Summertime

Summertime

and the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin'

and the cotton is high

Oh, your daddy's rich

and your ma is good-lookin'

So hush, little baby,

don't you cry.

*DuBose Heyward

Life has been good at 52. We've been here three weeks already! It has gone by very quickly.

The Boogie loves being here. In the morning she goes in search of her grandparents. One morning she woke me up asking if she could go find Pop-pop. I said she could, not thinking that he might not be in the house. He was in fact outside watering before the day warmed up too much and she just opened up the back door and went outside looking for him. Praise the Lord he was out there! There is now a door-knob cover on the door so she cannot escape again.

She has been able to play in the wading pool several times a week and loves it. Finally she seems to have gotten over her apprehension of water on her face and will fearlessly dump a bucketful of water over her head. 

The Boogie's latest fascination is with doctors and hospitals and being hurt. Several weeks ago she saw a picture of a little boy who had broken his leg. She saw pictures of him in the hospital before his cast was put on as well as afterward with the cast. She has become obsessed! She tells us all the time that she is hurt; usually it is her leg or foot but sometimes it will be her arm. Always she has to go to the hospital. The other day some cousins were over and she followed them around asking to play doctor (she was, of course, the patient.) Last week FIL took a spill off of a ladder and sprained his ankle pretty badly -- you can imagine how tickled the Boogie was to see her Pop-pop wearing an ace bandage on his foot! She was delighted when I found a bandage to wrap her leg in.

She still says funny things every day. Tonight in the car she was telling us about getting a burrito from "Talker Bell." I think that is a combination of Taco Bell and Tinker Bell. They are easily confused, right? Meanwhile if she sees a picture of Tinker Bell she calls her Twinkle Bell. 

Whenever we leave anywhere she asks, "Where we go next?" Tonight when we said we were going home she moaned and groaned, "Nooooo, I don't wanna go hooooome." So her daddy asked her where she wanted us to drop her off. She thought for a minute. "I wanna go to Wawa." When asked why she said, "Bycuz I need to get some ... [long pause] coffee."

Last weekend we went to a wedding. Of course the Boogie wanted to know where we were going, so I told her that we were going to see our friends Mr. N and Miss A get married. "Where's Married?" the Boogie asked. 

"No, Married is not a person," I tried to explain (how DO you explain marriage to a 3-year-old? It is quite the abstract concept to their minds.) "Daddy and I are married. Mom-mom and Pop-pop are married. Aunt and Uncle are married," etc. 

"Ohhhh," she nodded knowingly. "And me and H-man are married?"

I gave up and told her that she was going to see Miss A in a princess dress. That was distracting for a few minutes but then she asked again where Married was ... and continued to ask for the next couple of days. Oh well. 

It was a really lovely wedding and so exciting to see God's hand in bringing the bride and groom together!

The Phebis is growing and growing. I weighed myself alone and holding her to get a rough idea of her weight -- fourteen pounds! Goodness. Both girls have check-ups on Monday so I will post the real stats then. The Phebis has gotten a bit more control of her hands this week and manages to get them into her mouth more consistently. The last several days she has been awake more during the day and has been very happy and content. I can't help but wonder if it's because she can finally suck on those elusive fingers she has been wanting so badly. It will be interesting to see if she is a binky-lover or a thumb/finger sucker. She is starting to notice things around her. There is a musical toy in her crib that she will stare and coo at for a long time. She loves her big sister and lights up when she hears the Boogie talking or singing. She loves face time, as her Mom-mom says, and will smile and gurgle and coo back at us when we talk to her.

I went back to work on July 5. I worked two days last week which was nice, and then my regular three days this week plus this morning. So far it seems to be working out fine. Thankfully the Phebis will take a bottle. I'm sure it would make for some miserable afternoons around here if she refused to!

Our friends the R family moved away. We were sad to see them go but we know they will have a wonderful time at their new duty station in Germany. We're excited to see pictures and hear about their adventures in Europe.

The other night we went with my office to a Riversharks game in Camden. My boss takes us every year! It's really fun. Last year the Boogie was very afraid of the mascot so the Doctor bought her a little stuffed one and she loves it. This year she got to pick out a couple more toys so now her Shark has a friend.

And now ... picture overload. Here are some that SIL1 took at the wedding. I love these of the Boogie and the Phebis.

And this is a picture that I found while packing; it is me with my mom. Not very good quality because it is a photograph of a photograph behind glass, but you get the idea. I think the Phebis looks a LOT like I did!

 Often I just have my phone instead of my camera nearby so these are not great quality.