Little Houdini...

Maren: Mom calls me the little Houdini now because this last week I've rapidly increased my crawling speed and have figured out how to pull myself up to standing on anything I can get my hands on. This allows me to get into so many more things! Last night I decided that Mom and sister weren't paying attention to me so I was going to get out of my crib and find them. Unfortunately, I hadn't yet learned the physics priniciple that what goes up must come down. After climbing over the side of the crib I quickly came crashing down to the floor. Mom immediately dropped the crib mattress to the lowest setting after that little stunt. Today I pulled another little Houdini trick on her. While we were at the grocery store, Whitney and I were securely strapped into the rocket ship cart. However when Mom turned to get some granola bars off the shelf, I quickly manuvered myself out of the seatbelt and was standing in the seat when she turned back around. She says I'm way too young to have learned that trick.

Goodbye Daddy!

We love and miss you, Daddy! Be safe and stay away from the bad guys while you're gone. Take good care of all those good people that are fighting for our freedoms. We'll try to be obedient to Mommy while you're gone (but it is sure hard sometimes!)

Beware of sharp objects...

Maren: I don't know what the deal is around here but my family members keep hurting me with sharp objects. First, it was my dad sticking a needle in my head saying he was trying to aspirate the abscess on my head but didn't get anything out. A few days later, Whitney decided to see how well she could cut with her scissors. However instead of using paper she thought my elbow was a good medium to practice with! Later that same night Dad decided my abscess was getting worse so he took a scapel to my head and cut it open. Granted he did get a bunch of pus out but man did it hurt. So now you've been forewarned to stay away from them when they have sharp objects in their hands!

Sisterly love...

Whitney: Dad had us make a video for our friends Amy and Kyle to take to their wedding since we couldn't go with him. However Maren had to ruin the show.

Maren: Whitney was hogging all of the time so I had to get her to be quiet so I could have a turn. Besides look at that innocent face of mine!

The crazy house...

Before-

Whitney: "Where are we going today?"

Mom or Dad: "Crazy!"

Whitney: "But where crazy?"

Now-

Mom: "Whitney, where are you going?"

Whitney: "Crazy."

We're all going crazy around here now!

Water Country USA...

Whitney: We had fun going to the waterpark this week. I got to go on lots and lots of slides. Some were fast and scary so I only went on those once. But I went on the slow ones lots of times. My favorite was the wave pool and the little purple one (don't believe Mom when she says I cried the entire way down the first time I went on it).

Maren: Unfortunately I couldn't go on any of the slides as they want you to be able to hold on or something crazy like that. I did enjoy the zero level entry kids pools. I would keep crawling until my face was in the water and Mom or Dad would save me.

Mom's little fish....

Whitney: Mom says I'm becoming a little fish in the water. This week I started jumping in and swimming to Mom without my life jacket on. I like to bounce up and down in the water so that I can touch my feet on the bottom of the pool. I'll even swim to the bottom of the shallow end of the big pool (3.5 feet) to pick up the dive rings off the bottom. I've sure had a lot of fun swimming this summer and will be sad when the outdoor pools close in a few weeks.

Maren: Dad came home from his vacation the other day. He must think that we just hung out at the pool the whole time he was gone as he keeps talking about everybody's tan lines. He was lucky to miss out on all the really hot and humid days while he was gone. It's no wonder Mom kept taking us to the pool!