Hello All,The girls are practicing their letters, so I have a few minutes for another update. It was a busy week. On Monday, we brought pizza to Mik and Tif Rinne (Mik was one of Brian's mission companions) as they packed and prepared to move to Boston. It is a shame we didn't see more of them while in Indiana these past two years. You wouldn't think that 45 minutes would be that limiting, but with family, church, and work responsibilities, as well as other things like travel, time just slips away. Elsa and Ava had a lot of fun playing with Kai, their 2 1/2 year-old. They especially enjoyed wrestling with each other and jumping from the packed boxes marked
"fragile." Hopefully, nothing was damaged with their antics. I left from their house to the airport to pick-up my friend, Natalie, and her daughter, Tennessee. They came for the week just for a visit. We had lots of fun. We went out on the boat Tuesday evening, spent Wednesday at the zoo, Thursday running through prinklers and eating popsicles, and Friday at the Children's Museum. On Saturday, we all went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch before taking them to the airport to return back to Utah. It was lots of fun to have Natalie here. The girls, especially Elsa, loved playing with, or more like mothering Tennessee. Ava was more disturbed by having her constant playmate taken as well as her toys. Life for a three year-old can be a bit dramatic. We had lots of late nights, which meant late mornings. We are still in slow-motion mode.
The only downfall of Natalie's visit was the timing. Brian had been in Barcelona the week before her arrival. Then he left at 4:00AM the day after she left. He is currently in Boston trying to raise money for Mitt Romney's campaign. Fortunately, the timing worked well for Brian since he needed to be in Boston today and tomorrow doing focus groups for Eli Lilly. He was able to get his flight out one day earlier and so Lilly is paying for his travel and accomodations. He is a little nervous about being able to raise the committed amount for fundraising. Be expecting phone calls!!! Brian continues to go non-stop, even when he is home. Last week he headed up an BYU Philanthropic fundraiser for the BYU alumni living in Indiana. Sadly
enough, there were only three people in attendance, Brian, the host, and one other individual. It was disappointing in addition to taking away another precious evening. Brian was able to make up for it by taking a couple of friends waterskiing Friday night. He loves to be out on the lake as much as possible. Ava always wants him to take her out on the kayak, which doesn't seem as exciting for Brian.
What else? Elsa has been really interested in learning to read. We've been getting books at the library to start teaching the simple words. She starts writing super long words that don't mean anything. She asks what they mean and when I ay "nothing," she seems a little disappointed. She is still interested in the human body. She wants to know the name for each body part, asks about blood, arteries, bones, the brain, etc. Over the past couple of months, we've checked out every book in the library on the human body. I finally went to Barnes and Noble and bought a basic book of her own. Now she can look at the pictures anytime she wants. She is also in the process of memorizing the 13 articles of faith as well as other primary
scriptures. She really enjoys being obedient and wants to do what is right.These are precious attributes that I want to encourage. She makes my days a lot easier because I know I have an extra set of eyes to help me. Saturday evening she wanted to cut with scissors. Our rule is that either Brian or I have to be in the room with her. She waited so patiently for us to come downstairs to be near her. When I told her she could go ahead and I'd be down in a minutes, she responded,
But Mom, that is not the rule. You need to be right there." She is so obedient.
Ava just continues to become sweeter and more stubborn at the same time. She cracks me up constantly with the things she comes up with. Lately, her matter-of-fact response for anything is, "I just don't." This is in relation to getting dressed, sharing toys, being nice, eating meals, going to bed, and on-and-on. She also has used Grandma as the reigning authority. She'll say, "Daddy says 'no, no,' Mommy says 'no, no', Grandpa says 'no, no', but Grandma says 'yes, yes,' so I can do it!" I have to remind herthat when mommy says "no, no" that is the final answer. She continues to randomly come up during all times of the day to give big hugs and say "I
hove you." Ava replaces a number of words that begin with consonants withan "h," like hove=love, hite=right, hike=like, even words that begin with vowels get an extra "h" sound like "hover there." Her "v" is still a "b" sound. She'll say,"Let's hatch that mobie again." (Let's watch that movie again.) It only takes a minute to dicipher her language. She'll even ennunciate "like" by saying "l-l-l-hike." She may end up in speech therapy like Elsa. For now the therapist has said that it is nothing to worry about. That is about all the excitement around here. We have swimming lessons tomorrow and a couple of playdates scheduled for the week. Lazy
summer days continue...
We hope you're all having fun. We miss you.
Love,
Natalie
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