Catching Up

This post is probably just going to seem like recap of what's been going on so far this summer. We went to the zoo one day with Aunt Kaki and had a great time. I have several diet pepsi can coupons that are for a free child's admission and Charlotte is still free so we may be making several zoo trips this summer! Luke has a stuffed animal snake that he had to have after playing with one at his cousins house. He named it "Slimey". He carried this stuffed animal snake around with him and sleeps with it, etc. Loves this snake- so I was excited when there was a demonstration where Luke could touch a REAL snake!! So cool. He wasn't scared at all! Charlotte seemed a little afraid to touch any of the animals. She was holding her arms up high to stay away from it! (we now are the proud owners of more of these stuffed animal snakes as part of a potty training reward- which I will post more about later!)


Luke's favorite part was seeing the peacock's with their tail feathers all on display. He's a spoiled first-born so he got to go on lots of rides. lol Here he is riding a pony named Gayle. Charlotte freaked when I tried to have her touch the pony!

Here Luke is riding the Sky-Lift above the African Journey with Aunt Kaki. Something about that ride still makes me a little nervous!

Charlotte was happy anytime she could be walking on her own like a big girl.

Here's a boy excited to ride the choo-choo train.

And here's a girl surprised by the choo-choo train whisle! :)


Luke did visit the dentist for the first time... and I was soooo happy with how he behaved! I'd been prepping him a long time but then I didn't want to overdo it. Important things to remember are little things like saying, "You GET to go to the dentist." instead of "You HAVE to go to the dentist." He sometimes can be shy around new people but I think since it was just the one hygienist that he talked with and then the dentist later on he was pretty comfortable. He told them about the fish we had caught that morning and did a good job following directions. He has one little cavity (bad mommy!) that we have to go back in July but he won't really know that it will be much different. They won't have to numb it or anything (which is the scary part!) so hopefully it will be an easy visit again! He was such a good boy listening that the hygienist let him pick out two prizes! Here he is when he first got laid down in the chair.

We've had some big storms here lately to ring in the summer season. One was bad enough to knock out the power for a night. It happened around 6pm and then we had the evening to entertain the kids (at least it stayed light to around 9:30 so didn't have to use lanterns and flashlights too long). JW has been working 10 hour days plus Saturdays so he went to bed pretty early. I attempted to lay Charlotte down around 9 but I think the thunder was keeping her awake. We decided to try putting a dvd on the laptop for Luke and he thought that was sooooo much fun with just a camping lantern on. So I set him up with "Cars" on the laptop and some snacks. Soon Charlotte joined him at the little table. Charlotte finally started to try to smile on cue and do a big cheesy smile so I thought these were kind of fun moments. Little Miss Lottie ended up staying up until about 10:30 and Luke was up until about 11:30!!! Luckily, the power came on about 3am and the kids slept in late.