Beginning of Summer Catch-Up

Lots of pictures to share and random things to blab about.   

Summer officially sort of kicked off for my first born when Brynn (daycare lady's helper) took all the preschool graduates out for dairy queen during nap time at the beginning of June. 

Two of Gus and Louie's little daycare buddies also had their goodbye parties a few weeks ago, Jacob's mom is a teacher so he won't be at daycare this summer and Eleanor has older brothers and sisters and thus her parents have made other plans for her last summer before Kindergarten.  Their other daycare buddy moved to Utah this spring, so already we are seeing the big changes happening in Gus's life.  Kindergarten is just around the corner and it's very bittersweet.  I so much just want to be able to give him the best summer ever, which might seem like a lot of pressure, but it's not that difficult with this kid.  Lots of time outside, lots of time with friends, lots of ice cream.  Best summer ever is already in full force.

There are so many emotions around him starting "real" school next year, it is a new era for his childhood and for our family, and while it's exciting and there are so many wonderful things in store for him, it also feels like the end of something really really good and safe and carefree.

I've started to allow the children to play in the alley.

Yerp.

It makes me nervous, and I stand out there lurking and warning and reminding them to watch for cars, but I'm kind of taking the lead from all the other neighbor kids.  The last few weekend mornings our alley has been kid central, kids we never even realized lived on our street are stopping in our drive-way to say "hey" and I've been trying to encourage some real neighborhood kid summertime friend making.  The kind that does not involve "play dates" and moms sitting on lawn chairs watching their kids' every moves and jumping in at each sign of conflict.  I want my kids to have at least a taste of the kind of childhood I had, when all their "fun" wasn't so planned and curated. 

So there is an 8 year old girl and her 5 year old brother way down at the end of the alley, and their mom is really chill and their dad a volunteer fire fighter with the city and they just had a little baby girl as well, a week or two after I had Olive.  Then we have a new hipster-esque family that moved in next door a few months ago, with two little girls, ages 6 and 2. 

I don't obviously trust the boys to be out there when I'm not, especially Louie, who thinks he can and should be able to do everything his brother does and roll with the big kids, (HELLO child... you're 3!)  But I also can allow them to bike down to the end of the alley and back where I can still see them without being a fingertip away.  And I can let them be awkward and nervous around other kids and not be there to facilitate the art of making friends.  When the other kids are not within earshot I whisper little hints to them about how all this works, "Just tell them your name, ask what they're playing, join them, tell them they can come to your back yard anytime they want to play!"

A few weeks ago they spent an hour Saturday morning while Dan mowed the lawn running from backyard to backyard, biking back and forth, drawing pictures of butts with chalk, making a fort out of a big appliance box next door.  I lurked around, watching them from behind my fence, wearing Olive in a carrier, in all their potty-talk and silly giggling glory.  It was great.

And then the mom next door came over and we talked about how great it is to see them make friends, and both agreed that anytime our kids are out, come on over, and vice versa.. and then she said, "I feel like I should tell you something... Mary came home from school a few days ago with lice... and it is disgusting and is running my life right now and I'm so sorry and if you want to take your kids home right now I understand."

Insert big eye emoji.

(Shudder.)

Eeeeeew.

Maybe being anti-social and never leaving our yard wasn't such a bad idea after all.

I ordered this baby girl's first swimsuit the other night, while laying in bed at 11:15 thinking about how early 5:00 am would come.  The overwhelming need to buy her one came on in an instant.  Of course I needed to find one right then.  Because a four month old baby HAS TO HAVE a swimsuit and she needs it NOW!  Amazon Prime is both a beautiful and entirely dangerous thing.  Most things are more expensive via Amazon but 2 days!  Free shipping!  All the choices in the universe at my fingertips!  One click!  Sweet sweet shopping relief.

A swimsuit for a four month old that should not be spending time in the sun seems slightly unnecessary, and it probably is, but we will be at the pool and the lake quite a bit this summer, and it would be nice to have something to put her in that can get wet.  I did get one with a swim shirt because... yeah.  The dangerous dangerous sun and all that.  And she's such a little itty baby with such precious milky white skin.

Of course the suit has ruffles on the butt.  Because.  Of course. 
 

I love that Louie is wearing his soccer cleats here, no socks, laces untied, and his too small shorts are twisted all crazy because he has no time for pulling his pants up correctly after going potty.  This is definitely real life Louie.  Fiercely independent but still so dependent on his mama.  Never wants to miss a thing, this kid.

Gus is still obsessed with holding Olive and I still am obsessed with taking his picture while doing so.  And Olive is a little obsessed with Gus as well.  So I guess we're all even-Steven.

She's still sleeping in the rock-n-play and I'm thinking at some point very soon I will have to change that because when she goes to daycare in September she will of course have to sleep in a pack-n-play.  She's growing out of this thing and I'm already definitely getting the pressure from her daddy to start this transition.  Why do I hate change so much?  Ughhhhhhhhhh.  This particular day (above) was me dipping my toes into the water of change, I carried the rock-n-play from our room up to the nursery for her morning nap.

Ha.  I am absurd, that is not even close to making a real change. 

She's not even sleeping as well anymore in the rock-n-play.  She takes some solid naps and still sleeps good chunks of time in there at night, but she's no longer sleeping through the night.  In fact she's been waking at least once, sometimes twice every night for the last 3 weeks or so.  Not surprising, with me going back to work, and not as bad as it could be, so I'm still not going to complain.  But in Dan's defense it probably would be a good time to attempt a new sleeping arrangement. 

See, like I said, she's totally obsessed with him.

With both of them actually.

We've been meeting up with Louie's ECFE buddies on Monday mornings, and on a whim one day I looked up the puppet wagon schedule for the cities nearby and we all made plans to have a picnic lunch at a park where the puppet wagon was making an appearance.  I have very fond memories of the puppet wagon from when I was a kid so this hilariously dumb and kitschy little summertime thing gave me lots of nostalgia-induced FEELINGS.   

Louie was bizarrely afraid of the puppet wagon at first, but once he realized it was mostly just a bunch of Sesame Street-looking puppets lip-synching to Disney songs (one week they did a song from Mulan, SO RANDOM) he settled in for the show.

Heidi, Abby, and Elyse joined us at the park for the puppet wagon and somehow Gus got a hold of my phone and the kids ran off taking pictures and videos of each other while I was trapped under a nursing baby.  Abby is quite the little photographer, and got some good ones of the boys.  These pictures are like a little peek into their secret kid lives and I love them.

Oh and speaking of Louie being bizarrely afraid...



(video)
 
Do people remember Joe Scruggs and that song Goo Goo Ga Ga?  No?  I didn't at first either, but then Dan played it and I was all "OH MY GOD I REMEMBER THIS I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT THIS!" just like I am with so much from my 80's/early 90's childhood (like that Nickelodeon cartoon with the little gnomes, and the one with the koala from Koalawalla land that comes to life when you nuzzle noses, I am not imagining those weird shows am I?)

So as you can see from the video, Louie did NOT like it.  Didn't appreciate the witch and then flat out tried to leave the house via the front door when the troll came on.  It was so so so funny, but then he started to sob and cry real crocodile tears so I had to try to stop laughing.  Oh, just to have a peek into a child's brain, could be so enlightening!  Gus was sleeping when Dan showed Louie that video and then the next day he was obsessed with bringing it up to Gus, so then we wanted to show it to him and Louie started sobbing and screaming again.  We suggested Louie leave the room so Gus could watch it, or vice versa, but essentially NO ONE was to watch that video.  Not in our house.  Not when Louie was sleeping.  Never.  It could never be watched again. Kids are so weird.

Do other people's kids go to the park and then get bored immediately when you refuse to push them for an hour on the swings and promptly start rolling around on the blanket you set down for the baby and annoying the crap out of you?  Just mine?  Kidding.  I love these boys but the whole point of the park is so they can RUN and PLAY and BE LOUD.  It's a total crap shoot.  They either do all those things and we have a totally fun time at the park, or they hang on me and whine and ask for snacks constantly.

Three graduation parties this month.  THREE. 

Not the most coordinated or thought-out effort for our first photo of the three of these little ladies.  Olive is 3.5 months here, Liela 4.5 months, and Elyse almost 6 weeks. 

Terrible picture but I had this realization as I sat there with them eating hot dogs in buns like normal people do that we are hitting a sweet spot with feeding these boys.  Last summer we were cutting hot dogs into little bites that they would dip in ketchup.  Now this!  I know, it's not a huge revelation, but it feels like a little milestone.  In no time they'll be making their own plates at these events.  One more step towards not being NEEDED by so many people for basic things ALL THE TIME!  It's kind of a crazy thought.

Liela got Baptized a week and a half ago and the pastor invited all the little children in the congregation up to watch and put their hands on her to pray for her, and yes, Maria had to stop Louie from flinking out and messing around with that big huge lit candle right next to him because he almost knocked it over. 

This is the second Baptism celebration in one week during which Olive passed out being held by someone she had basically never met.  (Seen here with her great-grandma Becky.  The week before at Carter's baptism it was with Lisa's aunt.)  Thank goodness for this little good-natured sweetheart.

After Liela's Baptism we went to my parents' house for dinner, since Michelle's parents were heading back to Milwaukee in a few days.  My dad set up the pool, which is just a lifesaver on crazy busy days like this when the kids are going a little nuts by 4:00 with no nap.

My parents' five grandchildren!

Harris is a HUGE newborn (born 9 lb 13 oz) and Olive was big for a while there, but seems to definitely be slimming down a little.  I don't think she's destined to be a huge fat baby like Louie was. 

Olive was exhausted at the end of that day.  She fell asleep in the car seat on the way home from my parents and then when I went to wake her up to get her read for bed she had a reeeeally hard time waking up.  Half sleeping/half stretching babies are just the most delicious little things.

Gus fell off the monkey bars last week at daycare and it was QUITE the incident.  Bit his bottom lip, scraped up his chin, and scraped up the inside of his mouth and actually cut that little piece of skin between his gums above his front two teeth and his upper lip.  I'm told there was a lot of blood and I am admittedly a little bit glad I wasn't there when this all went down.  While of course I would have wanted to be able to comfort him, I am just NOT good with these kinds of accidents, I freeze up and panic a little.

Anyway, he had a pretty jacked up looking mouth for a few days there, but the swelling went down quickly.  Good old mouth injuries.  Always lots of blood, but they heal relatively quickly on their own.

She's rolling over, has found her feet, and is putting everything she can get her hands on into her mouth... I forgot how much I LOOOOOVE 3/4 month old babies.  She is so darn cute and happy and pleasant.  And I'm sure I will keep saying that every month as she grows and changes.

"What do I have to do to get your attention humans?  Will this do it?  Should I just sit on this blanket here next to the baby that you all obsess over?  How about minutes of eye contact?  Does that help?"

These girls were a little more ready for their photo op at grad party number 2.  Though they were all cranky and tired and up too late here, soooo, heh.

Dan went out for drinks with some guys last Saturday night and I went to my friend Mandy's house for a bonfire.  This meant I got home REALLY late with the kids, like after 10:00, and had to get them all to bed quickly by myself.  It helped that before he left to go out Dan picked up the whole house and went around laying out pajamas for the boys and books to read on their beds.  Olive's blanket was laid out and ready for her.  It was really sweet, there were signs of his thoughtfulness all over the house. 

And then as I started to climb into bed to nurse Olive I found THIS in my spot, under my covers. 

Hahahahaha.  Still the same guy I married.  DORK.

Soccer is still going okay for the boys, but my enthusiasm for bringing them every week (Gus on Monday nights, Louie Tuesdays) is definitely waning.  I started out the summer SO EXCITED for them to do this and be joiners and to have a chance to get them out in the fresh air in the evenings.  But I'm finding that I am not really one of those moms that loves a lot of extra-curriculars.  I hate feeling tied down to things like this during our "free-time".  I hate all the extra stress and transitioning and planning it adds to our life.  Frankly, I'd rather we be able to walk to the park as a family on Monday nights, instead of quickly feeding the children and splitting up and deciding who's going with who, or if we should all go.  I like keeping busy, but soccer feels more like "obligation busy" than "fun busy". 

While Gus is playing real "games" (3v3, no keeping score, no goalie) in his league, which is new this year, Louie's soccer is still just lots of fun drills and silly activities with a soccer ball.  And he likes it okay, depending on the day.  I think he has one week left and he's finally sort of regularly participating.  This is according to Dan because after the first couple weeks when we all went to watch him, even my parents came by, we realized we were part of the problem.  He was super distracted by all of us and just wanted to sit on the blanket with us and eat snacks.  (Of course he did, what did I think would happen?)

So that gets us sort of caught up I think!  Too many pictures all at once, I know, but it's the only way I seem to be able to make sense of the last few weeks.  It all jumbles together, and I knew this would happen, but as soon as I went back to work the weeks just keep flying by.  Oh and Olive did finally start drinking milk while I was away from her, but still won't take a bottle.  Instead miss thang has put a ban on any sort of artificial nipple (pacifiers included) and has gone straight to a sippy cup.  She's a stubborn one that girl, but I will continue to look on the bright side, as we will never have to transition her away from a bottle or take away a pacifier... and we all know how much I hate making those kinds of changes. ;)

Summer

Update coming soon.  As soon as I can get my act together.  We are having a fantastic summer.

Fun stuff that's happening

Ignoring the obvious not so fun stuff happening (transitioning our family back to me working, Olive refusing the bottle, BLECH!) I figured I'd do some general updating on life and go through some pictures on my phone from the last week or so.  Because really, this weather has just been awesome and the beginning of summer and the end of the school year is so fun and so full of promise and potential.  I don't want all of the fun we've been having get bogged down by the shitty stuff.

One of my challenges with the boys these days is that they really want to have friends around at all times.  Everyday they ask me who we're going to see today, and if we can have a play date with someone, or if we can go to the park so they can make friends.  It's a bit exhausting for me if I'm being honest, especially since my work days are so freaking busy now that I'm back.  Also they're at daycare those three days playing with all their daycare buddies, so I find it a little annoying that come Friday they're not cool to just chill at home or in the back yard and play with each other.  WHY DO WE EVEN HAVE ALL OF THESE TOYS?!

One of our weeknight trips to the neighborhood park to "find friends".  Hopscotch on the baseball field is their go-to when there are no other kids to play with.

Preschool ended a few weeks ago, and we had some behavior problems right away that afternoon after Gus's last day.  I took the kids out to lunch with my mom and brother Nathan, who was in town for my grandpa's funeral, and both of them, especially Gus, were a WRECK.  Not my favorite dining experience by a long shot.

That night I finally came to understand that Gus was internalizing the fact that he didn't know when he might see any of his school friends again.  I asked him about it and he got a little choked up and sad.  He and all of his friends will be off to Kindergarten next year, all of them at different schools, and I think the reality of that sort of hit him after the big spring concert and end of school year party was over, as he was taking pictures with all of his friends and saying goodbye. Kids have so little control over their lives and the rhythm of their days, so I do think that knowing he was going to see these guys at school every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday was really comforting to him.  Despite the fact that he was excited for summer and looking forward to more time to go to the park and do fun things with me and Louie, and knowing that there would be more opportunities to see his cousins and other friends of ours, this is a big change for him and it threw him for a loop.

The whole idea of my kids having social lives is challenging for me as his parent because we don't actually have a lot of time to set up play dates with all of these boys from preschool class, despite Gus's constant nagging.  Not only do we spend a lot of time with family and the boys' cousins, but I also have a bunch of my own friends with their own kids, so on the weekends I am much more apt to want to plan things with them than with random moms from preschool.  That leaves Mondays and Fridays.  And I kind of suck at planning stuff for those days in advance, and it's all much more challenging with a little baby in tow.

So suffice it to say we are at that point in our lives where drop-off play dates with friends that are in no way related to friends of mine have to become a thing.  And I am totally okay with that, but feel like a total dork navigating those waters for the first time.

I sent an email a few weeks ago to his best buddy from preschool's mom to see if we could set something up, but I felt so awkward about it, and didn't quite know how to do the play date thing, (hate that term, but that's what we're calling them now, right?).  I wanted it to be just that Gus goes to JJ's house or vice versa but we don't really know them, have never been to each other's homes, and I didn't know what JJ's mom's comfort level would be on that kind of thing.  I just didn't want to be presumptuous and I KNOW I was over thinking it.  Because for realz.  I am just awkward city sometimes and I wish I could just be confident and straight forward because HELLO, I totally appreciate that from other people.

Anyway, thank goodness one of us is an adult because she was completely straight forward.  She said that they would love to have Gus over to their house if I was comfortable with it.  She gave me the timing, she gave me the address, and she told me right out to drop him (and Louie if he wanted to!) off at 9:30 and enjoy a few hours on my own with Olive.  Jeez.  You don't have to ask me twice.

So that happened yesterday and it was gloooorious and the boys were so happy to have something like that to look forward to and JJ is going to come to our house next time and it really just set a great tone for the day and the week.  Awesome.

And this is who I got to go snuggle while the boys were at their play date.  (After waiting in line at the DMV for 40 minutes to replace our tabs that had expired the day before.)

My adorable new nephew Harris.  He was born early in the morning last Friday.

Here's Gus (looking so old!) with him at the hospital.

And my mom that same evening with chunky 3 month-old Olive for comparison sake. 

This weekend was busy.  We had originally planned on going to the cabin for the first time this year, but then realized that on Saturday Gus had this big Jamboree thing for the soccer league we signed him up for this summer.  At first I figured we'd just skip it, but then as details trickled in through the billion emails I got in May from this soccer club, we found out it would be the first time he met his team and his coaches, had their first game, and on top of all that, team pictures were happening.  Great.  That all sounded too important to miss, thus my kids' extra-curriculars are officially starting to screw up my social life.  ;)  I guess that means we're entering a new phase of parenting. 

So since I don't think we'll be able to head back up there until July 4th, we decided to pack up for the cabin and go there Saturday to Sunday, leaving directly from soccer. Saturday morning was EXHAUSTING getting all packed and ready to go but once the day's events were under-way it was quite fun.  The Jamboree was a cluster and crazy and our team is made up of a whole bunch of small kids that have never played.  In contrast the kids on the team we played against had skills, strategy, and on average about 6 inches on each of our kids.  Oof.  This league is all about "fun" and no one's keeping score, but holy mother.  We got dominated.  One of the coaches (volunteer parents) said at one point, "How do they know how to do that?! It's like they're running plays! What is going on?"  On the other hand most of our kids, including Gus, are running and skipping around the field seemingly chasing butterflies.  It was hilarious, but yet annoying because for how outmatched they were it just felt wrong. 

And then we were on the road.  With a few stops to pick up a healthy lunch (McDonald's) and the dog at home. 

Road-tripping with a baby is always dicey, and Dan and I were both on edge anticipating the two hour trip.  We prepped the boys and talked about how no one wants to listen to a screaming baby, so they were going to need to eat their nuggets and play with their ipads and there would be NO FIGHTING and NO SCREAMING and basically SHUT YO MOUTHS.

Photo by Louie

Olive slept like a champ, even through our first bathroom stop for Louie, which involved me somehow spilling Gus's BBQ sauce all over my pants and the passenger seat of the car and thus multiple aggravated expletives from Dan. 

She didn't wake until our second bathroom stop (ugh, these children) only about 30 minutes from our destination.  She woke up very angry and panicked, so a DQ stop was definitely in order.

And then she didn't even really want to nurse.  Just wanted to be out of the car seat and stare at me and smile and coo and talk and look around.  Thankfully she was awake and happy for the last short leg of the trip and we all made it to the cabin by about 4:00 pm in one piece. 

Our evening  involved lots of just basically sitting around and talking and eating, and with the kids occupied and happy with their cousins, that was exactly what was needed.

It did take an hour longer than anticipated to get the heat in our camper up and running (it was supposed to get down to 40 degrees overnight) so bedtime for the boys was pushed back an hour.  A few beers around the cold campfire after the late 8:30 bedtime were definitely enjoyed and needed.

And this girl slept all night long in the camper until 6:30 am.  Yes, I brought along the miracle-working baby sleep aid that is the rock-n-play.  I just.  Can't.  I could write poetry about that thing, I love it so much.  Though I'm starting to wonder if maybe I'm giving the rock-n-play all the credit and we actually have an amazing sleeper on our hands.  Either way.  Good job Olive.  Good job rock-n-play.  Keep working together. 

21st century camping:

Val's Canada friend is in town visiting and her sweet daughter loooooves babies.  Thankfully, we have many babies to share with her.

Louie seems to get obsessive with one toy at a time for multiple days, sometimes weeks.  He loves little things, especially animals, that he can hoard and carry around everywhere he goes.  This weekend it was this whale (shark?) that has a handful of little numbered fish in it's mouth.  I asked him if I could take a picture of him with his (well his cousin Matthew's) whale ("It's a shark mom!") and he just rolled his eyes in the most threenager way possible.  Oh, this kid.

My uncle gave us a huge bin of random mega blocks from his 19-year old kid's childhood so we organized them and tubbed them and brought them up the the cabin to stay.  Good decision. 

So glad we made it up to the cabin after all, even if it was for less than 24 hours and it was A LOT of work to pack and unpack the car and put the camper up and get the beds made and get the heat to work and take the camper back down and pack the car up again and make two dicey 2 hour trips in the car with a 3 month old. 

Phew.  I'm glad I didn't let myself think too much about all of that before we went, because maybe we wouldn't have.  Ha.

Which brings me back to yesterday.  The beginning of our week.  A glorious beautiful day.  Successful first drop-off play date, lunch on the patio...

And Monday night soccer.  (Soccer will normally just be this one night a week.)

Typical Gus (number 72) running around no where near the ball.  (They were CRAZY out-matched again, starting to think I don't really like that they're playing "real" games this young.)

But look how happy he is!  Clearly having fun and that's all that matters.