Beat the Heat

Summer usually brings on happy feelings, right?

Once May passed and June arrived, we all breathed a sigh of relief as the tornado risk drastically dropped. And not only were we inside a lot in May due to crazy storms, but May also seemed particularly wet for us. The ground was completely saturated all the time, and as I'm sure you can imagine, it only took about 5 minutes with Henry outside for him to completely cover himself with mud.

So we were excited for June. A chance to enjoy the nicer weather without all the rain and mud.

Unfortunately, it took about 2 days for the temperatures to rise so much that we went from rainy-stormy-muddy-May to HOT-SUMMER.

I became grumpy. We couldn't even get a few nice days without scorching heat? Not cool, weather, NOT COOL.

In every sense of the word.

So rather than feeling completely stuck inside, we had to be creative in coming up with ways to succeed in the game known as Beat the Heat.

We have enjoyed the local Splash Pad, frequented the nearby sno cone truck, visited the library for various storytimes, and spent lots of time in water.

So, here are some snapshots of our June:

This is why Henry is not to be trusted near water, 

unless naked or in his swimming suit. :)

Adele, helping Daddy get the backyard set up

Adele got to participate in swimming lessons at the University of Oklahoma this summer. While it didn't miraculously make her love getting her face/head wet, she loved the time with her friend Reece!

We have spent a lot of time in our backyard as well, with David working to get our swingset put back together and the kids enjoying the outside toys.

 Henry loves blasting the music in the truck!

Henry playing in the pool, attempting to 

drink from the spraying elephant

 Smart little boy decided a glass was more effective!

An impromptu sprinkler time with friend Jude...

Yes, Adele is doing exactly what 

it looks like in the picture

Jude and Henry understand that it's good 

to stay hydrated in the hot weather!

We also visited the Sam Noble Natural History Museum for "Library Day". We spent a fun few hours doing crafts, playing in the Discovery Room, listening to storytime, and checking out all the exhibits. Fun times!

Adele is really interested in the fact that we 

have bones in our bodies, so seeing the 

dinosaur skeletons was "so cool" (in her words)

Henry was trapped in the stroller, but 

loved anything he could touch!

Adele attempting to look like the spider in the photo display

"Aaaaaah it's going to step on me Mommy!"

Henry loved wearing goggles and "digging" for bones

And Adele loved all the crafts!

And me, I've decided to Beat the Heat by turning some of my t-shirts that don't fit quite right into tank tops. (Thanks, Pinterest!) This was my experiment shirt, and it was so easy that it only took a short amount of my time during naps that I will be rummaging around in my closet for more shirts to convert!

Bring it on, July.

DNA

Today in church we talked about DNA, and how genes get passed along. How everyone has a story. And that story includes a person's past.

I've had a few more interpreting jobs at the mental health clinic and mental health hospital lately. I really really enjoy those appointments. Not only is it a good chance to use my Spanish, but it's a way of connecting with people. Hearing their stories.

As you can imagine, the people who I'm interpreting for at the mental health clinic and hospital have complicated stories. Their stories always include their past, which almost always goes back to problems associated with their parents. Stories of abuse. Abandonment. How they are trying to cope with their past in the present, attempting to live normally, often as parents themselves.

Today, as we celebrate Father's Day, I'm thankful for good DNA. I'm thankful that I have a father who passed along good parenting genes. He was a good example of being an involved, active, loving father in my life as a child and currently as an adult. I'm thankful for a good father-in-law, who passed along equally good genes to my husband. He too was a good example as a supportive, caring, involved father.

I'm thankful for my husband, the father of my kids. The guy who, through his actions, encourages and motivates me to be a better mother and wife to our kids.

I'm thankful our kids have that as their fatherly example.

Silly Adele

A few of Adele's funny sayings as of late:

-She has learned to say "excuse me" when she burps. Now when she toots, she'll smile and say "oops! Excuse my butt!"

-After we sneeze, we say "bless you". So after Adele sneezes, she'll tell herself "blesshyou me!"

-Last week when tornadoes were threatening to head our way, we left our house to head south and avoid the storms. Adele was nervous, and as we were loading up she said "I need my ruby red slippers!" (Which happen to be her favorite shoes to wear these days.) We weren't sure if that phrase was some sort of sign of what was to come to our house...

-One of the songs on a CD Adele listens to is about Noah's ark. It goes "who built the ark, Noah, Noah!" However, Adele is convinced that the singer says "Poop out the ark, Noah, Noah!" I have tried to convince her of the actual lyrics, but she simply tells me "No listen to it Mommy.....see? It says poop out the ark!"

Spanish talk

Growing up, my parents used to spell things when they didn't want us to understand what they were talking about. The spelling continued with our pets. Even though we were adults and could spell just fine, my mom would still spell o-u-t-s-i-d-e so the dog wouldn't hear the actual word and go crazy wanting to go out.

Things are a little different at our house.

We have used Spanish when talking about things we don't want Adele to understand.

The girl has gotten smart. We can no longer talk around subjects, as she figures out pretty quickly what it is we're talking about. Whispering doesn't work, as she seems to think she needs to be a part of EVERY conversation that happens in the house.

So out comes the Spanish.

We use Spanish words in our house every now and then anyway. We almost always only say pollo instead of chicken for dinner. Adele sometimes enjoys saying buenas noches before bed. She will often answer gracias when she gets something.

But David and I have been throwing more Spanish words in our conversation in order to keep things from her. Questions like "shall we have helado after dinner tonight?" or "how do you feel about letting the kids get in the piscina today?"

Of course, our smart little daughter has quickly figured out that Spanish = something-she-probably-wants. The other day we asked the question about the pool and she said excitedly, "what's a piscina? what's a piscina??"

I suppose the good thing is that Adele is continuing to learn more Spanish words.

And I suppose we'll eventually have to resort back to spelling.

Dancin' Fools

A long time ago I wrote a post about dancing. It seems that this is a subject that needs to be re-visited...maybe annually.

It appears that Henry may have the dancing genes too. (It should be mentioned that these said "genes" only reference a desire to dance...not the ability to actually dance "well".)

I have already blogged about how Adele has loved dancing ever since she was little. Henry has joined in on the fun. Ever since Henry could bounce, he has wanted in on the action. He now has a number of toys that make noise. He has figured out which buttons to push on every noise-making toy, and roams around the house pushing those buttons in order to constantly have music playing so he can dance.

So we dance all the time. It is one of our main forms of entertainment, a way for Henry and Adele to interact positively together, a good time of laughter, and of course - distraction. If Adele is struggling because she is in desperate need of food, a good distraction from hunger is putting some good dancing music on the ipod and dancing away in the living room. If Adele is annoyed with Henry picking on her, we dance.

We actually have even come up with a "family song". When we were in Nicaragua, David heard the song "We No Speak Americano" a lot on the radio, and introduced it to us on one of his visits in Granada. If you're interested, see the music video below:

When David was not with us in Nicaragua, we'd often listen to is and Adele would refer to it as "Daddy's song". We'd even attempt to dance like David, mimicking his goofy moves he made up for the song.

Somehow we have continued using this song as our family song now that we're back in the states. Adele often randomly asks to listen to our family song, and we gladly oblige as we dance clumsily around the room together.

The other day brought us the greatest smiles and laughter when David asked Adele, "do you want to go do our family dance? You know, bop bop Americano?" and Henry ran out of the room into the living room, waving his arms around yelling "bop bop bop bop" as he waited excitedly for the music to begin.

Shouldn't everyone have a family song and dance?