Weekly Happenings

Several of my friends do posts every week on what's happening during their week and I've always wanted to do it.  Sometimes, we do things that I don't get around to posting about them because they don't seem to stand on their own in a blog post or there isn't that much to write about, but the idea of all of that rolled into one post-- not that bad.  So here goes my first Weekly Happenings Post.   Which, I actually have pictures to go with all the fun stuff we did.

• We have had such a fun and busy week.  Gavin's friend, Devin came over after school one day and played for the afternoon.  The kids had a blast running around, playing dress up, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and more. 

• Daddy got to spend all day Wednesday with us.  He rode with Gavin to school and spent some time in the classroom with him.  Gavin loved having his daddy there.  I think Gavin's teacher liked it too.  She put Brooks to work and asked him to read to a group of kids during their centers rotation and let him help a few other ways.  

• I'm on week 2 of Insanity and have been working out every day with a friend.  We're loving it so far and have already started seeing some great results.  I'm in desperate need to get rid of this baby weight!  

•  Brooklyn started sitting in her Bumbo and loves it.  She's been lifting her neck up for a few weeks when laying down so I finally went and pulled the seat out and it's a HUGE hit for her! Check out the seat cover Aunt Steph got her-- I'm in love with it!!

•  Brooklyn also decided she likes sucking on her fingers and that has become a new trend for her. She gets two to three fingers in her mouth at a time and just goes to town.  

• Gavin has been very interested in when we get to go home to the USA and is so excited about seeing grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins that he talks about it everyday.  For a week, every morning when he woke up he'd ask if we were getting on the plane that day.  Then, every night before he'd go to bed, he'd tell us to wake him up to go on the plane.  So, I decided to use my friend, Christas', idea for the paper chain.  I figured Gavin was old enough to understand the concept.  I let him pick out three colors from the construction paper pack (by the way it wasn't until after we put it together that I realized it was Mardi Gras colors).  Anyways, I decided since we had 3 sets of families to visit that we would "assign" each family a color and on their color, we would write down activities Gavin wanted to do with that family.  This way, every day when we cut a chain, we could talk about what fun thing he was going to get to do in the states.  He has LOVED this and has something to talk about and focus on other then... "Are we going on a plane today?"   He's so excited that the chain is getting smaller.  He's so excited about his chain that he tells EVERYONE he sees about it.  

• We spent some time at the pool this week with friends!  Daddy even got to come with us one day.   We finally found a flotation device that allows Miles to swim "freely" in the pool and life just got a little easier.  We add floaties to his arms with this vest and he does awesome.  He has NO FEAR whatsoever and jumps in the water by himself all the time.  We've taught him how to grab the side, how to climb in and out of the pool, how to float, and even how to kick to "swim".  he does awesome!!  

• Stephanie's due date is around the corner and baby Jacob will be here before we know it.  She told me the other day she was craving one of my cakes and asked me if it was rude to ask me to make her one.  Absolutely NOT!!  So I whipped her up a cake and had my eager assistant to help me.  I ended up giving him one of the icing bags and let him make the star border.  He did awesome!!  

• Our compound held a Murjan Talent Night to benefit an orphanage in Ethiopia.  We had an Italian dinner meal with friends and watched adults and kids perform various singing and dancing acts.  It was a lot of fun and for a great cause!  

• We now have 2 kids in Time Out in this house and found we have a small problem when they're both in Time Out at the same time.  Miles is very much into his punishment and pushed Gavin out of the way when it was his turn.  

• Brooklyn is trying so hard to roll over from her back to her tummy and is so close.  Won't be long.  

That's all folks!