The Gypsies of Lake County

Isabelle Anne and her parents came up for a visit last weekend.  They have had quite the busy week, so we felt very honored that they squeezed us in.  Just one week ago Joe graduated from dental school, then on Wednesday they closed and moved out of their house in Indy meaning that for a short time they're homeless.  We call them gypsies, since they're just going from house to house all summer long in the Midwest until they move to their final new home in Arizona in August.  On Saturday morning Katie & Joe had an event to go to, so we got to babysit Isabelle for a few hours.  She is an absolute angel!  Seriously, she is the happiest most gorgeous baby.  What a little doll!  The rest of the day Saturday we had an impromptu pool party.  The Carpenters came down and with the awesome weather it might as well have been mid July.  Good thing we opened the pool early this year.

Isabelle's first swim in the pool!

Mom and Dad met Isabelle for the first time on Sunday morning.

On Sunday we had a barbecue at Jenni (Bean) Trautvetter's new house.  It was a fun Purdue swimmer reunion and her new home is gorgeous.  Luke loved playing with Bean's two little girls, and we loved visiting with all of old friends.

Leah and construction man Luke

Matt got another 20% of the playset done (thanks to Joe for helping with the tube slide).  He just has a couple other aesthetic things left before it is D-O-N-E! We are calling it Fort Dukerson.

Not much Luke news to report.  He continues to become more and more independent.  We don't have to worry so much about his balance going up an down stairs or climbing into chairs.  He can drink pretty well out of a real cup and definitely understands us when we talk to him.  His new favorite song is "When You're Happy and You Know It" and puzzles are still the daily obsession.  Isolene thinks he has a photographic memory since he can put puzzles together by himself after just doing them once with an adult.  He is loving sleeping lately.  Probably because he's playing so hard during the day, but at night he is starting to point at his crib to indicate that he wants to go to sleep even before we've finished his bedtime story.  Now we need to get him talking more!