I can't believe how quickly time has been passing lately. We're already entering mid July! Tylan is a little over a month away from her first birthday, and in just a few weeks Cory's dad will be getting married. We're having another summer of just sticking around Yankton, and we aren't even getting trips to Mankato in like we usually do. We did go up to Mitchell to the drive in to see Up last Tuesday, and that was pretty fun except for the hail storm!

There's usually something going on every day. Monday's are ballet, Tuesdays are gymnastics and tumbling. Tuesdays and Thursdays are swimming lessons. Wednesdays and Fridays are library programs. The kids are really enjoying everything, and since it's only an hour or so at a time for each thing, no one is feeling burnt out or wanting more down time. Accalia and Cole would probably like more time with the neighbors, but it's been hit or miss over the past couple weeks. When their mom isn't working, they're spending more time hanging out with their mom's boyfriend. Accalia and Cole were pretty upset a month or so ago when the neighbors told them they were probably going to move to the boyfriend's house at the end of summer, but I don't know if that will actually happen. Their mom seems to have a new boyfriend each summer, so I'm not going to hold my breath that she'll disrupt their lives that much for a man.

While usually I just wish time would slow down so that I can actually accomplish something, sometimes it just hits me how much the kids are growing and changing.

Accalia, at 10, is at an in between stage where she still gets excited about Spongebob and Tinkerbell, but is also just as happy about emailing a friend or trying out new hair accessories. She's such a sweet, sweet girl. She's a thinker, too, and rarely lets me know what she's thinking or doing until she suddenly demonstrates it. She showed me her choreographed dance routine to the song Kryptonite the other day, and it was easily something I see the senior girls do for their individual routine at the dance recital. Her latest interest has been with math - multiplication in particular. I don't even remember what spurred that, but she spent part of her allowance the other week on flash cards of all things.

Cole, creeping up on 7, seems to be going through quite the emotional time. He easily cries at night as he gets more tired and finds so many things to be upset about at the end of the day as he's lying in bed. He's quite the thinker, too, but unlike Accalia he likes to talk everything out. I remember 7 being a hard age for me with Accalia because she seemed so distant and inaccessible as she went through these changes. Now with Cole, he's verbalizing a lot of the process that he's going through.

Ella, 3, has had quite the leap in her verbal skills over the past couple months. Unfortunately, she's had no leap in her toileting abilities. I know it's going to happen and probably soon, but there's always that point where you wonder if you're child will be in diapers forever. Ella's doing a lot of imaginative play, which is becoming more and more elaborate.

Tylan, 10 months, is becoming quite the force to be reckoned with at this point. She's only still if she's fast asleep. If she's awake, she's crawling, climbing, standing, etc. The fun thing for the older kids this week has been watching Tylan stand on her own for three seconds at a time. Tylan continues to try out all sorts of sounds, too, but isn't really saying much in the way of recognizable words. She's said mama before, and she'll often say something that either sounds like Ella or wawa.

I have a lot I'm trying to do but am not sure that I'm actually making progress. I should be focusing more on LLL work, but my computer time has been so limited lately. I've been looking into possibilities for work to do at home or at least with the kids being able to be around because we're desperately in need of additional income. I'm not sure how quickly I'll succeed in that, but I'm open to suggestions!

More sleep would be a good thing, too. This past week has been marked by too little sleep on my end. Here's hoping we can start out the week on a much more well rested note!