Lately . . .

Aaron and I have been laughing a lot lately at Avalon's use of the letter Y.   The other day Avalon told her dad that a ball was too "rolly".  She also said that she was a little "coughy". 

Truman's new favorite activity is clapping.  He loves to play patty cake and claps anytime he sees anyone else clap.  He likes to talk with his hands and makes the funniest little hand gestures.  He even uses his hands to dance when he is sung to.  He has also learned the words "mommy", "daddy" and "dog".  He likes to throw both arms in the air and have us all yell "yeah".  He thinks it is a great game.

I am once again behind on our blogging.  We have had a busy and exciting time lately.  First off, several weeks ago, we adopted a dog.  We got this dog from the pound and he was a good dog.  He was an inside dog and I quickly discovered that I couldn't handle a large inside dog.  He lasted about 4 days and then we had to return him.  I felt like a horrible mom.  Sterling was in tears for a couple of days.

A week or so later, we adopted the kids another dog. This dog is much smaller. We got it from a rescue. His name is Sparky (he came with that name). He seems to be a good dog. He is well trained already. He doesn't jump on the couch or go upstairs. I'm a big fan. He also looks like a small sheep. He is a Bichon Frise and when his fur is grown out, he looks very woolly. The only thing, I'm not one hundred percent sure about is that he growls at the baby a lot. In his defense, however, the baby does pull his tail and tries to sit on him all of the time.

The above picture is before we had him groomed.  The pictures below are after.  When we went to pick him up from the groomers, the kids didn't recognize him. 

The kids love this dog.  Avalon is always hugging him and letting him lick her.  Sterling plays with him like he is a live stuffed animal.

Anyway, on Memorial Day, we took the kids to the Arizona Science Center.  We love the Science Center.  I think it is the best way for two geeky engineers to indoctrinate their children into the world of science.

 Avalon being pooped our of a giant stomach.

 Sterling having his heart beat echoed by a drum.

 The kids playing in a real heart-shaped ball pit.

 Trying to assemble a body.

 Sterling loved this thing.  It was a giant metal wall and there were PVC pipe pieces that had magnets on the back.  You could arrange it however you want and then drop balls through the pipes.

 Aaron on a bed of nails.

 Truman loved this metal board that had magnetic gears on it.

 This machine would warp the kids pictures in funny ways.

Truman playing with lights that would trigger music.

On June 4th, Aaron and I had tickets to the Diamondbacks game.  My law firm is really nice and they give us a set of tickets every year.  This year the seats were right by left field.  They were right next to the barrier and we could look right down on the field.  It was a fun game.  It went fast, the score was close and the Diamondbacks won.  We took Truman with us and he enjoyed having his own little box of popcorn.  The lady sitting in front of us was really nice and she kept telling us that if we held Truman up at the barrier, the left fielder would give him a ball.  I guess the left fielder, Gerardo Parra, has always looked around the field and given a ball to the smallest kid that he could find.  The lady in front of us also said that Parra's wife just had a baby and so he is particularly fond of the babies.  Aaron held Truman up once, but Parra didn't see him.  The next time I held Truman up and Parra specifically instructed the pitcher he was warming up with to give Truman a ball.  It was a great time.

Here are some other random pictures.

The first pictures are of my gardenia plant.  I was very excited that it lived and bloomed.

 It has actually been nice here.  We haven't spent much time above 100 degrees.

 Truman loves to swim in the wading pool.  Avalon recruits him to swim with her a couple of times a day.  He is starting to look like a surfer baby.  He is getting tan and has longish white blonde hair.