Monsoon Mondays

This was a post I meant to publish before we left on our cross country trip.  I will post on the trip next. :)

We are in the midst of Monsoon season here in Arizona. Crazy, quick storms that dump a ton of rain down in an amazingly short amount of time. It does bring down the heat a little, but also adds the humidity. It is fun to watch the huge drops of rain, but Andrew hates the thunder.
We had a funny day. Andrew and Jacob found a can of sardines in our emergency kit/food storage and really wanted to open it. I made them wait until Jeremy woke up. SO, we all had sardines at ten in the morning. ugh. But, everyone thought they were okay, even Michael. :) We all had a couple bites. I thought it would be just lots of tiny fish, but it was two small fish sans heads and tails. It was in water, so it pretty much just tasted like fish. I was really expecting the boys to be grossed out, but they weren't. They loved the can and wanted more. Not a bad addition of protein to a 72 hour kit or food storage.
Then in the evening we visited the Tucson Children's Musuem for Monsoon Mondays. It just means everyone can get in for a $1 a person. So we spent $4 (Michael was free) instead of $24. Hooray. They all had fun. They had a dinosaur exhibit, which is the reason we HAD to go. I thought it was great, but not great enough for $24. :)
We are all so excited for our trip. We can not wait.
Michael is drinking out of a straw now, so we are hoping that it will be easier for him in the car. You don't have to hold the cup up as much.
Jacob keeps finding things and saying they are his babies. And if he loses them , he starts to cry. Mostly, they are small things like a bouncy ball or rocks, but he is so cute as he takes care of them. I wish he was as soft with his brother as he is with his 'babies'. :)

Michael Duncan Selim

Our baby is a year old. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. He had a fun party in Phoenix. We got a blow up pool out and the kids had a really fun time. Justina, Taylor, Aiden and Eva had just come into town, so we met Eva for the first time and the boys loved playing with Aiden. The boys love being at Grandma Selim's house and soaking up all the attention. We loved seeing Emily, too. She saved us when the pool we had planned on using had holes in the bottom after we cleaned it all up. :) She is a great Aunt. Our boys are really lucky to have so many people to love them on both sides of our family.

I took Michael to the doctor yesterday and he weighed 22 pounds, 1 ounce. He was 30 and 3/4 inches long. He is our big guy! 

I can't believe June is almost over. It feels like it just started. Yesterday was my love's birthday, he is now 32 years old. He was 24 when we started dating. :) We had to celebrate his birthday on Wednesday, because I spent most of his birthday filming for MDA. We went up to a small lake, complete with fishing license, two fishing poles and worms. We caught nothing. :) Oh, well. It was beautiful up there, much cooler than here and not a cactus in sight. Poor Jeremy just had bad luck - the bobbers ( I don't know how to spell that) kept sinking, the line would get tangled, the reel on one broke and when everything happened to be working, the boys would start throwing rocks in the water, again. I hope we can try again with better luck. Then we came home and had Jeremy's chosen dinner - pizza and hot wings :) I hope he had a good birthday. Last year, he says he spent his birthday alone in a hotel room with a can of spam. So hopefully, this was better. But, how can you really compete with Spam? He was teaching a workshop in Austin and we were in Houston praying that Michael wouldn't come while he was away.
The next day, Jeremy and I both went to work. Thankfully, Lynne came up to celebrate with us and to watch the boys while I filmed. Everyone was really nice and even though they misspelled my name on my VIP name tag - Cindy Selin- I still felt important. It was filmed at the national headquarters of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, so no one can go in without being signed in, given a name tag and escorted by an employee to wherever you need to go. I have no idea why.
But, anyway I learned how easy it is to work with a teleprompter. I always thought that it was right next to the camera and that you had to balance looking at the words and the camera, but it is the camera. The words are right on the lens of the camera. Pretty cool. I will probably never have a need to know that again, you typically don't look straight into the lens. :) This time I only looked straight into the camera for one shot anyway. I had a great time. I felt like a professional. It was a nice feeling. I didn't have to calm any children, change any diapers, etc for six hours and I got paid to pretend I was talking to someone on the phone. :) It was great. If I hadn't almost walked into the men's room, it would have been virtually painless.
One hard thing is it gave me a taste for it all again. I would really love to do more. I hope that other things will come along when I really need a break. Or a new pair of jeans. :) Andrew can go through a pair of pants faster than anyone I know. Only his church pants are without holes in the knees. And not the fashionably ripped jeans, just ones that obviously happened when he fell down. They match all the bruises and scrapes all over his legs. He plays hard! I am not excited for school clothes shopping.
My baby turns one next week. I can not accept that!

Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day this year. At least, we enjoyed it! I hope Jeremy did. :) Andrew was the event planner this year. He decided we needed to do a Father's Day parade complete with marching band. Andrew played his guitar, Jacob played the recorder and Michael and I were on the drum. We walked in singing, It's a parade, It's a parade, It's a Father's Day parade over and over all while playing our instruments. Jacob was really funny to listen to, as he was trying to blow into the recorder and sing the song. We all had the song stuck in our head all day.  Then we presented Jeremy with two fishing rods, one for him and one for the boys. Then we gave him a pair of shoes that matched the boys shoes. They picked all of it out. And total it was $20. Not bad discount shopping!  He woke up with a smile, which was sweet.  Anyone who knows Jeremy knows he hates to wake up, he loves to sleep in if he can. And then we had pancakes, eggs and bacon, which the boys helped make.  Then we all got ready for church and went to church.  It was so fun to have the boys so involved and that Jeremy really liked everything. He is really hard to shop for. 

I am so glad that Jeremy is the father of my children. He loves then so much and they really love him. Whenever Michael sees him, he gets the biggest smile on his face. He has started to just let go of me  and try to jump to Jeremy when we are standing by him.  We love you, Jeremy. I am glad that there is a day to honor them. I got to talk to my Daddy and he really likes the fishing pole we all got him. I wish I could have been there to celebrate with him, too. Last year we were there. It is hard to be so far away. Love you so, Daddy.

I would include pictures, but our memory card is acting up and the camera won't read it anymore. Oh, well. 

We have had a great week. Last Wednesday, the boys and I went to a playgroup tour of a fire station. Of course, I forgot my camera.  But, we had a great time. They saw the the bedrooms and the four refrigerators and the fire truck! They climbed in, 'drove' the truck and watched how high the ladder went up. On Saturday, we went hiking at the top of Mt. Lemmon with Celia, another Acting Fellow at the UA.  It was really beautiful. We had a picnic and the 'trail' led you across the creek several times. We saw a small waterfall and threw plenty of rocks in the creek. 

On Monday, I had my first audition here in Tucson. It was for a video teaching the volunteers for the MDA telethon what to do. The MDA headquarters is here in Tucson. It was nice to be auditioning again. I saw the other women there that were auditioning and thought, 'oh, well. At least it will be good for me to get my feet wet again.' They were beautiful and totally different than me. I stumbled a few times in the cold read, but overall I felt fine about it. When I left, I didn't think it was mine. But.... yesterday my agent called and told me I got it! I am really excited. I am thrilled to  take a little time away and film something. The money will be nice, but it feels good to be doing something different and using my talents.  Too bad it is on Jeremy's birthday. 

His show opens in two weeks and he will be performing on his birthday, too. 

And - Taylor and Justina has their baby! Yesterday, their little girl, Eva Elle Selim was born. I think she was about six and a half pounds and they are doing well. I will post a picture when I get one. Taylor sounded so happy when I talked to him. Congratulations! When I was talking to Taylor, I told Andrew his cousin was born and he asked," Is she big enough to play with us?"

Now he is going to start asking me for a baby sister again!

Arizona

We drove up Mt. Lemmon to Rose Canyon Lake. It was really pretty and not a cactus in sight. :) On the drive up there is a very clear dividing line, it must be the higher elevation, but all of a sudden there are no more cactii. There is a cactus forest that is hundreds, maybe thousands of saguaro. They almost look like people (or aliens)  marching down the mountain. But, anyway we hiked around the lake and it was so nice to be outside. I loved the smell of the pine trees. Jeremy picked me some wild flowers and had Andrew give them to me. It was so sweet. At the edge of the lake, I was sitting on a rock. He found a big log and brought it over and said, 'There's room for two.' These are small things, but I felt loved. We have been married for almost seven years. It was fun to feel like a couple sitting there looking out over the lake and watching the boys throw rocks in the water. We saw fish and even crawfish. Here they call them crawdads.  Jeremy jokingly told me I had to call them that now that we are in Arizona. I think I will always feel like a Texan.  Then we stopped on the way down and climbed on these huge rock formations. The boys loved it. I like the picture with Jeremy's shadow in it. I kept trying to take a picture with him and the boys, but he wouldn't let me. He says the shadow counts. :) Oh, and notice my bangs? I needed a change. :)

What a day

This picture is a little old, but Andrew is reading to Michael all about dinosaurs

Michael is zeroing in on Jacob


The picture is a little blurry, but Michael is attacking me. He loves to grab my hair and pull me.

After bath time - my three cute boys - aren't they huge!

Michael is part of the wrestling action!

Today, I am thankful for:
Resolve carpet cleaner
disposable diapers
little boys
fruit
dentists
antibiotics
Today has been crazy.
I am thankful for all of those things, but I wish they didn't all have something to do with my day today. I woke up with a sick baby. Michael has strep and is on medicine, but he just doesn't feel well. When he was awake today, he really just wanted to be held. He didn't have much of an appetite, poor guy. But, he did still want to play and smiled in between the sad times. I took him to the doctor and he is 21 1/2 lbs without clothes or a diaper and 29 1/2 inches long. He is getting so big.
One of the side effects of the medicine came through today and his diaper totally exploded out every way possible all over the rug. He and the rug needed a bath after. It was the first time I used Resolve carpet cleaner today.
At 9:00, I took Jacob to the dentist. It is a children's dentist, they even have a small mcdonalds style play ground for them to play in and small toys are given when they are done. But he still didn't want his teeth worked on. :) I hate the dentist, too. But, they are very good with him. Poor guy, he was so sad when he was done. They take the child back for part of it without the parent. They say the kids handle it better without Mom standing right there. And they have a one sided window parents can look through to watch what is going on. I wish I could go back and erase all the times I probably let him have too much apple juice. Oh, the mom guilt. But, he is all fixed and goes back for a check up in six months.
I bought some cherries and Andrew asked if he could have some. I told him to wait until after lunch - I was making it right then. We were having spaghetti. He said, 'Okay , Mama, I'll wait'. A little later, I heard the bathroom door close and didn't think much of it. Until I realized that I hadn't heard it reopen. I found Andrew in the bathroom with the bag of cherries. Ugh!
We had a talk about how he could hide from me, but Heavenly Father knows what we are doing and knows when we disobey.
Then after lunch, when he was carrying his plate back to the sink, he dropped it and spaghetti sauce all over the carpet on the way to the kitchen. Why do dining areas have carpet? Resolve carpet cleaner, take two.
He is also learning to read. I bought the book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and he is doing great. Today he read - am, eat, ram, see, rat, at, sat, sam , seed, me, and. Yea, Andrew. I told him today that he was a reader. He said in an astonished voice, "I am a reader?" So cute. It is so fun to be a part of this learning and growing. I am so grateful to be their mother, even when they accidentally smash cherries in the carpet when they are pushing the exersaucer around, which they aren't supposed to play with. Enter Resolve carpet cleaner for the third time in one day. I think I want a house with all tile or wood! :)