Starting Summer- 2011

We have all had a pretty stressful 2 months here.  Gabe has been working a lot which makes things harder on everyone, but we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We have lots to look forward to in the next few weeks!  James turns 2 tomorrow, Father's Day is just a few days away and Gabe has the day off, Noah is starting summer camp, N & J are starting swimming lessons, and Gabe and I will celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary in a few weeks.  And that is just June:)  I assume that I will have lots of pictures to add after this weekend, so I wanted to get caught up before then.

The weather has been really hit or miss, but the kids and I have found lots to do both inside and out.  We started our community garden plot again and are doing mostly things from seed this year... we will see how that goes.  We have tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, rainbow chard, carrots and green beans.  The lettuce outside our front door is growing like crazy and we are eating it already and the herb garden here is starting to grow faster than I can use.  We are also very much looking forward to strawberry picking which starts next week.  The kids are playing together more and more now, and although the "rough housing" has started, they are more often than not making each other laugh when they play by themselves.  James continues to love to play with the little cars... I can no longer put anything on this shelf b/c he will throw it off to line up his cars:)  Noah loves to play pretend and it is so funny to watch James "pretend" with Noah, in reality he has not idea what is happening, but anything that his big brother does he insists on doing too.... I am counting down the days until he figures out how to crawl out of his crib... Happy Summer!!  

Family Weekend- Finally!

Gabe had his first day off in over 3 weeks (2 days in a row actually... it won't happen again until July I don't think).  Saturday morning we got everyone up and headed to Boston for Dave's 30th birthday celebration.  It was raining, but we still had a nice visit, however brief, considering it was nap time:)  Before the party we got to stop at Mike's Pastry for some cannoli.  After the party we visited the Children's Museum again (this reciprocal membership was way worth the money!) and the kids had a blast.  Our trip wasn't complete without a trip to Ikea... Noah was big enough to play in the kids area while Gabe, James and I shopped, then we all had supper in the cafe for $11.  Before we knew it we had spent 2.5 hours there, it was way past bedtime, but still worth the trip!!  Needless to say, everyone was exhausted the next day and we had a great day stuck in the house while it rained outside;)

Noah's First Fish

From Noah: "Here is my fish.  It was a big, floppy fish. It flipped onto the bridge (warf). I reeled it in. I screamed and ran away, then I stopped and came back, then Nanny poked it with a stick in the mouth. The fish is in the garden."

Last weekend Gabe had to work all weekend (6A-9P Saturday & 6A-10:30P Sunday) so the kids and I made a good choice to head north and get some chores done...  Saturday morning we brought our car to Stanley's garage for a brake job, had a sleep over with Amy & Trey, and some Mall Madness fun with the Pelkey girls after the kids bedtime.  Sunday we went to Bangor to get James's 2yo pictures done, which he was not super cooperative for, and finished up with some good Marden's deals and fishing with misquitos.  All in all a fun/productive weekend.  Hopefully we will get to see Gabe at some point this week!  

Memorial Day 2011

The kids and I had a really fun Memorial Monday, and it was such a beautiful day that it was hard to be inside and get anything done.  In the morning we went to Portland's Memorial Day Parade, which promised an Air Force fly over, which never happened, but luckily Noah didn't remember that part.  It parade was short, but the kids really enjoyed it, especially the huge military vehicle.  Both kids spent the rest of the day pretending to be marching in the parade either waving from their fire trucks, carrying a flag, or playing an instrument.  The kind man sitting next to us offered to take our picture, but James had just woken up and this is all we got:)  

After the parade we went to the hospital to meet Gabe for lunch.  Since it was such a beautiful day we were able to have a picnic out on the grass of the Western prom.  The kids were thrilled to see Gabe and chase him around the park.  After nap time we went to a friend's house for a BBQ and more sprinkler play.  

Now that summer is officially here we have lots of things we are looking forward to starting soon.  The kids and I will resume our swimming lessons in 2 weeks and Noah will start summer camp at Camp Ketcha, which he is beyond thrilled about!  James will continue at the daycare by himself, but I don't think that he will mind much.  Then, starting on September 2nd they will be home with me and baby #3:):)  Which I really can't wait for!!  Speaking of pregnancy things, I really am growing fast now.  Patients are starting to notice that I am pregnant over the past 2 weeks, so something has changed.  Our last appt. went well, I had gained 7 lbs. in 4 weeks, but I think that I remember doing the same thing with the other 2.  So far this pregnancy doesn't feel any different and I have no sense yet of who is in there (boy or girl), but Noah continues to be adamant that he is having a sister... I have to keep reminding him that it could be a boy and that it would be ok to have a brother.  He is still stuck on the name "Jake" regardless of gender. He has been really funny about this pregnancy... he is always reminding James to be careful when crawling on my belly, and when he talks to the baby it almost always responds by kicking for him... very cute.  What I think that he is most excited about, and talks about constantly, is "we get to have the green car back when the baby comes"... we have traded cars with Gabe for the better gas mileage of the Corolla, but apparently Noah likes the Subaru better...

Sprinkler fun with Hil...

I know that I have said this many times before, but recently I have been really bad about picture documentation of life... I know that some of you out there have done some fun things with us this month and did take pictures, so please feel free to send them to me, so that I can post them:)  Over Memorial Day weekend Hillary came to visit on her way back from the DIII Nationals for Track & Field in Ohio... she just won 3rd place... no big deal... hahaha jk Hil we love you!! Great Job!!! Anyhow, she is always a good sport and keeps coming back even though I make her do chores every time she visits;)  Today she helped us (finally) get our vegetable garden put in at the community garden... more about that soon with pics, I hope. Then, she was a good sport and ran through the sprinkler with the kids while I watched and took pictures... :) James is talking more and is much more communicative than just a month ago.  He kept coming up to me saying his version of "cheese" and demanding his picture be taken.  He, like Noah was, is afraid to get too close to the sprinkler, but has lots of fun watching and collecting all of the balls. 

This past week has been incredibly busy with several things wrapping up.  Noah had his last day of preschool... they had a magician perform which just blew Noah away... he talks about magic all of the time now.  Actually, over the past month he has started talking nonstop... most kids do this sooner, but the time has finally come, and with it lots of "why" questions.  It is so neat to finally see how his mind works to figure things out, but it does keep me on my toes... it also exposes his OCD more... I have to be very careful when I talk about what we are doing and when b/c if we don't stick to that schedule, things don't go well... Noah also had his last session of soccer this week.  Yes, we did sign him up for soccer, 5 weeks of it, but there is no photographic proof. Gabe was working a lot this month and it was impossible for me to take pictures of Noah playing soccer without James running to play too.  Noah had a great time playing, but he has a long way to go.  His gross motor delay was pretty evident compared to the other kids his age there, but he did get better as the weeks went on... we will definitely sign him up again in the fall.  

Reading Time

Lately James has been very good with books.  He still occasionally rips pages, but luckily it is just in one particular book. His favorite thing is to "read" by himself, quickly followed by Noah reading to him, and in the case of this book, making up the story from what he remembers.  There are certain books that Noah has memorized and when we ask James if he wants daddy or Noah to read, he almost always picks Noah.  Not much has happened in the past few weeks that is of note... lots of those spring chores and cleaning/purging of the house (not that one could tell...).  My mom visited last weekend for a quick trip and we brought the boys to yard sales where Noah bought a $1 sprinkler (lots of pics of that to follow I am sure) and James threw one of his "I am a 2 year old" fits in the middle of the street, throwing himself to the ground because he didn't get his way, which prompted the lady to offer a discount on the toy he was crying about... I didn't buy him the toy;) I also bought all of my flowers and with Noah, and mom's help we got several yard jobs checked off the list... slowly, but surely our yard is looking like someone does live here and takes care of it...

Just when I thought I could sell it in the yard sale...

I bought both of these costumes at a yard sale years ago thinking they would be fun for dress up.  Which may have been true, but they are sized 12-18 months and 18 months. After hanging in the closet with zero use, and both kids had grown out of them I thought, "great, I'll just put them back in the yard sale this year"... Noah found them... and they both insisted on wearing them for most of the morning despite they fact that they were both way too small... they are now hanging back in the closet... maybe I will try again in a few years...

Mother's Day 2011- Seashore Trolley Museum & Sea Dogs

We were very lucky last weekend that Gabe had the whole weekend off, we weren't going any where AND it was beautiful weather.  In retrospect, we may have tried to cram too much "fun" into one weekend, but there were just too many free things to do;)  Sunday morning we went to the Seashore Trolley Museum in Arundel which Gabe had never been before.  It is basically a junk yard for old trolley cars, train cars, subway cars, and old buses are brought, then all of the old men come together as a hobby to restore them, conduct trolley rides and tours.  Needless to say, the boys LOVE all of the big machines around. They got to ride the trolley and climb in a lot of the different cars and buses. Their favorite part was ringing the bell that you have to step on.  We left there and went to the Sea Dogs game.  I think that we normally would have skipped this given that it was at 1pm (prime napping time for everyone) and we had had a very busy day with minimal napping the day before, but we were given 4 free tickets, so we went for it with low expectations.  We made it through 2 innings, mercifully the second inning was abruptly ended by a double play;) Gabe then left us to go and do some work at the hospital.  Luckily for us he forgot a big folder and had to come home early just in time for supper and to head to Lib's for some ice cream.  All in all a great Mother's Day!