I have failed!

How much of our children come the way they are and how much do we mold and teach? Something I am very interested in asking Heavenly Father on the other side. Miriam has always been a poor sleeper. She can not fall asleep on her own and pretty much every day she ends up in bed with us. Aaron is a little better but he also doesn't fall asleep on his own either. Lately he has been trying to escape the crib, but gets hung up which really scares me and I don't know what to do. How did we miss giving (or knowing how to give) the best gift of knowing how to sleep?! Oh Miriam lately likes playing night night and says often in the morning I sleep all night in my bed to which I say no you didn't. She also loves tucking in her dollies and animals under blankets. She tells Aaron to go night night and sweet dreams as she tucks blankets over them both, but the real deal not even close. I'm grateful that we progressed to me turning on a lullaby Cd for her to listen while I finish getting ready for bed. Hopefully with the next child we will be a little smarter and remember the hard choices are really better in the long run (like not letting them sleep with me).
Parenthood is tough and I feel inadequate a lot of the time, hopefully they will make it in spite of myself!

Happy 4th of July!

Now I've heard of doing Christmas in July but I'm not sure about Independence day at Christmas! Oh well here are some cute pictures anyway! As usual we dress up in the grand red, white and blue for about a week. Aaron getting passed down some of Miriam's clothes as evidenced by the born in 2008 onesie that after he wore it I decided it was too girly. We had a couple of things that said 'Mommy's Little Firecracker' which they certainly are!

I love this picture on our front porch! The onesies they are wearing are compliments of Aunt Heather, thanks! I love dressing all of us in matching clothes and feel it much easier to spot in the crowd. Thank goodness they really are good friends. In fact this morning (12/22) when Aaron first saw Miriam awake he pointed at her excitedly and gave her lots of big hugs.

For the 4th of July we spent it in Delta. The day started off with a boom from a cannon and we went over to main st to watch the parade. Eric, Aaron and Grandpa were sitting back on the sidewalk but Miriam couldn't see so she and I went up farther on the street. There is nothing like a small town parade, though I wouldn't mind seeing the candy throwing tradition go by the wayside. It really is quite dangerous.

Miriam loved the parade and here is a cute video of her dancing to the marching band.

Afterward they have entertainment and fair booths set up in the park so we wandered around checking things out, talking to people we know. We were going to let Miriam actually do something that cost money but when we saw how happy and content she was on the playground equipment we decided to fore go another year.

After that we went back to Grandma's for lunch and naps- those boring kind of things. Also their TV had died but Russ wanted to savage the wood case so he and Eric were taking that apart and there old organ boy was Aaron entranced! As mentioned before Aaron has discovered tools! He was closely watching the whole thing then taking off with Grandpa's tools.

He then preceded to wander around 'fixing' things with the screwdriver. Such as the vacuum. That night we went over to the hospital lawn to take in the fireworks. No pictures this year. Though it seems all of us had a touch of a bug. Overall a great weekend!

Aaron's June doings

Aaron is busy and going, going now that he is starting to walk! He loves play with his sister and eat! After he crawled up unto our little sandbox / picnic table we got real sand and they loved playing in it. Here he is convincing me to go outside. I love his big grin!

"Daddy did you say you needed help? Look this is how you do." Like all kids he is fascinated with Daddy's computer and wants to touch it and play with it, often if he sees it and its closed he goes and tries to open it.

Aaron overall is pretty mellow and helpful. He loves to do what everyone else is doing as seen playing with mommy's feather duster. I do have a big and little duster so one of them can "help me dust". He is every bit the climber Miriam was though I think he has a slightly different technique.

How dirty can one little boy get? Pretty dirty if this picture is any indication and that doesn't even cover eating! And yes as his shirt says he is a really big deal.

Aaron has also discovered tools and was instantly in love. Daddy was doing some project and Aaron swiped the drill looking very pleased with himself. Perhaps he will need some of his own tools for his birthday!