Run of the Mill Update

I haven't entered an update to remember what is happening this summer, so this post is a run of the mill update on what is happening with us this summer and will probably be boring to anyone that is not me ;-)

Julia loves going to camp this summer.  She decided on mostly half days Mon, Tues, and Wed instead of full days.  She prefers to skip a nap and if she is there a full day it includes some nap time.  She decided on the days to attend based on activities of the day.  Mondays have a visitor come in and do demonstrations for the children - so far they have had dogs, jugglers, moonbounces, obstacle courses, and the firemen with their trucks.  Tuesdays are morning field trips and the BIG DRAW for that is the ride on the school bus.  Seriously, if the camp just put the children on the bus and drove them around town for an hour or two without stopping anywhere I think the kids would be thrilled - they love the ride that much.  The camp does not do this, though, and the children get to go to great spots like the Can Do park, XBos Indoor entertainment center, bowling, the movies, and the theatre.  On Wednesday they have water day and the water area at the school is very state of the art with water coming from the ground and squirt guns and all.  After camp she loves to come home and play with her dolls all afternoon which, along with playing house, is her favorite past time.  We also took a few weeks off of camp to just enjoy some down time and vacations and I think Julia really likes the variety each week is providing us.  Julia also now has a fish that she won at a local carnival.  The goldfish's name was previously Wendy, but she changed it to Goldie shortly after she told everyone at camp about her fish and I think they decided Goldie was a better name.  We prepared Julia each night for a long while that in the morning Goldie might not be alive, but she seems to come from hardy stock since she has made it with us for over a month now.  Goldie now has her own fish bowl complete with decorative pebbles and a fake tree.  Honestly, this is a pretty cool fish.   She seems to perk up when she sees us and zips around the bowl and has quite a personality.  This is a fish that we are all a bit attached to, so I sure hope she sticks around for quite.  

Emma continues to get stronger each day. She still has a way to go before she is crawling, but she does scoot a lot more than in the past and reallllllly wants to get moving.  We are trying hard to teach her how to move in a crawling position and she loves that but it is evident she gets frustrated with all the effort she expends for the little movement she achieves.  It's mostly her arms that are holding her back so we are working on all different types of stretches and weight bearing to try and loosen them up a bit more.  Overall, though, she is an optimistic gal and keeps trying every chance she gets.  Although she isn't sitting yet, she is doing great at keeping her head up and using her arms more when in supported sitting positions.  This should help improve her trunk control and that will lead to more movement and maybe easier crawling.  She is also starting to make more conversational sounds, imitating more sounds and making some word approximations - all when she wants to since she is still pretty quiet in general.  All of this leads us to be very hopeful that she will eventually start talking.  In the meantime, we continue to use the iPad with the Yes and No program and I started introducing the Proloquo2go today and Emma loved it but I realized I need to take a closer look at the menus I've set up to make navigation easier.

• Chris is still running quite a bit.  He is getting ready for the half-marathon in Philly in September, but the hot weather is making it harder to get in all the longer runs he wants.  His work is always busy in the summer and this one seems to be busier than ever implementing all the technology upgrades at the school.  
• As for me, I continue to take lots of photos.  I've even been asked to take a few photos for friends and that is a pretty big honor for me.  I've also been trying to find a bit of time here and there for sewing.  I took a class on making tote bags and just love the bag I made even though I was surprised at how much work went into it.  I'm also excited that I am now a contributing writer to the blog Hopeful Parents and will post there once a month.  More on that next week.

• The house has had no movement or activity.  According to our last weekly report there is a 36 month inventory of houses in our zip code.  Ouch!  So, in addition to the recent price reduction we made, Chris and I are discussing our plan B.