Loving the lazy summer days

I love the summer months. Our routine quickly changes...school is out, hubby being a teacher is off and the schedule has so much room for wiggliness. One afternoon this week we enjoyed hanging out with a dear friend who just recently had her own first little baby boy. Our boys were down for "quiet time" for the hour (since neither naps) which gave us a great relaxing time to sit and chat and enjoy the yummy goodies she brought and to talk about babies, one of my favorite topics before my little monkeys came down.

The weather has been so nice we have been outside a lot...playing in the sprinklers, going for walks around the block, even visiting the park. This past weekend, we had a lovely time visiting the park with friends. I belong to a local playgroup for each of my boys based on age. It's been such a great opportunity to meet friends and talk about all things related to parenting, relationships, you name it. This past Sat one of our playgroups, put on a lovely "Art in the Park" day for all the families. The boys loved the bubbles, and playing with playdough and painting on easels. They even had a light breakfast, an amazing balloon artist, favors for the kids and even a station for getting a tattoo. My nephew is also in the playgroup so we got the extra treat of being with him. He is such a doll, so happy and loving. He is a little under 2 and absolutely adores BW. Whatever BW does his little cousin is right there with him. He discovered holding hands and BW got a real kick out of walking up and down with his younger cousin holding his hand. It was so sweet.

A Fairy Garden is born

The weather has been so beautiful here for the last 3 weeks...summer is really in full swing. The boys and I decided to take a break from unpacking and took a trip to the flower nursery. I wanted to plant an herb garden right outside my kitchen. Well, once at the nursery I spied a mini garden of colorful, beautiful flowers they had set in the middle of the nursery. I couldn't help but admire all the lovely colors and the different heights they had used and how nice it came out. So we decide to add some pretty flowers to our herb garden. We picked out Lavender, Cosmos, Snap dragons, Labilia, Peppermint, Cilantro, Oregeno, and a variety of Basil and some other pretty pink, purple, yellow and white flowers. We also found a beautiful bird house and Bubba picked out a very cute frog made out of broken colorful ceramic tiles to add to the garden.

Since it was too hot to plant when we got home the kids ran through the sprinklers instead and we started planting the garden after dinner. BW was very excited to plant and helped me lay out the flowers and dig the holes. Bubba tired quickly and went off to bed and since it was still light out BW and I stayed out till 8pm to work and then he too went in leaving me to quietly plant in the growing darkness. Which was quite nice. The sky was so clear that night that hubby saw a shooting star or meteor, he's not sure which.

The next morning the boys were so excited to come out and see the finished garden that we didn't eat breakfast until very late that morning. The garden came out splendidly and looked quite right for a fairy. So we set up our beautiful bird house in hopes a fairy will come and help us tend our flowers and have a place to rest when she is tired. The boys everyday go out to water the garden and BW checks the birdhouse to see if he has caught sight of the fairy yet.

What to do.....

Hmmm....what to do when your younger child is clearly giving up his nap but he is so cranky by dinner time that it feels like you want to run screaming from the house rather than sit on pins and needles with a kid who will blow up over the littlest thing. I'm on the fence. BW gave up his nap almost at this age it was really in late Aug/Sept not June. But who is keeping track of these things really? Not me. I thought he was an early exception and was hoping that with Bubba we would at least make it through his 3rd birthday and even longer. Both boys ironically were awesome nappers...3 hours everyday like clockwork right after lunch. I had 3 hours to take a reprieve, get something done...whatever I needed. And then one day no nap and pretty soon it was more no naps during the week then napping. I still put my oldest down for rest time in his room but I'm lucky if he makes it 45 mins before he is downstairs again with me. The thought now of only getting a 45 min break from both is sounding difficult. It's going to be a really hard adjustment for me (can you tell) because I have come to depend on those 3 hour naps for so looong. (whine, whine, whine...I know)

So I'm still trying to be really disciplined and make sure I put Bubba down right after lunch as that is generally when he is the most tired and then if he does take a nap get him up by 3pm so that he will go to sleep by 8pm and not 10pm. Because I have noticed if lately he gets up by 4pm which is what he used to do (1pm-4pm) then he has a hard time falling asleep now at 8pm. Instead he will climb out of bed and turn his light on in his room and talk to himself, play with his stuffed toys, etc. We have a video monitor in the kitchen so we see him when we are doing evening chores and even though he doesn't scream for us to come up I still feel bad that he is awake that long.

Anyone else go through this?? Any other suggestions to try??

Dinner Conversations

I'm easily impressed. We were sitting at the table tonite eating dinner when BW announces his fork is too small and he needs a bigger fork a grown up fork because he is big too...right mom? Absolutely I say. He gets up and goes to the pantry grabs a fork and comes out. He stops and says, "look at that." Pointing to the pantry door (we have a frosted glass pantry door) he says, "did you notice how the color changes on this side of the door?" He opens the door looks on the otherside of the door closes the door and looks on the front side and then looks up at the ceiling. "Notice how the light is hitting the door and changing the color on this side of the door?" In the same moment and out of the blue Bubba holds up his milk and says "milk comes from cows." My hubby (science teacher) nudges me...he's talking about refracted light...very impressive. I reply..."yeah but Bubba knows milk comes from cows.. who taught him that?...my 2 year old is a genius."

It's been a long time

Where has the time gone?? These past few months have been busy with packing, finishing up another year of preschool and moving. Yes...we have moved. It's been a long road....18 months of decisions but finally our home is finished!! We spent memorial day weekend in our new home. The boys and our dogs are adjusting very well. No problems at bedtime..no waking up in the night. Now me on the other hand...I was so exhausted from moving all day that my legs were restless and I was overtired but very wound up and throw in new mattresses and I was having a very hard time unwinding. I remember sitting on my bedroom floor in the dark while my hubby snored thinking I would give anything to sneak downstairs, get in my car and drive the few blocks to my old house to crawl into my old bed (still set up) and go to sleep. Ugh!

The next morning I asked Boy Wonder what he thought of his new home and he said he loved it. Loved the new big backyard, his new room..it is all his favorites. I then asked Bubba how he liked his new room and he said, "I want to go home." I hear ya kid. But it's been 2 weeks now and we are slowly getting back into our routine and our things are slowly finding their place here and we are settling in.

What have you done for me lately??

Bubba...my very dear and difficult child. The child who makes me laugh so hard one minute and the very next is throwing a very public war of wills making me wonder if I am being an effective parent, had his dad home this week due to spring break. It was nice having daddy home, helping with the boys as we are trying to get through the final weeks of remodeling and there are so many last minute meetings and trips to the store. Somewhere during the week my clingy baby...the one who only wants momma...who has out and out meltdowns for me only, fell in love with daddy. And that was that. Only daddy...can wash my face, help me get dressed, bathe me, feed me, comfort me, put me to bed. It was nice in the beginning...my day was freed up to allow for all these hectic trips to the house and store but then it hit me and hit me hard. My baby didn't need me. It was like a switch turned on and I was out. It was driving me bananas. I tried so hard to get back into Bubba's good graces. The harder I tried the louder he hollared for daddy. I was trying to keep in mind how great that was for hubby...it is such a nice feeling to have your child need and want you so much...but it was still painful for me.

As I was complaining outloud one night...my very gracious hubby reminded me that our little bubba was of the what have you done for me lately type and as my hubby had been the one earlier in the week to get up Bubba, feed him breakfast, play with him so that I could get other things done, naturally he was wanting daddy to do it all for him. Sounded like a good theory although in the back of my mind I was thinking what if he is wrong about this theory.

To lessen my loss...I had boy wonder. Oddly enough, boy wonder wanted me more. He asked for me more and more especially during bed time which generally is daddy's time . It was great having that special time with boy wonder as I don't often get to put him down at night, just at naptime. He has such an active imagination and came up with all kinds of fun games to play after we read our final bedtime books. His favorite game of the week was pretending he was momma and I was him and we had some very interesting role playing.

This morning was the first day daddy went back to work. I was a little nervous going into Bubba's room and wondering what kind of loud tantrums were in store for me when he realized daddy was not there. I imagined I was going to have a very long day. He didn't even seem phased..didn't miss a beat when I poked my head in and said morning sleepyhead. He immediately started talking about his stuffed bear and I slowly picked him up and gave him many, many kisses, he started to laugh his silly boy giggles. So good to have you back little man. "Let's see brother," and he took my hand and led me down the hall and my little what have you done for me lately boy was mine, all mine again or until daddy walked in the door at 4pm.

Recap on our Disneyland trip

Over our winter break we decided to take the boys to Disneyland!!! What a crazy idea!! We haven't been on a family vacation in 2 years. We weren't sure what to expect with two little boys on vacation for 5 days so we decided to drive. It seemed that everyone else had the same idea so we got the last room in all of Anaheim. We lucked out...it was a great room. It even had a refrig and microwave which came in handy for Bubba's warm milk at bedtime. Of course we brought too much stuff and we brought home even more stuff...but it was a great trip. The weather was perfect, the parks ended up being empty. It seemed like we had California Adventure Park all to ourselves. The kids had a blast. Neither of them knew anything about Disney or Disney characters before we went but by the time we left they seemed to know all the character's names and even some of the songs. Bubba really loved the Dumbo ride, Casey Jr and the King Arthur's Merry Go Round. We rode Dumbo one million times. We even ran into a friend from home in the Dumbo line. Either Dumbo is really the most popular children's ride or the world is really that small. Boy wonder's favorite rides were Casey Jr Circus Train, Story Book Canal, Peter Pan, Madhatter's teacups and It's A Small World. Both boys loved the nightime parade and the fireworks show.

Hubby and I got to see a very different side of Disney then we would have, had it not been for the wee ones. There is special entrance hours into Fantasyland an hour earlier than the rest of the park if you stay in a disney property or disney's good neighbor hotels and it is a must if you have small children. The lines are very short and you get on the rides fast and then it allows you to walk the park and do other things like greet characters, see street entertainment, jump around Toon Town, and climb on the Disney Firetruck...Boy Wonder's favorite memory of all things Disney is the Disney Firestation and the old time firetruck.

Being with the small ones we needed to take frequent potty trips and we made an awesome discovery. There is a wonderful family bathroom/nursing area called the Nursery on Main Street. It is original in decorations to when the park opened. Talk about quaint, there are even "nurses" dressed in old time attire that are there to assist with anything you could need. There's even a small playroom for your older child while you are helping another child eat or use the potty and a small kitchen for heating up baby food, etc. The toddler toliets are so cute..they are teeny tiny perfect size for the youngest to use and never a line. I guess it is not that well known. So no matter where we were in the park we made a beeline for the nursery when BW or Bubba needed to go....it was a nice clean retreat from the normal loud, wet, public potties.

We discovered the kiddies loved meeting the characters and it is very hard trying to chase them down in the park as everyone wants to meet them too. So we tried out Goofy's kitchen for a buffet breakfast. The boys loved the mickey waffles and meeting Goofy and friends. Dale from Chip and Dale really took a liking to Bubba and drew him a special picture on his breakfast mat which I of course had to take with us. We even got to meet Bleu from the Jungle Book.

Even with the kids in tow we did manage to visit my favorite restaurant "The Bayou" in the Pirates of the Carribean Ride and the boys did very well during dinner even in it's dark ambiance. I love their food...yummy. And they have a great menu for kids too.

If you were to ask hubby what his most surprising discovery of disneyland was this trip he would probably say the Tiki Room (Bird Show). We had never had the pleasure of seeing the show and it was a great discovery. It too must be original and unchanged. The kids loved the singing puppet birds, plants, and tikis. And we all enjoyed sitting and just relaxing. What a great discovery.

I think hands down the most favorite part of the trip for all my boys was meeting Lighting McQueen and Mater at California Adventure Park. They are remote controlled life size cars and they really look like their onscreen counter parts. Bubba is so obessessed with the characters from the Cars movie that he has renamed each of us by a character's name in the movie. He of course is Lighting McQueen, daddy is Mater, BW is DJ and I am Sally. We couldn't tear Bubba away from staring at the cars for even a second, so in all the photos of the boys Bubba's head is turned toward the car he is standing next to. It is really funny.

We can't wait to go again. Maybe the same time next year. After going when the park is less crowded and not so hot I don't think I could make that trip with little ones during the summer which is when we have gone in the past.