The Wilkinson Family Blog: Catch up part II: the rest of July

It has been a totally crazy week - Grady sick, a trip to the ER, all while Matt was away for his 20 year high school reunion and then to NYC, Clara got sick upon his return, etc. etc. etc. So the next installment of catch up took a bit longer than intended to get to you! Sorry about that. (Kids are both fine now. ER trip was due to concern that Grady might have a kidney-related infection because his virus presented as a fever that went away and then came back with accompanying stomach ache - he did not have an infection and we got sent home in record time, 2 hours door to door, totally unheard of.) Anyway, on to the good stuff.

After we got back from the beach, we still had a few days until we had to return to work and school. We had been meaning to go to Oaks Amusement Park for a long time now. We often run by it, and Grady has been pretty interested in it. So we decided to finally give it a try. They have a preschool area that has maybe half a dozen rides, mostly train, plane, or automobile related. So basically Grady's dream come true.

We weren't sure whether Clara would be big enough for any of the rides, but we decided to give one a try that she and Grady could ride together. Big hit. We forked over more tickets two or three times before we finally pulled her off, literally kicking and screaming.

We will definitely be back!

We've also done a few more rounds of blueberry picking this month. We've got bags and bags in the freezer, which at the moment seem like they will last forever, but will realistically probably take us to December. These kids love their frozen blueberries.

Post-pie

We've also begun to harvest our garden, thanks to Matt's hard work. The carrots are a definite favorite.

Clara has a grown a lot this month, mostly in vocabulary. I haven't counted them out, but she probably has 20 words or so now, including "poop" (quite useful, since she actually tells me when she has) and "mine" (also useful but much more annoying). "No!" continues to be a favorite. And, I swear this is true, she once emphatically said "No avocado!" when I was trying to force some on her. Point taken! She is imitating lots of sound ("ow!" "woof!" etc.). She understands a lot too. She will go to the toilet when I tell her it's time for a diaper change, and once went upstairs when I said it was time to get ready for bed - although the usual response is to cry and throw herself on the floor at that one. A favorite word of hers right now is "baby." We're still working on her care taking skills, but she's practicing!

She wants badly to be independent. She has been working hard at learning to put her pants on. She's gotten pretty good at getting one leg in!

She is also becoming quite the pro at the jungle gyms.

All by herself!

Grady's pretty good too

Grady is coming through a rough patch after feeling pretty sick for a few days. He is happy to be feeling better, but missing the perks that go along with being sick. He came downstairs a few days after feeling better complaining of a stomach ache. "What does that mean?" he asked me. "Well," I said, "that means you can lie on the couch and I can get you some water." "What else does it mean?" "That's all it means," I said. "But. Can I watch a movie?" Nope. Miraculously felt much better and proceeded to eat a huge breakfast.

I've been really enjoying hearing him communicate his take on the world. The other day he got up from his chair and cried "My foot isn't cooperating! It feels like sparkles!" What a great way to describe your foot falling asleep!

Grady and Clara have been alternately loving each other and getting on each other's nerves. The "mine" thing is certainly not helping. But, despite some rocky patches, there is lots of sweetness.