McFarland Family Fun!: July 2013

We had quite the busy month in July! This will mostly be a month in pictures with a few stories.

We went to Long Beach/Los Angeles for the Fourth of July as we do every year. We stayed for a few days and it was wonderful. The girls had a blast and of course we loved seeing our friends that we don't get to see enough. As for my surgery update, still nothing. I'm still on my bland, low/no fat diet which is just so wonderful. I have a few staples I can eat and that's about it. Scott has been loving dinners the past 8 weeks. I am scheduled for surgery on August 7th, but I won't know until the 6th whether or not it will happen. Also, I am hopefully on the verge of a new job offer. I will keep you updated next month, but I'm excited. I've been unemployed for one month now and I have definitely realized that I am someone who needs to work. Scott and I did have an awesome date night out to see Bruno Mars in concert. No joke that we had amazing seats and Bruno was amazing! It was seriously one of the best concerts I've ever been to.

Leila is just getting bigger and bigger. She is 8 months now and in addition to crawling, she is pulling herself to a stand, cruising around furniture, of course falling down and knows how to let herself down slowly. It's quite impressive. And of course Keira is so sweet with Leila when she falls down and she will squat and say "Leila, you okay? You okay, Leila?"

Leila's crawl is seriously funny. Sometimes she crawls normally, but most of the time it's a version like this:

Leila is also growing so much that she got her bottom two teeth in early July, right about 8 months old. This is quite the milestone as it took Keira quite a while to get her first teeth, however Leila was in beast mode while teething. She is definitely not as pleasant as Keira was. It's amazing how each child is different.

8 months!

LOVES standing up on this chair and burying her face in the animals

Just cruisin' around with sister's gardening shovel

Keira is still making us laugh on a daily basis. Of course she has some brutal tantrums as well, but they are usually few and far between and the laughs make it worth it in the long run. Typical two year old behavior. She had her fourth hair cut this month and it is quite the serious situation as she holds so still and only her eyes dart around to see what the stylist is doing.

We have had another busy month with gymnastics every Saturday, but we also added in a two week swim lesson session with the City. She's great in our pool, but we wanted to get her acclimated to a different instructor. The first day was rough in that she cried almost the entire lesson, but she still did everything the teacher asked (while crying), which I thought was quite funny. The next day she was a different child and was completely fine. She is quite the little fish and her kicks are getting stronger and stronger every day. Her jumping on the other hand still needs some work. Here's an example:

Keira is also the best big sister ever! She is always checking on Leila and is so sweet with her. She will hold her hand down a slide, picks out a water bottle for Leila and holds it for her to drink, and just checks on her constantly. Of course on the flip side we also hear a lot of "No Leila! Too little" when Keira doesn't want her to touch or play with something. Leila just loves her big sister though and wants to be all up in whatever she is doing. She can hold her own too. She gets mad if Keira tries pushing her out of the way or takes a toy and she will yell. Their interactions are hilarious. I can't wait to see more as they continue to grow. Keira also seems to think that anytime I go to Starbucks she gets something. I mentioned Starbucks in passing one day and I hear her say from the backseat, "I need my Starbucks. I need my chocolate milk." Needless to say I was shocked, but of course I had to take care of the little lady's needs (and mine).