Summertime Heat

I'm not complaining. I refuse to complain about heat. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I would rather have heat and humidity than cold and snow. I'd rather have to cool my house down than heat it up! It's been nice and warm around here lately. That means we get some cool thunderstorms. We got a couple of good ones last night, the kind where you hear the thunder from a long way away, the kind that rumbles almost continuously while the storm gets closer and closer and then is right over the top of you and then rolls away.

I can't believe we've been home for almost two weeks already. Goodness, that has gone by quickly. The Boogie tells me daily that she misses Pops and Lela, and says often that she wants to go back to Washington.  The Pheebs points to pictures of Pops and yells "Pah!"

The R family finally arrived late Monday night. They are not staying with us yet but we expect that they will move in sometime soon. SILJ and HR and all the kids came over to play on Thursday. The Boogie had not seen them yet and in fact we hadn't even told her that they were here. When she saw H-man she stopped dead in her tracks and said, "I was looking for you!" She was very excited to see him but he couldn't have cared less about seeing her. She didn't notice that, however, and I think they all had fun playing.

Phebis is saying lots of things now. She signs and says "more" and "all done" and signs "milk." She has started saying "thank you" when we give her something, or when she gives us something, which is awfully cute. She points to and says "head" "eye" "ear" "mouth" and "nose." She will grab her stomach when you ask her where her belly is. If you ask her what a doggy says she says "woof woof." If you ask her what anything else says she says "woof woof." But then she will repeat whatever noises we make. She has started puckering up sometimes for kisses instead of coming at us open-mouthed. Baby puckers are the cutest thing ever! I will get a picture when she starts doing that more consistently. She will come up to me and say, "Mama?" and then babble a string of gibberish, like she has something she just has to tell me. She says something that sounds a lot like "dadoo" or "daddy" for blankie, and will sing-song "Da-doo, whey ah oooo?" which is interchangeably "Daddy/blankie, where are you?" She loves pattycake and will chant along and clap and rub her belly at the right times. She will go look for things when we tell her to; she is in love with baby dolls and will toddle right off to find one if we tell her "go find your baby." She "sings" the ABC song and the happy birthday song a lot. She still frowns and babbles when we tell her it's time to pray, finishing with "mmm-MEN."

Phebis calls me Mama although the Boogie still says Honey with the occasional Mama thrown in there, and Eric always refers to me as Honey when he talks to either girl. I am in the habit of referring to myself as Mama. And then of course most other people, when talking to the girls, will refer to me as Mommy. Poor confused kids. It will be interesting to see if the Pheebs starts calling me Honey or if the Boogie reverts back to Mama.

The Boogie still says funny things from time to time, but not as often anymore. Recently she came up to me all excited: "Honey, guess what? You're not going to believe it!" She leaned in really close and whispered, "I'm cuuuuute." We finally took her to Olive Garden -- she's been asking for months to go -- and she was delighted. When we left Olive Garden we had to drive past Red Lobster and she said, "next time we need to go to Lobster." She still calls restaurants "rench-raunches" and tries to convince us to go to Taco Bell every time we leave church.

They are good girls and we're so blessed to have them.