Doot boyyys

We did an impromptu photo shoot last weekend...wait, two weekends ago...thanks to Dan's mom. She had the idea of blowing bubbles toward the boys while I snapped a few pics. I love how they turned out!

Today was Dan's day off, so we spent the morning at the zoo. It was short-lived due to Elijah's behavior, but at least we got some time out of the house as a family.

Sammy is just the cutest and sweetest little boy. That is, when he's not being overly independent and throwing a tantrum because I attempt to help buckle him into his carseat, god forbid.

Lately Elijah has been all about "winning." If I start walking down the stairs before him, he says, "WAIT! I'm going to win!" And he runs ahead of me. When the "race" is between him and Sammy, inevitably Elijah reaches the destination first and declares, "I won!" Sammy interprets this as "I am one!" so he responds every time with, "I two!" :)

Every time I change Sammy's diaper (the times I can catch him), he reaches under himself and grabs his cute little butt, giggles, and says, "Doot Fammy BUTT!" Yes, Sammy, you do have a cute butt. :)

Elijah is doing pretty well with potty business. It is so much better overall compared to two months ago, but we do still have progress to make. He has such an underlying defiant nature that doesn't help the issue, but....we are making progress!

Sammy's speech is amazing. He speaks so well, and it is so cute hearing him talk. He has started doing imaginary play, too, which is so cute. "'Ook, Mama! 'Ellow guy fwying airplane! Going twip!" He is one cute kid. Dan and I constantly talk about how we want to freeze him. He is perfect! (Minus those independence-related tantrums.)

Tomorrow we are bringing Elijah to see his eye doctor. I am hoping he will need a new prescription for his glasses, considering he has BITTEN scratches into his lenses (during time-outs). We have been diligent with wearing his patches, so hopefully we can ditch those soon.

This summer has been an awesome one so far, and there is so much more fun to be had. We have a huge next two weeks coming up. Elijah is super excited, as are the rest of us.

Thanks for checking in on us!

We wish you all a happy week!

Splash park fun!

It has been a while since I have posted! I can't believe it has been almost a week. What could possibly be taking up my time?? 

Summertime is so much fun. We are so fortunate, getting to go to parks and pools and museums and friends' houses and the dropzone and on and on...every single week. Life is good!

Today our outing was the Splash Park! Elijah loooooooooooooves pools and anything related to swimming and water. He literally could have stayed there for the entire day. Sammy has something against water lately, but since I let him explore the pool on his own he did great! I was so happy about this! He is such an independent little person.

I was so proud of Sammy for going down the water slide completely on his own! (Of course it was on his own...he would never accept help.)

And Elijah, the boy who refused to go down a water slide or get water splashed in his face for the first five years of his life, was also willingly swooshing down that slide today. 

GO, BOYS!

Sammy took a backward tumble off the slide stairs, but quickly recovered (thankfully). I am hoping we can get this boy to tolerate baths again. Bathtime has been HORRID for the past two months.

And while you are viewing the cute splash park pics, I will fill you in on Elijah and his very strong will. :)

This boy. He tests us so much every day. I could give you many examples. Here is a typical conversation in our home:

E: MOM. What would happen if I told you to "Shush"?

Me: Don't do it! You know it's not acceptable.

E: But what would happen if I did?

Me: Just don't do it!

E: But....what would happen?

Me: Well if you said that to me, that would be defiant behavior so you would be punished.

E: Well, what kind of punishment would I get?

And on and on, until he figures out EXACTLY what his punishment would be. And then he determines whether or not he will follow through. Is it worth it?! This is why I want him to learn chess. His ability to think ten steps ahead is pretty incredible.

It is black and white with Elijah. With almost every issue, there is no gray.

There are exceptions, and Dan and I are thankful for these. For example, bedtime is and has always been ridiculously easy. There has literally never been a time when Elijah has fought us when getting ready for bed. Our bedtime ritual is actually fun, and we never feel stressed about it. I am very thankful for this!

As Sammy gets older, I am realizing that another one of Elijah's "easy" things is getting dressed. If I say, "Elijah, please come here, let's get dressed," he complies. When I tell Sammy the same thing, he runs in the opposite direction. And down the driveway and sidewalk, if the front door is open (I'm not kidding).

By the way, I LOVE E's face in the below photo. That is one happy boy!

Look at the brotherly love! Actually, this is Elijah being upset that Sammy is "winning." :)

Favorite photo of the day. CUTE BOY.

And a little on E's potty issues! 

He has made huge amounts of progress over the last two months. We are very proud of him! Everything Elijah has ever done (brainiac things excluded) has taken suuuuuper amounts of time and patience. We continue to practice that patience with potty training, as you all know. Today he checked off his 30th (!!) poop in toilet on his potty chart! He earned a day and night with Auntie Lissa!! This is WONDERFUL news!

But...progress still has to be made. We are still reminding him constantly about peeing, and that has to change. Tomorrow we will sit down and make a new chart called Toileting By Myself: Elijah's Quest to Be Completely Potty-Trained. Can we do it by the age of 6??

I love this photo. Sammy reminds me a lot of Elijah as a baby here.

Tomorrow we have fun plans to go to a friend's house and swim at his beach on the lake. Elijah is crazy excited about it.

I should mention that after an hour of pool-time today, Sammy was done. Just done. He sat next to me and had a snack and did not want to go back into the pool. We watched Elijah splish-splash around and that was just fine with my sweet Sammy.

I love this sweet, happy boy.

Our boys are so different in so many ways. Elijah runs from me, wanting constant adventure, and Sammy always has to have me within five feet. He loves his comfort (Mama/Daddy/Elijah/home/blankie)!

Elijah finally took a break from being a fish to have a snack!

CHEESE!

Thank you so much for checking in! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Don't be an angry bird

Since it is summer and Dan is working so often, we have designated Mondays and Tuesdays (Dan's days off) as family days. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I do not typically do much work. That leaves me with little to no time to get my work done! Soooo...I have been bringing the boys to daycare (their favorite place in the world) one day every week. 

Today was Daycare Day! The boys came home dirty and tired, and I got about a million things accomplished. I have approximately 200 hours left of things I wish to accomplish, but I am happy with what I was able to get done today. 

Last night the boys and I made Angry Birds pizzas! Elijah was sooo excited about this. We were happy with how the pizzas turned out. It was a little bit sad to eat them. The recipe will be coming soon on my food blog.

Elijah's potty business is going well. Much improvement has been made, although we still do have setbacks (umm, today). "Setbacks" now, though, are much less of a hassle than they were a month ago. Progress is definitely (slowly) being made.

We have had issues lately with Elijah being unkind to people, including his friends at daycare. Please pray with us about this! It makes me sad to try to understand why he would think to be unkind to his friends and family. :( We have done a lot of talking about it, but it just doesn't ever seem to sink in.

We will be heading to the dropzone tomorrow for the weekend. My kind friend Jess has offered to watch the boys in the afternoon as an early birthday gift so that I can skydive! That will make two weekends in a row! Thank you, Jess!

Thanks for checking in! Have a great weekend!

Sleepers, talkers, readers and a miracle!

Dan has been home a bit more this week due to the weather. He has been working most of today. The little boys and I stayed close to home today, making an Angry Bird pizza and homemade ice cream. Both were firsts for us! I will share pics tomorrow!

I snapped this photo earlier in the week. Isn't it precious?? Don't tell Dan it's here or he will make me take it down! :) Today was the first day I can say that Elijah was caught up from missing out on so much sleep last weekend, being with his Auntie and cousins. That boy needs his rest, much like his mother.

We were able to squeeze in a trip to the boys' favorite park before Dan left for work this morning.

A few highlights from our week so far:

Tonight Elijah once again showed his scary yet impressive memory. We were talking about how we might get to go to Uncle Phill's house later this summer, which is a very exciting thing for all of us (especially Elijah). He said, "Oh! Mom! Remember when Uncle Phill gave me a popsicle?! It was purple!" Mouth hanging open, I said, "Elijah, that was TWO YEARS AGO. How in the world..." And the color of his popsicle is a detail that I happen to remember because it was the first time our boy with major textural issues (especially at that time) allowed a popsicle to touch his lips. It WAS purple. Unbelievable.

Sammy is talking sooo much! He is now speaking in 7-8-word sentences, and he repeats pretty much everything that is said to him. Of course there are the handful of words that are so cutely spoken incorrectly, like "beddy bubbon" for "belly button." :) I love it. And I never correct him.

Elijah has been reading small words since about a year ago, but recently I have noticed that he will sit down with a book and read just about every word. He is officially a READER! I caught this on video tonight because it has great meaning. This is the same book I first read when I was a little girl! I have vivid memories of feeling so proud, reading through Dr. Seuss' Hop on Pop. Or as Elijah calls him, "Dr. Seusser." :)

We have a fun weekend ahead of us! We hope you all do, too, and that you are doing well. Thanks so much for checking in on our family!

Oh, and THANK YOU for praying for Lucy! Check. Out. This. MIRACLE! UNBELIEVABLE! A few weeks ago her parents were planning her funeral. Today? Lucy is cancer-free and as strong as ever! God is GOOD.

Letting go

Wow, what a weekend! My sister Lynn generously offered to take both boys with her and her family up to their cabin for the entire weekend. I was reluctant to let them go at first. I spend so much time with them now that being away from them seems unnatural. I always worry about Elijah's croup and Sammy being so clingy and on and on.. I decided to just LET GO and let them go have a blast with their Auntie and cousins. It was tough! Sammy was so upset with me when I said goodbye to him on Friday night. :( I shed a few tears as we drove away from each other.

But everything was great, all around. The boys had a blast, even Sammy. And I got to spend an entire weekend at the dropzone with my husband! Let me tell you, it was weird not to have the boys there, but it was so very awesome. I haven't been alone at the dropzone with Dan since before Elijah was born! 

Once I decided that I was going to let the boys go with my sister for the weekend, I also decided that I was going to go skydiving for the first time in four years! 

And so, I went skydiving three times on Saturday. It felt AMAZING. 

I was nervous before my first jump. Thankfully I had Dan next to me. He always calms me.

Apparently I bite my lower lip a lot when I am nervous. Here I am, on my way to the door!

Here is our exit! Our friend Casey was kind enough to film the jump for me and snap a few photos, as well.

Still biting lower lip. :)

It felt so good to be in the sky again! That is the one place that has always made me forget my worries and feel totally and completely good and free.

We had to do a sky smooch, of course. :)

Breaking away to get into a sitting position..

The transition..

And Dan flipped back onto his belly because that's where he is most comfortable. He is an awesome belly flier. I am not!

Casey was literally flying circles around me. I was impressed with his flying and so happy to be falling through the sky, hence the very happy and smiley face!

I am still on cloud 9. I am hoping to continue to jump a bit this summer, when it works out.

The boys were a complete mess tonight. They were exhausted from having such a fun and busy weekend. Elijah was defiant and even Sammy had some breakdowns. They were in bed very early tonight!

Elijah is still having very occasional accidents. He had one today about 10 seconds after I arrived to pick him up. Nice. But then he had a big success later, which earned him a trip to the MOA for mall rides! Woooo!

Dan has the next two days off, which I am sooo excited about! Hopefully we will be able to squeeze in some fun adventures, and get rested up, as well.

Thanks for checking in!

Peaceful skies

Dan is wrapping up (I think?) six consecutive days of working hard. The boys and I are looking forward to spending some quality time with him tomorrow!

We did get some time with him over the weekend at the dropzone. 

Here is one of my favorite parts of being at the dropzone.. PEACE at the end of a busy day.

Elijah had one accident over the weekend, but many successes, too. One huge milestone occurred. While we were driving to the dz, he told me he had to poop! So I pulled over and he pooped at McDonald's! His first away-from-home spontaneous pooping request!

Here are pics of Elijah (and Sammy, too) enjoying one of his potty "prizes"...Coldstone ice cream!

Stuff it all in, Sammy. :)

Elijah's pick: cotton candy ice cream (because it was blue) with brownie chunks and M&M's.

We also got to spend some time with friends over the weekend (in between skydiving and dropzone-dwelling)! Sammy loves Myla. He talks about her CONSTANTLY.

And Elijah and Kale get along amazingly well. They played hard together, and Kale taught Elijah how to drive! :) 

Another beautiful dropzone sunset..

Thanks for checking in. I'm tired. I'm going to kick back for a bit and head to bed..