Has it been two weeks?

Sorry about that.  Time is just flying by.  Here are some of the highlights for us.

The best news is that informal reports are that Clara does not have reflux.  Because Grady has level 5 reflux from his bladder all the way to his kidneys, there was some concern that Clara might too.  But the doctor who performed her VCUG said everything looks good.  This will be confirmed hopefully by our urologist at the beginning of August.

On to cuter news.

We've been keeping pretty busy over here.  This past weekend we took Grady and Clara to Jamison Square to get our pictures taken and splash around in their fountain.  It was actually warm enough to do this - I swear! The pictures were technically for PKC, but here's a cropped shot of a pretty good family photo.

Matt, Grady, and Clara also got to have their photo taken for a PKC father's day feature - here's that one.

Anyway, back to the water park.  Grady had so much fun splashing around by himself and with his buddy Marshall.  His swimming lessons are really paying off!

What happened to his clothes?

Clara and Daddy had fun too sitting in the shade and checking out the sights.

Hi, I look just like my daddy.

We also went strawberry picking on nearby Sauvie Island.  Grady was really excited to go, and, after about 30 attempts, perfected the art of picking the ripe strawberries.  "Not the green strawberries, I pick the red strawberries."

 

However, the highlight for Grady was probably the tractor. 

 And by probably, I mean it was definitely the tractor.

Here's the before shot - 

and the after.  

Yes folks, I am now officially a Portlander.  The jam came out somewhere between jam and syrup, but is pretty tasty nonetheless. 

Mmm, jam!

Some other highlights.  Clara came pretty darn close to rolling from back to front a few times this past week. 

Just... put... your arm... down.  So close!

But the big milestone has been learning to grasp objects.  She is pretty studious about it!

Got it!

While Clara has been working on grabbing, Daddy and Grady have been working on their dance routine.  (The juxtaposition of these photos on my camera are pretty funny - Clara staring intently, Grady doing his acrobatics, Clara staring intently....)

Grady and Clara had their first moments of playing together the other day.  He would hand her  a little toy camel, she would grab it, and they would both laugh.  The image on the video is worthless (I was holding Clara up) but the audio captures the idea.

Grady went on a nature walk last week with his friend from daycare Soren and Soren's brother Kai.  At the beginning, the instructor asked each child his or her name.  Grady has never answered before, so I expected he would stay quiet. I gave him a few seconds to respond, and just when I was about to tell his name, he very clearly said "I'm Monster Truck."

Monster Truck and Soren plotting escape routes

Grady also continues to love to sing.  Here he is singing a made up song (sorry about the peep show).  It's pretty catchy -it has been stuck in my head for a week now.

He's also started changing lyrics to songs - usually replacing things in the songs with monster trucks, garbage trucks, etc.


Clara is becoming sweeter and sweeter as she leaves colic behind her.  She is giggling frequently and is rewarding us all with huge smiles.  I finally, FINALLY, got one of her full smile.

And a few other cute pictures from the past 2 weeks.

Clara humoring Mommy

Tummy time!

In the battle of boy versus cat, who will come out on top?

In general, things over here feel like they are coming together a bit.  I realize I am jinxing myself as I type, but it feels that way. Clara is becoming a somewhat more reliable sleeper - at least taking an afternoon nap and starting out with about a 5 hour chunk of sleep most nights before going into 3 hour stretches. I've even been able to start running pretty regularly again, often with friends, and am hoping to run a half marathon on July 4th.  (No goal time, just hoping to get through it.)  Grady is still testing limits of course, but he is two, and he continues to make up for his two-y-ness with his sweetness, cuddles, and the crazy things that come out of his mouth.  That's not to say we wouldn't like you all to move out here and help us full time. We would. Please do!