Ten on Tuesday.

1. I must have warmed up my coffee fifteen times this morning.


2. We are back to wonderfully cool temperatures this morning (57) after last week's 90+. Today it might get to 70. I much prefer this week. I love that I'm wearing jeans on the last day of June. The last day of July will most likely be much different.


3. We are in the last few days of swim "camp," and I'm just hoping that Alla starts to enjoy putting her head underwater very soon. Today she "dove" under!


4. That coffee table project is stalled. The sanding block isn't doing the trick, and the label on the stripper Ron brought me sounded absolutely frightening, like death was probably a given once you opened the can. So I'm taking that back and I guess we're getting a small power sander. Seriously, this is not supposed to be that much work.


5. My princess is sitting right here with a crown eating Joe's O's.


6. Korean Ribs are in the crockpot for dinner.


7. The kid always has a snack. He's very possessive of the actual snack cup, too, grabbing it from the dishwasher first thing in the morning and pretty much carrying it around the rest of the day. Snack cup+wagon=happy baby.

8. Three summers ago, I was counting and writing down Alla's words as quickly as they came out of her mouth. This morning we counted 75 words she read.

9. This summer I've started writing down Fisher's words. Some super-cute ones: heh-woh (hello), foam (phone), and kakohmama (avocado). That last one's a stretch, buddy.

10. I'm obsessed with this song lately. Playing it over and over and over and over. If you fast forward you'll get past the chatting and right to the good singing. Love it.

Attached.

Never have I known of a child so attached to her stuffed animals. Sometimes she rolls with a whole entourage, other times just a select few. I haven't discovered what makes her choose certain friends at certain times. At the moment she's asleep with Elmo, Azzie (formerly known as Garfield, but that was not an original enough name, and if you know Alla, you know she creates very unique names for her friends - and unborn brother), and Aubrey (a Barbie-like doll, not sure how comfy she is to snuggle with but we're going on a few nights sleeping with her).

She dresses them up (see above photo) in actual clothes of hers and shoes of her brother's. She puts them in socks to make mermaids of them (all three of tonight's sleeping friends are in mermaid-socks). She wants her picture taken with them. They all have names. There are dozens upon dozens of them and they all get their day in the sun. They all take part in stories from time to time, are princesses or babies or birthday girls or patients. They are all loved.

I love this about you, Alla. I hope you are always this creative, always have more stories to tell than [nap]time to tell them in.

Pictured above is Maurice, whose story I told here.

For today.

Been spying this around the internet the past week or so, and love the idea, from The Simple Woman's Daybook. Will probably repeat often.

For Today.

Outside my windows...hot sun, blue skies, that coffee table that just won't sand down lying there on the grass

I am thinking...TGIF

I am thankful for...a day to rest (no swimming, no having to be anywhere today but home)

From the kitchen...should be Pizza Friday, so I'm trying to think of something for me that would be as wonderful. Only I don't think there's anything as wonderful as Pizza Friday?

I am wearing...long denim shorts, coral tee, 'naked bare feet'

I am reading...Crossing to Saftey. Alla and I just finished Stuart Little.

I am hoping...to have a coffee table stripped and sanded and drying by Monday morning.

I am hearing...fussy little baby not wanting to nap, Mamamamamama

I am creating...three scrapbook pages this week! Yay Scrapbook Night!

Around the house...toys out for the first day this week. So nice to be home. It's clean, it's weekend-ready

One of my favorite things...seeing that garden grow bigger everyday. Boy, those zucchini leaves!

A few plans for the weekend...have I already mentioned coffee table? Check. Family race tomorrow at the Stone Arch Bridge. Enjoy the cooler temps. Get some produce: bananas, avocados, watermelon, nectarines.

A picture to share...

The faces of summer.

Both of them are completely delighted by our friends' pool. Alla, probably because in it and around it are friends to play and laugh with. Fisher just can't seem to take more than two steps in it without falling either forward or back, which he thinks is hilarious. Sheer joy, I tell you.Boys. You knew it wouldn't be long.Better if I share.

Love their little moment here, like, See, wasn't that good? I told you!Yep, it's here. And these are the faces of this summer.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. I will say it again: summer is SUPER busy, and officially it's only the first week.

2. Case in point: Alla's doing a two-week swim camp, which is M-Th for this week and next. Mondays are soccer games, so for these two weeks there are two activities on Mondays. It's kind of crazy. I'm trying to remember that the reason we did swimming this way is so that we weren't committing to an entire summer of Saturdays.

3. I cannot believe it's almost the Fourth. Maybe this'll be the year we all get flag tees.

4. I'm almost to the middle of Crossing to Safety, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. It's only of those books, like East of Eden, where it's not page-turning, but very satisfying and rich. I'm also an incredibly slow reader.

5. Treat your family to some Kettle Corn today. You won't be sorry.

6. It was at least 92 here yesterday. We made popsicles last night that are in the freezer now, in preparation for today's continued heatwave. Strawberry-peach.

7. Alla and I are four chapters away from the end of Stuart Little. It's got to be the most perfect chapter book; each chapter is super short and just full of adventure, with plenty of illustrations. If anyone has the next perfect chapter book, I'm taking suggestions. We read Charlotte's Web last summer.

8. Summer: I like my (big) marshmallows in the freezer, I will not be blow-drying my hair until probably September, and I started a batch of iced coffee.

9. Our daddy had a lovely Father's Day, starting with golf, coming home to a nacho (his request) feast prepared by Alla and I, and capped off with dinner alfresco down the street at our friends' house.

Boy do they love their Daddy! I think he's pretty swell, too;)

10. My dad is pretty swell as well, and is way too far away in my opinion. I miss you, Dad, and love you so much!

15 months.

The little boy is 15 months old today. I cannot believe how much he's learned just since turning one. I remember this part with Alla, how quickly she picked up words and learned signs, how eventually I couldn't keep up. I think we're there with Fisher, to that point where I'm writing down a new sign, a new word, a new something every day. Fun.

This is his sign for water. Always with food in his mouth. Rice Chex is the snack of choice around here, as they are wheat-free, yay! Thankfully the kid can't get enough of them. Che, he says.

My son is a delight. He is happy. He is smart. He wakes up and immediately starts signing and talking: cat, Dada. Today he said Alla for the first time. She could not believe it.He is completely, one hundred percent obsessed with vacuums. He signs it manically. He says ack. He makes a point of heading downstairs to see the vacuum each morning and has been known to kiss it goodnight before naptime if he's had it out to play with it.

He makes a beeline for our friends' garage, across the street and five houses down, because he's in love with their shop-vac. Ours is nice, too, but not orange like theirs. The Derenzos can attest to his disappointment with their lack of a shop-vac in their garage, since he assumes that everyone has one in their garage, of course.
He goes to bed around 6:45, and sleeps til 6:45-7am. Half of the time we have to wake him up at 7am. He takes two naps, and most of the time we are waking him up from each of them. If you tell him it's time for night-night and to go get his lovey, he goes in search of it, fingers already in his mouth, ready for sleep.

He nurses four times a day, most dependably first thing in the morning. It's not uncommon for him to be too wound up at bedtime to want to settle in for nursing, in which case he'll just get his pointer finger ready to go turn off the light, I'll sing him his song, and then lay him down.

He gets a few back rubs, kisses, and then we sign I love you to each other. Then we blow each other kisses. Sweet fifteen-month-old.

Completed.

I actually completed this with four days of starting it. But of course it's taken me a month to post the pic.Here's a close-up. Also completed: Fisher's first-year frame. Sigh.Close-up.Alla's, long since completed, is hung on the opposite wall above her bed.

Close-up. Now onto the seven thousand other projects I create for myself.

More sharing.

My friend. What else is there to say? I wish we lived closer. She and I and our broods.

Walking to the gate one morning while Daddy and Catie were out killing each other on a run. We never saw those elusive penguins, Miss Ellery. Thankfully (for us!), Susie and her crew live in Ohio for the timebeing, and we were lucky enough to spend an evening with them. The girls got reacquainted and had a super time together. Alla and Ashleigh are five days apart. Go visit Susie's blog for a sweet flashback of those girls! Oh, and she made us jump, too!

She also took a super cute picture of those girls, and I am happy to have the outtake. That crazy Susie.
Sweet, sweet Adeline.

The whole Derenzo family, June 2009. I date that because those Derenzos are crazy, too, you just never know when they might decide to have another.

Catie and I have decided that this will be both the Derenzo and the Killins family Christmas picture. Two more, both favorites of Alla. I love this first one because something about her smile makes her look little. That is a little preschooler, baby-toothed smile.

And the last one is just her, just that lovely girl of mine struck by some lovely evening sunlight.

Thanks again, friends. We sure had a wonderful visit-hausen.

Home.

We spent a wonderful six days visiting The Derenzos in Ohio. We also figured out the key to a peaceful vacation: do absolutely nothing. Yes, and it was just perfect. Thanks, friends. We miss you.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Turns out, something about summer makes it busier than shuttling to and from school twice a week. Go figure.

2. I'm sitting in the middle of five piles of laundry. One left to fold, and then they all have to be put away or packed.

3. Yes, packed! We're headed to the Derenzo's! Yeah!

4. We've been toting around the point-and-shoot lately, so here are some recent Killins family snapshots. First, the children's festival last weekend. A window-front family shot. 5. My son and I when he wasn't chasing and signing buses.

6. Took Alla to see "UP" on Friday night. Lovely! A bit scary and in-your-face 3D during the conflict part, but such a great girls night out!

7. Alla and her buddy Canton during Memorial Day grilling festivities.

8. Daddy and son during Memorial Day grilling with friends.

9. Mama and son doing the same. This is when we discovered he loves blueberries and salmon.

10. Now we're off to the Farmer's Market, which opens today! Maybe some fresh spinach will be found for smoothies in the morning:)

Hopefully no one kicks her in the chin.

'Cause she only has shin guards, we couldn't afford "chin guards," too:)

Tonight was her first soccer practice. That coach has her hands full trying to teach 12 kids between ages four and six the fundamentals of soccer! She and her two cronies spent most of the time saying who rocked and who didn't and shouting fun things like "OK, stinky toilet!" It was highly entertaining for the adults, to say the least.