Z is for z end!

So we finished off the alphabet last week. Totally amazing! We have had so much fun with our activities and I can't wait to do a little more. This week we have Vacation Bible School. We are enjoying ourselves but I am already tired after one night! Geez. Getting old I guess. Anyway, we may or may not be doing any "formal" activities for the rest of the summer but I do have a few ideas up my sleeve. This fall a few girls and I are going to form our own preschool co-op. We haven't decided anything but the curriculum which will come from a book called, "Kitchen-Table Play and Learn." I think we will have a great time!

So Z was kind of short. We created a zany Z, a scratch art zebra (which ollie said looked like a dinosaur) and went to the ZOO!

Oh and did I mention that the zoo has a really cool dinosaur exhibit. He really loved it! Imagine that! Here he is with the Maiasauras .

Dawson is 9 months old!

Last Monday, Dawson turned 9 months. It has flown by so very quickly. He has such a neat personality. He is constantly smiling or making funny faces. He can now crawl (very quickly), pull up and cruise, wave, play peek-a-boo, play ball, clap and say mama, dada and ball.

He went to the doctor last week. Here are my big boys stats:

Length: 29.8 inches- 92%

Weight: 22lbs 13 oz- 83%

Head: 46.3 cm- 78%

He is right on track developmentally. I am hoping someday soon he will start sleeping. Just when I think we are getting there he reverts and the longest period of sleep goes back to 3 hours. I am so tired!

Y, we are almost there!

Summer has officially arrived and we are loving our laid back days and the park and pool. For those not living in the Des Moines area let me tell you that it is an awesome place to raise kids. There are tons of parks and there are many free splash pads (kiddie pools) that have lifeguard. We go at least 3 times a week. We also have an art center, science center, zoo and a cool place called living history farms. But unlike most big cities, we dont have much traffic. We are doing less activities and I'm ok with that. I want to be outside as much as possible. Ollie's new favorite thing to do is lift rocks and check out the bugs. Then he bombards me with a myriad of questions-- "What's that? What's it do? What does it eat? Why?" Oh my sweet boy, I don't know. Ask your Bopa!

Dawson loves the pool. He sits and holds his ball and splashes his little hands. He is all smiles as the pool. He constantly dips his face in and laughs. I am loving it!

As for Y, we made a yellow Y, painted with yarn and checked out the length of a yard.

Slip n Slide

We had so much fun today at Grandpa and Grandma Gray's house. Ollie had his first go on a slip N slide. I have a video but I cannot get it to upload. Ugh! I'll put it on Facebook for the time being. Here are a few pics:

Big X, Little X, What begins with X?

X-ray

Xylophone

Cookies and

um...tic-tac-toe?

Ha! We had so much fun with X. Bob keeps saying that my rendition of an x-ray is rather clever. Makes me smile! We thoroughly enjoyed eating our X and O cookies after tic-tac-toe. We have two letters left and then what? You'll have to wait and see!

W!

We are getting very close to the end of the alphabet and with each letter I seem to have more ideas than I have time for. Now that it is summer we are busy playing outside, swimming and basking in the sun. I just have to finish the alphabet!

Do you ever feel like you write the same way every time? I mean "we started the week with..." gets really old but I am not sure how else to say it. Bo-RING. So just bare with me and think "well she is a sucky writer but she has good ideas!" Maybe I should just blog in pictures. Yes. I think I shall. I will do captions and pictures. That is all. Enjoy!

Watercolor W

Watermelon

Stain Glass Window

Giant Bubble Wand

Dawson's First Word

So what is his first word? Watch to find out!