End of Summer 2022 (August-September)

August 1-September 30

The boys loved Claire's birthday presents more than Claire did!  Here they are playing the drums Aunt Kellie gave her. Thank you for the loud noises, Kellie ;-)

Claire is "SO BIG".  She wants so badly to keep up with her brothers and do everything herself. 

Claire likes to blow raspberries just like her Mom and Dad do to her.

We joined Genesis Health this month for the pool.  It is a perfect size for our kids right now and it very convenient.  The outdoor pool is open if the club is open so it is nice to be able to go in the morning.  The city pools are always closed until noon which is still nap time for Blake.  We have also noticed the boys need some more exposure to the water so this is a good way to do that.  They have done swim lessons this summer but I would like them to be a more confident in the water.

We had our first incident of writing on furniture.  I am actually surprised we made it this long!  I was also surprised it was GRANT who did it at almost SIX.  We are not happy about that! This was drawn on our table on the kitchen wall.  I will have to see if I can find a way to get it out without ruining the table.

Blake was invited to Dreamnight at the Blank Park Zoo.  It is a special night at the zoo for kids with special needs.  It was fun to be able to celebrate Blake since he has gone through and missed so much.  There was a big storm on this night so it was extremely humid!  We did all the fun things, ate, saw super heros and left just in time to hit the storm on the way home.  It was a scary ride home but I am happy we were able to go.  We have been following the women who cured her son of seizures plan but have been getting very discourage because Blake has been sick since the week of the lake.  He has been having high fevers and a really bad cold/cough which ended up leading to an ear infection. The good news is that we have not noticed any seizure activity even with all those high fevers and sicknesses.  So hopefully some of the stuff we are doing it helping.  He has done so great with the special diet but has been refusing to take the supplements a lot of the time.  We will retest at the end of August and see if anything has changed and then do a 24 hour EEG hopefully in October. 

Here is a really cute video of Blake and Claire playing together.  He has been so cute to her lately and I can see a beautiful friendship starting (hopefully!).

Our cute Blakey boy has been loving his Mom these days.  And I absolutely love his cute crinkle smile.

We had to say goodbye to Milo and Jackie at the beginning on August.  Blake and I were both very sad they moved away.  It was fun to watch Milo and Blake play together.  They were in the same class at daycare and Milo was Blakey's "best" or best friend.  He cried one night when I was putting him to sleep because he missed Milo. :(

Claire has learned how to climb the stairs.  And this video of Blake cheering her on is just the cutest.

Greg and I went to the state fair 2 days this year.  One day we went with Claire and the other day we took the boys.  We had a great day both times.  I did happen to break my tailbone going down the Big Yellow Slide so I have been pretty miserable since that.  Grant was so excited he won the race both times though!

We are getting a lot of open mouth kisses from Claire and we love it!  She is just so loving and sweet.

Claire found the boys batman mask and loved wearing it around one afternoon.  I thought it was the cutest thing.

We did a kiwico box and Blake got one about pirates.  Such a cute pirate!

Here is a rare moment of Claire sitting and reading a book to herself!

Claire is getting even more brave with her walking.  She will go multiple steps and walks now without us standing her up.  She is almost to full walking now!

It was a big day this month. Grant started Kindergarten!!!  He was nervous but SO excited!  I teared up watching him walk in.  He was so brave and walked inside all by himself.  He has one friend, Camden, from daycare so that helped ease some of his nerves.  We can't wait to watch him succeed this year!

All three kids have been loving our water table this summer.  This has been the most used toy ever.  Grant still loves it!  You can see our make shift gate in the background. We might needs something better next summer.  I don't think that will stop an almost 2 year old!

Grant has been doing Taekwondo and loves it!  We thought it would be good for him to teach him discipline and how to control his fighting urge.

Claire loves to do everything her brothers do and does not want to be left out.  The boys love soccer right now so here she is trying to play also!

I was trying to get some pictures of the kids for a mug and this is what I got.  I love their smiles!

Grant went to his first Iowa State Game with Greg in September and he loved it!  It was a little too hot and Grant made it through about 3 quarters so I bet next year he will make it through the whole game!

Claire is getting so big and playing by herself so much more!  It is so fun to watch her grow and explore.

Claire doesn't say many words but one of the few is "dog".  I think only Greg and I can tell that is what she is saying but we are counting it!

Blake and Grant are such good big brothers to Claire most of the time.  And Claire just wants her brother's attention all of the time! Here is a video of Blake playing nicely with Claire.

Claire has learned to play peek-a-boo by lifting up her shirt and she it is the cutest thing!

The boys got their Halloween costumes early this year.  They are all going to be power rangers and the boys are so excited! We even had a power ranger help us unload the dishwasher.

Blake turned 4 on September 15th!  We kept him home on his actual birthday and then we have the family birthday the Sunday after.  We had so much fun celebrating! Everything was monster truck themed and he loved it.  On Sunday, Grandma was in town and went to the park with the boys and Greg in the morning and then the whole family came over to celebrate have his birthday party.  Blake is still dairy and gluten free so that was a challenge for his birthday.  We wanted him to have the same thing as everyone else so we found gluten and dairy free cupcakes at Molly's cupcakes downtown.  They were actually pretty good!

We went to watch Kailey play volleyball and the cousins had fun together while having ring pops!

We went to Clear Lake at the end of September to celebrate Cal and spread some of his ashes on the lake.  One of his favorite places to fish!  It was a fun weekend with family.  The house we stayed at was beautiful and had a beautiful view of the lake.It was a little colder than we would have liked but we were able to go on a ferry on the lake and out to dinner a few times.  We were also able to fish Sunday morning before we left.  Blake was the only one to catch a fish but we were glad to catch one! 

Claire is getting so much better at walking!  She walks mostly on her own but still falls quite a bit.  We've had a beautiful fall so we have spent as much time outside as possible. 

Grant has his school fundraiser-a fun run at the end of September.  I had to work but Greg and Grandma were able to go and watch him run! 

Grandma spent the nights a few times lately and here she is watching all three kids like a champ.  Our kids LOVE when Grandmas has a sleepover.