Catching Up!

Well, it's been way too long since I've last posted. I guess you can say we've been a little busy chasing our little ones around! Here's a brief update:

Damien is already four years old! He turned 4 on April 21st, and we were able to celebrate with many family members and friends. Damien requested a Super Why cake, so I somehow found a way to make one that he could recognize by following a post from a blog I found on Pinterest (it works!). Damien's big surprise for his 4th birthday was a "big boy bike"! We finally got up the guts to let Damien try it outside at the beginning of June, and he's getting to be a pro!

Damien also finished preschool on May 23rd and is enrolled in 4K for the fall! Look how our big boy has changed in the course of one school year!

 Blaise is almost three (in August) and is very excited to start preschool in the fall. Blaise already knows all the preschool songs because Damien taught him! Blaise is happy to be riding a bigger tricycle since Damien got his new bike. He also finds any opportunity to ask if it's time to go outside, go to a park (or a "different park"--meaning one we've never been to before), or go to a water park (we had the opportunity to visit a nice one in Green Bay for our family's first-ever vacation earlier this month). Blaise has been a great big brother and is often looking out for his little sister, Mary.  He is always impressing us by his thought-processing and communication skills.

Mary is 17 months old and is extremely busy with her relatively new skills. Mary loves walking, running, and climbing. She's great at going up stairs, but definitely still needs help going down.  She probably has about 20 vocabulary words that we can understand, and she seems very interested in communicating with us.  We are still having issues with Mary's neck rashes, which have been coming and going since she was about two months old. I've had two dermatologists tell me that they've not seen anything quite like hers before, so we just keep treating (econazole twice a day and hydrocortisone 2.5% added on during a flare) and hope eventually it won't come back.  Poor Mary has also had three ear infections that we've known of since January, but you'd never know it by her happy demeanor.

And last, but not least, here is a pic of Daddy with his three babes! (Our photos with all the kids don't get much better than this!)