You Make Beautiful Things . . . Out of the Dust: Summer is my favorite! 22 months.

We've had a cool summer so far, and I am not a huge fan, but Daddy is very happy. I prefer the heat, the smell of sunscreen in the air, splashing in the pool, tank tops and gym shorts. . .

Anyway, today feels like June and I hope it's here to stay. :)

At 22 months:

You are in underwear full time! I can't believe it! You have been for 2 weeks now. We are still working out the nights, which is rough, but you are finally pooping on the potty again and hardly have any daytime pee accidents unless you are playing with friends and I forget to remind you. You do a great job going at any store or public restroom since I always have our little travel potty seat.

You are talking a lot as always. Always surprising us with the things you say. When Daddy comes home and asks about your day you tell him, "zoo! animals!" and he ask what animals you saw and you say "zebra! polar bear! hippo! elephant! mama giraffe! baby giraffe! carousel!" Sometimes you randomly start talking to me about the zoo and the different animals. In the bathroom are some animal stickers that you earned from pooping on the potty and you like to name them off whenever we are in there "tiger, cheetah, baby seal, zebra".

You still also talk obsessively about the tree branch that snapped off during a thunderstorm. We had just gotten home and were on the porch when there was a loud crack and a huge tree branch snapped off and fell right behind our car. All night you sat on the top of the couch looking out the window recounting what you had seen and heard saying "Tree break! Snap!" and clapping your hands together to make the snap sound. You still talk about this weeks later when you see the tree or tree branch (now laying on the side of the house). Daddy also told you about the "music truck" so you surprised me by talking about that one day while looking out the window.

You've been so sweet reading books to your babies while I take a shower. You pick out books and climb up in the green chair in your room and read to them. Today I went in after my shower and you were reading a book about a duck and goose searching for a pumpkin and you were saying "pumpkin? nooooo. in water? nooooo." I was amazing at what you were remembering and able to communicate from the story. There a quite a few books that we can read together now. You know them well enough to fill in the words and sounds at certain parts. It's a lot of fun. As always, I am fascinated to watch you learn and develop.

When you hear a thunderstorm (there have been a lot lately) you say "boom! boom!" which is from our Mr. Brown by Dr. Seuss book: "Boom, boom, boom! Mr. Brown is a wonder. Boom, boom, boom! Mr. Brown makes thunder."

Here are some pictures of things we've been up to. Our mild obsession with the Zoo, a neighborhood block party, Daddy's work carnival, gardening, etc.

Planting our flowers!

Mitchell's graduation

Trying on flower girl dresses for Cousin Maggie's and Grandma Wendy's weddings.

Walking your baby around the block.

Crazy Costco trip.

(If they forget to draw you a picture on the back of the receipt you say "smiley face?"

It's so sweet and sad.)

"New" and awesome pirate and vehicle bath toys

Naked and playing with Liz on Great Gma's bed.

Daddy's work carnival

Mommy and Daddy had a date night!!

zoo- watching the hippos get fed treats!

more zoo with uncle Max

kissing the monkeys :)

Block party with a fire truck!

Quinn kept saying "ride?! ride?!"

This is right before Caleb honked the extremely loud firetruck horn and scared Quinn to tears. After a couple minutes she got over it and just kept saying "Firetruck! loud noise!"