Betters Never Win

Back when Sienna was around 16-18 months, Justin kept trying to teach her colors. I repeatedly told him she is waaaaaaay to young to learn that. She would repeat them, but had no concept of what it actually meant. I also told him everything I had read said they don't know their colors until they are 3-4. Justin of course disagreed and thought she could know them by the time she was 2.

And so started the bet. He bet me that she would know one color before she turned 2. Thinking there was no way that was possible, I readily agreed. The stakes? 2 hours of back massages. It was on.

And so began Justin's incessant teaching of colors. They talked about it when she got dressed, when they read books, when they did puzzles and especially when they colored. To my astonishment it worked. I was doubtful for a long time, but not any more. It started with grabbing a crayon and getting it right. I said it was a fluke. There were only so many times she could grab the yellow crayon and have it be a fluke. Then she started pointing out orange, and pink, and purple.

It takes a true woman to admit when she's wrong. So Sienna, I apologize. I will never second guess your intelligence and make bets against you. You already might be smarter than your mother (but I will never let you know that)

As a sidenote I read something last week that said kids who learn colors before 3 usually have parents who work hard at teaching them. I found it funny that it said they also usually learn the basic ones first like red, yellow and blue. Red is the one she still never gets and blue is hit and miss. She's a true girl loving pink and purple more.

Also do you know how nice 2 hours worth of back rubs would be for a pregnant woman? I think I need to find a counter bet...

Cousin Birthdays

We were back in WI last weekend to celebrate all of the cousin's birthdays. It's nice that they all fall w/in a couple months of each other. We also got to finally meet Baby Declyn. He looks just like Izzy when she was a baby and is such a good baby. I think he cried once all weekend. 

Sienna didn't have much interest in Declyn. I kept asking her if she wanted to hold him and she said no. The only time she really paid attention to him was when I was feeding him. 

The birthday girls!

Lots of presents for everyone. Sienna was very excited for this party. One of her favorite expression right now is, "Happy Birthday Me!" 

The party ended with a pinata. Took awhile for 3 little ones to break it open. I think Grandma had to help out quite a bit. 

Burnsville Fountains

I don't know if it's because we have a fish for a toddler or if it's from this summer being so hot, but seems like every activity we do revolves around water. Couple weekends ago we hit up the Burnsville Fountains. It's been on my bucket list for awhile. They didn't disappoint. Sienna had a great time splashing in the fountains and maybe an ever better time when the ice cream man showed up. I am such a sucker for frozen treats in the summer and nothing screams childhood more to me than the ice cream man. How could I resist? This child might get a little spoiled when it comes to things like that.

Splashing in the fountains

She's been wanting one of us to do everything with her lately

Waiting in line for the ice cream man

Enjoying our treats. Preggers couldn't resist getting one too.

The push up was a hit

Sienna's Secret

Sienna has some news to share!

It's official...we're having another baby! All those weeks when I claimed to be too busy to blog, some of that was true but some of it was me falling asleep on the couch at 8:30, too tired to think about turning on the computer. I'm 13 weeks now and feeling much better. Baby J is due January 18th and yes we are finding out the sex. I'll post the baby game again soon so everyone can get their guesses in! We keep asking Sienna if she wants a sister or a brother. It changes every time, but I think sister might be in the slight lead.

This pregnancy has been so different from the last one. I was much more sick the first time. I felt pretty rotten for a few weeks but after that I was just extremely tired. I am also craving completely different food. I wanted a lot of meat, especially hamburgers the first couple months. Now I have moved on to salty food, mostly chips! I am usually a total sweet girl too. I used to have at least a bite of something sweet after every meal. Not any more! I'm lucky to eat one sweet a day. Some days none. So so weird for me.

On another note this is also the first time Sienna wore real pig tails. So cute!

4th of July

4th of July this year was HOT. As in record temps, dew points, and miserable humidity. We had originally planned to spend our morning with my parents at a park with a beach and grill out for a picnic lunch. After seeing it was 90 degrees at 9 am, we scrapped those plans and moved the party to our house. We were able to enjoy about an hour outside in the shade while Sienna played in her pool. We still grilled for lunch but enjoyed it in the air conditioning. 

Even Conner jumped in the pool to cool off.

The rest of the day was very low key. Justin and I both had to work the next day so we didn't want to be out late. Sienna is still a little too young to go see fireworks, but I discovered my bed has a perfect view of the ones at Valley Fair. Great way to fall asleep! 

2012 Garden

The garden is loving the weather this year. We got an early jump to planting with our warm spring. And this past week of tropical heat has made everything take off. Can you believe the size of this squash plant?? It's taking over the yard! I have high hopes of lots of squash this year.

Remember last year when the deer visited? They came back again this year...Twice! I guess luckily for me they only ate the leaves on the cucumbers and beans and left the rest alone. My cucs (the 2 little plants in the left hand side below) are struggling. They have over doubled in size this past week so I am hopeful of at least getting a few by the end of the year. The beans aren't phased by the deer and are still thriving.

This is more squash and zucchini. Lots of vines! So excited. We picked our first 2 zucchinis today.

The first tomato is almost ready.

New to the garden this year is raspberries! We planted 8 raspberry bushes right behind the garden but only 3 have taken off. I'm a little disappointed but was pretty excited to see that we have one almost ripe one. I'll be surprised if we get more than a handful in total.

Some baby squashes.

Sienna helped picked the peas. She's pretty excited about harvesting the veggies but not so sure when it comes to eating most of them.

Modeling her glasses by the garden.

Sandy Lake

We had our annual trip up to Sandy Lake last weekend. This year we brought the kids along. The kids might be our good luck charm for great weather. Most years we go it's very cold and rainy. This year it was hot and sunny. You couldn't ask for it to be any better. It definitely wasn't as relaxing as other years but it was so fun to see how much Sienna enjoyed the lake. I think she wants to be a fish in her next life. She spent most of the weekend doing this:

Fill, spill, pour, repeat.

This was also a big hit.

She went up and down the slide countless times.

This was not a hit.

The life jacket made her fall over every time she tried to walk. It did it's job though and made her float on her back. She was not a big fan. She also had her first boat ride. She liked it the idea of it but wasn't too sure when she was actually on it. She kept saying it was windy.

Mallory also loves the water. Brent put the slide at the end of the dock and she went down it all afternoon.

As always there was lots of food. We all enjoyed some s'mores.

The adults even got a few minutes of alone time on the big 8 person raft while the little ones napped and the neighbors kept an eye on Mallory. Thanks Eids' for a great weekend!