May

The past month has gone by so quickly. We have had some great times in the month of May and also some really hard times missing "home". We are all feeling the loneliness of not having friends here yet, although Emma did point out that she has friends and Mike has friends - I am the only one who doesn't. Thank you, Emma!

Emma and I went out for a treat. She had received some money in the mail to get a treat and she chose a milkshake. She put the money in her purse and she and I and her baby went to Chick-fil-a and split a chocolate milkshake. She ordered it and she paid with her money from her purse - I could get used to that!

The kid LOVES football. He has started playing football and wearing Emma's helmet. So cute. He is only allowed to play football outside now because he takes aim at the ceiling fans and picture frames, and he has a good aim. He is obsessed with sports. It will be fun to see how this love plays out as he gets older.

Jonah went through a week of wearing "underpants". It started with pooping on the potty on his own and then asking to pee. He did really well for a few days and then started having accidents because he didn't want to stop playing. I have to admit I was so thankful to put him back into diapers. I thought we had another year before dealing with this and it is nice to eliminate an additional stress from our life right now. But, he was so cute in his underpants!

Jonah ended up at the hospital this week. He got several bug bites while out in the yard, but this one started oozing and his ankle turned bright red and was very swollen. The doctor was quite concerned and put him on antibiotics. Once again we left with the warning that if things get worse to take him to the ER. This seems to be a theme for Jonah. It is the third time this spring I have left with this warning. Thankfully the Lord has protected Jonah and spared us the trip to the ER all three times. He is doing much better!

Swollen and red...it was so painful for him. We are so thankful it is clearing up without any problems.

These kids LOVE to do art projects. Right now that mostly involves coloring because the other options, like painting, are too consuming and messy when also dealing with a little baby. The will color several times a day for an hour at a time.

Jonah has been banned from coloring for the time being. He has eaten the tips off of all the markers and has moved on to chewing up entire crayons and then spitting them everywhere. He colors so nicely most of the time and will color for up to an hour. His consumption of his markers and crayons is unpredictable but very destructive and messy. The different colors of his face and mouth do provide us with entertainment though!

Emma has been learning how to take pictures - not too bad!

For those of you who have been here - this is a picture of our backyard now that we cleared out all of the "junk" on the back tree line. It gives us another 10 feet of yard, looks so much better, and makes us feel a part of things.

 A few other things that I don't have pictures to go with -


- Bugs have begun to invade our life now that summer is upon us. HORRIBLE. This is the one area of living here that I just cannot deal with. That said, I am SUPER thankful that we have had barely any bugs inside the house and the ones we have had were minor bugs.


- The pool is open, it has been for 2 months, and the kids are loving it. Jonah was very timid at the beginning of this season, but he loved it when we went yesterday. Emma could not enjoy the pool anymore than she does. She is jumping in by herself and swimming all over with her floaties on. Unfortunately I cannot yet manage all three kids at the pool by myself so the time there this year will be limited, but we are SO thankful for an awesome pool in our neighborhood.


- Major excitement took place in our home when Chipotle opened its first restaurant in Charleston last week. The highlight of our week was to drive 25 minutes to get some Chipotle - one of our favorites from home. Their menu is super friendly to Jonah which is awesome and we have one opening about 8 minutes from our house in the fall! YAY for some "comfort food".


- Crossing signs have become Jonah's favorite thing. He plays with his trains and train mats whenever he is not playing a sport. On days we need something to do, which is at least once a week, we get in the car and drive downtown to the railroad tracks. We look for the blue and the black diesel engines and drive down along the harbor looking for crossing signs. So very sweet. That ride includes lots of construction trucks, boats, shipping ports with the cranes and ships, boats, the "sailboat" bridge, trains, and trucks. What more could a little boy ask for in just 30 minutes?!