Poppy still loves shoes and clothing. She takes every opportunity to put whatever she can on herself and then grunts for help otherwise. Her talking is minimal but she's showing signs of improvement. She loves to give wet, slobbery open mouthed kisses and when you say "Poppy nigh-nigh" she'll put her head down on your shoulder. She's got a cute squishy faced smile and reminds us more and more of baby Esme everyday. They look so much alike as babies too.
Eve has finally found her feet and is using them for walking! We have freedom all around now! Our hands are free and she's able to go where she wants. She's still a "cling-on" as Nana likes to call her though. Eve can be playing fine by herself or near Poppy but as soon as you make eye contact with her she starts grunting and makes her way towards you to either be close to her or to pick her up. She's always been like that, even in infancy. She's talking more and more, above and beyond for her age for sure. She can point to lots of her body parts and loves to stick her finger in other people's eyes when she wants to show you that too. Ha ha!
Esme has been doing the County Parks & Rec program Summer Fun since school got out. It's going well but funny thing, she's tired out from playing so much. There's organized activities and crafts all day long but at the end of the day she's just beat. We're thinking next year we might find a summer program that also has an educational component built in also just to mix it up for her. She's also been perfecting her swimming with lessons at UH-Hilo and private ones with Aunty Peggy. She's always been a timid swimmer so we want to make sure she's confident in the water before we stop. Biggest news for Esme right now is that she just learned to ride her bike without training wheels! She amazed all of us being the cautious little girl that she is. She was just super motivated and really wanting to learn and she just took off one day. Woohoo! And she keeps losing teeth left and right! Her top two are almost out but so far she's already lost the bottom front four. We'll be sure to take a picture when the top ones are gone :)
Chan is LOVING being in the bigger kids class at Keikiland. This summer they're studying endangered animals and everyday he comes home telling me about the new things he's learning. We also enrolled him in Kumon for reading and he's thrilled about that also. I think he's been watching all the things Esme has been doing over the years and he just wants to hurry up and do them too. We started him back in swimming this summer and it was a rough start but he's doing so well now. He was actually swimming on his own around 2 years old but something happened and he got scared of the water and refused to continue lessons back then. So we just laid off for awhile and then the twins came along so we really laid off since we weren't near the water all that often anyways. But now that he's 4 we figured it was time to start again. He cried the first few days of UH-Hilo swim camp but by the end he was loving it, looking forward to it every day and swimming on his own. He'll continue private lessons with Esme now and he'll probably stay in that for awhile.
So as you can see life is busy but all in all it's awesome. Ama and Yeh-Yeh came for a visit to help daddy while I was away for a work conference last week. They also got to check in on their new house that they bought. We're all super excited for them to move here this fall so we can make many more family memories together!
Chan's summer haircut
Synchronized milk drinking by Poppy and Eve
Aren't they so cute together?!?! Going to swim lessons at UH. Chan only wanted to wear his wetsuit like the instructors did.
Putting all Chan's energy to good work. The babes have really enjoyed riding in the wagon compared to the stroller when we go on our daily walks now.
Oh Evie! We're not sure where she gets that mop on the top of her head. Ha ha!
Happy Father's Day Allen!!! We've made a tradition of going to the smoothie shop in Onomea and taking this same family pic each year. This is year 3 and we even got all kids to look at the camera!
Mommy got to go on a field trip with Chan to Volcano National Park.
Just hanging at the pool.
This was mommy's solo attempt to take a picture of the girls in their matching dresses that they got for their birthday. Now that Evie's walking she can wear dresses so it's a big deal. Anyways, obviously my picture didn't work out cause they kept moving away!
Esme continues to be our little fashionista :) She loves her gladiator shoes, dangly earrings, off the shoulder and racerback tops, and the latest is this blonde hair extension hairband. She cracks me up sometimes! She also got a summer haircut. I figured it'd be easier since her hair is so thick and with all the swimming and playtime this summer. She usually wears them in cute pigtails now until it grows out long enough for a ponytail.
