Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Catching Up


This post is probably just going to seem like recap of what's been going on so far this summer. We went to the zoo one day with Aunt Kaki and had a great time. I have several diet pepsi can coupons that are for a free child's admission and Charlotte is still free so we may be making several zoo trips this summer! Luke has a stuffed animal snake that he had to have after playing with one at his cousins house. He named it "Slimey". He carried this stuffed animal snake around with him and sleeps with it, etc. Loves this snake- so I was excited when there was a demonstration where Luke could touch a REAL snake!! So cool. He wasn't scared at all! Charlotte seemed a little afraid to touch any of the animals. She was holding her arms up high to stay away from it! (we now are the proud owners of more of these stuffed animal snakes as part of a potty training reward- which I will post more about later!)


Luke's favorite part was seeing the peacock's with their tail feathers all on display. He's a spoiled first-born so he got to go on lots of rides. lol Here he is riding a pony named Gayle. Charlotte freaked when I tried to have her touch the pony!

Here Luke is riding the Sky-Lift above the African Journey with Aunt Kaki. Something about that ride still makes me a little nervous!

Charlotte was happy anytime she could be walking on her own like a big girl.

Here's a boy excited to ride the choo-choo train.

And here's a girl surprised by the choo-choo train whisle! :)


Luke did visit the dentist for the first time... and I was soooo happy with how he behaved! I'd been prepping him a long time but then I didn't want to overdo it. Important things to remember are little things like saying, "You GET to go to the dentist." instead of "You HAVE to go to the dentist." He sometimes can be shy around new people but I think since it was just the one hygienist that he talked with and then the dentist later on he was pretty comfortable. He told them about the fish we had caught that morning and did a good job following directions. He has one little cavity (bad mommy!) that we have to go back in July but he won't really know that it will be much different. They won't have to numb it or anything (which is the scary part!) so hopefully it will be an easy visit again! He was such a good boy listening that the hygienist let him pick out two prizes! Here he is when he first got laid down in the chair.

We've had some big storms here lately to ring in the summer season. One was bad enough to knock out the power for a night. It happened around 6pm and then we had the evening to entertain the kids (at least it stayed light to around 9:30 so didn't have to use lanterns and flashlights too long). JW has been working 10 hour days plus Saturdays so he went to bed pretty early. I attempted to lay Charlotte down around 9 but I think the thunder was keeping her awake. We decided to try putting a dvd on the laptop for Luke and he thought that was sooooo much fun with just a camping lantern on. So I set him up with "Cars" on the laptop and some snacks. Soon Charlotte joined him at the little table. Charlotte finally started to try to smile on cue and do a big cheesy smile so I thought these were kind of fun moments. Little Miss Lottie ended up staying up until about 10:30 and Luke was up until about 11:30!!! Luckily, the power came on about 3am and the kids slept in late.


Monday, June 14, 2010

Frogs and Fishing


Summer is rolling along, a little too quickly I think! Oh well- that's the way it goes. JW has been busy working all year (Thank God!) and then this week he is doing 10 hour days and possibly Saturdays. He's a little bummed right now because World Cup soccer started and he can't just stay at home glued to the TV! I think Holland is playing right now so I better text him the scores throughout the morning. Today, I am taking Luke to the dentist for the first time... I'm a little nervous about that. I'm not sure they will do much more than let him sit in the chair and show him all their cool gadgets and count his teeth. He doesn't seem too afraid yet but he can get shy around new adults so I'm just hoping he lets them look in his mouth! I've been brushing those teeth for three years now and I want reassurance I am doing a good job haha


Luke would love to spend every minute of every day outside along the waters edge. Lately, it has been trying to catch frogs! He could do this allllllllllllll day. We don't actually catch any frogs but he gets close. Right after I typed this, he came up to me and asked if we could go outside. Since Charlotte was still asleep, its much easier to help him do what he wants without having to chase her everywhere! So we hurried and put our shoes on and ran out to the water. We looked in the water, tried to catch frogs, stirred weeds around with a stick which was "making hot chocolate", and saw some fish jump. Then he wants his fishing pole, which always makes me nervous since I've not had to take a fish off of a hook for a long time. While he was still messing with his stick I cast out the bait just for kicks and right away a fish grabbed it! Agh! Here mommy's going "oh no!" and Luke's jumping up and down all excited that we actually got a fish! It was just a little 4 or 5 inch bass but I didn't really want to touch it. It had one of those 3 pronged hooks in its mouth... ughhhh! I tried a few times but couldn't get the hook out.. may have repeated the word crap a few times (nothing worse- I promise!) and then put it back in the water. I gave the fishing pole to Luke and went to get pliers out of Daddy's tackle box. It took a me a few attempts and the fish had to rest in the water a few times in between, but I finally got the hook out! I was so proud of myself and happy for the fish haha. Luke was all smiles that we had caught a fish. So then he wants to take a turn. He dips the bait in off the edge of the pier and to his surprise he caught one! Pulled it up and it was THE SAME FISH!!! Not too bright I guess! Mommy was disappointed that I had to do this hook thing all over again but Luke was so surprised and so happy! Luckily, when we pulled him out of the water and flipped the hook one way he just fell off- Phew!!!

And now by this time I am actually finishing this post I can gladly announce that Holland wins!!! 2-0 over Denmark! Woohoo! That should brighten JW's day even if he is stuck at work. :)

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Finally... its Summer!!

I'm so thankful for Summer vacation!! One of the perks of my job, is the 2 and a half months I get to enjoy at home with the kids. We've had a good first week off and I already feel like I've accomplished a lot of things around the home. Hopefully that motivational streak will continue and I won't start procrastinating!
Luke's definitely entered the more difficult age of 3 and I am learning every step of the way. :) Of course, one minute he is screaming in a rage at me and the next minute he is as sweet as pie! He's so cute and smart and really the apple of my eye (even when he is torturing me with tantrums!) He definitely has caught his dad's fisherman gene. He loooooves going out on the rowboat with daddy. They have caught some pretty good sized bass, which is VERY exciting for Luke. We have been working hard on potty training this week and he's been doing really well with #1... not so much with #2! But we are working on it. He's getting to be such a big boy! Oh and he had his 3 year old check up and weighed 37 pounds and was 41 inches tall! 98th percentile for height and 90th for weight so he IS statistically a big boy as well!
Charlotte is babbling more and using more words mixed in with the babble. She's definitely a cutie and melts my heart. I love having a little girl to dress up and play baby dolls together. I also feel like just in this week being home, I've gotten to really bond more with her (which makes me sad for all the time I have missed this year while I have had to work) but I should just be thankful for the time we have now this summer. Charlotte gives the best hugs and kisses and wants to be a big girl and do everything just like her brother. I've got some really cute photos and videos of her antics around the house. However, I still need to download my camara software onto the laptop so that I can use them more easily when I post!
JW's been working steadily all this year so that is a blessing (you never know with the economy and with his job). We are hoping to get some updates done to the house this summer... that will pretty much keep us busy and broke! Someday we will be able to take a vacay. We will probably just do some fun local things like going to the zoo or Children's Museum. My main goals this summer are to spend good quality time with the kids and then to get the house more organized! I lack in organizational skills but if I have a good system in place I can use it... its just getting a system set up that I need to work on.
Sounds pretty boring but I am looking forward to feeling like I have the time to do these things instead of rushing around for work.
 

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