We have a very lovely family these days.
Eve learned how to give kisses (baby kisses, but very sweet)
and loves to give cuddly hugs. Lex has started saying “I love
you” regularly and randomly. He won’t say it if you ask him to
(“say goodnight and i love you to daddy,” for example) but he
does let us know when he’s thinking of it. “I was thinking that
I love you mommy,” he’ll say. Or Alan will get home from work
and Lex will run over, give him a big hug and say “I love you
daddy!” So sweet.

with my 2yr old, then he’ll be 3yrs! It occurred
to me the other day that he’s no longer in the “toddler”
category and I’m going to have to start calling him a
“preschooler.” Can I use that term even if he isn’t in
preschool? Alan says until they start school everyone is a
preschooler :) Anyway, I gots a party to plan!!

Lex found my measuring tape and decided it
was time to “measure my little sister.” He said that several
times, but of course wouldn’t say it when the camera was on. Oh
well. He determined that Eve is “1” and he is “2”. I don’t
think he fully understands what he’s measuring :)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRBkCl1AE84]

After a crazy morning (no naps, lots of
crabby) we made it out to the playground, mostly for my sanity.
It was in the 80s and Lex wouldn’t put on shorts, but agreed to
bring shorts and a t-shirt along if I let him wear his PJs.
Luckily Eve, so far, will wear whatever I put on her. So off we
went, Eve in an adorable summer outfit and Lex in his PJs. :)
It was hot, hot, hot though, so after he got all red and sweaty
he finally asked for his summer clothes. Funny enough, today is
the day he decided to start wearing slippers, after a long,
cold winter of refusing. My son is a bit of a kook.

She’s so
cool!

Lex in
his PJs, playing in the sandbox with CO Flat Stanley
and VT Flat Stanley :)

Eve with
her pinwheel. This is her “trying to blow the pinwheel” face.
:)
She doesn’t have much luck with it, but she sure
tries hard.

There’s
my big guy!

I tried
to get a picture of them holding hands in their summer clothes.
Wouldn’t that have made a good picture?
Instead I
got this (above, then below).

PS. I know some of you have been
banned from reading blogger at work, so I’m making a real
effort to get the photos.datdec.com site updated again. Gotta
reinstall software and etc. I’ll keep ya posted!

The drawback to summer in the suburbs,
with all the open doors and windows, is that the whole
neighborhood hears with I loose my temper and yell at my son
:(

Here are a few videos of Eve kicking a
little ball at my parents house. She’s so funny.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9E9RyqmH34]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-ogamOkXgw]

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

Just to show you, he doesn’t always get it
right. He was excited to get the cream cheese out of the
fridge, but decided to stop and spell it first. When I tried to
show him the right way, he decided “just want to eat lunch
now.”

We’ve been having a lot of fun these past
few days in our backyard. The kids are both old enough to play
and/or help as we’ve been cleaning up the backyard, clearing
out the pricker bushes and planting our first
raised bed garden, complete with green bean seeds! As
Alan posted earlier, Lex has been super helpful shoveling dirt.
Today he helped me rake and water the new garden. We also got
out the ball bath (less messy than the real bath!) and Eve
mostly liked it. She was less thrilled when Lex dove in with
her :) I was thinking this afternoon how wonderful my family
is.

Eve
crawling up our 2″x8″s for the gardens while Lex plays with the
last remaining snow.

Fun in
the ball bath!

All the experts say bathtime is supposed
to be a calming part of the bedtime routine… not in my
house!! In my house bathtime has become pure madness! Eve’s new
favorite game is to slide over backwards in the tub and kick
her legs like crazy, kind of like she’s swimming, only she
makes a huge, watery mess and half drowns herself (would fully
drown herself if I didn’t rescue her every time!). Lex swims
around on his belly and blows bubbles in the water, or
raspberries on Eve’s belly, or sticks his face into the corner
of the tub and makes weird sounds that probably echo in his
ears and sound neat. They both have a blast and we all end up
drenched. Then things calm down for a moment when I get Eve out
and Lex pulls the plug and puts away the toys. But the chaos
strikes up again in full force when they’re both in diapers and
cruising around. Eve likes to make a beeline for the soaked
bathroom as soon as I get dry PJs on her and Lex tries to dress
himself, which takes awhile, especially since he’s easily
distracted (especially by Eve’s cruising around!). I keep
thinking I should get pictures or a video of this, but I’m a
little scared to get the camera anywhere in the vicinity of the
soaked bathroom and if I take my eyes off Eve for even a second
she’ll probably drown herself in the tub — all in the name of
bathtime fun! Fortunately we do stories AFTER bath so everyone
calms down for that.