Where did the summer go?

Well is seemed that the summer came and went. We had a pretty boring summer. The only thing fun we did was go to Michigan to visit family for a night. Tom didn’t shut the ware house down until 4th of July weekend. I think we just decided to chill the rest of the time. I feel kinda bad for Jack, but it really was just so hard to do things with Ella. Jack had a new good friend this summer, Matthew.

School is in full swing. 2nd grade is a bit more challenging for Jack and that is good. I don’t think he is as bored in class. However, he still says he hates school. His reason is because he can’t play. He is doing pretty well so far. When he makes mistakes, it seems he has rushed through it. He is so smart though! He is getting more into reading. I am trying to get him to read every night in bed. Some nights he gets so caught up in a book he stays up way too late.

He is on the mite hockey team this year. The coach (Trip) has named it Team Chaos. Not my favorite, but it will do! They have only had practice up until now and have their first tournament this weekend. They are playing so pretty good teams so it may be hard. Oh and Jack had the opportunity to play a hockey game ON the Blackhawk ice. It was so awesome! They had their name above their locker in the locker room. They got a practice jersey. Jack’s is huge!! They even sang the national anthem. He did really well. I think it actually gave him a new perspective on things. He has been different this year already. He went from wanting to sit in the goal to playing a wingman. He is still a very average player and we are fine with that. He is going to learn so much this year.

And on to Miss Ella Bella…or as she is called in the house…Bammy, Belsy, Bells, Pumpkin, and Princess. I am sure there is more. She is just sooooo adorable! She has curly hair. Jack calls it fluffy and likes to touch it all the time. It is at the point now that it is sticking out on the sides of her head. Not much I can do about it and she won’t let me put anything in it. She looks so cute with bows, but she just pulls them out. She is such a good baby. I know all mothers complain about little things, but overall, we couldn’t ask for a happier, easy going baby. She is starting to show us how strong wiled she is. She doesn’t give up easy on something she shouldn’t be doing. She is one very busy little girl. When she is on the go she will only do something for 30 seconds then move onto the next. She has finally started to sit and watch a little TV. This has helped in the morning after Jack gets on the bus. I can get a few things done while she watches a show. She loves her Baby Einstein.

She doesn’t talk much. She says DaDa for everyone. She has started to refer to me as MA. But it seems she only does it when she can’t see me and wants to know where I am. Otherwise if I ask her what is my name she says DaDa. There are times I think she is trying to say something different for Jack, but then the next time she says DaDa. She can do “what does a duck say” and I have seen her cinch up her nose like she is going to snort when you ask her what a piggy says. She climbs all over everything. We currently have our table chairs all bungeed together so she can’t pull them out and climb on the table. It is like she hunts for the chairs to be pulled out so she can climb. She also loves books. She will look through her books in her room for a long time.

Ok, this is a good update so I am going to leave it here for now. Now a picture of Ella last month and a picture of Jack from the Blackhawk game.