Darr Family Blog

Weekly Happenings: This past week, we were pretty much just going day-by-day. We didn’t do too much out of the ordinary for the first part of the week (there was a park play date tossed in). On Thursday, I swallowed almost all trepidation and took both kids to the zoo. The thought itself of taking them both wasn’t what made me a bit apprehensive (I obviously take both of them to a lot of places)…it was more the fact that I knew I would need to feed Abigail while there (if I wanted to be at the zoo during the coolest part of the day). When she was just drinking bottles, that was one thing. Now that she’s eating solid foods, it’s quite another. It ended up fine, though. I have this thing that kind of reminds me of the bulb of a turkey baster attached to a spoon. You put the baby food into the bulb, screw the spoon end on, and then squeeze the bulb. The food comes out from a small hole and onto the spoon. Other than her being a little weirded out by the differently-shaped spoon than what she’s used to and eating while in her stroller as opposed to her high chair, she did great! The other fun thing we did this was to have a fun family day yesterday. We went out for lunch (a great BBQ place called B-Daddy’s), walked around the booths at the Market Day at Old Town Helotes, went home for a bit, and then ended the day with going to La Cantera so that Joseph could play at the playground (with ice cream for dessert).

The Weekly Weather: Typical end-of-June weather: hot and humid. The mornings haven’t been too bad, but I still kind of struggle with the fact that it doesn’t seem to cool down much as the sun goes down. It will often still be in the 80s at 9:00/10:00 at night.

What Paul’s Been Up To: Work, school…typical stuff.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: As mentioned above, there was the zoo trip. Other than that, not too much for me, either.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Wiggling his second loose tooth like crazy (especially since we discovered the adult tooth coming in behind the baby one), keeping baby sister entertained (even if it entails a shrieking contest between the two of them), and enjoying his summer break before school starts back up at the end of August.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: Loving the entertainment she gets from Joseph (and the rest of us, but him especially), shoving anything and everything into her mouth (where are those teeth?!), testing the acoustics of the different parts of the house (at least I know she’s got a healthy set of lungs…those happy shrieks can be quite loud), and just being an all-around joy.

Weekly Happenings: This past week was pretty much just as the title says: another one for the books. We really didn’t do anything out of the ordinary and just sort of plugged along.

The Weekly Weather: It’s been rather warm (high 90s into low 100s) and muggy. Typical June-almost July weather for us, really.

What Paul’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary…mainly just keeping busy with work, school, and home life. 🙂

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Not too much out of the ordinary for me, either…mainly just keeping the kiddos healthy and happy. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: I’ve been working with him to be a little more independent with some things. This past week, he learned to buckle his own seat belt and how to open and close the van door. It’s amazing how much faster getting into the car has gotten now that I only have to load Abigail into her car seat as opposed to both of them. 🙂 Another big thing that happened was that he got the correct rhythm while on the swings in order to pump his legs so that he doesn’t need pushing. He’s had the concept in his brain for a while, but hasn’t gotten the rhythm correct before. He was pretty excited. 🙂

What Abigail’s Been Up To: She hit her six month mark this past week. She also is starting to sit up on her own (if I place her in a sitting position, that is). She’s been really drooly and wanting to shove anything and everything into her mouth to chew on, too. I think we’re getting closer to some teeth making their appearance…I can hardly believe how much time has passed and how big she’s getting!

This Week in Pictures:

Bonus Video: Joseph loves to make Abigail laugh by making funny sounds. 🙂

Weekly Happenings: We had a pretty quiet week this past week. The weather has been sort of…oppressive. Due to that, we spent most of our time indoors. There was one day where Joseph had a friend over to play, but other than that (and getting to meet up with a friend from high school who was in town for work), it was a pretty average week. Today is Father’s Day, so I made Paul breakfast, and Joseph gave him a card he made, along with a Google Play gift card.

The Weekly Weather: Rather hot and humid. We finally hit triple digits. I’m surprised we made it this far into the warm months before doing so, though. There is rain in the forecast for this next week, but it will only cool down a bit. I guess we’re in for the long haul until October/November now, haha.

What Paul’s Been Up To: Typical stuff for him this past week: work, school, yard work, etc. For a while now, he’s been saying that he wants to find a good deli to have a legit deli sandwich. Well, he was able to find one and we went yesterday for lunch. They were really good! We’ll definitely be going back. 🙂 On the way home from lunch, we stopped so that he could go get his main Father’s Day present. He purchased an AR-15 to add to his gun collection. He’s looking forward to when it will be cool enough for him to go target shooting with it.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: I’m just pluggin’ away with the mommy-life. I’m so grateful for Paul’s good job and for the fact that the cost of living here in Texas is low enough. It makes it possible for me to be able to stay home with the kids. This is something I don’t know we would have been able to accomplish in California. One thing I did that made me sort of nervous, but wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, was that I cut Joseph’s hair. We’ve been taking him to a kids’ salon up to this point because he has sort of freaked out whenever we’ve tried to cut it. The combination of the noise and vibration of the trimmer was just too much (the more expensive ones the salon has are much quieter, plus the distraction aspects of getting to sit in a cool car chair and watch videos while they cut his hair made it tolerable). A while back, Paul purchased a quieter trimmer, but the vibration still bugged Joseph, so we were still going to the kids’ salon. Well, I went to take him to get his hair cut only to find that they were too busy to squeeze him in. That meant that with our schedule the way it is, I wouldn’t have been able to take him back until mid-week this next week. I didn’t want to wait that long, so I decided to swallow my apprehension and do it myself. I had watched them do it enough times that I had the concept down. It was just putting it to use and praying I wouldn’t butcher it, haha. It wasn’t too bad! It definitely didn’t turn out as well as if the salon had done it, but he doesn’t need a hat to cover his head, either. 😉 He did really well, too. I promised that he could run in the sprinklers afterwards, so that incentive helped a lot.

What Joseph’s Been Up To: He did enough pages in his workbooks to earn a “big prize”. We got him some Minecraft magnets. We also purchased a small cookie sheet so that he has a building surface to make stuff with. He was pretty excited. 🙂 Other than that, he’s been pluggin’ away with fun summer stuff: playing with toys, some electronics time, swimming and sprinkler playing, etc.

What Abigail’s Been Up To: Yesterday I successfully got her to eat baby food without the dried oatmeal mixed in. I’m hoping it sticks, since I really want her to get used to different textures, but we’ll see. 🙂 She’s starting to try and move her knees/legs a bit when she’s on her tummy…scooting won’t be too far behind! She also likes to try and stand on my lap. It’s hard to believe that this next week she’ll hit her six month mark. o.O

This Week in Pictures: