Eve officially knows how to get out of her
pack-n-play and now fully understands her new abilities… in
other words, the girl won’t stay in bed!! We’ve finally come to
a point where Lex goes to bed nicely and I guess it’s now time
for round two. She’s in the toddler bed now with Alan up there
trying to get her to stop crying. I told her that if she’s
going to get out of her pnp then she’s not allowed to sleep in
it anymore. We’ll see how that goes.

The time has come for sunscreen again. My
least favorite part of summer. I got my first sunburn earlier
this week (minor, thankfully!) and this weekend it’s sunny and
80s, so no more excuses. Normally I’d just slather on the
leftovers from last year’s stash, knowing I should buy new
stuff, but no bothering. This year, however, I read a report
about how sunscreens don’t protect against UVA light, have
misleading claims of effectiveness, and contain potentially
cancer causing chemicals. Kind of a “damned if you do, damned
if you don’t” situation! So now I find myself wondering if I
should use the same old Aveeno that we like, or shell out for
higher quality, hopefully useful stuff. Or just let ’em burn!!
Just kidding, of course! There will be no sunburns on my pale
babies!

In case you’re curious: Sunscreen
Summary — What Works and What’s
Safe

In the past few days Lex has started
asking me about words that he read at a different time and
place. I’m always amazed at the learning process. The other
day, out of the blue, he said, “Mom, what does chops mean?”I
asked him to use it in a sentence, but he didn’t seem to
understand my request, so I asked where he saw the word and he
said, “Mom, in the Winnie-the-pooh book Tigger licks his
chops.” So I did my best to explain. (Alan did a better job
later that evening) Then, when I was buckling him into his
carseat yesterday he asked me what does “widow” mean. Again I
asked where he saw that word and he said, “Mom, in Jack and the
Beanstalk, Jack’s mom is a widow.” He likes to start all
sentences with “Mom!” just in case I stopped paying
attention… which I sometimes do… I don’t even know when he
last read that book, but it makes sense that he wouldn’t know
the word and wouldn’t be able to figure it out from the
context. He never ceases to amaze me. I think it’s cool that
he’s thinking about the books later in the day and still
mulling over words he doesn’t understand. Even cooler that he
cares enough to ask!

After a few crazy (cranky!) days I decided
today would be a calm one. We would go slow, take it easy, and
do just what the kids wanted to do. The forecast said rain all
day, but the morning was bright and sunny and we ended up
taking a walk to the playground across the street from Alan’s
office. We played for awhile and then he met us and we all
walked home together. It’s the first time we’ve been to that
playground this season and the kids were thrilled! This
afternoon I mentioned that we need to go grocery shopping and
they decided that we needed to go today, despite the downpour!
The last few days we’ve gone shopping it’s been raining…
maybe because on the nice days we go to the playground! Anyway,
we brought the umbrella and rain boots, took it slow, and
everyone had a good time. Then waffles and strawberries for
dinner and a nice, easy bedtime. We need more days like
this!

Walking home with daddy. I was pushing
the stroller. It’s a 1.5mile walk, so they spent most of the
time in the stroller, but they like to walk part of
it.

Eve likes to carry her “little pink phone”
around with her and talk to people. It makes me laugh,
especially since she won’t talk to anyone on the real phone.
Maybe my phone isn’t pink enough for her? Actually, I think she
prefers the phone that doesn’t talk back :) Yesterday she was
talking to Bone on the phone :)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ulZJQOCiUs]

Check out Eve’s new trick! This one totally took me by
surprise this morning. She did it and my heart almost stopped
because I just caught it out of the corner of my eye! Then I
let her do it again so I could see what she was doing. Then I
let her do it two more times, once for Alan and once for the
camera. Then we moved the pack-n-play! Don’t want to tempt fate
too much! I also discovered that she can get out of the
pack-n-play with no trouble at all. She doesn’t at nap and
bedtime, but apparently she can. Hmm… might be time to move
her back to the toddler bed.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcJ_83JBUPw]

This last one is of her riding her bike this morning. It
makes me think Fred Flintstone.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH0J6c6ndjw]

The kids LOVE the Splash Park. The first
video shows Eve doing her little froggy thing in the water. Not
sure why or where she learned it, but she does it a lot. The
second one is them sliding and it cracks me up!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dLfti-ntYg]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya-dF3LWN14]

The slide is dry because the fountains aren’t on (because
swimming lessons are going on in the nearby pool). When the
fountains are on water flows through the slide and the kids go
super fast!

We took a trip last week to visit the
family in the country. Everyone had a blast! Probably the most
relaxing trip we’ve had as a little family of four. The kids
were super excited to see the new dogs and the new kitchen,
although I think their kitchen excitement may have just been a
reflection of my own :) We visited with a high-school friend of
mine and her kids, I did a Pampered Chef show for another old
friend, we had a fun-filled afternoon with Grandpa Tom’s two
brothers and their families. The kids got to meet a cousin!
(technically a cousin of mine, so a second cousin?) A good time
was had by all and we’re looking forward to our next visit
:)

A lesson that I learn and then forget,
then relearn and reforget (sometimes very quickly!) is that Lex
is a whole foods kinda guy, and raw when possible. I’m sure I
posted about the carrots last summer. He won’t eat the baby
carrots (open bag, put on plate, easy for mommy) but he will
usually eat a whole carrot. These days he only sometimes eats
carrots, but when he does it’s only whole, raw carrots. He
hasn’t touched green beans since last summer when he was
picking them off the vine. He also inhaled strawberries last
summer, but has since been telling me he doesn’t like
strawberries. I bought some yesterday and it occured to me that
maybe the problem is that I always cut them up, so instead I
washed them, hulled them and put them on his plate… and he
ate seven!!! Crazy kid. Another eating quirk is that he seems
to prefer dishes with three ingredients or less, except for his
“goldfish and bunnies kinda snack” where he mixes dozens of
kinds of crackers and dried fruit together :) But for real
meals if there is more than two or three ingredients he won’t
even touch it. With these realizations and the fact that I am,
theoretically, smarter than a three year old, I should be able
to get him to eat vegetables and a more varied diet, right?
We’ll see :)

We had an awesome visit to the country
this week (more on that later), but man, the day after is
rough! We got home around 11:30pm last night and were in bed by
12:30am. Both kids slept for most of the way home, but fussed a
bit towards the end. Eve, for some crazy reason, was up at 6am
and raring to go! I was hoping to get to sleep in at least a
little. Lex woke up at 8:15 (super late for him!) and just in
time to go to swimming lessons. I was exhausted and asked them
both several times if they really wanted to go and, of course,
they did! Alan came with us and we ended up having a great
time. He play with Lex in the splash pool during Eve’s lesson
(that girl amazes her swim teachers every week!) and we all had
fun in the current pool after the lesson. We got home and they
watched a show while I took a shower. Then naps (for them) and
grocery shopping (for me). A whole lot of unpacking and
cleaning, dinner, and Alan was out the door for a meeting. I
think the roughest part (besides the fact that I’m super
overtired!) is that Eve is so jazzed up on the constant
attention she got all week that she just wanted more, more,
more! I wanted some “me” time, and I think Lex and Alan were
the same, but Eve was eager for attention and also extremely
tired. Sigh. They are both asleep now (yay!) and I’m aiming for
an early bedtime, so tomorrow should go smoother. :)