Cienna - 3 Years, 6 Months... Kaylee - 1 Year, 1 Month!

We welcomed a visit with Kai to start the month and then headed for an amazing long weekend camping with great friends to Lake Casitas!  The girls couldn't have been better campers, sleeping in the same tent for naps and regular bed times, playing like mad which included a water park day (integrated into the campground), and just enjoying the entire experience!  We also headed to Carpenteria one of the days with a trip to Island Brewery and some beach time.  We had an always awesome 4th weekend with the neighbors starting on the 3rd with a party hosted by the Douglas's and visits by Joe and Dana!  On the fourth we went back for some pool time and Smores!  The next weekend Joe and Dana got to come back for Uncle Joe's paddling race which included his first solo!

The peaches were seriously in abundance for a few weeks and we did what we could with margaritas and peach cobbler.  Mark has enjoyed his electric griddle for pancakes while camping and some weekend mornings!  Plenty of veggies have been eaten from the garden including raw squash carried around by Kaylee for a good hour or so.  We've finished laying stone pavers (gravel still to come) in the side yard and got all the moulding and casing finally completed on the house as well!

Cienna really enjoyed her first smores (deluxe with peanut butter and everything!)  Both her height and hair has grown an inch or more in the last month!  She continues to sound out her words and can write every upper case and many lower case letters in the alphabet!  Her concentration is incredible which shows as she enjoys threading her own beads to make bracelets for friends.  Now counts beyond 100!

It's amazing to recall how remarkably fast the learning process goes!  Kaylee has mastered walking and now gets to explore her new horizon.  She loves to listen and really try to understand what we are saying.... although she is too smart sometimes testing for a reaction that she knows isn't quite a good one!  Lucky for us she doesn't push too far.  She is truly trying to sound out words and is very interested in communication.  She is using some of her signs (ones we remember to use) and says understandable words at least to us.  Mommy (mamamama), Daddy (dada) , Cienna (snenna), book (boooph), dog (bog), and what does a dog say.. (wooo),  shoes (soooz), poop (pooof, poof poof... and will point to her bottom) to name a few.  Meal times are a bit easier as she eats all foods doable with fingers by herself and has began to experiment quite well with her spoon.  She has taken to the water both at the beach and pool for the first time this month!

I bet you'll enjoy the photos!  Click on the picture below:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/TNsvV1T4ugKxZwqJA