July 2014

Nothing makes this Mom happier than when my kids play HAPPILY together. 

On July 2 we were surprised to find out that our baby was going to be a girl!  She did not want to let us know easily, the ultra sound took over 30 minutes just to figure out her gender.  The tech was literally hitting me and making me twist and touch my toes etc. This baby loves to be curled up tight.  Evanicio was ecstatic as he has wanted a girl all along.  I was nervous but happy.  Our joy was short lived when my doctor told us that our baby may have "Echogenic Bowl" which indicates a chromosome problem.  My doctor didn't seem concerned but encouraged us to have a 2nd ultrasound and follow up with a geneticis.  Of course we did the worst thing possible and googled Echogenic bowl.  Our follow up appointment wasn't for TWO WEEKS.  Those two weeks were the longest two weeks of our life.  Although initialy I was sad anything was wrong as I read more into what the outcome may be I realized that my baby may not even live which seemed way worse than any physical or mental disability to me.   The thought of already losing her hurt horribly and I prayed that wasn't what was in store for us. 

 We prayed and talked a lot.  I just hoped that she would live, I knew that if she lived I could face the other challenges.  When the day finally came I think the ultra sound tech knew we were stressed.  She was super nice and kind, but as you know if you have had an ultra sound, she couldn't  tell us anything.  She kept saying "this looks great" and "Everything is going to be fine".  But what did that even mean?  I tried to be calm as I had a feeling of peace knowing that no matter what was wrong this baby was obviously supposed to be in our family and we would do our best. In the end they found nothing at the second ultra sound.  Not one indication of anything wrong.  We still met with the genetics counselour to talk about risks but really knowing she was ok was all that mattered.
Evanicio left the afternoon of July 4th, so the boy and I went with some friends to the park to see the Big Fire Works!

 Henry had cried all day every time a fire work went off so I was worried he would be a mess but this is a picture of him while they were going off.  He was so mesmerized.  It is so fun watching my littles discover the world.

 We also went Raspberry picking again. These raspberries were HUGE!  (My hand is not dainty.)  They were yummy and I made lots of raspberry jam.

 Mikey attended a week long soccer camp that my friend put on.  He LOVED IT!  Henry and I stayed to watch my friends daughter one of the days.  I was walking around the park with the two of them and Henry reaches out and smoothly grabs the girls hand.  He then keeps walking just like nothing happened.  He is going to be a charmer!

I think Mr. H was feeling pretty good about his smooth moves. 

Henry is growing up but he is still my baby.  He LOVES to be held and loved.

 My Boys LOVE to pile all of our pillows in a tall stack and then leap onto them.  I think it is so cute.

 Sorry but they are just too cute.  Look at that little Henry!

 Henry is a lover.  He LOVES to give "back hugs".  If you are sitting or even standing he will come up behind you and just hug.  Mikey doesn't always think it is as fun when Henry does it when Mikey is trying to play.  But I think it is darling!

 Mikey decided he was done with training wheels!  It took him less than 5 minutes to got from training wheel to trying to do jumps and standing up like this.  I think he could have done this way sooner but he is not the type of personality you want to push.

 I think this is  about 21 weeks.

 Little Man thought it would be cool to give himself a haircut.  He agreed that it wasn't the best choice.

 23 weeks and I feel like I'm going to pop.

 We went to one of our favorite Lake Washington beaches.  Henry was pretty content to jump in the mud.

 Mikey went out in the water and was brave enough to put his head in so he could reach that rock. He was shivering but super proud of himself.

 Henry slowly warmed up to the water and at one point was playing at the waters edge with his feet in the water but his back to the lake.  A boat went by which caused very small waves to come in.  As it hit the back of Henry's legs his eyes got huge and he started running out of the water and across the beach towards me screaming hysterically "JUICE! JUICE!"  It was sad and hilarious all at the same time.  He calls any liquid Juice and I think he thought that "juice" was going to eat him.

 We love playing with friends at the beach!
Mikey swam in a neighbors pool and was excited to get to wear googles!

 Mikey and Henry have a true brother relationship they are either loving on each other or torturing each other.  Mikey had grabbed Henry's feet when Henry was laying on his stomach and dragged Henry around.  He thought he was being silly he didn't realize that poor Henry was screaming because he was receiving some nasty carpet burns.  Poor Henry.

 We have an AMAZING Story time lady.  She is SO SO SO good at her job.  In the summer she does story time in the park.  This is Henry doing one of the songs with her.  The kids just love Ms. Sharon!

 We had the adventure of dog sitting sweet Lady.  Lady is deaf and old but a pretty easy dog over all.  Even being an easy dog having her with us confirmed that no time in the near future will we be getting a dog of our own.