Dog Days

The summer has gone really fast, but one of the best parts is yet to come! My mom, a.k.a. Grandma Zuzu to Stella and A.J., is on her way to BC aboard the Southwest Chief on Amtrak. It's a long day of travel since she gets on the train in Topeka at 5:00 a.m., but sometimes air travel can take that long, too, with delays and flight cancellations. She'll arrive in Chicago at 3:30 and will pick up the Wolverine commuter train which will bring her to Battle Creek. She won't get here in Battle Creek until 10 p.m. after the kiddos are in bed. They'll be excited to see her Tuesday morning though! And I'll put her to work immediately chasing these rugrats around. She'll be here until the morning of Aug. 30 ... here to help me while Stella is home (before Stella starts school again).

Speaking of the rugrats, they're such a pair. I swear that even though they don't have a spoken language between them (that I can understand), they somehow conspire together to get into trouble. Even though my bedroom door is locked, somehow they got in yesterday. Stella, who was covered in sand and dirt, was jumping on my bed and A.J. was plunging the toilet in the master bath. He loves to play in the toilet.

Here they are on a day in July when Dad took them to the historic bridge park:


Stella's had a busy summer with 2 OT appointments a week, horseback riding, speech therapy and swimming lessons. She had summer school for 8 weeks, except the week she missed because of a bad case of swimmer's ear. Her class will be in a new location this fall ... in Bellevue which is a considerably longer drive than the short drive to her current school. But at the new school, there will be more opportunity to learn from neurotypical kids.



A.J. has changed a lot this summer. He's gone from a toddler with a waddle to a fast, climbing, strapping boy. He's not only physically strong, he's verbally strong. He'll say a bunch of baby gibberish and look at you like "why don't you understand?" He always wants the last word, even if it isn't a real word. He does have a lot of real words too. And he can climb up anything. Here's a good representation of the true A.J.


Like a true boy, he loves big trucks, airplanes, shovels, wheel barrows, and of course the lawnmower:


But he still likes to cuddle sometimes ....


We went to see Joe and Kathy last weekend ... what a cute couple:

A.J. and Stella had a lot of fun visiting Grandma and Papa.

Enjoy the rest of the summer ... it's gone so fast! We're planning on a trip to Glen Lake while my mom is here, and hopefully some school shopping for the kids. I'm sure we'll be busy every single day that she's here ... and she promises to help me with laundry!