Kids Update

An update on things the kids have been doing lately...

Sydney is back in preschool and has really taken a liking to her new teacher Miss Lindsay. She is fascinated by books and beginning to read very well. She also is loving to write. She spends most of her free time drawing pictures and "writing letters." She can sit for several hours if she has enough markers, scissors, and paper. Every morning when she wakes up she climbs out of bed, goes to get her markers and sits and draws until everyone else is up. She is definitely a personality that doesn't like to be alone and talks most of the day. It is rare for her to not be talking if someone she knows is in the room. She still takes awhile to warm up to people she doesn't know though and spends most of her time at preschool in the room with less kids in it. She has gotten into a big helping phase and constantly asks me if she can sweep or take out the trash. She takes very seriously what she learns in Primary every Sunday and brought home a job jar one Sunday and wants to do the jobs in it ever since.

Wynn has grown up quite a bit in these last few months. He speaks in full sentences and I can understand him about 80% of the time. He can do a lot of things by himself such as choosing his own clothes, getting his own plate, spoon and bowl, as well as getting "drinks" of water which he spills everywhere and finding his own snacks. He has figured out how to open about half of my child locks and keeps me busy! He loves his family and is very aware of where everyone is at all times. Every morning he wants to know "Where'd Sydney go?" followed by "Dada at work?" and then "Dada fly airplanes or fix it?" He is still an avid climber and there isn't anywhere he wants to get that he can't find a way how. He likes to follow Sydney around and they play well together about half the time now which is quite a relief from before! One of their favorite games is to repeat what the other is saying and laugh. Wynn still takes one nap most days and ends up just playing in his crib the rest of the days. He can get in and out of his crib at will now, but chooses to stay in his crib during nap time and play if he is not going to sleep which I am very thankful for. We have his big bed all ready for him to switch too when I get the motivation to actually do it. He still feels very much like my little baby boy and loves his cuddles. I can't get enough of his little man hugs.

Family Reunion

 It took three flights to get there, but we made it to South Padre Island, TX for our family reunion and Wynn slept for like 13 hours the next day and we had to wake him up! Andy and I were excited to see everyone and go back to our honeymoon destination and show our kids the "warm beach" as we called it, the dolphins, pelicans, sea turtles and more! But first, we enjoyed the pool with cousins while everyone settled in.

 
 
 
 After everyone got settled into their rooms at the beach house and rested up, we spent the majority of the rest of our days at the beach. The older kids... and adults.... were really into catching sea creatures, and even though almost all of us tried, no one could snorkel around and manage to catch some of the bigger fish swimming just a few steps out in the waves. They caught baby fish, crabs, snails, jellyfish, and Andy even managed to find a horseshoe crab, which I think looked more like a bug than a crab.

Sydney and her kite

Kevin and Emily rented this crazy bike contraption one afternoon, so we made use of it by taking it to do a little souvenir shopping. I think we could have walked faster than it went, but it was hilarious to ride it alongside the road.

 Another morning we ventured off to do some tourist-y things and visited the local sea turtle rescue. Of the fifty or so turtles housed there, only four are resident turtles and the rest will be nursed to health and released back into the ocean. Unfortunately the sea turtle nests just finished hatching the week before we were there, but we did get to see some pretty small baby turtles! We also ventured out to the southern point to watch the dolphins playing in the bay and swimming along in front of the fishing boats as they went by.

 On Friday, we drove into the Brownsville Zoo and the kids had a good time, especially once they got soaking wet in the splash zone and cooled down from the Texas heat.

 Finally, we took Wynn and Sydney to see the fireworks at the Hilton on Friday night. It was Wynn's first experience with fireworks and I think he was impressed, since he wouldn't look at the camera!

 More beach pics to enjoy!