Summer livin'

Ahhhh, how is it July 28th already?  Its been two weeks since I last posted last and not for lack of material.  We seem to stay busy, and entertained, around here.  T minus 6 weeks until the baby arrives and I've done little to prepare.  I'm crossing my fingers hoping that the necessary items will just appear in their proper places when we need them.  Seems like a great strategy.

I guess the baby's nursery is ready, meaning it is exactly how Jackson had it, minus Jackson, who now is officially sharing a room with Brady.  I continue to be baffled how Jackson, when he had his own crib, would never sleep in it all night.  But when he has a brother next to him who kicks him (I know from experience), he has no problem sleeping until morning.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, you don't see me complaining.  Potty training is another area where Jackson has been surprisingly successful.  After my first few attempts, I didn't have high expectations, but I should have known my child well enough to know that if I incentivized the process with candy, he'd be peeing like a pregnant lady in her third trimester (aka me).  While he still hasn't pooped in the potty (actually he hasn't pooped anywhere in two days), he pees like a champ on the big potty with his big brother cheering him on.  It might have to do with the fact that Brady gets to share in the reward.  Jackson usually is midstream when his face lights up and says "M&M!" but it actually comes out as two syllables  "M-nem.". Cracks me up every time.  Here's Jackson on the pot singing a song.  I thought he had to poop, so I was trying to distract him with my singing (which as you can hear, is pretty distracting).

 

 

 

And speaking of eating, Jackson still likes to do it.  I mean Batman.

 

 

I've mentioned it before, but we have a serious situation on our hands when it comes to clothing.  The situation is that Jackson is following precisely in his brother's footsteps when it comes to attire.  Meaning he CARES.  He cares about what he wears to bed, he cares about what he wears when he wakes up, and he cares enough throughout the day to request outfit changes if he sees something that strikes his fancy.  Its hard for me to stomach having two such children.  Maybe I'll have a girl who won't give a hoot about her clothes.  In other words, maybe I'll have a mini-me.  (True confession, I actually do care about my clothes right now, but didn't feel that way growing up.  I remember my mom struggling in the opposite direction that I am now.)

 

In Brady world, life is good.  He's becoming a confident swimmer, which is so fun to see.  He loves going swimming next door to his best buddy Micah's house.

 

 

 

Another favorite summer pastime is going to daddy's work to shoot on the "little hoop.". Basically, the big hoops are set low in the tunnel area and the boys ask to go play there frequently.  I love this video, because it shows the range of brother behavior from a helping hand to a passing swat.

 



 

Update: Jackson pooped in the potty before bed!  But he really had to work for it and it was not exactly a joyous occasion.  Potty training is a tough time to be stopped up.

Power sleeping, potty training and pipe smoking

Already mid-July? The summer seems to be whizzing right by. Although that would mean that this pregnancy is whizzing by, which doesn't really seem to be the case.  I'm 32 weeks pregnant, which un-pregnant people tell you is the "home stretch." The only thing stretched, is my stomach, which feels bigger than it apparently looks.  Picking up toys, kids, and miscellaneous items all day doesn't help, although I suppose I should be happy for the forced activity level.

In other news, seeing that Jackson was doing so well in his new bed, we started potty training this morning.  First off, the positive, which is that Jackson sleeps through the night about 90% of the time.  I forgot how amazing that can be.  Of course, things can't stay amazing forever so I'll enjoy the next few weeks while they last.  On the potty training side, I put some big boy underwear on him this morning.  Its the second time I've done this, and the first time, a few weeks ago, after Jackson wet himself, he flipped out.  Total breakdown.  I took his diaper off this morning and it was still dry, so I knew an accident would happen quickly.  Sure enough, during breakfast, Jackson peed in his chair and proceeded to flip out.  "Wipe it, wipe it!!" he yelled as I wiped him down.  Even after he was dry, he was very concerned about the pee on the floor and his chair.  Optimistically, I'm hoping this bodes well since he clearly does not enjoy being wet.

So we stayed at home the rest of the afternoon, with Jackson rocking his underwear and me waiting for the next accident.  Lunch came and went and no pee.  Our usual 1 pm naptime came and went and no pee.  I was waiting for him to go before putting him to sleep.  Then 2 pm rolled around with no pee, even after multiple attempts to get him to pee (warhead in water was unsuccessful).  He was so tired at that point that if he did end up wetting himself, he probably would have had a mental breakdown.  So I caved, put him in a diaper and put him to bed.  We'll try again later.

Everyone knows that kids say the darnedest things, and its always a highlight of my day to hear what comes from the mouths of these two boys.  Yesterday afternoon was a good sampling of what I hear daily.  We were running errands and we had left one store when Brady asked, "When can we come back to Deep Home?" Well, Brady, I'm not sure when we'll be back to Home Depot.  Afterwards, we went to the library.  I was attempting to open my center consul in my new car (a Chevy Traverse) because I knew Eric had put the book-on-tape in there that needed to be returned.  It would not open.  My kids asked (of course), why we were still sitting in the car and I told them that I was frustrated because I couldn't figure out how to open it.  Eventually, I gave up, we went in, and when we were loading back in the car to go home, Jackson was taking forever to get in his seat.  After about the third time of me telling him to get in his seat, he turned and said, "Fuss-rated." "What?" I asked, frustrated that he wouldn't just get in his seat. "Frus-rated," he repeated.  "Oh, am I frustrated?? Why, yes!  I am!  Get in your seat!" He grinned, happy to be understood.

And speaking of the library, Brady asked for a Curious George book and the first one we came across was the original book, copyright 1941.  Oh, how things have changed.  Somehow I forgot the story of an innocent monkey being stolen from Africa (literally, he is bagged by the man in the yellow hat) to be brought to the U.S. to be put (sold?) in a zoo.  And that is the "happy ending!!" Animal rights supporters would be up in arms if this type of book was published nowadays.  Then their is the issue of George being thrown in jail by the "skinny" and "fat" police officers.  But before that, George was relaxing at his new "friend's" house, just enjoying a little buzz.

Ironically, yesterday we were given "The Giving Tree," which was published in 1964.  I asked Eric if he grew up reading it and he told me he hadn't.  I told Eric that it was sort of a sad book and then I read it to the kids.  At bedtime, each boy gets to pick out one book to read.  I asked Jackson to pick out which book he wanted and he told me "sad book" as he handed me Shel Silverstein's classic.  I can accuse Jackson of not listening, but can't say that he doesn't pay attention!

Beach week

We spent a week at Emerald Isle with Eric's family, which has become somewhat of a tradition in the last few years.  It was a relaxing way to spend vacation and the boys were not lacking in attention with the grandparents and aunt and uncle in attendance.

They came back browned and beached.  We spent a lot of time at the pool with brief stops at the ocean.  Thankfully, my children aren't old enough to want to venture real far into the ocean, so we didn't have to make any decisions about "should we let them swim or not." While the chances are still incredibly small, all the shark attacks on the North Carolina coast certainly give you pause.  Eric's second cousin was the victim of the first attack of the summer a few weeks ago and their have been several since then.  Thankfully, we didn't see any alarming fins, though Brady did catch his first fish!  Apparently, his fish count is now officially higher than his dad's.

Brady and Jackson spent time with some older girl second cousins they hadn't met before and there was a quite the instant love, especially by Jackson.  I knew Brady had a thing for older girls and it seems his younger brother has the same love.  We spent one afternoon with them on their boat and at their beach, then met back up with them at MacDaddy's -- a bowling alley, arcade, and restaurant all wrapped up in one.  The kids had a blast and I walked away smiling myself.  That might have to do with the fact that I bowled a 127 and Eric bowled a 123.  I bowled 9's on the first three frames while Eric started his game much better.... so his mouth was running pretty quickly early on, and I was seething on the inside.  We all got to experience a complete choke job in the last frame, so I'll just call it karma.

Brady became quite the swimmer fish over the course of the week.  "Throw me," was a common request.  Jackson liked to play it safe in the little pool with Grandma.  He'll sport the goggles, but he doesn't want to actually use them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was our last planned vacation before turning into a family of five.  I imagine our next beach week will look a little different!