Treasure Hunt with Annalia

Today we had a long overdue (as always) play date with Annalia and Emily.  We played inside, we played outside.  The kids ate lunch inside, the mom's ate lunch outside.  They had hoodsie cups outside and a treasure hunt inside.  It was a great day with two of our favorite ladies!

A Party Just to Party Party

Sometimes you get together with friends and family for holidays.  Sometimes to celebrate something special...a wedding, a birthday, a new job, etc.  Sometimes you just party just to party!  That was the case today at Emily and Ray's.  Always good to get together with friends...no matter what the reason!!

The Blessing of the Fleet

For at least five years, I have been wanting to run the Blessing of the Fleet in Narragansett.  I intended to run it a couple of times in the past but due to injury or pregnancy I was never able to.  Until tonight!  The weather was a little shaky to start but really the rain felt good.  75+, rainy and super humid was still better than the 95+ we have had the last few weeks.  It was an amazing run with so many athletes and spectators...a fun route for the entire 10 miles.  The carnival and festivities at the end were great too!  I saw so many people I knew too (only in RI, right?).  This is definitely a race I will do again!  Thanks to my boys for coming to cheer me on...it is for them that I run these races!  Love you all!

Ready for School

Lately Evan has been showing a lot of signs that he is getting ready for school.  While part of me is a little sad that he won't be here with me for those hours each week, I know he will LOVE it!  Can't wait to see and hear all about what he learns and does at school!!

Hot Summer Fun

It has been hot, hot, hot!!  And what else is there to do when it's hot, hot, hot but swim, swim, swim??



Evan is putting together the pieces to jump rope


Logan is dancing to Wally just like his big brother used to.  He knows when the song ends and sometimes is too quick to press Wally's hand to start him again and again and again.

Crawling Progress

Over the last month, Logan has been working on his crawling.  Here is a collection of videos showing his progress.  (Hopefully someday, in my "spare time", I'll learn how to edit video so that I can just highlight the good/fun/important parts of the videos.)

This first video already appeared in the blog in the Many Ways to Crawl post but it shows how he got started and how far he has come.

When he is motivated (usually to get the phone or the camera) he can cover distances quickly.  Not a whole lot of "crawling" captured here but I just love his sweet face...so close up!


Getting a little closer to a 2 knee crawl, still very wobbly


We have a crawler!


Showing Daddy and Evan his new skills


Hard to believe that less than 2 weeks ago, he wasn't even crawling!  Now he's climbing stairs!  Look out world...here comes Logan!


A cute story about Logan climbing the stairs - Today I ran down stairs to switch the laundry and jump on the computer for 5 minutes.  When I left, both boys were playing in the living room.  When I came back they were no where to be found.  I called out "Evan, where are you?" "We're up here, mommy" was the response he gave.  "Both of you?" was my worried response.  "Yes, I helped Logan climb the stairs.  I left little treats for him."  I turned the corner on the stairs to find Logan, standing up on the second stair from the top, holding on to the gate and shaking it.  Needless to say, Evan and I had a little chat about only helping Logan climb the stairs if mom or dad are there too.  I guess my 5 minutes was too long to leave them unattended...at least no one was hurt!

These photos were taken 3 days before the assisted stair climbing occurred.

The 2013 Car Saga

We have known for a while now that Bruce needed a new car.  His car was still running ok and there was nothing really forcing us to test drive or buy a new car.  That is until last week.  On the 3rd, after a difficult day with Evan, Bruce called to tell me that his car broke down and he was being towed to a garage in Waltham.  So that evening, instead of heading to the carnival and fireworks as we had planned, the boys and I drove to Waltham to pick up Daddy.
We celebrated a super fun 4th of July at Papa & Gramma's house.  Then on the 5th, while the Maxima was getting a new radiator in Waltham, Daddy went to test drive cars.  Well, sort of!  He never actually made it to drive any.  As he was pulling into the first dealership, he hit an aluminum wrapped concrete sign pole and wrecked my car!  Thankfully he was ok but we found 3 days later that my car was totaled!  By this time his car was fixed and ready to be picked up but for a short time we were without a car.
Our good friend, Chris, was our lifesaver...once again!  He picked Bruce up from the accident and was going to be out of town for 2 weeks and insisted that we keep his Trail Blazer.  It worked out perfectly as we looked for, found and bought two new cars...a 2012 Altima for Bruce and a 2008 TSX for me!  I still have not seen a photo of the damage and I don't know that I ever will but I am certainly glad that the 2013 car saga is behind us, no one was hurt and we can (almost) laugh about it now.

I know I'm a little biased but she's a beauty!!

Patience & Nico's Wedding

Tonight, Bruce and I attended Patience and Nico's beautiful wedding in Newport.  Patience and I have been friends since the 7th grade...over 20 years ago!!  She has met and married an amazing man who treats her the way she deserves to be treated, like a princess.  They have traveled to some amazing places together, especially when you consider that they are just getting started.  I know that they will have a long, happy, love-filled life together.  Congrats to the newlyweds...it was an amazing celebration of a beautiful couple!!

Rocking & Bouncing

You may remember this photo of Evan from when he was about 9 months old, sitting in the rocking chair that Grandpa Bob made for him.

Today, Logan decided to check out the rocking chair.  He has sat in it before but never for very long...there are many more distractions with all of Evan's cool big boy toys.  I'd say he likes it, even though I couldn't capture a smile!

Here is a short video of one of Logan's favorite things to do...bounce and kick in his crib.

11 Months!

Happy 11 months, little man!  Your personality continues to be sunny and cheerful most of the time.  You are pulling up on more and more things - the hassock, the coffee table, the play table.  You aren't quite walking around them but that will come quickly I'm sure.  You are feeding yourself more and more which is quite helpful to daddy and I at mealtimes.  You are getting really good at going from your belly back to your knees and sitting even though you still aren't rolling much from your back to your belly.  You are speaking up for yourself more often, especially if Evan does something you aren't thrilled about like takes a toy away from you.  Your teeth are quite slow to come in.  You still have just four but a couple more are coming.  You are growing bigger and bigger by the day and I have been taking clothes out of Evan's drawers and putting them directly into yours.  I can't believe that you will be one next month!  Time is flying but I am really enjoying you grow and change.  I love you more and more everyday!

Fourth of July part 2

The last few days have followed this pattern: bad day (car broke down, canceled carnival and fireworks), good day (cookout at Papa & Gramma's), bad day (TSX accident - more on that later), good day (cookout at Uncle Dan & Auntie Karin's)...does that mean tomorrow is going to be a bad day?  Let's hope not!  What more can go wrong?
For now, let's just enjoy the fun afternoon that we had a Uncle Dan and Auntie Karin's house for another 4th of July cookout.  More good food, friends and fun.  It's fun when the parties just keep going and going!

Kisses for my friend

When Evan was just about nine months old, he found a friend in the mirror.  Logan has found one too!  Logan likes to kiss his friend a bit more than Evan did.  Can you blame him?  He's super cute!  This is what was happening at home while daddy was out "test driving" new cars.  Little did I know at the time just how much I would come to appreciate the adorableness (is that even a word?) of this video!

Weren't you just saying how adorable I am??

Happy Birthday, America!

Can you think of a better way to celebrate America than by having a cookout with wonderful family and spending the day eating, drinking, and swimming?  No?  Well, me neither!  That is just what we did today and it was perfect!! Oh, and Logan started really crawling today!  Very exciting!

Disappointment

The last couple of days were tough ones around here.  For whatever reason Evan was in a mood...and not a very nice one!  He was being fresh to mom and dad, mean to Logan and just not the sweet boy that he generally is.  I don't know what the cause was but I hope tomorrow is better!
Tonight we were supposed to go to the carnival and fireworks with Danny, Sean, Uncle Dan and Auntie Karin.  This is something Evan has been talking about doing ever since we went last year.  With his challenging behavior over the last few days, we kept warning him that we weren't going to go if he kept it up.  This usually works but not today!  So after a difficult morning and early afternoon, I called Auntie Karin to tell her that we weren't going to go.  I hated to do it but sometimes the tough decisions need to be made.  I think in the end Bruce and I were more disappointed than Evan...we understand exactly what we were missing.
Regardless of the difficult times, when all is said and done at the end of the day, Evan is still our little angel!  Let's just hope his behavior is angelic tomorrow!

Even after a difficult few days, he is still one of the sweetest things I have ever seen!  I love you, little guy!

(In the end, I guess it ended up being good that we cancelled with Danny and Sean because around 5 pm, Bruce called to say that his car broke down and I needed to go pick him up in Waltham.  Not at all how we were hoping to spend the evening.)

Cherry Pitting

If you ask Auntie Kristina, Daddy's nickname is "The Original Brucie Juicey" from when they were kids and he was pitting cherries one summer.  We have a fondness for bing and Rainier cherries in this house too.  They are easy for adults to eat but not so much for kids due to the pits. Today we bought a cherry pitter.  Here is Evan having some fun putting it to good use.  Start to finish it took him 48 seconds to pit one cherry!  Adorable but not speedy...the story of his life!

Placing the cherry in the pitter

  

Making sure it's lined up

Get ready and...

Squeeze!