Where the watermelon grow...

Somebody at work gave me a watermelon today (a spare from a crop trial). I cut it up for a treat after dinner tonight. The little guy ate an oreo instead, but the baby enjoyed it.

 She was all smiles until the camera appeared-- I promise!

The Angriest Ladybug

The little guy said "I'm the angriest ladybug" tonight. Eric replied "That strikes fear into everyone's hearts." Ha!

Anyway, at dinner the little guy showed off his latest talent. Not only can he wink like a see-saw, but he actually has the best winks. See?

Sharing?

We're working with the little guy on not snatching stuff from his sister's hands and/or mouth. Seriously, he just walks by her and takes her pacifier sometimes. What?!? Why would you do that?

To be fair, we're also trying to keep her from grabbing everything he touches. Things are on the upswing-- look at this awesome bridge he built that she didn't destroy!

And look at him willingly sharing blocks ("You can play with THIS one!"). Progress!

Like Father, Like Son

Eric had fun digging with the little guy at the playground today.

Then he played with the baby!

Beau got to smell a bunch of new things-- so he had a nice time, too.

And I finally remembered the bug spray. It was the first time we didn't have to scoot out early due to flee from the unbelievable amount of mosquitos here.

Pool Days

We were going to go to the beach today, but went to a city pool instead. It was great-- so much easier than packing the car up for a day at the beach! The little guy had a blast playing in the water.

We stayed in the wading pool and the "sprayground" the whole time. The water varied from 10 to 18 inches deep.

The baby had fun watching all the big kids. She liked being in the water, too.

During the pool breaks, the kids hung out on their beach towel.

They were both sound asleep by the time we got home, and the little guy napped until bedtime!

Playing together?

The little guy was running a toy store tonight in their play area. Here he is trying to sell the baby his old music player. I think she likes it! (She's not a very discerning customer.)

Mmmm...Curry

I made this salad tonight, and it was delicious! The little guy just ate grapes, almonds, and an oreo, but the baby enjoyed some chicken curry and chickpeas (but no cookies).

The boy made a kite at school today, so here's a picture of him, his chocolate covered face, and his kite. He's treating it like a flag instead of a kite, but that's ok.

Fruitcakes

The little guy has been asking for cantaloupe lately and I actually remembered when I saw them on sale at the grocery store this week. The little dude helped me cut it up to have for dessert tonight.

The baby even had some, too!

They were happy, sticky messes.

Big Frank!

The little guy got an awesome book for his birthday (Big Frank's Firetruck). He LOVES this book. Eric has this book memorized, and it's not a short book. I mean it when I say the little dude LOVES this book. Here are the boys reading it tonight.

That picture made me laugh so hard. Hilarious. In other news, the poor baby has been reduced to sitting on an air conditioning vent in the middle of a car accident while chewing on a trash can.

Hippopotamus?

"Hey Mommy, come look at this! I drew a hippopotamus!" I went over to see, and was definitely not expecting anything that looked remotely like a hippo. Well, I totally underestimated the little guy:

Holy crap! If someone said this was a hippo, you'd say
"Yeah, sure, I can see that."

We walked to the playground this afternoon to let daddy take a nap. The baby liked the swings.

She's so laid back. She's... swinglaxin'

The little guy had fun climbing on the rocks.

Look, we're in the NC piedmont... it's the best we've got!

And on the way home, we got to look at some heavy equipment. Our street is being repaved this week, so there are a bunch of construction vehicles around.

He is SO serious in this picture.

All in all, it was a very successful trip.

Go Speed Racer!

The baby took off today-- so fast that she was able to knock over Beau's water bowl and then fall and hit her head in the resulting puddle. I guess she figured it out last night.

Going, going, gone!

The little guy got a gash in his head at school yesterday, so we spent the evening at an urgent care center getting him cleaned and stapled back together. Good times!

Stink-eye

The baby has an excellent stink-eye. I'm hoping she uses it wisely (and not on me).

She snagged that drill when the little dude wasn't paying attention. I took this picture right after he snatched it back. These two kids just constantly want whatever the other one is playing with-- which is a hobby that I think they'll probably both keep forever.

Lions and Tigers and...

...STAIRS! Oh my!

She's crawling all over the place with less fussing these days, and tonight she started up the stairs. 

Thankfully this is as far as she made it, despite the fact that her older brother was four stairs up calling for her. We're going to have to start working with him on that. (Please don't kill your sister!)

Quick Note

Our cable was accidentally unplugged during some work on our street, so we haven't had internet access for a few days. We'll be back up tonight, though!

Come On...

The baby and I had a ladies' weekend because the boys were out of town playing golf (welcome to 1951). I haven't been alone with her very much, since she's kid number two, so it always feels like a treat when we get to hang out by ourselves.

It turns out, though, that who she really wants is her daddy.
What a stinker! The little guy chewed on his tubes of butt-paste, too. I blame Eric's genes for that trait.

Ack!

For some reason, I keep expecting the baby to stay three months old. Keeping that in mid, today when I went to get her after naptime, this was pretty shocking:

Birthday!

Today is my birthday (yay!), and the little guy made me a card at school. He also gave me all the money out of his piggy bank-- five bucks and some change. (I won't keep it.) Here we are with both:

Enjoy this wildly flattering picture of us all.

Hope your day was wonderful, too!

See?

As a counterpoint to yesterday's video, here's a picture of them playing nicely:

The little guy is so funny now that he has an imagination. I put our spices away tonight (in my new spice rack!!!!!!), and the little guy insisted that his play pepper needed to go in my spice rack, too. Here's what happened:

Eric: Why don't you put it away in your kitchen?

Little Guy: My kitchen is so, so, so dirty that they'll just ROT. They'll just turn ROTTEN if they stay in my dirty, dirty kitchen.

Me: Why don't you clean your kitchen? Then your spices could be in it and not rot.

*pause*

Little Guy: No.

Okay then. Consider yourself warned, Hoarders, consider yourself warned.

Oh no!

The little guy has been snatching things from the baby for months now. He likes the "share" his toys with her-- which means letting her look at them from a few feet away.

Too bad for him she can move now! 

She also likes to blow raspberries on people. It's gross.

Crawling Stinks... Yeah, Yeah

The baby is an angry crawler. She can do it, but she's not happy about it and she wants you to know it. Sadly, it's kind of hilarious. She'll get halfway to a toy that she wants and either burst into angry tears as she continues to crawl or she'll stop and look around for something closer that she can play with instead. Well... it turns out that what she really wants to do is stand!

The little dude is old enough to misunderstand things. The other day in the car we were listening to wildly inappropriate but catchy music (don't judge me! I didn't think he was paying attention!). One More Night came on and we had the following conversation:

Little Dude: Why does he hope that you die?

Me: What? He doesn't say that! Don't say that. It's not nice! Where did you hear that?

Adam Levine: So I cross my heart and I hope to dii-ii-ie...

Me: Oh. 

Little Dude: Why does he say he hopes you die?

Me: Um, he's saying I hope TO die. It's an expression. It just means you really really promise.

Little Dude: Why doesn't he say I really really promise? Why does he say I hope you die?

Me: It's just a saying. I don't know. It's a saying-- "Cross my heart, hope TO die, stick a needle... um, you know what, nevermind. Hey look! There's a big truck over there!

Little Dude: I hope you die!

Luckily he hasn't said it to anyone at daycare... that I know of. Nor has he asked why lipstick can get you so out of breath. I'm looking for a new morning station now, too.

Feats of Strength

The little dude and I took a break from sidewalk chalk to impress our new neighbors with feats of strength speed. We took turns sprinting down the sidewalk and tagging the front door. I'm sure they can't WAIT to meet us now!

He also dressed me up as a baseball player for a rousing game of catch earlier this weekend (also outside-- Hi neighbors!).

And then in the category of "I don't even know" this is how the little guy slept last night:

Arts and Crafts

The little guy is really drawing stuff now. It's pretty neat! He just started adding ears to his people. Here is a picture of two people (him and one of us) on a train:

In summer camp this week his class was on a safari. Today he came home with this adorable lion mask, but he wouldn't let me take a picture of him with it. So here's me, being a ferocious lion.

And here's Eric, being a cowardly lion. I think I scared him.

 We really know how to live it up on a Friday night, huh!

Happy 4th!

We headed downtown for a festival... and I could've sworn I read something about people getting citizenship today, but we didn't see any of that. We did, however, see a ladder truck. The little guy got to talk to two (very kind and patient) firefighters.

This firefighter was explaining why the ladder goes so high in the air.
He managed to explain it without being terrifying,
which is pretty impressive!

It took a few false starts, but he ended up even sitting in the fire truck.

This poor guy's job was to pick up a gazillion kids, put them in the
truck, keep them from falling out while their parents took pictures,
and then get each kid back down safely. Whew!

He was SO proud of himself!

Then the boys had some ice cream and we all went home. The baby spent her evening chewing on one of the little dude's worker-men.

Construction workers are the breakfast of champions.

I'm not ready!

The baby can now crawl, stop crawling, and get off her knees and back to sitting all by herself. She's also starting finger foods. She LOVES to pick up puffs and cheerios and drop them down the front of her clothing. I think she even eats a few! Poor Beau can't decide which seat to camp out under at mealtime anymore.

The little guy had chocolate ice cream for dessert tonight. After his bath, I clipped all of his nails. Eric said "Let me take a look at those bad boys" and the little guy replied "Daddy, they're GOOD boys!"

Orange you glad it's July?

The little guy decided to match today, so he wore orange. Once both kids were dressed, I realized that they were both wearing orange outfits, so I had to take a picture.

Sometimes we cringe when he goes to school (or anywhere, frankly) with his carefully selected clothes. However, today he played with a little girl who was wearing a purple shirt, purple shorts, and flip-flops. I guess it's normal?

We get a daily newsletter from their classes at school. Last week it said the kids talked about good sportsmanship and what it means to be a good sport. When he got home, I asked him what it meant to be a good sport. He said "Winning." Eric was so proud.