Lazy

Ugh.  Well, my blogging funk continues.  I was hoping to get caught up on reading, commenting and writing over the weekend.  That didn't happen, obviously.

 

I don't have much of my own blogging to catch up on though.  This is a screen shot (from about 20 minutes ago) from my Olympus photo download program.  I haven't downloaded any pictures in an entire week.  I usually do it at least once a day, and sometimes two to three times a day. 

So, in order to get caught up on the very little catching up that needs to be done, we'll go back to June 17th.  The kids put their stuffed animals on Ginger in the morning before I left for work.

 

She equal parts loved it and felt embarassed by it.

On Thursday the 19th Elliott got his hair cut at a non-kid place for the first time ever.  He did wonderfully.  No crying, no complaining and no whining.  He even sat still during the whole haircut.

 

 

 

He got a little corn syrup based ice cream from McDonald's as a reward.

 

On Friday Spencer had his allergy shots.  It had been 4 weeks since his last one.  We usually go every 3 weeks but there was seriously not a single day for 4 weeks in which we could make it.

 

I don't know if it was the timing or what, but both his arms got really, really swollen after.  They were normal by the next morning though.

 

On Saturday Spencer begged us to let him sleep on the floor.  Whatever.

Then on Sunday I woke up and decided I just had to paint the little entryway in the garage.  I saw some nice pins on pinterest about making your garage entryway pretty because it is what you see every day. I totally agree. I had been thinking about doing it for a few weeks and was going to wait until it was cooler, but instead I nearly killed myself via dehydration and overheating and painted while it was 108 degrees outside.

 

Before

 

After

The paint is leftover from the bathroom in our first house.  We already had all the signs and I moved the paper wreath from inside to this door.  The only thing I bought was the new lightswitch cover, so the total budget was $6.

 

I'd still like to paint the door black some day, but for now I am happy with the results.

OK.  Now that this is done, I promise to try to work through my summer time blogging fatigue this week.

Two and a half

Ugh.  I have been the worst blogger recently.  This goes for writing my own posts as well as reading and commenting on other blogs.  I've also been terrible about responding to email, facebook messages and texts.  I just need to give a blanket apology if you're waiting to hear from me. 

 

I blame 3 factors.  #1.  The heat, my god the heat.  I was handling it well until the end of last week.  Then it just kind of hit me.  It's hot.  And it's sucking the energy right out of me.  #2.  We're pretty busy.  And not busy with cool, blog worthy type things.   We're busy with taking summer classes and doing stuff around the house.  #3. I have had problems loading pictures on blogger several times in the last few weeks.  It's very frustrating and sometimes I don't even want to try because I'm sure I will just end up being angry about it.

 

So, now that you know where I've been, let's talk about how last Monday Elliott turned two and a half.

 

We went to art class in the morning.   He had been a nightmare at the same class the week before so I was incredibly relieved and delighted that he enjoyed it this day.  It was a very messy project doing finger painting with a mixture of paint, shaving cream and glue.

 

We put the paint, shaving cream, glue mixture on the rubber band and then flicked it.  And no, it did not just go down on the paper.  It went all over, including our hair.

 

The last 5 minutes of class the kids just played with shaving cream.  Elliott loved it.

 

After an outfit change we headed to the park to take some pictures. 

 

 

This is the official two and a half years old picture!

 Elliott weighs about 35 pounds.  I have no idea how tall he is.  He fits in 2T all the way to 5T clothes.  He has all those sizes in his closet and sometimes wears 2T shorts with a 5T shirt.  It just depends on the brand, the fabric and the cut.  He is still wearing size 5 diapers.  Our plan was to potty train this month, but he is still very opposed to it.  We ask him if he wants to sit on the potty and he screams in our faces, "I don't pee on the potty I pee in my diaper".  And yes, he speaks in complete sentences all the time.  I have counted 15 and 16 word sentences.  It blows my mind.

 

So, potty training is still a no go.  Elliott was standing naked in the bathroom the other day and peed on the floor.  He was just as shocked as we were.  He really had no idea that was about to happen.  That tells me that he is really not ready yet.  I think that after Spencer goes back to school (which is actually in 3.5 weeks) we'll see how he's doing and give it a shot.

 

Elliott loves fruit, cereal and most carbs, like crackers and bagels.  He is hit and miss with everything else.  Sometimes he eats chicken.  Sometimes not.  Sometimes he eats mac and cheese.  Sometimes not.  If we let him he would drink his own body weight in milk every day.

 

Elliott loves to rock out to music, loves to dance, sings all the time, loves to swim and most of the time likes doing art projects.  He is taking an art class, a tumbling class, a toddler class and swim lessons this summer.  He did one session of mommy and me swimming and is now in the independent classes.  He is doing about 80% awesome and 20% not-so-awesome.  Sometimes he will cry when we first get to class but he recovers pretty quickly.

 

Tonight, 9 days after turning 2.5, Elliott is sleeping in his own bed in his own room for the very first time in his life.  Bedtime went very smoothly and we haven't heard a peep from him in 2 hours.  I predict one of the following scenarios.  He will either 1) totally sleep through the night, do fine, want to do it again tomorrow and will never return to our bed, or 2) he will wake up in a panic at 3 am, return to our bed and not leave again for 9 more months.  We'll see.  I also predict that I will have a terrible night of sleep anticipating him starting to scream and cry.

 

We have left Elliott overnight twice now.  Once was in April and once was in May.  He spent both nights at Michael's parents house and shared a bed with Spencer.  They will be having another overnight this weekend.

 

I'm sure I will remember 1 million more things to say as soon as I hit "publish", but that's all I have for right now. 

 

We will be child free for about 27 hours this weekend so I will try to get caught up on reading and commenting and corresponding for those of you that are wondering what hole I fell into.

Festivities for Fathers

We spent Father's Day weekend in Tucson.  We haven't been since Easter (not counting the couple of hours we were there to pick up the kids the weekend we hosted Monica's shower) and we're not going again until probably August, so we enjoyed our time being there.

 

We got Elliott up really early on Saturday so that he would be assured to take a good nap that afternoon.  And oh how he slept.  It was glorious.

It was critical that he sleep because we spent the afternoon and evening at Laura and Josh's house for a pool party.  We had such a good time.  It was so good, in fact, that I only have 2 pictures to show.  And both are of all the kids eating.

 

We spent Sunday with my parents at their house.  We ate breakfast and then opened presents.  I think Spencer finally got dressed around 3 pm.

My dad and the kids "played" pool for a long, long, long time.

 

This is my parents basement.  My dad has been collecting beer cans for 50+ years.

Michael's request for father's day was a make your own burger bar.  He was not eating well for the day.  I was.  I made a burger salad, so there is no picture of me with an oversized burger.

 

Michael's first burger.

 

And his second.

Elliott slept through our late lunch/early dinner but when he got up he was happy to join in on the homemade ice cream eating.

 

Ginger got a little corn treat.

Then, right before we packed up to come home we took some family pictures.

 

Michael was helping me test the light.

 

This was 2013.  Notice something?  Michael wore the exact same outfit 2 years in a row!  I also want all of you to know that it took me 15 attempts and a good 8 minutes to get this 1 picture to load, so look at it about 16 times or it will not be worth my effort.

 

 The dads

Right after this we loaded up and headed home.  We'll go to California and I'll go to Massachussetts and New Hampshire before we all go to Tucson together again.