Words of White: Summah Lovin

So I think in an unintended reaction to last year's third trimester of pregnancy and subsequent newborn-induced exhaustion, this summer I've packed pretty full of traveling to visit friends and family, weekends full of fun day trips for the kids, and, well, some home improvement projects. Because I can't help it.

June brought (finally!) warm days, but then rapidly emerged into the (oh wait, I like winter more than summer) extreme heat of this week, clocking in at 94 degrees and full sun. Boo. Some days are still bearable though, and if its not too muggy, evenings out on our comfy porch or lying in the grass in our backyard are lovely.

Levi has now (mostly) conquered the potty - although he still assures us that sitting forward on it (he sits backwards for balance) will cause him to fall in. He occasionally gets wrapped up in what he's playing with and forgets- maybe once/week, but we went full-on big-boy undies over Memorial Day weekend and haven't looked back. Which THANK GOODNESS, I couldn't handle my giant-practically-in-preschooler in dirty diapers anymore.

Codorus State Park = best water area ever

He is also talking in long, drawn-out sentences these days. The other night he was trying to convince me to let him take a shower (after we were saying our prayers and turning off the lights) by naming every body part that was dirty "and my neck, and my elbows, and my belly, and my butt, and my head, and my ears, and my feet, and my toes, and my legs, and ALL of me is dirty, mommy!" He also needs to interrupt while reading books to launch into his own description of what is happening. The Cat in the Hat? Mind-boggling. "But, where is their mommy? They are making a mess! Why is there a kite? The cat is very dirty. And the room is dirty. And those things are running around. And where is the mommy??!"

Speaking of, he seems to sense his role in life a bit more these days. We were discussing something he'd learned at school the other day, when he launched into this story of how he knew that I was coming, so he went and told all of the kids in his class "Watch out! Mommy is COMING!" I'm proud of that, you betcha (mommy's in charge and he knows it, right?) but also every time I think about that I laugh. Completely unrelated to the discussion we were having.

I'm pretty sure he's reached that stage where he unintentionally embarrasses us as parents a lot. Not that

we're embarrassed by him, but that he says things to people without context and it doesn't sound good. I accidentally yanked a hangnail off (was peeling off part of the nail I'd trimmed) on his thumb this morning, and ended up making him bleed. All. day. long. he told everyone we saw "Mommy PINCHED me!!" Thanks buddy. It was an accident. You got to pick your own ugly bandaid. He treated his thumb like it was broken for a good three hours, although I'm sure the stinging stopped after a few minutes.

Theo is growing more adorable by the day - chubby cheeks and all. He finally put on enough weight for the doctor to be satisfied. I've realized that until my kids start eating solid foods, they just don't track on the weight charts like other kids, I guess. Levi dropped way down from the 75th percentile in the early weeks of his life to the bottom of the curve until after he turned one. Theo's drop was quicker, and because of that our

Theo always touches his ear for comfort

pediatrician encouraged that we get him eating more solids more quickly (still no solids before six months, but by 10 months he eats just about everything we do). Between his 9-month visit and his weight check 4 weeks later, he put on almost TWO pounds. He'd put on less than one pound in the previous five months combined. He eats more than me these days. Although I do wonder how much of it gets into his belly and how much of it is just mashed up and distributed evenly on every inch of his exposed skin.

He's not crawling, but he's mastered just about every other way to get around. Scootching backwards, army crawling on his belly, or just spinning on his stomach until he can reach whatever he wants. He's very long and can reach anything he can see close by like this. He is already starting to pull himself up to stand now and then, but mostly is content to grab something close by and stay seated indefinitely.

Tiny man also talks incessantly. While he chews on toys, while he eats, anytime he's near us - I think he thinks he's actually in conversation with us as we're chatting about other things. He still screams when I leave the room. Two more months of breastfeeding and then he'll magically stop that, right? right?? He's also so squirmy - he's happy and plays when he's sitting in your lap, but playing means grabbing your face, twisting around and around, smacking you, bouncing, etc. It's like holding a baby monkey or something. Yeah, I don't know where that example came from.

And to close, two Levi conversations:

Levi: (straining to reach the fan above our bed) Mommy, I want to touch it!
Me: Levi, it's too far away. also, you should NEVER touch a fan.
Levi: why?
Me: Because it could break your hand. It would hurt your fingers very much.
Levi: But mommy, it's so beautiful up there!
(...seriously....what?)

Me: (when discussing Levi's butt-to-regular-sized-toilet-seat ratio) Levi, how big is your butt?
Levi: It's awful.
Me: ( long pause)
Levi: Um, um, um, it's not as big as mommy and daddy's.

How Levi feels about playgrounds

How Theo feels about playgrounds

Camping!

Locker room solution after swimmy lessons:
Put baby IN locker for containment while
changing toddler's clothes. Not a great
idea to remove baby and then put back again
for photo op.