Update (sigh...) where to begin

Hard to believe there are only 4 more weeks left in the summer. We are enjoying the outdoors a whole lot more now that we have a fenced in backyard. Just means we are asking, "Where's Ethan?" a little less frequently. Meagan just got back from 4 days of church camp near Cincinnati. She had a blast with friends and has been caught reading her Bible independently on more than one occasion since her return! NiNi is amazing in her gymnastics class. Her teacher is hard-core...my little princess is usually sweating profusely by the time I pick her up. Fine by me. At least we're getting our money's worth. Ethan continues to charm his teachers at daycare. His speech is coming along SLOWLY (but surely). His new favorite word: "NO" which he says with perfect whining intonation which is so characteristic of another of my children. He also says "mama", "more", "hi", "bye-bye" (which comes out nigh-nigh) and "owe" when he hurts himself. Speaking of hurting himself, we almost made a trip to the ER when he fell out of his high chair a couple of weeks ago. He fell so hard I heard the sickening smack of his head against the floor from across the room. He was really irritable for about 10 minutes then promptly threw up. My friendly google medical adviser told me these are symptoms of a concussion so I called the pediatrician on call. We ended up just watching him for the night and he thankfully he was just fine. Apparently kids can get mild concussions with no ill effects. Chris keeps saying that Ethan's not going to have any brain cells left by the time he hits college! My amazing hubby is determined to get his body back into shape. He's lost almost 10 pounds and is exercising again for the first time in over 5 years. Now that we are both pushing 40, the realization that "it's not getting any easier" has set in. Ever since we discovered Ethan's dairy allergy, I have been toying with the idea of becoming vegan. I hate that word because it has so many connotations...tree-hugger, hippie, you name it. Besides, I would make a very poor animal-rights activist, seeing how I dislike animals. No, I am looking purely at the health benefits of eating plant-based sources of protein (of which there are an over abundance). Anyway, I guess I'm what you'd call a "wanna-be" vegan since I still happily eat fish and eggs. I let the kids eat what they want, but the funny thing is, they generally like what I cook (and Meagan now says she's a vegetarian!) Chris is tolerant. He eats what he wants for breakfast and lunch and figures that one meatless, dairy-free meal per day is not going to kill him. He wont admit it, but he had seconds of the Lentil Shepherd's Pie I made for dinner the other night. I do admit, even as a person who likes healthy food, it has taken several weeks and more than one "throw-away" recipe (think tofu strawberry pie sounds gross? It is.) to find a menu of dinners (and breakfasts, snacks, etc) that fit my criteria but are tasty enough to eat over and over again. We'll see how it goes, but I have already noticed some health benefits: My heartburn woes??? Totally disappeared. End of summer plans: Vacation at Lake Michigan. Stay turned for pics!