A Visit from Friends

America!  Hi, I didn't see you there!  It's me, Sam Sparks...err... I mean, Alex Harding... (hopefully anyone got the reference...)  Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well.  We had a pretty good week, and even had some friends over yesterday and today!  The Fraziers used to live out here, and were coming back to visit and stopped by for a day.  It was a lot of fun, and the girls had an absolute blast playing with their girls!

On Monday I was able to get my first dose of the COVID vaccine!  The first appointment I could find was in Colorado Springs, but work let me charge sick time for the drive, so I didn't really mind.  Just glad I'm getting things going!  My head felt a little off for two or three days, but I didn't really feel bad at all, and it wasn't ever severe enough that I couldn't do something I wanted or needed to.

Brooke got her recital costume in dance class on Monday.  She was very excited and just had to put it on right away.  She's doing her best flamingo pose!  It's a lot of fun to watch her do her dances at home, and I'm excited to see her on stage again!

I know this happened before, but Grayson has taken up solids!  I think last time it was a bit of a false start, but he's been doing much better with it lately.

Winry drew a picture of a Bruni (the fire lizard from Frozen 2) all by herself!  It turned out pretty amazing!  This picture is reminding me that I haven't seen her Bruni legos for a few days... maybe I'll pull them out for her tomorrow and restart the craze!

Brooke REALLY wanted to make dinner this past week.  She wanted to do it all by herself, so we took some time to think of options.  In the end she made chicken nuggets and tater tots and a fruit salad.  Monica even showed Brooke how to use a knife and she cut up the fruit.  The only thing we did was take things out of the oven when they were done since it was very hot.  Brooke was so excited, and said she wants to cook every day.  She made us all parfaits for a snack today too.

I was playing with Grayson this past week and he was laughing a whole lot.  But, of course, never for the camera...

In other news Grayson has started sitting!  He can't get there on his own, but he's starting to do okay with balancing on his own.  We usually wrap the boppy around him to help keep him up.  He loves to sit at his activity table and play with the things on it too.

He even sits outside.  The weather was pretty nice this past week, and so Monica and the kids spent time out in the yard quite often.  They did gardening and playing mostly.

Here's Grayson slamming a slice of mango in his mouth.  The hope was that he'd gnaw on it a bit, in reality he ended up breaking it off at the top of his grip and it fell on the ground...

On Saturday the Fraziers came by.  Evelyn had so much fun with Brooke and Winry.  They spent a lot of time playing out in the backyard.  I even filled up the water table for them as it was a rather warm day.

They also played on the swing.  When we first went out I was pushing all three of them together, and later they ran and laid under it.  They also took turns pushing each other.  It was a bit funny to watch.  At first Brooke would push the swing really hard, and it would swing far enough. Then, when it came back and she tried to push it again, it would knock her over.  She never got hurt, and it was really funny to watch.

Eventually I came back out and pushed all three of them on the swing together again.  This time Evelyn and Brooke were a little more "risky."  They were leaning over the side and reaching down and grabbing sticks and running their hands through the grass.  Winry also "joined in" by "leaning back."  She never loosened her grip on the ropes and more arched her back, but at least she was brave within her limits.

Jelly had a pretty scary moment today.  She was laying in her cat hammock thing, playing with the balls that hang down the side.  She's done this a bunch before, and it's always been fine.  In fact, that video is from earlier this week.  Well today she was up there and suddenly was letting out pretty crazy screeches/meows/yowls.  Call it what you want.  Anyway, she sounded in pain.  When I got over to her it looked like she'd wrapped the string from one of the balls either around her paw or neck, and than while playing had slipped off and half her body was hanging from the hammock.  She was being held in place by the string wrapped around her.  I quickly flipped down the hammock so she was on the ground, and she kept making the noise and fighting for a few more seconds before she got free.  She hid behind the couch for a few minutes after and seemed scared, but she came back out and seemed fine.  She climbed up into my lap and took a nap there too, so it seems like everything's okay.  We've since taken off the balls and thrown them away!  It was a pretty scary moment, and her yowling made the girls both cry.  It honestly sounded like she had suddenly been attacked by another animal.  Anyway, glad she's well now, and glad it didn't happen when we were at church.

Tonight when we were corralling for FHE Winry was playing with a harmonica.  She really wanted to play the opening song, which meant that Brooke had to play something too and ran and got her ukulele.  It was a mighty fine musical accompaniment.  

I think that's all the news here this week.  Things are going well, and with the vaccine we're starting to see the light at the end of the COVID tunnel!  Have a great week ahead everyone!