Why We've Loved Summer 2013:

+ Beach days with pals -- we've actually gone so much it makes me feel like we're getting our money's worth (mas o menos) with California's hellish cost of living.

+ Breezes cooling off the house in the evening.

+ Hopping over to the pools.

+ Hopping over even more to the park.  Sunscreen was slathered, scooters brought along, moms sat under a tree on a blanket or stood in the shade of the park structure, and the kids were adorable.  Jude has really gotten gutsy and independent and the park is not a chore to me anymore (most days).  He doesn't need me to escort him up and down the structures like he used to, he goes up and down the ladders, steps, slides, and I just make sure he is playing nicely and not pushing anyone out of his way, and then I clap and get excited for him when he goes down the "wee" or slide.

+ Jude sleeping in just his diaper, and Graham sleeping in his sleeveless blanket-sleeping bag.

And now I'm ready to be done :).  Sand in my car, sand in the stroller, sand in the shoes.  Sweaty all the time and concerned about sunburns on the boys and Jude's ear tubes.  I'll be excited again about summer next time it rolls around, but for now I welcome the break.  Now Fall just needs to actually arrive.....

And now some mem'ries in photo version:

A hug for Dad after playing in a fountain at an outdoor mall.

Woop woop!

I'm sweating like a toasted cheeser!

Jude and his red scooter

Jude still has a belly button, FYI.

Brothers

His idea to hold my hand while riding his scoot scoot to the park.  Swooooooooon

Plotting all sort of mischievous deeds, one can only assume.

Pizza party to kick off summer in the neighborhood. 

Love em both

Sometimes he holds my hand while I read him books.  Honestly, it fills my heart with immeasurable joy. 

Graham and Lyla's little brother Eli.  I think these two are going to have a great time together, but for now they just sort of grab each other's faces.

Graham, the sunburn possibilities on your porcelain skin scare me a little.

My turn to wear Jude's hat.  This hat got lost somewhere this summer.

2 Merzy feet and 1 Jeff foot

There's the omnipresent scooter + Beckham

As recent as last Christmas Jude would NE-VER have touched this slide with a 10 foot pole.  Now it's his oyster.

4th of July at Baby Beach

Mom -- LET ME OUT!

Shocker -- they found trucks on another blanket and stole them.

Apples and tomatoes on the counter

Getting to work lining up cars and trucks, OCD style

I love him.

I love him too.

We started solids, much to Graham's delight.

It was all we could do to keep him from climbing in through an open window.

Dance Central with Cam and Kacie

Meeting BFF and Cousin Rower

$1 smoothies at Jamba Juice.  I know being a kid can be rough, but really, I don't see any of it here.

Graham thinks Jude is 100% entertainment.  Jude could sneeze and it would have his little brother in hysterical, gleeful laughter.  They just love each other.

Thanks, summer!  You've been good to us!  Now it's time for "pumpkin everything" season.

Melissa's Bridal Shower

My friend Melissa got MARRIEEEED!!!!  I can't remember when I've been so excited for a non-family wedding.  This girl has been through it, and after some rough trials in her life, so many wonderful things have fallen into place.  The wedding was a couple of weeks ago, and every time I see her pop up on Instagram, my heart sort of swells because she is GLOWING.  More to come on the wedding, but we loved hosting this bash at my house.  Lisa and I have done 7 (or 8?) showers together in the last 2.5 years, and the next one is up in August or September!  We are getting a system down that helps cut unnecessary costs, my house is a pretty good central location since we're typically inviting people that live anywhere from LA to San Diego, and we love to shower people for whatever event needs showering.  I used to feel embarrassed or guilty when I'd be on the receiving end of a shower.  It's a lot of attention and I'd feel bad for putting people out.  But now I've realized it's GREAT to be on the hosting end!  It's GREAT to attend these things!  It is gratifying to know that someone is getting an easier start to motherhood or marriage, and of course to feel some of that love from friends and family as the big day draws close.  

And that is how I feel about Bridal and Baby Showers.  Happy Shower, Mel.  We ALL love you.

The Most Appreciated Season Change of All Time

A few days ago, when the mid-day temperatures were in the high 70s, I wanted to cry, do a dance (which would have looked awesome with my stomach protrusion), give every man, woman and child in a 2 mile radius a hug, and drop to my knees to offer a prayer of thanksgiving!  And then, this morning as we drove to McDonalds for a post-family-jog breakfast, and the air was wet and crisp, I started singing songs.  I don't really know why the infernal weather was getting me so down, other than the fact that my body is already operating at a much higher temperature for obvious reasons, and my son needs to be outside every day (and wants to be out there from the moment we lift him from his crib in the morning to the time we put him back in at night).  If I wasn't out there I felt like a bad mom.  If I was out there I felt like I was going to keel over.  You may be right, I may be crazy.  But, it just may be a lunatic you're looking for.

Hopefully the 90s and 100s are over until next year when I'm not pregnant.  I can smell fall, I'm making soup tomorrow, a pumpkin candle burns, and I'm on Cloud 22.

Summer Begins

We've been going to the pool a lot.

The park too.

I feel so grown up making PB&Js and meeting up with friends for these outdoor excursions -- how did this happen??

I know the summer will go fast so I'm trying to maximize.

Summer trip = once again, UT.  We are excited.  We love UT.

Lots of watermelon being consumed over here these days.

Loving my happy guys.

Some iPhone Dump of Jude

Per Mimi's request:

At the pool this morning with his friend Beckham.  We are so lucky with friends and pools. 

Hmmm.  Jude has taken to picking up bags and carrying them around like a purse.  Like mother like son?  Although after a few minutes he looks at it like it's this leach and "How did THIS get here???  Get it off of me!! Get it off!!!"

If you want to make Jude happy lie down on the floor.  I think he likes feeling like the big guy in town.  He also offers me some refreshment a la his sippy cup and is almost insistent when I try to gracefully decline.

"OOOOOoooooh I LOVE feeling big!!  Look at mom down there, so small and helpless!"

Having a nice chat with that handsome kid that's always showing up in front of mom and dad's closet at the same time he is.

PB&J!!!

Ha HA!!!  I finally found a way to baby proof this drawer, and the fireplace.  If you want to know which kind, just ask.  No holes need to be drilled and minimal inconvenience when the adults want to open the drawer.

Memorial Day and Other Things

'Twas another good Memorial Day.  We went on a family run, tested out the water bucket park (Jude needs to warm up a bit to all the water spraying everywhere but enjoyed snuggling and splashing around in the shallow water), took my parents and Cameron to 5 Guys, paused at the Los Rios district, and then finished off the day eating dinner with some friends and our chillins.

We came home and after a brief stint mellowing on the couch in a stupor we hit the hay early.

All in all, my kind of day off.  Oh wait...moms don't have days off...I mean my kind of national holiday spent with people I love.

Here is proof of some of the activities:

Watch out -- the dumped water will knock over the big kids!

Cute

More cute

Cute again

I love Jude's current Frankenstein walk.  He hobbles and waddles and looks so proud of himself while he does it.  Warms my heart.  So far he's not that much harder to control; he was a fast crawler.  People ask me if I ripped the knee holes in his jeans for swagger; no people, he crawled like a machine for 6+ months.  He has been extra sweet on me lately and gives me tight hugs around my neck and rests his head on my shoulder just for fun.  He's a bit possessive and doesn't like it when Jeff tries to give me a hug while I hold him; Jude pushes him away. If he'd already learnt this word I'm sure it would accompany a "MINE!" When I put him down and leave the room they have a blast.  I read this is normal at this age so there you have it.

"The usual" has pretty much still consisted of trying to teach my baby new things, keeping the boys fed with healthy (and sometimes just reminiscent of healthy) bites, feverishly cleaning the floor by night, slloooowly chipping away at sewing a tepee for Jude, restoring some furniture, speed grocery shopping since Jude will sit for about 2 minutes and then it's a game of trying to keep him in the cart or shopping with him on my hip, and as long as I've been carrying him my arm muscles can't keep up with his girth, and I've been trying to pick up on the exercise again.  Sometimes it's frustrating to wipe down the walls and sweep many times a day, fight Jude ridiculously to change every single diaper and get him dressed.  Being stationed at home carries a weird vibe for myself; if I hang out in sweats I feel like a bum but putting on an ensemble that no one will see and will be barfed or booger-ed on 10 minutes later feels silly too.  It just makes me feel like more of a human being to do it anyway, and I throw in lipstick.  But the point is there are things about my day that seem pointless but necessary.  Getting out and seeing friends has been such a blessing; I am so grateful for good friends round about!  Even though I talk to Jude all day it's so nice to have people that can answer back in discernible English :).  When I stopped running for a few weeks I realized how much better my days are when me and my Nikes get out the door (not withstanding the unsightly task of forcing Jude kicking and screaming into the stroller, giving him a drink so I can buckle him, and then hoping I can get my exercise in without a meltdown).  And when I groan at the treadmill of cleaning, cooking, etc., I think of how lucky I am to be married to a good guy and to have a sweet baby who is a rascal but has so much effervescent love to give and has me wrapped around his tiniest of fingers.  Things are good.

We are going to baby proof the drawers; we were going to try to get away with skipping that. 

Don't ask me what sort of invisible tranquilizer dart hit Jude on Sunday but he lasted the ENTIRE Sacrament Meeting without needing to be taken out ONCE.

He was rolling around on the floor to be silly -- where did he get his amazing wit??? 

Frankenstein-ing his way over to me

Tree Chopping

Another reason for the left to hate us.

We had a big old tree in our back yard that tickled our bedroom windows and reached up almost to the chimney.  That sounds awesome at first, but then you find out it isn't awesome because that tree dumped somewhere between 3,945 and 4,271 leaves a day.  Then the leaves instantly turned black with a weird film on them.  I used to clean them up but it was pretty disheartening to look out the back yard door or windows 20 minutes later and see it just as it had been.  Jeff takes a DIY attitude with everything in the house, and I'm usually on board, but I forbid him to climb up 30 feet to chop it down.  Besides, after buying the saw and harness, wouldn't we shell out about as much cash as it would be to hire out, AND he'd lose a Saturday in the process?

We arranged the chop-down with a nice man who promised he'd come by "sometime on Saturday."  As the 3 of us hung out in our bedroom Saturday morning after a run, we wondered out loud what time it would happen.  Then we heard some rustling and looked out the window:

There he was, tearing that thing right down.  

  

Jude was mesmerized; Jeff was having bittersweet feelings as it does feel wrong on some level to cut down a healthy tree.  I just kept thinking about the back yard unavoidably and constantly covered in black discards.

Now the patio is immaculate and lovely, there are gallons more light pouring into our bedroom window, and we're full of plans of what to do with our back yard.  

The End