Easy Like a Summer Mornin'

 Oh summer, how I adore thee. This was my first summer EVER not teaching some kind of summer school, summer camp or summer tutoring and, I swear, it went by faster than any summer I've had.

On a typical summer morning, I would get up before the rest of the house. Don't tell anyone, but I secretly love mornings. I am a morning person, through and through. Most days, I got up to nurse Dutch and would then get the two of us dressed (sometimes Cam was awake by this point, getting ready for work). With Dutch nestled in his swing (and usually dozing) I would start the coffee pot, shower and start on chores for the day.

 My typical summer wardrobe: jeans, bright top and polka dot shoes.

On this day, I ran right out to my veggies, knowing that I'd forgotten to water the night before and the day was due to be a scorcher. (I also found on this morning several hollow zucchini still on the vine--they'd been eaten all the way through by SLUGS! One of a million reasons I despise slugs.)

Clementine woke up at this point and came out to the yard. Each morning, the first thing she said was "Where's my daddy?" and I would explain that he'd left for work. Then Clementine would proceed to tell me of her dream from the night before. Her dreams are always very vivid and usually very silly.

 On to breakfast! Clem loves her toast plain with a little fruit on the side.

 

I had leftovers from the night before. My husband can do amazing things to plain potatoes.  Here I had potatoes with onion, cheese and crumbled bacon!

 On this day we actually had somewhere to be in the morning--this was not typical for us. We like to kick back in the morning but on this day we were going to Library Day to learn about dinosaurs.

 

Dutch loves a good adventure. Every time I strap him in the car seat, he makes this wide eyed grin. 

 We were already late (as  usual) to Library day so when we got stuck behind a train, we had a little dance party in the mini-van.

 Clementine gets her sweet mini-van dance party moves from me

 Clem got to read some stories and watch a video on dinosaurs at the library. Then she made her own out of modeling clay. I think this one was a T-rex.

 

After Library, it was time for "school". Clem has been busy learning to recognize letters and their sounds this summer. She also wants to be able to write her FULL name (not just Clem). Dutch kept a close eye on big sister's printing. 

 She traced her name...

 

And stamped it.

 Then she was on to more exciting things, like packing a suitcase full of stuffed animals.

And I caught up on laundry.

Our mornings are about to get a whole lot busier with everyone returning to school next week. I will miss our easy, laid back summer mornings tremendously. I feel so lucky that I got to spend as much time home with my kiddos and am looking forward to more of the same next summer.

Waterslides!

 At first there was this...

 she was a bit wary of these slides.

 

But she gradually got braver and braver. 

 Until there was this.

 And she was ready for the big time. We climbed to the top and rode the cork screw all the way down.
She tried to back out once she saw how far it was to the pool. I got her to sit on my lap and reassured  her it was a fun ride. I wrapped my arms around her chest which was beating super fast, like a hummingbird's.

 Cam said he could hear me Whoop!-ing from the top of the slide, which explained why he was laughing so hard when we got to the bottom. Clem was a brave girl and rode these big girl slides with me several times before she'd had enough.

Dutch had a good time there, too, I think!

For Sissy

My sister is in labor. Here's Clem's take on what will happen today.

Sleeping arrangements

While Dutch is a great sleeper (sleeping through the night since 6 weeks!!) he is absolutely the noisiest sleeper you've ever heard. He grunts, groans, snorts and squeals all night long. Now that he can roll, he has also added squirming to his repertoire of  night time antics. (Several times each night he rolls himself into a position that he can't get out of, so, naturally, he screams like he's caught on fire. I have learned to keep my cool, untangle him from himself and he is immediately back to sleep.)

I also am married to a very noisy sleeper. He also grunts, groans, snores and will often sleep talk and laugh without waking himself up.

When we brought Dutch home from the hospital, our intention was to keep him in the bassinet next to our bed, just as we had with Clementine. Two hours into our first night and I could see this wasn't going to work. Dutch was waking up Cam and vice versa. No one was getting any sleep.

Being the loving, doting wife that I am, I decided that Dutch had to find somewhere else to sleep...and I would go with him. Fortunately, we have the world's most comfortable bed in Dutch's room and I sleep there each night, often co-sleeping with the pipsqueak. This allows Cam to get some rest so he can work in the morning.

Around the same time that Dutch came home, Clementine started having a really difficult time sleeping alone. She's not afraid of the dark or fearful of monsters under the bed, she says she just doesn't want to sleep alone. Her summer bed time (8:00) was getting more and more prolonged as she kept herself awake, begging for someone to bring her something (glasses of water, a certain doll or toy, paper to write a story, flashlights, etc.). Sometimes she would still be up at my bedtime (11:00)! We were so desperate for awhile there that we finally caved, craving any kind of sleep we could get. So, Clementine slept in the master bedroom with Cam while I slept in the nursery with the baby. Not the ideal sleeping arrangements.

Finally, we came up with a plan to support Clementine and get her back in her own room. We came up with a sticker chart that said after 20 sleeps in her own room, without getting out of bed or crying on the stairs for us, we would take her to the water slides. Honestly, the water slides were going to happen this summer anyhow, but we needed some kind of incentive for her. And this did the trick. She certainly wasn't laying right down and going to sleep at 8:00 but she wasn't howling on the staircase anymore, either. She gathered all the stuff she could possibly need during the night before bedtime and stayed in her room, playing if her eyes just wouldn't close. We are really proud of her.

As for Dutch, I see myself in that room for awhile, if only for the comfort of that bed!

Back to School 'dos

Before

After (hard to see)

after Clem in the tree!

My short new do!

Fair Day 2012

 Oh, the fair...I look forward to it all year. This year, we went with Clem's good buddy Taylor and the girls had a blast.

 The day we chose to take the girls to the fair was supposed to be the hottest day of the year (it was). We met up super early, just as the gates to the fair were opening. I thought we were so clever: outsmarting not only the crowds but the heat too. I was wrong on both accounts! At 9:00 it was already 77 degrees at the fairgrounds and the rides didn't open for 2 more hours! We made good use of the time, though, checking out the livestock for awhile.

Immediately after we entered the livestock barn, a big crowd down the row started clapping and cheering. I wanted in on the action and made a bee-line to this pen. Mama cow had literally just birthed this newborn calf. We watched them bond a bit and then got a mooooove on (get it??)

 Down the way were twin newborn calves a few days old, a boy and a girl. The fair had a suggestion board for their names: Clementine suggested Alabama and Calvin, Taylor suggested Clementine and Matthew. Aw!

 There were newborn chicks to see (no holding!)

 And a mama sow clearly working hard to birth her litter of piglets (we missed that action).

 Clem went fishin' and caught herself a few free classes in dance and tae kwon do!

 Finally, the rides were up and ready for these two. The girls had all day passes for the rides and made EXCELLENT use of them! Clem had a smile on her flushed face for several hours!

 This was our only hiccup of the day. The girls were so excited to go down the big old slide on their own. Taylor knew just what to do but, if you look closely at the picture, you'll see Clementine didn't. She threw the burlap sack over her shoulder instead of sitting on it and she got a bad burn on her back as a result. Poor babe. Believe me, it slowed her down not one bit!

 By lunch, it was getting pretty hot on the fairgrounds. We paused to eat sandwiches and snow cones and lots and lots of water.

 So it only made sense for the girls to ride the Sizzler with a very brave Susan!

Sweet Dutch was there, too, scoping out the scene and trying to stay cool. He slept almost the entire time and didn't complain once about the heat! He loved watching the ferris wheel in the shade while the girls hit up every single ride in the place.

 After 5 hours at the fair I had had my limit of 89 degree weather and, though she'd never admit it, I think Clementine had her limit too. I bribed her to leave without a tantrum with strawberries dipped in sprinkles on a stick. Don't judge me, it's all I had in my bag of tricks!

We had a wonderful day. Can't wait to do the fair again next year.

Pt. Defiance v. 2.0

 I've said it before and I'll say it again: Pt. Defiance is the best zoo around. We were there last fall (remember?) but I swear it's gotten even better since then.

 On this visit, there were little climb on things for the wee ones.

 I didn't get to take many pictures at the zoo because the babes had figured out how to divide on conquer. One would go his own way while the other, of course, went in the completely opposite direction. Pretty much the whole zoo trip was barely contained chaos. The kids loved it, naturally.

 It was a pretty hot day so a lot of the animals had gone indoors or were chilling in the shade. We sort of got to see an elephant's back and ear (above) and totally got to see two monkeys of some kind hanging in the hammock.

What I wish I had gotten a picture of: our lunch fiasco.  We sat down in the picnic area to eat and Dutch decided he would also like to participate. I nursed him under a blanket while everyone was eating. A few minutes later, a free roaming peacock came to check out our snacks. The babes loved it, throwing the bird cranberries, crackers, carrots and raisins. The peacock gobbled those up while roaming the whole picnic area looking for other spilled food.
Within seconds of each other, Dutch peed all over my lap and Clementine had a complete nervous breakdown and tried to run away because the peacock had come back unnoticed and attempted to eat her sandwich. She was certain that the peacock was trying to eat her arm.
Trying to shoo a peacock, calm a preschooler and clean my lap at the same time pretty much sums up the day.
We saw a few more critters after that, then called it a day a bit early and came home for naps.