We have been very busy splashing around on the deck on the hot days and 
going to parks and playgrounds when it is cooler. 
We snuck in a trip to Dutch Wonderland last weekend before John's week of traveling, 
and that was lots of fun. So much going on - I definitely need to update more.
Little baby update: I had a doctor's appt on Monday night and took both girls with me. Sylvia loved going to the visit and hearing baby's heart-beat (which sounded great!). She was the doctor's helper and held the doppler device, turned it on, and turned it off. She now wants to go to every visit. Stella, on the other hand, shrieked as loud as she could as the nurse tried to take my blood pressure, and it only went down-hill from there. She is now banned from all future appointments :)
The next visit will be Friday for our ultrasound; can't wait! John is now anxious to find out too, so fingers crossed, we'll know a little more about the new baby in a week. Although I've been thinking of the baby as a boy - John has made his official guess. During a bet made with Sylvia (who is still saying "BOY!!!"), he voted girl. He is almost always right about everyone so chances are.......
Sylvia update: She is loving school, and although claims to remember nothing that happened when I pick her up, she spends the rest of the day singing pieces of songs about the days of the week and reciting parts of the Pledge of Allegience. When we get ready for lunch she starts to say the prayer they say in school ("Thank you for the food we eat...."). I really like her teacher. She has a big focus on helping them learn to read, and right now they are collecting names of products and stores (Cheerios, Target, etc), that most of them can recognize already to create a Word Wall and a Word Book. I'm excited for Sylvie, and how much she loves playing with her new friends and doing her projects. The other day they all tried red, yellow, and green apples, and then made a chart to show who liked which color the best. (Sylvie loved them all, but prefers yelllow.)
Here is a video of her singing Ramo. Not the most accurate version, but possibly the most passionate:
Stella update: I think she gets a little trickier and a little more adorable every day. If I call her name, for any reason, she immediately runs the other way, arms pumping as hard as she can. Then a minute later, she'll put her little face as close to mine as she can, says "Hi!", and gives me her biggest, best baby hugs. She is blissfully unaware that she is soon to be a big sister. She is slowly adding words, most recently "back-pack", "whoa!", and "beep-beep" (she says bop-bop). At her doctor's appointment, she was 20th percentile weight and 90th percentile height, (although the way she fought me, the nurse, and the doctor, I would have very little confidence in that height number). Anyway, although she screamed and fought with all her might throughout the appointment, everything was normal, and she got 3 shots with no fevers or anything since, thank goodness. Here is an example of her talents and vocabulary :)
And one more quick video of Sylvie for the road...she's come a long way since the days of "bye-bye" and "button" :)
