Life as Onduli

I have updated my other blog….

here

Read a good quote …

"In the public school system, children are socialized horizontally, and temporarily, into conformity with their immediate peers. Home educators seek to socialize their children vertically, toward responsibility, service, and adulthood, with an eye on eternity."
- Thomas C. Smedley, M.S., “Socialization of Home Schooled Children: A Communication Approach”

I especially like the "eye on eternity" part.  Well said.

Since I didn’t take many pics with baby actually in them on vacation…. had to post a few from this last month so you can see how much he has grown!  He’s growing up sooo fast!  I’ll remember June as the month of sweet smiles and cooing….even though I can’t seem to get a picture or a video of either.

or at least not of him talking with ME……  here’s one with is daddy:

 major event of the month LOL….  family Lego building party…..  ds7 saw the idea in his Lego magazine and was so excited when we put it on the calendar and took the time out to play legos all together….

 my creation is the lovely red dinosaur in case you were wondering…

 One day ds7 asked if baby could spend his ‘wake time’ in his room …. I realized a bit later that ds7 was reading to baby – it was sooo sweet.  One of those moments that just brings me so much joy!  One of those kinds of moments I dreamed about when I was praying for years for another baby.

sweet baby starting to play a little….

and it’s official….. he sucks his 2 fingers……

I’ll end with a pic of my two guys at an outdoor concert…

so I am thereby officially caught up LOL…….  well at least with posting photos of baby that have been requested

We took a trip….  starting off with my niece’s wedding.  ds7 was the ring bearer.  He had to stand up front right next to the groom for the entire ceremony – I was so proud of him – was just bursting with emotion as I watching him walking in – he’s just growing up so fast!

and just in case you thought differently…….  though he behaved perfectly for the ceremony and the millions of photos afterwards, my silly guy was still under all those fancy clothes……

random vacation tidbits….  we were with a large part of my family for 10 days …..  grandma, grandpa, brother and wife with their 3 kids, sister and husband with 6 of their kids… so ds7 had great fun with his cousins – which for me was the whole reason for the extended trip after the wedding – I mean let’s be honest, traveling all over the place with a 9 week old was never going to be a ‘vacation’ for me  

baby did great though, really rolled with the punches pretty well – by the end of trip he was even nursing like a pro and latching on so much better etc which was such an answer to prayer since I needed to nurse in public so much of the time for the trip.  We joked that I was breastfeeding at all the major attractions…. Navy Pier, The "bean" in millenium park in Chicago, St. Louis Arch etc……LOL.  I figured that once I nursed on a trolley car in downtown Chicago that really I had figured out the whole ‘nursing in public’ thing that I had such difficulty with before.  And baby kept up with his sleeping at night too

anyhow, here’s a couple pics:
ds7 with a couple cousins at submarine inside Museum of Science and Industry:

family pic – a reflection in the bean (can you believe silly me – this is the only family pic from our whole 10 day vacation and it’s a reflection of us!  oh well)

Nice pic of the bean itself… really cool how it reflected the skyline

and ds7′s favorite part of the whole trip…… visiting an actual Lego store – we don’t have one anywhere near where we live…. 
 

and later on in the trip…….  stayed by a lake in Arkansas……. here’s a pic of ds7 with his cousins hunting for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park

my favorite shot of him from the trip…..ds7 lost more teeth

and here’s my boys hanging out at a hotel

During May was baby’s baptism

 the family pic…

 One of my favorites of sweet baby talking with me…

 I LOVE this photo because it was just such a sweet moment to see ds7 finally completely comfortable holding his baby brother – and he was so sweet and nurturing etc…

My mother’s day present – ds7 and daddy planted flowers in our front yard for me…

and the beginning of summer heat and summer fun

the beginning of the sweet smiles…

and closing with another one of my favorites…