Weather - It's been hot and sticky these past few days, unusually so for early June. Temperatures have been hovering around 90° with humidity in the 70-80% range. Pollen levels have been above 9 for over a week. Every car in this region is covered in a yellow dust. Luckily the levels are predicted to come down around Tuesday. The Flonase seems to be doing the trick, although it took a few days for it to be effective. Although it feels a bit redneck, I've gone in the kiddie pool with the kids a couple of times. In the summer nothing cools your body core like soaking in a pool filled with well water.
Gymnastics - Yesterday Claire had a miniature version of a "meet" in gymnastics. This was just a class meet, not a big competition. It reminded me more of a recital. Nevertheless it was a nice opportunity for me to see her do her routines on the floor, the vault, the balance beam, and the uneven bars. She did well and you could tell she really enjoys it.
Grass - This is that time of year when the grass grows like bamboo. Grass is one of the main contributors to our current high pollen levels. It was only a week since the last mowing and it nearly doubled in length. I already mow at the tractor's highest setting and yet it was still bogging down in many sections. Most of the lawn had to be covered twice in order to get an even cut and avoid excessive grass clumping. Mulching doesn't do well when you have to trim that much. You wish you could get some balance because it's an almost certainty that in a month we'll be begging the grass to hang in there. “Don't die! Don't die!”
Bruises - All three boys are looking like typical boys in terms of scraped knees. They're either tripping when they run or falling off their bicycles or something. It seems as though at least once a day we hear the bawling of at least one of them. Timothy is the funniest because he doesn't seem to know that he's younger than his older twin brothers. Whatever they do, he wants to do too. He only recently learned how to peddle a tricycle, but when his brothers got new bicycles, he wanted to try them. He doesn't understand Gameboy games, but since his brothers do, he wants to play them too. When he plays, you can almost hear the gears grinding in his head trying to figure things out. He looks so focused you have to remind yourself that he's only 2 years old.
Girls - The girls were kept busy because Claire's friend, Madison, spent most of the weekend with us (from Saturday morning till Sunday evening). It's funny how when you try to get the two sisters to play together, it's difficult. You throw in at least one friend and suddenly they're planning songs, performances, fashion shows, jumping on the trampoline, etc. It's all the same things we tell them they can do with each other as sisters but now, to them, it's somehow different.