What We Did on Our Summer Vacation

School starts in two weeks for Alex. He'll be in the fourth grade and while he's made it into the highly gifted program, I wish he'd use his ability to remember everything for good instead of remembering all 64 Mario Super Slugger characters. Its like Superman using his super hearing to listen to crickets talk. Do you think he can remember what happened the portable DVD player remote? Nope. But he can tell you exactly why Harry Potter is the most powerful wizard out there.

He's also gotten pickier about his clothes. I'm taking him school shopping this year instead of my sister, the cool aunt. Hopefully we'll find enough pants to last him through the school year but he keeps growing at the most inopportune times. Not during summer when the shorts can stretch a little longer but in January. After Christmas gifts but too early for his birthday.

He's a great brother to Ethan though. He comes back every Sunday evening and wants to know what Ethan did over the weekend. Is he walking yet? Crawling? Maybe we should show Ethan how to crawl so he can see how to do it. Any new teeth?

Ethan is rolling everywhere now. He's just figured out that he can roll to get to something he wants. Maybe its that vibrating ducky toy or maybe he wants to chew on the power cord in the office again. But he's learning how to get there. He's also determined to hold his own spoon at dinner when he gets solid food. He looks longingly at my plate and then opens his mouth wide for sweet potatoes, bananas, carrots, applesauce but not peas. He doesn't seem to like peas. His aunt would be so proud!

Ethan had his 6 month check up today. 18 lbs 1 oz and 26 1/4 inches! He's growing so fast and his legs are so chubby, they don't fit in his bumbo anymore. He can't quite sit up yet but he hunches over and can balance for a few seconds. He had two shots today but only cried for a few minutes, the little trooper.

I earned my Bachelor's in Business Management this summer. Graduation was in July, right before we went to Minneapolis and Philadelphia to visit Alex's grandma and Mandy. The Minneapolis trip wasn't too bad and we went to the Mall of America. Didn't do any shopping but Alex completed a ropes course and climbed about 60 ft in the air to walk the plank. A couple of roller coasters later and it was time for everything to close and we went back to the condo we stayed at.

Philadelphia was a lot of fun. Dustin had to get back to work, so it was me, Alex and Ethan. The standby trip out there was hard but eventually we made it and Mandy got to meet Ethan. We went to Hershey Chocolate World so Alex could do the Make Your Own Candy Bar attraction. It was pretty neat but they change the inclusions every day and you don't know what they'll have on any given day so we ended up with choices between chocolate chips, cookie pieces, pretzel pieces, raspberry fruit and toffee. It was still a lot of fun and a great place for kids to see how candy bars are made.

We also went to Valley Forge where Alex joined the Continental Army at kids' muster and then the next day we went to Independence Hall and saw the Liberty Bell. A friend suggested watching National Treasure to get Alex excited about those two things even though he had seen them before. Brilliant idea! He was so into finding the clock tower and learning about the Declaration of Independence!

Now we're just recouping before school starts. Only two more weeks and it will be back to the regular routine and thank goodness! Once school starts, it finally starts cooling down and then it's Christmas.