Life Lately

Life has been fun and busy this summer... it actually (so far) has been one of the funnest summers I remember...

Austin is at a fun age, and Owen is walking and old enough to really enjoy being outside. Plus with the weather being so warm, we've really had a legit summer... not a typical cool, slightly cloudy "I can't wait for it to warm up" Oregon summer.

-We've spent many evenings out of our house because Realtors have contacted us and scheduled showings for their clients. So we've had a few picnic dinners at the park while people toured our house! No offers yet though... still waiting...

Our favorite park has a baseball field so there are always several laps around the bases! Owen is very quickly getting the hang of walking and wants to run around with brother so bad!

-We switched Austin to part-time daycare this summer.. Neal really wanted to have him home a few days to do fun things with him. So Austin stays with Daddy on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Neal is working a baseball camp, and Austin loves going along to that. He even stands in line with the older kids to take his turn doing the drills! After camp they have gone out to lunch, ran errands, played in parks..

It took him like 10 mins to shell one peanut when they had lunch at Salvador Molly's. Ha.

-Like I said, Owen is really getting the hang of walking. He hardly crawls anymore at all. He loves to stand up and look out the door window at school, and monitors who comes in and out of the room. We also have to watch him like a hawk at home, or make sure the downstairs bathroom door is closed... because Trouble is his middle name..

-I looked over one day after getting home from work and school and there was Austin, quietly reading. For as active as he is, he still really loves books, and his Highlights magazine that comes in the mail. I hope that same love of reading will be instilled in Owen.. right now that kid has NO interest in books or stories. It makes my heart happy to see at least one kiddo follow in Mom's footsteps!

- Speaking of books.. one in particular is on heavy rotation in our house. It's technically a coloring book, but it's "Ninjan" Turtles and Austin wants it read over and over and over... and over. You can see how thrilled Neal is to read the story for the 18th time that day.

- Austin is also really into swords, and sword-fighting and wearing swords and "protecting us" from bad guys and bad things and babies and dogs and imaginary dragons and who knows what else. Sometimes I look him and go "good lord, he is such a boy..." Bats are swords and superhero gear is underwear..

- With the temperatures in the high 90's (and even hitting 100!!!) we have been living in our kiddie pool. Best $27 ever spent. Ever. Anything that amuses both kids for hours on end, and is big enough for the adults to lounge in and cool off in... well, that is just gold in my book!

Austin asks to swim everyday... even though "swimming" is more like splashing, and jumping into the pool and jumping around in the pool... but still. And did I mention the hours of playing in the pool exhausts both kids??? Gold, I tell ya... this pool is GOLD.

-We have been really battling a very independent stubborn 3-year-old lately. I know it's just him learning, and coming into his own, and pushing boundaries... but damn. Some days.. it's just too much. The kid ARGUES about everything. He wanted to wear his camo sandals one day and told me "I'm going to wear my camouflage sandals." I said "Oh cool, camo sandals!" and his response? "Dey aren't CAMO, DEY ARE CAMOUFLAGE!!!!!" and even after I explained that was the same thing, he would not drop it until I finally was like "I am not arguing with you on this, you need to drop it right now!" and suddenly I'm in mean parent mode.. over nothing. It's annoying. And draining. And can turn a situation where we are all having fun into suddenly a fight and tears and tantrums, all because he HAS TO BE RIGHT about everything and won't let it go. Needless to say, there has been a lot of sending him to his room, time outs.. everything we can think of get him to calm down so we can rationally talk to him about what happened. And he usually destroys his room in the process of calming down.

- And then, just to mess with your mind... 3-year-olds can be awesome and funny and make you laugh like crazy.

So that's our life lately. Busy. Messy. A lot of discipline. Reasoning with unreasonable little people. Swimming. House hunting. Dinners in the park. And cozy chaos. Oh, and Frozen. Always and forever.. Frozen.