Summer Wrap-Up Part I

Elliott's 19 month post forced itself right in the middle of my summer storytelling.  It had to be done though.  Because I'm the boss of this blog.

 

We are journeying all the way back to Monday, July 8th.  Can you feel it?  It was the day after my parents anniversary party.  We were still in Tucson.  Michael took the kids to the splash pad for Splash Pad Monday. 

 

My mom wanted me to take pictures of the flower arrangements from the party because they were expensive and pretty.

We left in the afternoon and Elliott napped in the car on the way home.  We had been there for 4 nights, which is double what we usually spend.

 

Ginger was not happy about leaving my parents.  She loves them and their house. 

 

She pouted all evening.

We had eaten a big lunch of party leftovers around 1:00, so nobody was that hungry for dinner.  We ended up having frozen yogurt parfaits- a little bit of frozen yogurt, a little bit of granola and a lot of fresh berries and banana slices.

On Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment in the morning and then I went to breakfast and the movies with Maryellen.  I had thought I was going to work that day so I had our sitter for the whole day and when I found out I didn't have to work I wanted to make good use of my time.  It was really fun.

 

Michael bought baseball tickets months ago thinking he would be home on Tuesday, like he usually is.  Then he took Monday off instead and had to work on Tuesday.  He didn't want to drive all the way home to pick up Spencer, so we all met in downtown for dinner before the game.

 

Then Spencer and Michael went to the game,

 

and Elliott and I went to Lowe's.

I want to re-do the hallway bathroom.  I have $980 saved.  According to my dad's calculations I am about $980 short.

 

Isn't this counter pretty?

For Something Awesome Wednesday we went to an indoor playground called Makutu's Island.  Michael and I have talked about taking Spencer here since he was 2 1/2.

 

Better late than never. 

Elliott and I didn't see Spencer a lot while we were there.  He was up in the tubes and climbing all around where we couldn't go....Elliott being too young and me being too old.

 

Spencer got photobombed.

 

On Thursday we went to Target.  I am pretty obsessed with the Hulk masks.  I need to buy one for the kids soon. 

On Friday we went back to Tucson again.  Michael had already changed his days off and taken some vacation days in the past month so he didn't want to leave early.  So for the first time in Elliott's life we drove down at a non-nap time and didn't expect him to sleep at all.

 

To deal with the inevitable fussing we stopped at the almost half way point and ate dinner at the Cracker Barrell.  This little game kept Elliott busy for a long time.

 

And then we were back in Tucson.  And Ginger took a nap IN Michael's clothes bag.

 

On Saturday we went to my grandma's house.  I hadn't been there since about a month before Elliott was born.  I'm going to be writing a whole post about it. Soon. Very soon.

19 Months

19 Months

 

Date

July 16, 2013

 

The official 19 month picture

Before we jump into an overly detailed and incredibly boring review of Elliott's current development and skills, I would like to talk, for about 46 minutes, about the above picture and today's 19 month photo session.  I will include unnecessary background information and a lot of blab about my thoughts and feelings.  We might analyze the War of 1812 at some point.  Just randomly.  Not because it has any correlation. 

 

Spencer starts kindergarten in 5 days.  We have been rearranging sleep schedules and schedules in general over here.  In order to keep to our new wake up time (7:15ish), we have to keep to our new bedtimes (8-8:30ish).  And that means that our evenings have to be really structured and strict.  I worked today and we left for swim lessons soon after I got home.  There wasn't enough time for a photo session before lessons and we didn't want to risk ruining the new bedtime by waiting for after swim lessons, showers and dinner. 

 

Moving on.  Spencer is now taking 50 minute swim lessons.  His lessons start at 5:00.  Elliott's lessons start at 5:30.  I picked the pool that I registered at because it has a splash pad next to the pool so Elliott can play while we wait the half hour that we have to be at the pool but can't be in the pool.  So we decided we'd do his photo shoot at the splash pad.  Pros: he was having fun, smiling a lot and it was overcast reducing weird shadows and such.  Cons: he was running around like a maniac and my camera isn't fast enough for such running.

 

I debated and debated and stressed and stressed about picking an official picture that was slightly blurry and has his head cut off because my camera didn't click fast enough.  I even went back and checked if I have any "head cut off pictures" for Spencer's monthly shots (I don't) to try to justify this.  I considered photoshopping a top of his head into the above picture. But in the end I decided to go with it because it shows his 19 month joy and dammit that counts for more than missing a little sliver of scalp.

 

This was a close second.

 

So, I think I will ditch the headings this month and just type freestyle.

 

You have all the time in the world, right?

Elliott is now closer to age 2 than he is to age 1.  I am days away from creating a pinterest board to start planning his birthday party.  And when I say "days away" I mean I am going to do it the second I am done with this post.

I really thought he was going to wean himself over the weekend.  He refused to nurse on Friday and then I got really, really sick on Saturday and was afraid to hold him because I thought I would drop him, so Michael ended up getting him to bed.  But he nursed with enthusiasm the last 3 nights.  Who knows what will happen.  We made it 19 months.  At this point I feel OK if he gives it up.

I'm sure Elliott has spyware on the computer and will revolt the second he reads this, but this is our new bedtime routine: get ready (jammies, teeth, etc), read books, nurse, rock for 2 minutes, I put him in bed and rub his back for 15 seconds, I sit in the chair for 3 minutes and then leave the room.  And he goes to sleep on his own.  No crying.  He sleeps all night (although he still cries out a lot in his sleep) and wakes up happy and ready to go. 

Elliott learned three new words on Saturday: mine, apple and cookie.  He's never actually had a cookie, but he has a toy that sings a song about cookies and we sing that song all the time.  He can also count to 3, but he usually skips 1.  He will only count when he's standing next to the pool waiting to jump in.  And yes, he will hurl his body into the pool every chance he gets.

 

This is the beginning of a huge explosion of language.  I love it.

 

His favorite book is Owl Babies.  We read it 9 billion times a day.

Much like his brother, he runs everywhere he goes.  Going from the bedroom to the kitchen?  Run!  Going 2 feet across the kitchen? Run!  Headed from the patio to the pool?  Run across the pool deck and give your parents a massive heart attack!

 

He's not very good at running, so he falls a lot.

He has figured out how to climb on top of his riding toys but doesn't know how to scoot yet so he just screeches until someone comes to push him. Spencer is usually up to the task.  It's going to be a tragic day on Monday when he disappears to school for 7 hours everyday.

We got the results of his organic acids test and his urinalysis.  Everything was normal.  No signs of an inherited metabolic disorder.  That's good.  It still doesn't answer any questions about his liver.

 

That's all I can think of for now.  Enjoy 3,000 more pictures and then you can go about your day. 

Oh wait.  One more thing.  He now calls me mommy and mama.  Depends on the minute which one he picks.  His little voice when he says mommy just about bursts my heart every time.

 

I had to leave after taking this picture.  He was not happy that I wasn't joining them for lessons.