Moonlight, Spike, and Golden Guy

I bought a 2.5 gallon fish tank about a month ago.  We used it as an incentive - each good deed earned a paper fish in the empty tank.  When the tank was full, the kids could cash them in for a real fish each.  Of all of the incentive programs I've done, this one worked the best (when I remembered to actually put the papers in!).  Last night we took the kids to the pet store and they each picked out a fish.  We asked the lady to direct them toward the docile varieties, since they would be sharing a small tank.  

Isaac's is named Spike, Sophie's is Moonlight, and Eli's is Golden Guy.  Golden Guy did not seem to adapt to the move very well.  He spent a good amount of time trying to hurl himself out the back of the tank, and swam around erratically - we didn't expect him to make it through the night.  But a much calmer version of Golden Guy met us this morning.  Eli was pragmatic about the whole thing, waiting until today to name him just in case he didn't survive.  We spent a long time talking about how fish don't really live very long, and that it's OK when they die.  

Fish are the absolute only pets that will ever be coming in this house.  I'm going to encourage my kids to keep plants.  :)

King of the Mountain

Here he is, in all of his glory, conquering the highest of heights:

Daniel has shifted his obsession from my blue flip flops to this printer.  He has already torn the front plate off of it, and at any chance tries to remove the cartridge, push the blue button when it's on to get sheets of paper to print on the status of the printer, and if it's not on, he simply climbs up and sits on it.  He's under a pub table here, so it's not exactly low.  When you have mountains to climb, what's the point of learning to walk?  

WOW

Sometimes my kids say and do things that remind me that I'm missing out on something.  This weekend we went on another camping trip to the Hocking Hills area.  I have been to this area many times, from when I was a young child.  There are many great trails and hikes with lots of beautiful sites.  As we walked down into the Old Man's Cave area and the rock formations opened up all around us, I saw Eli, mouth gaping open, eyes huge, say, "WOW!!!"  It was the first time in his memory he's seen anything even close to the magnitude of that scene, and he responded appropriately.  So why don't I look at that scene and think WOW?  I've been blessed to see many amazing and beautiful sites in my life.  Somewhere along the way, the wow factor dropped off for me...I certainly recognize the beauty of the site, even now, and I acknowledge the amazing creation that I am seeing...but I lost the awe.

Our second camping trip went a lot more smoothly than the first!  Everything felt easier.  It was still a lot of work, but we had developed some systems and had some help from friends!  Our kids had an absolute BLAST, and I was so glad we went.  We only had a little bit of rain, so it was much more manageable than the last trip.  Aside from the ridiculous number of mosquito bites we all came home with, everyone seems to be fairly well recovered already.

Hiking at Rockbridge in Hocking Hills.

Daniel, "hiking" in style.

Daniel's Stats

Daniel had his one year well check today.  He is right in line with his growth curve - clocking in for both height and weight in the whopping 10th percentile, and having a head in the 90th percentile!  Thankfully he continued to grow in his curve, and didn't fall off the bottom of the chart.

This is the highly held pediatric growth chart for baby boys.  Can you figure out how tall and heavy Daniel actually is?  :)  Sophie had a good time leaning over the pediatrician's shoulder looking at her plotting points on Daniel's chart on her computer.  

He's currently sleeping off 3 vaccines, which he really did well with.  

My Jungle

Here's an update on my garden:

It is becoming MASSIVE!  I wasn't as good as I should have been about single vine trellising my indeterminate tomatoes and they have gone a little wide instead of tall.  We have had rain, rain, rain, RAIN, and my tomatoes are splitting and cracking.  I've had to pull many of them off because they just aren't going to make it with the wounds they have sustained.  

Hopefully this rain will stop and give these plants a chance!  My basil seems to love it as do the zucchini, but the other plants are taking a beating.

First Camping Trip

This weekend was our first camping trip.  We went with some friends to a local state park campground.  The weather forecast was terrible, more rain, but we decided to chance it anyway and hoped that it would be mostly clear.  Sadly, that didn't happen.  Friday night was pretty clear, and we were able to be outside a lot. Saturday was terrible.  We went to a local inside play place in the morning until it cleared up, but by mid-afternoon it was dumping rain again.  The tent really took a beating, and it was good to test how much water it could withstand.  None came in the bottom, but after a few hours of torrential downpours it started to very slightly leak at the top.  That's when we decided to call it quits early.  Doug and Rita were scheduled to visit us at the campground that afternoon, so between rain showers we were able to contain the kids and stuff everything into vehicles.  Just as we were driving out of the campground, another huge rainstorm began.  I'm so thankful they showed up and helped!!!

Here's a picture of the kids inside the tent:

Daniel is saying, "WHY are we in here?  WHY are we camping?  You all are crazy!"  haha

Here's a short video I took:

ONE year old!

My sweet little baby turns 1 today!  I cannot imagine our family without this little man.  He fits in perfectly!  I'm so thankful for the blessing Daniel has been to our family!