The boys

Justin has been enjoying Parker's latest antic of pretending to want to go to bed and then fussing about 15 minutes after we lay him down. He eagerly gets Parker back up while I'm putting Madeleine to bed. I usually come out of her room to discover them laughing together with Parker either trying to stand up using Justin as a prop or smacking Daddy in the face. Because he's at work while they're the most awake, I know Justin delights in one-on-one father/son moments like this.

One year ago

Happy 4th of July, albeit a few days late. I found these picture from this time last year and am amazed at how quickly kids change.

Grass update update

He mowed. Of course we ended up borrowing Bill's mower (our retired neighbor) because it had a bagger and would prevent us from killing the little grass we do have. We also planted the strawberries (finally) and put netting over them to prevent the deer from having an evening snack. In addition, I found a wasp nest, put up a wasp trap, sprayed myself with the wasp attractant that you put in the wasp trap, ran like crazy into the house praying the wasps I had awoken by moving their nest wouldn't smell me, and washed myself in dawn detergent soap. You should have been there; I'm sure I looked ridiculous, especially since I still had to go back outside and turn off the sprinkler which I had forgotten about in my insane run back inside.

Grass update

The neighbor (retired and in his late 70s) on our other side offered to let us use his mower after helpfully commenting, "I couldn't help but notice how long your grass is." If Parker can stay awake long enough this evening, hopefully we can get it done tonight. I'm guessing if we go much longer the same neighbor listed above might offer to do it for us with his riding lawn mower. Maybe we'll wait after all...

You know you're pathetic when...

...you wait for your neighbors to leave for their vacation so you can borrow their lawn mower. Our neighbors who just got married last weekend left today for a week long vacation (we called that a honeymoon but they are apparently taking their honeymoon later this summer...hmm). In exchange for Justin mowing their yard while they're gone they're letting us borrow their mower because ours is on the fritz and we haven't had it assessed yet. And we've patiently been waiting for them to leave. They were going to leave Friday night but put if off until this morning. In the meantime we have a small grassy jungle that we've almost lost Madeleine in growing in the front of our house. We've decided to tie string to her ankle in case she were to fall so we could rescue her from all of the grasshoppers that have taken residence in said jungle.

At the wedding


At home after the wedding playing in her new rain boots

The new favorite outside activity.

Besides not mowing the yard, we've been pretty busy negotiating the kids' new schedules. I guess they're not schedules if they are consistent but you know what I mean. Parker is FINALLY getting his 8th tooth which means his sleeping is all messed up. And with the solstice happening last weekend and finally getting early summer weather here (it was in the 50s and rainy for the outdoor wedding last weekend), Madeleine has decided she should get up at 7am, much to my distaste. Parker too hasn't been much for going back to sleep after his 6-7am feeding so I've ended up with two highly stimulated yet exhausted children the past week. We opted to try an earlier nap time for Madeleine today and thus far it's going well. She's been down for a little over 2 hours but I have no idea what that means our evening will look like. Does anyone else with kids out there have any stories about having 2-year olds who go back to having 2 naps a day? As soon as I feel like I have a handle on things they change.


Justin make a funny comment earlier today... He said that sometimes when people ask him how far apart our kids are he want to tell them 10 minutes because it seems like that's all the reprieve we get some days. As soon as one goes down the other is up. But when it is synchronized, it's a heavenly event!


I realized I never posted anything about Father's Day last weekend. Unlike she did for his birthday, Madeleine did not blow the surprise gift we gave Justin. He got a gift certificate to his favorite bike shop in town for him to use to buy new pedals and shoes for his road bike. Before then he had only one pair of pedals he had to switch back and forth between his mountain and road bikes. Although it was a gift for him, I gave it selfishly thinking that if he could spend less time prepping to ride and more time riding, he might get home sooner and I wouldn't have to hold the fort alone as long. :) There's always an ulterior motive with me! He's enjoyed the freedom his new pedals and shoes have given him. Plus, I was able to tell him about a 50% off sale on shoes the store was having so we enjoyed a good bargain too.

Little else has been happening here. I'm hoping to work on the yard a bit more as the mosquitoes begin to dissipate and post more things for sale on Craigslist. It's nice having a bit of pocket change every now and again. I'm hoping to catch Parker saying "mama" on video one of these days so keep your eyes out.

Legs or no legs

Parker is determined to move. Whether or not this movement falls under the umbrella term of "crawling," I don't know. It's more like a sniper crawl of sorts. What would you call it? His legs must have been tired from jumping in his jumperoo; otherwise, he'd usually also insert a push-up or two in his forward motion.

The noisy one

It's a good thing Madeleine's gotten used to her little brother because he can be quite vocal when he feels like it. This isn't the greatest example but it covers a good variety of his favorite expressions. And no, it's not the backlighting that's making his hair look so poofy; it's actually that poofy.