First, before we left, John said the funniest thing. We were sitting in the parking lot at Target. He had his fingers up to his nose, and he said "I can't get the stinky poopie out of my nose. It's stuck." His fingers weren't in his nose, and upon investigating, I found that neither he nor Eve had pooped. I still have no idea what he was talking about, but it was hilarious.
So, Buck and I just went on a 10-day mission trip to Peru with some of the high-school youth from church. It took me an entire week to prepare, and who knows how long to recover, but it was wonderful. When I was growing up, my grandmother hosted "Grandma's Camp" every year. She got a bunch of the cousins together for a week or two during the summer. We had camp shirts, a camp cheer, a duty chart, a flashlight campfire with songs, lots of fun activities, and we always ate dessert first. It was awesome! So, Mom was planning on keeping the kids for us...a perfect opportunity to keep the tradition rolling! We started telling John about Grandma's Camp a few weeks ahead of time, so by the time it rolled around, he was so excited. 10 days! Dropping them off was a little tough. The car was beyond full (I think I went a bit overboard, but Mom was oh so patient with me). John started watching his movie, but was courteous enough to give me a quick side hug as we left. I made it out the door with dry eyes...barely. We talked to John one evening while we were gone, and that was the toughest part of the trip for me. I was a bit worried about Eve and how she'd respond when we got back. Both were so excited to see us. It was so fun. Eve held her hands in front of her and beat them up and down with sheer excitement. John just kept talking and running around the house. It was so great to see them again. Even more fun, though, was hearing about Grandma's Camp (who knows how long it will take Mom to recover!). They had a blast! John had a camp tree that he made decorations for every day, he made a gingerbread house, dyed Easter eggs (twice), colored a tote bag, went to the park, went swimming, lit sparklers, made a paper mache tiger, played in a tee pee with an Indian headband...you name it, he did it! Mom has a bunch of pictures I'll post when I get her camera. John had so much fun that for the next day or two he was still calling me Grandma. What a sweet and fun memory. A HUGE thanks to Mom for keeping them so that we could go on the mission trip.
When we got back we noticed that John was speaking even more clearly. Eve is walking rather well now; although she's not doing ups or downs (i.e. the sloped curb). Eve is trying to say ball, and I've got her fairly consistently saying "Mama" when I ask "Who loves you?". Oh, and she climbed up on a kitchen chair the other day. Uh oh. Probably the biggest thing, though, is my new higher blood pressure. When we got back, Scotty from next door gave John his bike. A two wheeler (with training wheels, of course). That night John practiced riding it. He needed a good bit of help because our cul-de-sac has a very slight incline. The next day Mr. Jerry (our super nice neighbor) greased up the chain for him, and Buck raised the seat. Holy cow! He's FLYING now! It's funny because his tricycle was a sort of short-lived interest, but all he wants to do outside now is ride this bike. He took a few good spills yesterday and has some little boo boos (nothing too exciting), but Buck gave him the "don't take turns too fast" lesson, and he didn't fall today. He just absolutely loves it and is so proud of himself. He keeps looking over at me and smiling, and I have to remind him to watch where he's going. Today he kept saying "Here comes the biker", "I won the race". He also likes to fix his bike, and has kept a wrench and pliers on it the entire time. Very cute, but it makes me cringe to watch. I already told Buck I'm going to have to go on vacation when we take the training wheels off. John has also been taking swimming lessons this week. He's really young for it, but they're really cheap. He doesn't ever want to go, but he does alright once he's there. Since he's not afraid of jumping in (even without the lifejacket...although he can't swim without it), she's working on helping him get comfortable on his back in the water.
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