It's July... Whoa.

In March the kids and I made a trip to the pet store in hopes of getting some cute fishies for our fish tank.  We came home with Ziggy, an adorably sweet brownish black and white rat!  We didn't even call Daddy to get the ok.  With all the sadness going on at the time, nearly losing my friend who had a great loss, I needed to splurge and do something a little crazy and a cute cuddly thing seemed just right.  It's something we'd talked about before, since I had rats growing up and loved them.  I was the one who wanted to hold out till the kids were older. I remember cleaning cages and it was NOT fun!  I'm happy to say that it's much easier at 30 than it was at 10.  LOL.  Ziggy is a year old and was already named.  Someone returned him and he had to be treated for a terrible case of mites.  He had scabs all over.  But, true to form, we can't resist a reject pet.  All of our creatures were wonky in one way or another when we adopted them.  And we love them.

In April when Gramma P was here we went to see Monsters VS Aliens in the theatre.  It was our first big screen movie all together as a family.  Last night we saw Ice Age 3 in 3D with Grandma Nan.  It was freakin' cool!  I want to see it again.  

In May, I read the Twilight series and really enjoyed them.  I've never read 4 books in a month before!  I know other people do it all the time, but I just don't read fast enough, and don't seem to find enough books that I'm THAT interested in to read that much.  But these were fantastic and fun.  I'm even reading the first book again because I just wasn't ready to move on and I've never read a book twice before either!  

Aubs is 3.  Holy moly.  She's turning into such a big - little girl.  I can't explain or pinpoint it, but a lot has changed in the last few months.  She's just, older.  She and Ty have been playing together so nicely as she's getting older.  It makes me so happy!  Her imagination is great and she uses a high pitched voice to play with her princesses and kitties.  She sings and hums in the car or while playing alone.  I adore it.  I'm definitely feeling a kindred sister spirit with her.  Having a girl is very different when you're a girl.   Aubree got her ears pierced about 2 weeks ago.  It's so frickin' cute!  She was such a trooper, she didn't shed a single tear.  She has gorgeous pink jeweled flower earrings.  SO much cooler than when I got it done!  She lets me clean them several times a day and never complains, except when I drip the cleaning solution on her.  

Ty and Aubree are taking Summer Spanish at Valley Preschool and are both super excited to do it and to get to go together.  Aubree's had no issues with being at the school and I think this is a great introduction for Preschool in the fall w/out Ty.  The teacher says Ty is the most wonderful helper ever.  She just can't get enough of him!  I'm so proud of him and the boy he is becoming.  During the school year I had several of the preschool girls moms tell me that Ty is one of the, or THE nicest boy at school.  Ah, my heart could just bust right open!   And here I am sitting at home worried about how bossy he is.  I guess as long as he's wonderful out in the world he can let all the crazies out at home and I can be happy.  LOL  I'm so excited for him to start Kindergarten because I know how much he's going to love it and, of course, I'm sad too.  This is a huge change in our world and I don't know how it will effect the time I get to spend with him.  That's a worry for another day..

Ty has lost TWO teeth!  In less than 2 weeks time!  Holy moly, again.  I've got some big kids here.  Yesterday we drove by Washington park, the park we go to most often, and I realized that someday I will not have little park aged kids.  I think my heart skipped a beat.  I can not imagine life past parks.  Must move on now or I'll give myself an anxiety attack!   ... Ty had loose teeth for a month or more and at first he was totally NOT into wiggling them.  For some reason I was seriously excited about the wiggly teeth.  Maybe because it's the first thing that he and I could 'share'.  As in, I remember wiggling and losing teeth and so will he.  Finally after much prompting, he was wiggling teeth while riding in the car and watching tv.  The first one came out at the grocery store with Dad.  I was so excited for him!  I think Ty bonked his mouth on the shopping cart and that helped the little sucker out.  Then a week and a half or so later when the other tooth was seriously loose I took a look at it and saw that there was a big gaping hole under it - it was SO ready to be out!  So I told Ty if he could get it out that day I'd give him a Sunkist soda... : )  He informed me that he'd rather have a Diet Coke w/ Lime like I drink...  the kind we don't let him have because of caffeine!  I told him if he yanked it out before Aubree woke up from her nap (so she didn't harass me for a soda too) then he could have one.  5 to 10 minutes later that puppy was out!  Again, Mom was overjoyed and overexcited, screeching and squealing they way I do.  LOL  And he thoroughly enjoyed gulping down that soda.  Since I am 'the tooth fairy' I know exactly what 'she' gave Ty.  5 quarters for the first tooth and 4 for the second.  He grabbed his goods and put them in his piggy bank with out ever mentioning it to anyone.  When I asked him what he got he informed me that the tooth fairy gave him 4 silver dollars - both times!  The second time I even showed him a quarter and asked if it was 'like this?' - nope, it was a silver dollar, which I'm pretty sure he's never seen.  LMAO, I love it.