Summer, Version 3.0

It's seems impossible that Summer is three today!! It seems like just yesterday that she sped into our lives after 41 weeks of waiting.



Summer version 3.0 is a fun mix between girlie girl and wild child. She loves dresses, bows, and sparkly stuff, but will swing from the monkey bars and be involved in "gun fights" with the boys. She can be a total clown too. No matter what though, I high level of drama can be expected.


Summer version 3.0 has taken forever to potty train--shes 90% there, but also pretty much night trained. Definitely her own person, since Garrett was day trained at 2 but not night trained until 4. Its highly possible (please, please, please let it be so) that we won't be buying any more pullups once the ones we have are gone.

Summer version 3.0 is a total daddy's girl. I'm a second rate citizen when Daddy's around.

Summer version 3.0 worships her brother. Not that that's anything new. But the times when they play nicely together (versus fighting 100% of the time) are starting to come along more often.

Summer version 3.0 loves hanging with her friends. Especially the "boys", which includes Garrett, Xander, and Logan, our neighbor Jewel (who is 5 years older than her!) and her buddy Ava.
She loves Hello Kitty. Our house has been taken over by Hello Kitty. I don't really mind, ANYTHING is better than princesses!!

She's a trip, she always has something to say and is bossy as all get out. She's been a handful this past year, but I know the good days are just around the corner--all the "baby" things are almost over, once and for all, and there is so much fun around the corner.

Happy birthday baby girl!

Five

I never did my nostalgic "I can't believe he's five" post for Garrett's birthday. I CAN'T believe he's five, but as previously mentioned, we've been too busy doing stuff to really sit back and reminisce. But for some reason, the birthdays of friends always make me more weepy than the birthdays of my own kids. Today is Garrett's best bud Xander's birthday. Its pretty awesome that these two boys have been friends since they were six months old. At first, it was the mommy friendship more than the boys, but now, its all of us.

This past year, the Shumans and the Compton families have boated, bar-b-qued, attended school events, and just generally hung out more than we have any year in the past. And that's saying something, since most of our major holidays have been spent with our "Florida family"

We have had a LOT of great friends come and go in the past few years. We've been so blessed to have such excellent friends. I grew up as an only child, so I love that not only will Garrett have his sister to play with, he also has his wonderful neighborhood friends to call on. Its pretty awesome to say you've been friends with someone your whole life.

And Jess and I were talking that even if they have their little falling outs as life goes on, they will have to make up because even if they don't want to hang out with each other, the families still will.
They've had so many "firsts" together in the past five years . . .
And goodness knows there will be plenty more.
Part of the reason I've been putting of the "five" post is because I haven't been too sure what to say. Garrett is amazing, he's reading and busy and incredibly adventurous. He can be mean to his sister, then incredibly sweet to her in the next breath. He loves his dogs. He loves to play. He's always busy. Its hard to summarize all the changes and amazing things in a few paragraphs. But if I ask him what he wants to do on any given day, his first responses is almost ALWAYS "Can Xander come play?" He declares to me on a daily basis "Xander and I are best friends!" He even asked if he could take Xander with him on the much anticipated trip to Grandma's house in a few weeks. So, I can't believe they are BOTH five. I'm really looking forward to watching them share the next five years of this wild, crazy ride together.

And, since I haven't given you any new pictures in this post, just a recap of the old ones, enjoy this one of Garrett going off the diving board at Xander's 5th birthday party!