Breaking my dry spell :: A Summer recap

Heeeey. Long time no post! Once I finished up Charlie's monthly updates, things got pretty quiet around here. It's not that I haven't had anything I've wanted to write about. I wish I was able to keep up with writing here more. If for nothing more than to have a place to document my crazy and fun, sweet, yet hard, life raising these boys of mine. Writing here is a big commitment of my time, and I decided to just let it go for the Summer. I wanted to be able to enjoy these sweet days of Summer with my boys, and relax as much as possible. Their ages are a lot of fun right now (although NOT without there challenges!) It was nice not having any sort of schedule. To be able to just get in as much fun as we could before it all to quickly passed us by....

We had many walks to our neighborhood park, and picnics with friends. We went to an amusement park twice, and spent a day at the zoo. 

We went blueberry and cherry picking, and played with friends in a creek. We rode bikes, and played lots of backyard baseball. 

We had tractor rides, BBQ's and roasted marshmallows over a campfire. We spent a lot of time at the beach, and had fun checking out new spray parks. 

We swam in big pools, kiddie pools and ran through the hose. We had lazy days at home, and many family movie nights snuggled on the couch. 

We played hopscotch, and jumped in puddles after a summer rain. We went to the fair, the boys went to the air show and we ate way too much ice cream. 

We had birthday parties, graduation parties and babies being born. 

Don't get me wrong. We had plenty of hard days. Days where there was more yelling than laughing. Days where we spent most of the day in time out and apologizing, again and again. Days where I barely scraped together 3 meals. But oh, we so many good days. So many fun memories were made. I want so badly for my boys to look back on their childhood fondly. Not that I am willing to discard teaching them important life lessons like being grateful, thinking of others and working hard in the name of them being happy. I sure hope we can do a good job as parents finding a good balance. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the Summer...

As Summer winds down now, I find myself craving a bit of structure. We will be starting school back up next week, so this week is a rush to get things organized. As we start spending more days at home, I hope to write here a little more often. I am not promising anything though. It will be on my to do list, but not even close to the top. With Will in 1st grade, Sam in Pre-K and a very active and opinionated 1 year old my days will still be plenty full. But every so often I will pop in here to say hello. I hope you all had a great Summer as well!

Photo shoot :: Charlie is one!

My sweet Charlie boy turned 1 this past Saturday! It was another beautiful summer solstice, just like the day he was born (which you can read about here!)

Charlie has been such a sweet baby, although this past month he has definitely started to show some opinions of his own! I know I have said this before, but I will say it again. He is SUCH a mama's boys. Almost every time I have left him with someone else for more than 10 minutes, he is just a miserable little thing. Then as soon as he is in my arms it all sweetness and smiles, the little stinker.

He sleeps great at night, typically from 8pm - 6am (occasionally waking up once to nurse), and will sometimes fall back asleep in my bed for a little bit more. His naps are so all over the place though. I totally think it's the case of the 3rd child syndrome. With the first two boys I was able stick to a pretty good schedule, and always be home for nap time. But now that those two are older, life is busier, and being home for two naps a day just doesn't happen often enough to get him in a good day sleeping routine. That or he's just got the Dana stubbornness.

He has been my pickiest eater at this young of an age. He had a good month long streak of eating almost only avocado's. He is getting better though. Some favorite foods these days are: Blueberries, scrambled eggs, chicken, egg + banana "pancakes", cheese and raisins. He doesn't like strawberries. STRAWBERRIES!

He has said da da, ma ma, and ba ba. He claps his hands and waves (when he feels like it). Any chance he gets he tries to climb the stairs. He loves to get in on the wrestling matches with daddy and his big brothers. He has the best smile. He loves to be outside and always gets dirty, so thankfully he gets pretty excited about bath time. I thought he hated the swing, but really he just didn't like the way I was putting him in it (leaning forward). He still loves to nurse, and I plan on keeping it that way for awhile. He loves to play with his blocks, climb on the dishwasher, and empty my kitchen cupboards. He is not a cuddler. Even when he nurses he will try to stand up. He will pull himself up to stand on anything, and will walk with assistants.

If you tell Sam he is cute, he responds with, "No. I not tute. Farfay tute!" And we all agree. He is just so darn cute! We all love him to pieces, and he brings smiles to our faces everyday. Love you Charlie!

I am so happy with how these pictures turned out! It is very hard to keep him still these days, so to get some non blurry pictures is always a challenge. Warning: Charlie picture overload (if there even is such a thing.)

Charlie George :: 12 months old

See all 12 months of Charlie HERE!
Sam at 12 months!
Will at 12 months!

Charlie George :: 11 months

See Charlie at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months, 6 months,
7 months, 8 months, 9 months and 10 months.
See Sam at 11 months.

Parenting milestones

This past month I had a double whammy of parenting milestones that happened in the blink of an eye it seemed!

I have been asked many times from mama's with even younger kids than I have if I have any advise to give when it comes to the infamous child milestone of POTTY TRAINING. I am quick to say, "Oh, I am the last person to ask that!" Yes, I have successfully potty trained two boys so far in my life. Both of whom were well over 3 years old when it FINALLY happened. Something I do not recommend if you can help it! With my first, I tried over and over again, but the kid just refused to sit on a potty. No amount of candy bribery made a difference. Then, one summer while diaperless in a pool it just happened.

With my second, my potty training method consisted of this:

"Hey Sam, do you want to go pee on the potty?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Betush" (which means 'because' for those who don't speak 3 year old)

The end.

Then, for over a month, every time I put him to bed he wanted to read his potty book. Within a couple of weeks he had the thing memorized. The end of the books asks, "Do you want to be a big boy like me?" To which he replied, "Nope!" Then I just had it with the manchild sized dirty diapers. So, off came the diaper! I made him sit on his "yittle potty" every so often. He was cold, so I gave him a blanket, and he wanted to watch T.V. every time. Fine by me. And within a few days...Bam! He still wears a diaper when he sleeps, but other than that he's doing great!

We gave Will a "new" bike last October for his 5th birthday. One that wasn't allowed to have training wheels on it. We had limited nice days to play outside then. Whenever we did get out he would sit on his new bike a little, but was never quite sure enough about attempting to ride. The Winter came...and came...and came....and finally went! One of the first nice days we had back in April we were more than anxious to get out and play! With no prompting from me, he pulled out the big bike. He climbed right on and would push himself across the driveway, with his feet still on the ground. The next day, he started off the same way. Pushing himself along on his tip toes. Feeling the way he balanced. And then his feet went up! Pushing the peddles just a couple of times before he'd start to swerve and tip over. But he kept at it. Crash after crash. He kept getting back on that bike. And can I tell you, it was amazing to watch. My mama's heart was so proud of him. Within 30 minutes he was riding like a pro!