Summer Fun

We have been enjoying the start of summer around here. Last weekend my parents took us to Palm Springs to celebrate Abigail’s birthday. We had an awesome time and Hope really got to bond with Papa and Camper (aka: grandma and grandpa). We had connecting rooms and she spent lots of time going back and forth and playing “uh oh” with grandma. ‘Uh Oh’ is a game that consists of Hope dropping an object, my mom saying “uh oh”, Hope laughing, my mom handing her back the object, and the fun starts all over again!

One thing we discovered is Hope LOVES to swim. She has no fear of the water at all. She sticks her face in and blows bubbles; something the nannies must have taught her at Bethel. She likes to splash, kick, and most of all, loves to be thrown up into the air, and dunked underwater. She comes up out of the water with a huge smile on her face, and a ready giggle. We have been having a blast with her in the pool back home too. She is a definite water girl. I wouldn’t be surprised if she becomes a competitive swimmer, or something of the sort. She is strong, and I could just see her being good at it, among other things.

Hope has settled in, and we have watched her go from being really aggressive, and hitting us a lot, to now being a real cuddly little snuggle bug. She seems content to be with us, and she absolutely LOVES her siblings. It’s so sweet to watch them with her too, and I can’t imagine doing all this without having the older two kids around to be so much help. They have been amazing through this whole process, and I have to say that I am so proud of them!  Hannah too, although she is still figuring out what kind of relationship she is going to have with Hope. Hope is definitely not at a stage where she can play with Hannah, although Hannah would love it to be so. And Hannah is not big enough to really hold Hope, so we are trying to find ways for her to bond with Hope. She wants to cuddle with her, or reach out to her, but then ends up squishing her, or making Hope mad… but the neat thing is that Hannah always talks about how she loves her baby sister, so thats good!

Just wanted to post some cute pictures taken of Hope this weekend at the park. She has gained almost 3 pounds since she came home! Here she is: