elijah & samson: 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)!