Ten on Tuesday

1. Today Zane learned the concept of up and down. No I did not set out to teach him this, I was at work trying to teach the new doctors how to be doctors, I hate July in the hospital. But when I got home he was saying it, backwards at first, so I took that opportunity to in force that his feet are down and his head is up. Maybe he can play the up down game with Uncle Able this weekend. Pants... up, shirt... down, Thunder... up ect.

2. Friday was the hottest day in June ever here in the STL. It was only 107 degrees, that's child's play compared to where I grew up where we are constantly are rocking 110 to 112 degree temps. Can't wait to head there tomorrow! Luckily this current heat wave hasn't had the crazy STL humidity, it was more the Oklahoma, feel like your catching on fire heat.

3. Needless to say Zane and I spent most of our time inside this week. I had not been brave enough to let him play with his new play dough, but decided the heat wave was a perfect time to bust it out. He did a great job, not trying to eat it at all, making snakes, cutting it with his play knives, and working on our colors as well. I was thoroughly impressed to the point that I am going to get a few more colors to help with learning his colors.

4. Zane's other new favorite activity is playing with his stethoscopes. Unlike most two year old's, Zane has had two stethoscopes hanging up in his closet since birth. Initially it was due to his heart condition, then it was for randomly listening to the sound of his beautifully normal heartbeat, then for random listening to his lungs to see if he was wheezing, and now for Zane to listen to his animals hearts. He knows just how to work it, putting it in his little ears and putting it on people/animals hearts and then on their backs, to listen to their lungs of course. His assessment is complete with him taking death breaths. Here he is listening to the babies at the Magic House. I haven't been able to get a good picture of him listening to his animals here, but it is shades of my childhood for sure.

5. Zach spent Saturday at my friend Becky's house helping her husband fix/rewire his ceiling fan. I had to take Zane back to the doctor to make sure he wasn't contagious before heading home to meet the baby, then we headed over to visit Becky and Mike as well. Zane had a great time playing fetch with their dog. It almost made me sad that he didn't have a dog or a pet, but then I remembered that a dog is too much work when you already have a two year old, so we will go visit Becky and her dog Nelly whenever he wants.

6. Tomorrow we are flying home on the fourth of July! I feel that is a highly patriotic thing to do. Hopefully all goes well, we are way over packed with funtivities for Zane to do on the plane, but we are going to need all the tricks and snacks we can get. I am praying he sleeps somewhere in the journey!

7. In super exciting news my adorable son gets to have health insurance when he turns 27 thanks to the fact that the health care bill wasn't over turned. It was never a political issue or a religious issue to me it was a deeply personal issue, as a parent of a child with a pre-existing condition. I wept when I found out the news.You can agree with it or disagree with it, but just keep in mind that millions of families have been greatly and profoundly blessed by this decision. If you take nothing else away from it you can at least count your blessings that you and your family are healthy so that it doesn't have to be a huge deal to you. To anyone who wants to say it's the worst thing that has ever happened I would just ask you to think of all of these families, mine included, and go back to your mother's old advice of "If you can't say something nice don't say anything at all."

8. So figured out why we aren't getting any squash from our volunteer squash plant. Probably because it actually is a pumpkin plant. Mystery solved! We do have a tiny little pumpkin though, which is exciting.

9. This weeks fun summer recipe is Key West Honey Grilled Chicken. I have decided I am a big fan of cilantro and am going to need to plant my own cilantro plant next year. We had this Sunday and it was light super tasty with some veggies and rice.

10. Finally I cannot wait to meet baby Everett. I have been loving looking at all his adorable photos, but I know that he is going to be 100% cuter in person. Hopefully Zane is gentle and loving or just not interested in the small, new person. I think he might find it a little weird that his run as the baby of the family is over. He got two years, poor Maggie only got ten months.

Happy Fourth of July everyone, be safe, and have fun celebrating all the amazing freedoms and blessing we have living in this country.