Last Week of Summer

The last few week of the summer went by quickly.  Tim and I decided to take the kids to the little zoo near our town.  The kids loved feeding the animals. Ainsley especially loved getting to watch the porcupine get fed.  She was quite worried about the zoo worker who was cleaning the wolf cage with the wolf stalking around in the background.  She had to ask the worker if she was going to be ok!

Durham's favorite part of the zoo?  The lion exhibit.  There were no lions yet, as they were just building it.  What was there?  A little bulldozer.

We also decided to take the kids to the beach in Caseville.  We invited our nieces, loaded up the new-to-us minivan and headed off to enjoy a day in the sun.  

Cousin J helped by watching and playing with the kids.  

Durham was on the go the whole time.  

We didn't bring Durham's puddle jumper because he's never been interested in the water.  Turns out he was highly interested in the water this time.  He didn't even want to play in the sand.  He just wanted to walk around in the water.  Walk, walk, walk.  Walk to the end of the beach.  Walk to the other end of the beach.  Walk out to deep water.  And, NO, he doesn't want to hold your hand.

It was Wrenn's first time in Caseville.  She was pretty chill about it. 

Cousin K helping out with Wrenn.  

Wrenn is 6 Months Old!

Height:  26 inches               Weight:  16 lbs, 2 oz  

Feeding:  She's eating 6 ounces every 3-4 hours.  She'll usually eat 30-36 oz in a day and loves to help hold her bottle. We attempt to do two tubs of solids a day, one fruit and the other vegetable.  Unfortunately in our toddler/preschooler/baby chaos, Wrenn's solids quite often fall to the wayside in favor of changing a poopy or packing a bag or doing the dishes.  There's just only so much time in the day and with our family there's never a moment to spare.  She is a champ at eating off the spoon though.  We also have tried sippy cups three times, twice semi-successfully.  We're going to work on moving to sippy cups by 9 months if I can get the babysitters on board.  :)

Sleeping:  Wrenn still takes three naps a day and we're doing our best to put her down in her crib for every nap.  With work starting up again, we need her to be sleeping as independently as possible.  We lay her down on her back, but she rolls over and snuggles into the bumper to sleep all snuggly-like in the corner of the crib.  We've added her crib soother to her crib, and she already knows to kick it to get it to light up.  We put her down anytime between 8:30 and 10 pm, after which she'll sleep until 1-5am.  We're trying to get her to go back to sleep without a bottle, but not pushing it too much.  She's usually up for the day around 6-6:30 am.

Diapers:  Size 3 - This child does the alligator death roll when you try to change her diaper.  We have to use one hand to keep her still and the other to quickly change her diaper.  Roll, roll, roll!

Clothes:  Anywhere between 9 months and 18 months.  It's so crazy that a child in the 50 percentile for height and weight is almost always wearing clothes designed for children 3-12 months older than her.  

Disposition:  She's been a bit fussy this month and is quite attached to her Mama.   

Places:  We went on a vacation to Houghton Lake with her extended Bergman/n family this month.  We also went to the beach at Caseville, the zoo, the pool, the library, the grocery store.  This girl is on the go!

Fun Facts:  She's much better at car rides again.  We went through a little phase at 4-5 months when car rides were the devil!  She started sitting up exactly on her 6 month birthday and got her first tooth at five and a half months.

Durham's First Movie

Durham has long been able to sit for entire movies at home and at two is already an avid movie watcher.  His favorites are Open Season, Wreck It Ralph, and by far, Cars 1 and 2.  Disney's Planes was a perfect fit for his first time at the movie theater.  

We secured a babysitter for the girls and took just Durham.  Big sister was pretty miffed that she wasn't invited, but this was Durham's special time.  Middle child needs some alone parent time too, huh?  

We arrived early at the theater and got popcorn, candy, and lemonade.  We found seats in the middle of the theater and waited for the movie to start.  Durham was very good as we people watched and barreled our way through a tub of popcorn.  

The actual movie started with a resounding BOOM from an advertisement for Dolby Surround Sound.  Durham nearly jumped out of his seat in fear but soon relaxed and watched the previews for more cartoon movies.

  

He was moderately interested in the Planes movie.  The plot was a little complex for him, and the movie contained so many characters that it was a little confusing.  He did watch everything right up until the last ten minutes.  By that point we had already gone through two large tubs of popcorn and he was full to bursting and done with sitting still.  We left early assuming Dusty the crop duster plane won the race and all ended well.  

We just love those special events where we can devote all our attention to one child.  What should we do next with our sweet, little man?  

0ne week, one house, one family

We've recently returned from a week-long vacation with 28 members of my extended family.

Yup, you read that right.  28 people.  One week.  One house.  

And no one left early in anger.  One did try to leave early, but we lured him back and kept him under lock and key until the week was done.  

It was my mother's family.  We are all related through one amazing woman, my grandmother.  She came as well as five pairs of aunts and uncles, my parents, cousins, and my brother and his family.  

28 people.  One house. 

Four generations together.  My daughter, my mother, and my grandmother.  Wrenn is her most recent great-grandchild.  

  It wasn't just a house.  It had 10+ bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, an extra large kitchen and two enormous dining room tables.  And that was just the inside of the lodge.  

A view from the side overlooking the lake.

 It was situated on its own beach with a boat dock.  We had access to our family's fishing boat, a smaller motor boat, a paddle boat, a row boat, and two borrowed jet skis.

Vacationing with three kids under five is no vacation at all, but with the help of so many family members and access to a kitchen and living room, it wasn't so bad!  Wrenn and Durham were passed off between family members and Ainsley attached herself to her older girl cousins.

My cousins were gracious enough to help with the kids concerning everything!

Papa pulled the kids on a raft.  We had a rather disparate group of kids, from infant to college-age.  The big boys got their turn to go fast and the little ones got a chance for a leisurely cruise.  

 My family doesn't often get together without breaking out the cards.  A game or two of euchre was probably played every single day.

"You played a spade?! Even a pig has a heart!"

 The weather didn't always cooperate.  It was rather cold all week, with only one day of perfect, warm, waterfun.  We toughed it out on the colder days, but rain forced us inside on others.

Playing Pictionary on a rainy day.  

One evening was spent in a spirited cornhole tournament.  Another evening had a decathlon of sorts.  Events included euchre, cornhole, shuffleboard, and other games.  My family is a bit competitive.  

Official cornhole score sheet.  

 It was all about ducks and sand castles and community dinners and late night horror movies and campfires and fireworks.

And sometimes it was about Candy Crushing in the living room with six of your family members playing on their phones.  In our defense Candy Crush is like crack for people who don't actually do crack.  It's probably like crack for people who do crack as well.

Feeding the ducks with an aunt.

Ready to go on a jetski ride with an uncle. (He liked it, despite his constant scowl.)

Conning grandma into another walk down the boat dock.

Campfire and s'mores.  

One of the uncles brought a golf cart.  Many miles were put on this bad boy.  Especially by the bad boy you see in the picture.  

The group.  Missing a few that had to leave early for work.  

 Despite a few mishaps that involved a hyperventilating Mama and another that involved a trip to MedExpress, we had a wonderful time.  And I think we all still like each other enough to perhaps do it again sometime.

Good thing, because we all basically live within 10 miles of each other anyway.

Photo credit to my aunt, fireworks credit to my uncle, and spectacular sunset credit to God.
Thank you for an amazing week and an amazing family.