July's Bests

Best shirt
It has a one and  a two.

Best show.
Phineas and Ferb haven't quite one-upped Mickey and Jake, but they've definitely moved up in the rankings.

Best place to wedge yourself in the backwards crawl.
Happens every single day.  Particularly while I make dinner.

Best toy.

Especially those baby blues.  She looks just like Belle's friend Lucy.

Heart-melting, right?

Best sport.
Maybe.  Baseball and basketball are currently at a draw. 
But you have to do it right.  First you dribble.  Then you wiggle wiggle.  And shoot!

Best finger to chew on.  And point with.  And pinch with.  And poke eyes/ears/nose/mouthes with.

Mac agrees.

The best way to feed yourself.
The only way.  She won't let me do it.  I go to put the spoon in, she dodges it, grabs it, and then does it herself.
We just give her real food.

And the best form of birth control ....
helping a dear friend adjust to adding a new one to the family.
We are enjoying our two little rascals very much for now.
But that little Weston is quite the heartthrob ....

Sawah

Mark's baby sister Sawah is back from teaching in China.


And she came to stay with us.

She had some tales to tell and is just sweeter than sugar.

Mark basked in all her compliments, and I loved being able to just sit and talk to her again.  I feel like it's been a while.  Sarah is one of those ladies that turn out just right ... she puts you at ease and you can't help but smile around her.  Not to mention my dishes kept magically becoming clean and my children never stopped smiling.

Mac has finally got her name down, and seems thrilled to discover he has another awesome aunt/friend.

Sarah is one of the many reasons I would really like to get back to Utah.  But for now, she's living only a short 5 hour drive away ... much closer than most of the rest of our families.

Sarah, let's hang out some more.

Mark's Latest Milestone

The kids aren't the only ones reaching milestones.

Mark saw over forty patients last week.

It's getting to the point that it's hard for him to do the entire office himself on Tuesdays and Saturdays.  So this past Saturday he asked me to come along and do some physical therapy ... just like the old days.

By that I mean pre-children days.

But these two lovelies make the job so much more fun.

Belle napped in the office.

Mac ran around the halls, playing peek-a-boo with the patients.

And I got to meet and talk to all these wonderful people that are more than happy to help pay our bills.  They all went on and on about Mark.  Singing his praises.  One sweet Spanish speaking eighty-something year old lady brings someone new every time she comes to the office.  This last time she brough five people.  Everyone wants to come and see who helped her walk again.

Mark whisked through the halls, re-aligning spines, wrists, jaws, knees, working out muscles, and talking his patients through it all.  He sounded so wise.  They listened, asked more questions, and nodded fervently. 

You know, I'm really glad Mark chose this line of work.

He's kind of a natural.

In the Words of MacAlister

A few gems of late:

Mac:  "Mom, I need Trent."
Me:  "Oh yeah?  Have you been missing him?"
Mac:  "Yes.  Lets go to Trent's house.  I need Trent.  And Jesus.  I need Trent, and I need Jesus."

Me:  "Mac, you need to stop being grumpy."
Mac:  "Can't wanna stop being grumpy."
Me:  "Mac, if you want to play with your Hulk hands you can't be so grumpy.  Super heroes are not grumpy."
Mac:  "Super heroes yes grumpy, Mom."
Me:  "No they aren't.  They are happy and they help people.  They are nice."
Mac:  "No.  Hulk grumpy, Mom.  Hulk do this all the time" [makes a Hulk face]



Me: "Mac, it's time to get out of the tub."
Mac: "Wait!  I need Dad first."
Me:  "Buddy, let's get out."
Mac:  "Mom, wait.  Wait.  First I need Dad."
Me:  "Well, let's go downstairs and get him."
Mac:  "Mom, get down there.  Go get Dad."
Me: [laughing]
Mac:  "Not funny, Mom.  Just get down there."

Mac:  "Sister likes me so much, Mom."
Me:  "Yes.  You are her favorite boy."
Mac:  "We so funny, Mom.  Play peek-a-boo and go racin' to finish line." (He likes to help her roll/crawl.)

I think I need to set a little notebook on the fridge so I can jot down all the awesome things he's saying lately.

Imagination?

Mac is such a realist.

It kind of drives me crazy.

I mean really, I lived in my own world of mermaids, elves, talking wolves, and princesses.  And I loved my childhood.  Sometimes I still drift back into that world. 

I try to re-create it for Mac. 
Me: [Grab a stick, make it fly through the air] "Look out Mac, here comes a Dragon!  Where's your sword?"
Mac: [Furrows brows] "Crazy Mom.  It's no dragon, just a stick.  Crazy Mom."

He loves his hulk hands, and he'll even grab his little toy hammer and spin it in circles like Thor.  But it's always like Thor or like the Hulk.  He most definitely is not the actual Hulk.  He's just "MackyCalister Ramond Gunn, crazy Mom". 

Mark scoffs at my concerns for his lack of imagination.  "I never played pretend," he tells me, "and when my cousins wanted to, I thought it was lame because it wasn't real." 

Can you believe that?

He does admit flipping things around as if he were a ninja turtle however, so he's not a complete loss.

Don't worry, I haven't given up on Mac's ability to pretend.  I'm going to continue to try my best to make him see beyond his own world ... but I suppose there is some merit in living in the real one.

He likes to do things right.

Sports, drawing, writing (he can write the letter "s", "o", "i" and a few shapes), singing, riding a bike ... all of these things he works on meticulously till he gets them right.  And he loves nothing better than being cheered on as he performs.

So there is a little of me in him after all.

Belen at 7 Months

At her six month appointment, Belen weighed 18.2 pounds (75th percentile).  She was 26 1/4" (50th percentile).  And though I didn't get the exact measurement of her head, it was in the 90th percentile. 

It appears she has caught up to her brother.

Her doctor blamed the jump of her head size on her incredible intelligence, which manifests itself in an intense love of food.

This girl will eat about anything, and feeds herself as well as I do.  She puts those four teeth she now has to work.  She loves any fruit, avocados, pretzels, bread, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, beans, and will even eat broccoli now.  Provided there's salt on it.

She definitely takes after me.

She's about halfway through her seventh month now, and has hit another milestone.

She is moving.

But it's not quite crawling.

It's more of a rolling/backwards-caterpillar-scooch, and sometimes it makes her quite frustrated.



Belen is constantly getting stuck on chair legs and walls.  And when she sees something she really wants and gets all excited, the backwards scoot really kicks in and she ends up farther than ever before from the desired objects. 

There's a little more hollering going on around here.

But she's figuring it out, and amazes me every day. 

Right now, Belen's loves all-things-Mac, blowing zerbits, "wrestling" Dad, patty-cake, peek-a-boo, and my personal favorite: head-hugs.  She grins, gets bashful, and bows that big curly head right into your cheek.  It melts me.

Belen also is getting quite the tan.  We have really been enjoying the water this summer, what with pool parties, water park passes, and beach trips.  She's got tan lines to be proud of.

My most favorite tan lines are in her fat wrinkles on her wrists.  White as snow.

I know babies shouldn't get tan ... I'm dowsing her in sunscreen and keeping her in the shade as much as possible ... but she definitely seems to enjoy the great outdoors, and so do the rest of us.

All in all, at seven months this girl acts and looks significantly older than she is.  She's putting all that willpower to good use, and I am so proud of this lovely lady.

Independance Day

In Mac's two-year-old world, the Fourth of July is the greatest holiday ever created.

Better than birthdays, and better than Christmas.

Why?

Fireworks.

So this year, we really lived it up.

The Monday before, we had the Shaws come over for a little patriotic Family Home Evening.

Tim seemed mildly terrified, but all went smoothly.

Matt, one of Mac's friends.  "Matt and Mac" gets confusing, but it's worth it.  We love this kid.

Belen being held by the Great Mayor of La Habra himself!

Morning of, we hustled out to a giant park to have a massive breakfast with our stake.

Complete with ice cream.

It seems like everyone in our ward has enormous amounts of family throughout the stake, but our good friends the Hollands were, as we were, family-less.  So we held down our table well, and had a great and memorable conversation with a deaf guy who rocks at pool.

When Mark took Mac over to the play area and Mac later returned on his own, Taylor reported seeing Mark schmoozing some young, lovely lady.  Janae suggested that he could be drumming up clientele.  Made sense to me.

Turns out, we do have family here!  I forgot to snag a picture, but I'll get some soon.  Mark's cousin and her family are all here for a work assignment that should last through the summer.

I'm excited to stake our claim on somebody.  Especially for holidays like this one.

Moving on, we went home and lit a couple small and silent fireworks.

Mac's reactions were priceless.

Then Mark was off to sell Funnel Cakes with the Lion's Club at the high school's fireworks show. The kids both took great naps; I even had to wake Mac up.  When I sat next to him he mumbled in his sleep: "Fireworks, fireworks ..." Once he was coherent enough, I broke the news that we needed to head out to see the show and quickly stuffed them in the wagon.  Together we trudged up the hill to find Daddoo.

While Mark spooned jam onto fried deliciousness, Belen and I watched Mac absolutely man-handle about five different bounce houses.

Two hours later, someone finally took pity on Mark and allowed him a break.  Mac reported all his adventures and together we watched random fireworks pop all over the place while waiting for the big show to start on a corner of the Shaw's family spot.  (Thank you for letting us invade yet again!) 

Mac jumped all over the place searching the sky for the "big, huuuuge fireworks!"

And we tried to keep things out of Belen's mouth.

Finally the show started.  Mac squealed and laughed and kept jumping up to tell the kids around us, "Oh my gosh!  Did you see that?  Huuuuuge fireworks!  Wow!"

Still can't figure out night mode on this camera.

Belen nursed through the first few, and then just couldn't take not knowing what was going on any more and intently watched the entire show as I held her face close to mine.  Though she didn't seem quite as thrilled as Mac, she definitely did not look away.

But once they were over, she was out.

We hurried through our last tiny fireworks at home, which Mac felt were incredibly sub-par after what he had just witnessed.

So we said good night to the fireworks, talked persistently about how we needed to do some more soon, said "Happy birthday, America!", and hit the sack ourselves.

Hard Working Man

Ever been to Costco or Sam's Club and been reeled in by some guy promising the world's best blender or knives that last forever?

Mark did that.

Of course, he was selling health.



He got to wear the earpiece and microphone and called people over to his little demonstrations.  He whipped out his Graston tools (thank you Ryan!), measured people to see how aligned they were, and scheduled appointments. 

I think he got seven new patients out of the deal.
He is always looking into things like that.  He has signed up to hopefully have a booth at the Corn Festival.  He set up a booth at the softball fields to work on players.  He has joined a Living Social group, a La Habra business owner's group, and the local Lion's Club. 

He's even got me into it ... I've got his cards and pamphlets at a little store I frequent, and tomorrow I'm going to a girls-only local business group for lunch.

And he's watching the babies.

Aren't we a great team?

We seem to be doing alright, Mark's little practice is slowly and steadily building.  He had a record-breaking day today: 10 of his own patients, 4 of them new.

And I love seeing "Dr. Gunn" all over the place.

Baby Sister

My baby sister.
My parents decided to leave her behind for an extra week of fun.
I was quite looking forward to it ... I moved out when she was six, and so haven't spent as much time with her as the other siblings.
Plus, she's so similar to myself at that age that it's almost creepy.  I have felt for a while that this has made me harder on her, instead of more understanding ... something that needed some serious remedy-ing.

And so she stayed for a  California adventure, and boy did we give it to her.
She did a little babysitting (bless her), and we did a little shopping. 

A little beach-ing.
A lot of eating.
And of course, if you know Rachel at all, we naturally did a lot of game-ing.

We also did nails, massages, twinner hair styles and borrowed clothes.  We caught some rays and then drenched each other in aloe vera.  We loaded up on sugar and made empanadas and talked about boys and best friends and the ups and downs of being 12 years old.   

You know, all those basic sister things.

Plus two crazy kids.

Rachel taught Mac a top-secret handshake.  (Which Mark has now taken over.)

And then I had to go ahead and make the week above and beyond memorable.

She how happy she is in that last picture?

Little does she know, she's in for the scare of her life.

And the rest of ours.

See, she's only ever been on an airplane once, about four years ago.  And she's never been on one by herself.  So she was a little nervous to begin with to make her big trek home.

And then I went ahead and confirmed all her worst fears.

No, I didn't make the plane blow up.

But I put her on the wrong plane.

AAAAAAAAAAck.  Here's what happened:  Belen was tired.  Rachel was nervous.  I was thoroughly distracted.  I got us to the right gate easily enough.  We sat down and talked about what would happen, who to talk to, when to get on and off, who to follow, etc. etc.  Then the plane arrived and group A started lining up to board the plane.  It was about forty minutes before her scheduled take-off, which was a little early, but not significantly enough to cause any red flags in my mind.  I've usually boarded my flights about a half hour early.  Ten extra minutes shouldn't mean anything, right? 

Wrong. 

Well, I introduced her to the flight attendant and told her I needed to head out so Belen would sleep in the car for me.  She asked me to stay, I told her she was a big girl and could do it.

And I left.

Got a phone call a couple of hours later.  "Hi, is this Allison Gunn?  We have your sister here in San Jose, California."

WHAT.

Turns out, the flight to San Jose was and earlier scheduled flight leaving out of our same gate, but was late.  I didn't listen one bit to anything that was said over the intercom.  The man who was checking everyone's tickets was obviously quite rushed in order to get everyone through before the next plane (our plane) came needing the gate.  So he hustled Rachel (and several others) on without even scanning her ticket.

And she was sent to San Jose. 

She later told me after she had landed and discovered all the "Welcome to San Jose" signs and the initial shock settled, she gathered her racing thoughts and said to herself, "Do something do something do something!"  And had the wherewithall to put aside her fear of strangers and find the right people to talk to.  They were more than kind, and moved very quickly to find a solution to this horrific problem.

Then came the most obvious of the many more subtle miracles: 

There were no more flights to Salt Lake City that day.  There were supposed to be no more flights to L.A.  But one was delayed just enough for her to hustle down the halls and board.

And she made it back to me.

The next day we tried again, and though she had been raving about the adventure she had had, she was understandably nervous.  I was too.  I think I asked maybe five different people where her flight was going.  I let Belen take cat naps in her carrier.  I checked several signs and screens.  I was so detail-oriented. 

But we both still had some butterflies as she stepped onto that plane.

Thankfully, an hour and forty minutes later, I got the news she had arrived safe and sound.

Rachel, I'm so glad you came and I'm so sorry to ship you off so badly.  I hope you'll soon gather the courage to come again, and we will do things better!

Hulk Hands

When Nana and Bumpa came, they brought a very special gift.

Hulk Hands.

While they were scary at first -- would they turn him green?! -- Mac warmed up quickly.  Especially when Sister gave them a try.

Daddoo had a great time showing him how they work.

 

And Mac quickly became a pro.

 
 

Since he's got the smash down, we are now learning how super heros use their powers to HELP people. 

That one's taking a little longer to sink in.

But ... learning the rules of rough housing is a good thing, right?