Life is better in Flip Flops

Hi Everyone!  I hope you all are surviving this heat - wowie!  We were relieved to see the weather report decreased the forecast from 102 on Saturday to 84!!  What a month June has been for us.  I don't think we have been as busy as a family of four until this month.  A lot of playdates, family get togethers, zoo dates, showers/parties, speech therapy and more.  Our summer is going to be equally as packed - we are going camping twice in the month of July and it will be Nattie's first time!  Next weekend we will be heading out to the Oregon Coast to camp on the beach.  4 days of playing in the sand and sun, exploring and venturing to find sea creatures.  A couple weeks later, we are joining my Aunts and cousin and their families to camp in Moses Lake for a week!  I am really looking forward to sharing the experience of camping with my kids.  Growing up, camping was so much fun and I looked forward to it every year.  I hope my kids enjoy it as much as I do.

Cameron did amazing this month!  Last weekend he finished his first season of Teeball!  Man he loved to play ball with his friends and will definitely miss hanging out with them - especially Lyla : )  After the last game, Ryan (he was the coach) organized a team party at Lake Wilderness.  It was so much fun!  We had a BBQ with a lot of food and snacks, played in the water with squirt guns and the kids earned special team trophies!  The looks on the kids' faces were absolutely priceless.  The rest of the party consisted of 3 year olds walking around staring at their gold prizes!  Too cute for words.  Of course Cammie slept with it that night.

We are taking a little break from swim lessons for all of July and will start back up in August.  It was going to be too much considering 2 long camping trips and a lot of weekend plans.  This last class (Eel class) was extremely challenging for Cam.  He tried all of the activities Coach Jacob asked, but you could tell that he was scared to do some.  By the end of this session, Cammie was willingly swimming to Coach Jacob by himself (short distances)!  I sure hope he will be equally as willing to continue in August.  Nattie will be starting up with swimming again in August too!

Overall Cammie is doing a great job right now.  He is gentle and friendly to Nattie 99% of the time and it is so cute to see him fill the "Big Brother" role so well!  He is totally girl crazy already and loves to be around girls and give them complements!  My theory is Cam is very quiet and gentle so he prefers to be around girls rather than play with other little boys.  I find that he asks me, "Why is he so loud?" a lot when he is around other little boys.  But on the other hand, he has just started to show interest in Superheros and Ninja Turtles.  Cammie's imagination has also began to blossom and I'm loving every second of it!  It is so cute to listen to him playing with his toys and making up scenarios with Nattie.  SO FUN!

His favorite things this month are:
- Spiderman
- Playing with Nattie
- The pool (in our backyard)
- Ice Cream
- Caillou (PBS show)
- Peanutbutter and Jelly

Natalie is doing WONDERFUL this month!!  I really can't believe how much she has changed over the last 30 days.  Her Speech Therapy has been taking off and she loves to talk now!  As of today, she is saying:
- Up
- Down
- No
- Yeah
- Hat
- Now
- Papa
- HeeHaa (Jessie from Toy Story)
- Tickles
- and of yesterday ... DAD!

We couldn't be more happy with her progress and I feel like she has a lot more confidence that she did before.  She is overall more happy and giggly and has less outbursts and fits.  Her Speech Therapist, Kate, does an amazing job working with her and Nattie absolutely adores her.  Kate also gives Ryan and I the tools we need to successfully work with her at home - great team at the SKIP HOUSE.

Nattie is a super funny little girl who has a lot of sparkle.  She loves to dance and make people smile and laugh.  She is also very spicy and doesn't not want to be pushed into doing something she doesn't want to do - and trust me, she will let you know!  Nattie is definitely a TOY STORY lover and prefers to watch those movies over anything else.  She literally squeals when she sees anything to do with TOY STORY!  Unlike Cammie, Nattie will sit and snuggle while watching a whole movie or show start to finish.  She loves the little details of shows and wants to rewatch them.

Here are her favorite things this month:
- Chips and Salsa
- Lovie (Purple Blanket)
- TOY STORY
- MiMi (Little Minnie Mouse from TsumTsum)
- Her Woodie, Buzz and Jessie dolls
- Talking
- Coloring (with crayons and sidewalk chalk)
- Dancing

Both kids have a wonderful summer ahead of them and I can't wait to share it with you guys!  This is our last summer before Cam goes to school!!  I can't believe my baby boy is starting Preschool in the fall!  I'm so excited for him but sad at the same time.  I'm going to miss spending time with my little Buddy, but you can tell he is ready to be challenged and make new friends - comes easy for him.  Nattie will be getting the one on one time I have felt guilty about not having with her.  YAY!

I hope everyone has a great July!!!!!