Eve found a cape in the closet
that Julie made for Lex last year. He hasn’t done much with it,
but she loves it!! She puts it on and runs around saying, “I’m
a wind flyer!” A reference to a book we borrowed from the
library last month called Wind
Flyers, a story told by a boy about his
great-great-uncle, who was a Tuskegee airman. I’m impressed
with the reference because it’s been awhile since we had the
book and at the time I didn’t feel like either of them really
understood it. I guess something clicked with her. She also
likes to fly on my feet and wave the cape around. She has no
concept of the super hero /villain them, but Julie, I think the
cape is a success!! Thanks! :)

We went blueberry picking today. It was
fun. The kids were super excited about it yesterday but then
Lex threw me for a loop this morning when he insisted that he
would not leave the house. Bugger! Once I reminded him of our
blueberry-muffin-making afternoon plans, he was raring to go
again! Yay! We met Michelle and co there and a friend of hers
who has a 4yr old boy and a baby girl. The kids all had a great
time running around, filling up Michelle’s basket (she
announced plans to make blueberry ice cream and that seemed to
motivate the kids the most) and feeding blueberries to the baby
in the stroller. A good time was had by all.

After working hard in the field we headed to Panera Bread
for a lunch of blueberry bagels and milk. The kids were equally
excited for both. Here are a few cute pictures of Lex and
Caitlin. It was the only time my camera came out during the
adventure.

Lex
told me that Caitlin is his friend. I think that brings him up
to two friends – Eve and Caitlin :) This afternoon we made
blueberry muffins. They came out ok… not fabulous, but ok. I
haven’t found a blueberry muffin recipe that I really like. At
least the kids are always happy with them :)

a strawberry, a mole, a spider, a fish,
and the letter E…. these are the things Eve “ate” while we
were reading a Wild Animal Baby magazine last night. When she
was sitting on the potty before bed she grabbed another book
and I was expecting her to “eat” her way through that too.
Instead she point to a statue and said, “It’s a statue! We
don’t eat statues. I want to hold his hand,” and she proceeded
to “hold hands” with the picture in the book. She is soooo
super silly! Today we made a “family sandwich” (Alan and I hug
with the kids squished in the middle, it makes everyone laugh).
Lex started squirming away and Eve took a big pretend
(thankfully!) bite of the sandwich! Never a dull moment with
her around.

The word on the street these days is all
about “back to school” and after several people asked me when
Lex starts preschool I figured I should figure it out. There is
a preschool “open house” on 8/26 and I was thinking school
started after Labor Day, but SURPRISE, it starts on 8/27!!
Geesh!! I’m glad I looked. He’ll be going from 8-11am, five
days a week. Eeek!! I’m so not ready! I don’t even know what he
needs. Do preschoolers need backpacks? Snacks? Spare clothes
(ok, I know he needs that one!) Pens, pencils, notebooks (just
kidding, he’d better not need those!) I was planning on getting
all of these questions answered at the open house, but I guess
that’s pretty last minute.

On a similar
note, I’m reading a book called “Protecting
the Gift” by Gavin De
Becker. It’s a good book and has a lot
of information about trusting your instinct and teaching
children how to handle themselves in the world, but it’s also
kind of scary. I finished a chapter about selecting a daycare,
which included tons of questions to ask your provider… of
which we asked maybe one. I did some research but largely went
with a place that felt comfortable. Tonight I just finished a
chapter on safety at school with even more questions a good
parent should ask and know about their schools. I’m feeling
very much like NOT a good parent :( Our criteria for
preschool…. it’s free! I don’t know the teacher’s name (I
have it written down somewhere, I think), I’ve only been to the
place once and have never been inside, I have no idea about
anything about the school (safety record, policies, procedures,
principal, etc.) and I’m about to bring my son there five days
a week for the next 10 months!! Eeeekkk!! I’m feeling very
inadequate at the moment. So much so that I can’t even sleep :(
Luckily hubby is nice enough to get up and watch some TV with
me (after my cathartic blog post). Maybe some Jon Stewart and
Stephen Colbert will help ease my mind.

Next step: select a good novel from the bookshelf and read
that before bed!!

We’re having a fun-filled weekend with
family and food. Fun and yum! Here are a few pics, although I’m
realizing that my camera is always trained on the kids and I
didn’t get ANY pics of our long distance family :(

It’s super late, but I just have to brag
about how helpful and independent Lex is becoming. This morning
I was sweeping the kitchen and he said he wanted to help. He
grabbed the little hand broom we have and swept all around
their booster seats and the chairs they are attached too. It
sounds silly, but it was really helpful! Those things get dirty
and he left a great pile of crumbs and gook for me to sweep up.
Then he decided it was time to dust and he grabbed a wet cloth
and started dusting the living room. After I finished sweeping
I asked if he wanted to watch a show while I took a shower (Eve
and Alan were both still sleeping), but he said he wanted to
keep dusting instead! Crazy child! So he dusted and I showered.

On an entirely different note, I’ve
been really frustrated with bath time lately because they are
crazy in the tub and I spend the whole time yelling at them to
settle down and not splash so much. We’ve had water leakage
issues in the past and I’m paranoid about it. I decided to try
separate baths and see if that helped. Last night she went
first and when I put him in the tub he said he wanted to bath
himself. So I sat next to him and talked him through washing
his hair, face and body. He did great. He was so proud and kept
saying, “I’m learning how to give myself a bath. I like
learning.” :) Then he learned how to dry himself off with the
towel and get dressed quickly (hallelujah to that, he normally
bounces around and takes forever to get dressed!) Tonight he
insisted on doing it himself again. This time he went first and
Eve was hanging out upstairs waiting for her turn. As she came
in and out of the bathroom Lex narrated what he was doing to
her, interspersing it with, “See Eve, I’m learning. I’m
learning how to give myself a bath.” and other little lines
like that. I love how proud he is to learn! :)

Today was a beautiful day. We spent the
morning at a local lake where Eve and I swam while Lex sat on
the blanket, fully dressed, and watched some campers play beach
volleyball. He refused to put on a bathing suit, but seemed
really happy to be there and just hang out.

Then we came home for naps. Lex insisted that
he wasn’t tired and didn’t want a nap, but he agreed to stay
still and quiet in his bed for one whole CD. I told him that
when the CD was over he could go sit in my bed and have quiet
time instead. Not surprisingly, he fell asleep half way through
the first song!! Two hours later he woke up and went into my
room for quiet time :) I went up and told him that he had
napped and could come down now, but he decided he wanted his
quiet time and stayed up there for over an hour! At one point I
went up and saw this. Of course I had to grab the camera!

After they got bored of coloring on the
street with chalk, the kids decided to decorate the tree. Lex
made it his job to color the “high branches” and then they went
to the neighbor’s blueberry patch for a post-chalking snack
:)