a digger cake.  We happily obliged with orange balloons, plates, etc. and the best digger cake we could make.  :)  There was a big group of kids - new neighbors (Garrison and Tessa), old neighbors (Noah, Christian, and Wyatt), soccer friends (Jonah & Lexi), and old friends (Riley, Aubrey, Lily, and Maddie).  Abuelo and Abuela were also here.  They played in the sandbox, painted, played with cars, threw water balloons, played tag, and ran in the sprinkler.  Every kid went home ridiculously dirty. The kids had fun - the parents maybe weren't as excited since most of them had to strip their kids down to their underwear before they left! 

Daniel got a ton of presents:

• sandbox - Daddy & Mommy (Daddy was the only one thanked because Daniel "realized that Mommy did not help make the sandbox.")
• motor grader - Abuelo & Abuela
• haul truck - Uncle Luis
• bug kit - Uncle Brian & Aunt Cristi
• clothes - Grandpa & Grandma
• Operation, crayons, & markers - Aunt Pam & Uncle Josh
• Cars activity book and digger matching game - Aunt Heather & Uncle Brian
• money - Grandma Fox
• Guess Who and a Sunday School song CD - Calvo family
• cars - Holmes family
• paint your own soccer ball kit and cars - Ellis family
• tool kit - Jones family
• John Deere grain cart - Black family

Daniel went in for his five year check-up this week.  He weighs 38.8 pounds and measures 43.5 inches.  He is an amazing kid and we love him like crazy!

on his actual birthday, eating pancakes for breakfast

 



 

headed out with the bug kit aunt cristi got him

the digger cake

 



 

blowing out five candles!

Daniel's Swimming Lessons

Daniel completed swimming lessons a few weeks ago.  Most of you know that Daniel has never really been one to like the water, so we did what any good parent would do and bribed him.  We told him that if he did well at every single swimming lesson (there were 8) by always trying what the teacher asked him to do and never crying, he could go to Nikki's Frozen Yogurt.  It worked like a charm!  Every time his teacher, Ms. Brooke, asked him to do something, he said he was ready!  He learned to float on his back (sort of) and go backward and forward using a kickboard.  He can't swim yet, but he made huge gains! Every time he would come out of the pool, he would say, "Mommy, can you please give me my towel so I can wipe my face?"  He still doesn't like water in his face, but he became more tolerant.  He even went off the diving board on the last day of class.  I'm going to try to attach the video of that, but I need David's help with it.  It's about a four minute clip - the anticipation is agonizing!

Hairdresser Needed

Daniel did Catherine's hair the other day.  He told me this was the best he could do with it.

Catherine's 18(ish) month update

I'm a little (or a lot) late with Catherine's 18 month update. She's actually 19 months now and getting darn close to 20, but that's as close as I could do it! She weighed in at 21 lb., 8 oz., which is the 11th percentile. She measured 32", which is the 58th percentile. Growing tall!

She is very active. She can run pretty fast, and can climb anything. She recently started climbing her changing table - not fun. She's desperately trying to be independent and frequently yells, "No!" when I'm trying to do anything for her. She likes to buckle her seat belt in the car, but she takes an eternity to do it. She tries to dress herself, but she's not very good at it yet. She likes to feed herself her oatmeal, but chooses to do it without a spoon.  That one makes for a fun clean-up!

She has really good comprehension skills and can follow a lot of directions. Her speech is still lagging, but she's adding new words here and there, including bubble, bow, and poop.

She's kind of a sneaky little thing and likes to raid through our things when we're not looking. She especially likes the spice cabinet. She likes playing with Daniel, but they definitely fight more than they used to. She likes to knock down whatever he's building and wreak havoc on his world in general.

She likes to eat. Right now her favorite foods are eggs, oatmeal, bananas, watermelon, broccoli, Asian food, peaches, avocados, and sandwiches. She is still a pickier eater compared to Daniel, but a lot better than most kids her age.

She's a sweet girl!

White Mail

We're helping out some friends this week by taking care of their pets, garden, etc. 

The other day we stopped at their mail box to bring in their mail. 

Daniel looked at it and said, "Is that white mail?"

 Most of the envelopes were white, so I said, "Yep, it looks like white mail." 

He paused a moment and said, "So what is blackmail?" 

Kids' Photos

In case you missed it, here's the link to the preview of the professional photos I had done of the kids.

http://edavisphotography.squarespace.com/blog/

Love how they came out!

Majalca

We traveled to Majalca, Mexico from June 29 through July 4.  This was the first trip that Catherine's taken to Mexico.  (It was Daniel's fourth time.)  The trip there wasn't bad at all.  It took us about 10 hours.  We had Aunt Cristi and Uncle Brian with us, and they helped out a lot.  Aunt Cristi made some fun games to play in the car with Daniel.

The kids had a blast! David's aunts, uncles, and cousins took such good care of us.  The kids loved playing in the sandbox, jumping on the trampoline, riding the ATVs, and playing on the playset.  The highlight of the trip for Daniel was probably climbing the mountain - three times!  The first time he went with one of David's cousins, Javier.  I thought they probably wouldn't make it very far before Daniel would get tired or need to turn around, but soon I could see them way at the top of the peak!  He was a really tough climber, even using his hands to crawl up some tough rocks.  He went again with David and one of David's uncles, Adolfo and then a third time with David and me.  Daniel also did a really good job trying to improve his Spanish, and he played a lot with his second cousin, Roberto.  I'm not sure how they communicated, but they both seemed to talk a lot to one another. 

Catherine (being the daredevil that she is) loved the ATVs.  She rode in one of the covered ones with David andme, and she would put her hands on the little half-windshield and yell wildly as we went fast. She didn't even seem to mind when it was spitting rain in her face!  She also loved the slide at the house and did it over and over and over.

 

We were glad to get home, though it was a long trip back.  It took us about 12 hours to get back.  Abuelo and Abuela rode with us on the way home, and they definitely made the trip a little easier.  Despite being in the car forever, when we pulled on to our road, Daniel said, "Well, that was a short trip!"