Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro, Cinco, Cinco, Seis

In my last post I told you all about Jenna’s transition from the crib to a bed. This time there is a less obvious, but far more tear jerking example of just how big she is getting. You may already be aware of Jenna’s borderline psychotic obsession with Disney’s The Lion King. This classic has accompanied her pre-nap and pre-bedtime milks for a number of months. And for most of these months she lovingly requested to watch “Seeba.” It was adorable, as most childhood mispronunciations are. But kids are pretty smart, and after a while they start to figure out that they aren’t saying things quite right, and they want to do better, even if their mother wants them to continue to sound like a cute one-year old until they are deep into their teens. So when Jenna recently climbed painstakingly up onto the couch and with milk in hand, clearly requested to watch “simba”, Jarom and Lix shared a surprised and sad glance. A few days later, as the family was leaving Target she took it even further, asking to have some milk and watch the “lion king” when she got home. She is almost 2, folks. In addition to breaking Lix’s heart by speaking properly, Jenna has become quite a letter wizard. She has the entire alphabet in her bathtub and can accurately identify about 80% of them, depending on the day. Counting to 10 in English is still a struggle, but she can do it better in Spanish.

Still hasn't used it effectively, but it's a start

Jenna was helpful and gave Bo a blanket

Jenna is SOOOO big!

Her first time wearing a headband

Bo is hitting his milestones too, although Jarom is definitely noticing a lower level of excitement as he reaches them. The ability to roll over just isn’t as impressive to him this time as it was the last time around. By the time they get to kid number 5 he is going to have to be writing advanced mathematical equations in preschool in order to get any parental praise. I guess that’s why Kristi and Jolene are such overachievers. But Blake has begun to do some rudimentary rolling over, and at his first doctor’s visit he was in the 90th percentile for height, which will be great when he is someday playing pickup ball at the church on Tuesday nights, desperately fighting to stave off father time and cling to what little remains of his past athletic glory. He is also starting to smile and put on some weight, which means that he looks like more of a cute baby and less of tiny old person.

Assorted Bo faces

To celebrate summer’s arrival the Richmond Winns took a day trip out to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. There were lots of beautiful flowers and trees, and it has a fairly significant kid’s play area that the Ennas took advantage of. But as the morning wore on it started to get hot, so they moseyed on back to the parking lot. On their way they had to walk over a bridge, upon which was sitting a Brown Watersnake enjoying some sun. Kenzie was the first to spot it, as she nearly put her hand on its head. Jarom picked Jenna up to give her a better look, and she immediately reached out to touch it, which made Jarom glad that there aren’t any poisonous snakes around, lest having a pet snake would lead Jenna to do something rash like want to play with a cobra. That afternoon, like so many of them these days, was spent watching the kids splash around in the inflatable backyard pool while sitting in the shade of the backyard. Like everywhere else in the country, it’s been really hot here in Richmond, and the girls can’t get enough water. Plus it is nice to sit down and relax after working out at the gym, something that all 4 Winn adults are doing. Nate got this crazy idea that he should run a half marathon, and he had little trouble pressuring Jarom into participating. So Jarom now has Nate scolding him whenever he does not meet his assigned mileage, which has been every week since this shenanigan started. They are still figuring out which half marathon to run, mostly because they can’t seem to accept the fact that they will have to pay over $50 each just for the right to run farther than they have ever run before. There is an early leader with one in November in Richmond. The most appealing aspect of that particular run is that it is sponsored in part by McDonalds and has 3 “Junk Food” stops along the route. Now that is the kind of marathon that Jarom and Nate can get on board with.













And last but not least, Jarom and Lix honored the brave men and women of the armed forces by finally painting the dining room on Memorial Day. Over a year ago Lix and her dad put up crown molding in there, and since then it has just been sitting as is, with various paint splotches on the wall, looking like a mess. Monday morning the family took a trip to the Home Depot to get just the right shade of blueishgray, and a few hours later it was all finished. For those counting at home that makes 5 rooms painted, with only 2 more left to do (master bedroom and mine/Blake’s.) Everyone who has seen it thinks the color is great, and now the room just needs some curtains, which Lix is already planning.