Summer

On June 8th, I thought summer would last forever.  But here we are at the end of July and we have about 1 month left of summer vacation.  And the best part is that we will be gone for a while on our family vacation.  Very much looking forward to that.

There has been a lot of bickering in the house this summer.  It seems as though it is always two of the boys that hang together and then there is one man out.  The arguments are ridiculous.  I get a lot of Mom he touched me with his pinky or Mom he is looking at me cross eyed.  It has been a bit frustrating to me.  Typically, if the boys are having a hard time, I get them out in the pool. But at times even that does not settle the arguing. 

We only had a few camps lined up for the summer.  Yes, I made a mental note to have more camps for next summer.  It helps for the boys to have an activity in the morning.  The boys recently did vacation bible school at our church.  They really had a good time.  Tee went to a Wee chefs camp and had a good time making and eating the food.  The older boys did a baseball camp last week.  They were taught by professional baseball players and learned a lot.

The boys have been working on their summer homework.  I ended up finding a package for Kindergarten for Tee.  So he has been working on that as the older two work on theirs.  Summer is just so long and it is good to keep their math skills sharp.  In fact, the boys have a tutor who is reviewing some of the math concepts they learned last year.  She will only come once a week for 4 weeks but I think this will help for when school starts.  I really noticed that the tutor helped last summer.

We decided we were going to ban all technology (itouches, computers, xbox, wii) for three days during a week.  The boys will go from one thing to another and I just get so frustrated.  We sat down with the boys and made a list of all the things that they could instead.  It was so nice.  They found other things to do.  I am getting ready to pull another round, maybe even do 4 days this time.

Garden was a bust this year.  I ended up planting it late and have had very small yield.  I usually have more cucumbers than I know what to do with.  This year, I have not had a one.  Zucchini, same thing.  I have had a nice helping of green beans and the boys just picked another round today.  I am fairly certain a family of bunnies have nested in my garden and are having an easy time getting their meals.  So mad at these creatures.  At this point, I will probably pull it all up.

I have made progress on some of my home projects.  It has felt good to clean up and clear out.  I still have a ways to go but progress is progress.  It makes me want to keep on going.  Of course, I always get sad when I have to clear out the stuff Tee has outgrown.

But now my focus is changing to get ready for vacation.  And that makes me happy.

Where was I.......

 Oh yeah....vacation.  Now that school has started, I really miss vacation.  We left Savannah and headed to Jacksonville to see my parents.  There was a lot of moving around in the first part of our trip.  After the one night at my parent's house we left for the beach.  The beach is where the big event was going to take place.

One of my good friends recently relocated from Conn to Florida.  We were able to slip in some visiting time with them.  The boys really enjoy her daughter's company.  They got a little swimming in also.

We were able to spend a lot of time at the beach.  I have to say the kids were exhausted during our stay.  We were here and there and everywhere. 

My sister rented a large house (beautiful) on the beach where she would hold her exchanging of vows and then have a cocktail party to celebrate.  Only family was invited to the exchange of vows.

On the wedding night, we got there a little early to help the bride get dressed.  Us ladies were freaking out a little bit when the zipper broke on my sister's dress.  We worked at it for so long.  We ended up having to sew her in literally.  It ended up working out but boy was it stressful.



 My sister was walked up the steps by her son.

 It is not that he wasn't interested but he was exhausted.  Too much fun in the sun.

 The happy couple!

 My family.  It was nice to have us all together.

Sisters!

The husband and the kids ended up leaving the festivities early.  It had been a long few nights.  I got to stay and play. 

I definitely did NOT take enough pictures.  What was I thinking.  I had my camera.  I didn't take any pictures of the kids with the grandparents.  The kids were with cousins and I have no proof.  Frustrating.

It is always fun to be with my family.  It is a big bummer that we live so far away from them all.  But it does make the times we are together more special.

We left on Sunday for the last stop on our vacation.  

First Stop

The alarm went off really early on Wednesday morning.  We got up and were on our way a after 5 am.  The boys did really well in the car.  Tee kept us laughing in the car.  It was only a short time before he was asking if we were almost there. 

We decided that instead of trying to make it all the way to Florida we would stop in Savannah.  We would stay the night and tool around a little.  I really like Savannah, it is such an old town with lots of history.  I have been there a few times a very long time ago.

On the 9 hour journey, a thought popped into my head.  I really love the Food Network channel.  How fun would it be if we could eat at Paula Dean's restaurant, Lady and Sons.  With my handy dandy droid I started researching.  I looked over the menu  and then saw that reservations are made each morning at 9:30.  So you wait in line at 9:30 and then are given a reservation time.  They do have a buffet available for people who don't have reservations.

After we checked into our hotel, we took a bus down to the River area and walked around a bit.  It definitely is the party area as there are many bars along the river. 

We then made our way to find Paula's restaurant.  We finally found it and saw the hostess to see if by chance we could make it in.  She looked at us and said she couldn't seat 5 together.  We could split up and both my husband and I were thinking, sounds good the kids can sit on their own.  But that didn't fly with the hostess.  I was TOTALLY BUMMED.  Maybe I need to plan ahead and send Paula a note prior to our next vacation down south.  

On Thursday, we took the boys to the Savannah Railroad Museum, which lucky for us was right behind our hotel.  Yes, sure it is vacation but who says you can't learn a little on vacation.  We took a self guided tour but we also had a guided tour of the Executive cars.  Usually the President of the Railroad was the one who would ride in this car.  They have restored them.  We learned some interesting facts:  ice was put in the bottom of the train and that is how the car was cooled 

The boys also were able to work the hand car (we are unsure what the name is).  Tee and I got to ride along but I could tell that it was much harder than I thought it would be.  The guide had to help the boys.  The men who worked these back in the day sometimes had to go 50 miles a day. 

After the nice morning, we tredge on in our road trip of 2011.

Minnesota visitors

We were so happy when the husband's sister said that they wanted to visit us.  The boys have developed a relationship with all of their cousins but they have one that they communicate with often.  They text each other on their itouches and occasionally they will skype.  It is nice because we are so far away and we don't get to see them often.

They had close to a 17 hour drive done over two days.  The boys were texting the entire trip so we knew where they were until they arrived at our house.

The first day they were here we all spent the day hanging out at the pool.  It was a HOT day so it was nice to be able to stay cool. 

It was nice the husband was able to take a few days off to spend with us. We decided it would be nice to take a trip to Annapolis. We decided to take a sailing trip on the Chesapeake. It was a nice afternoon.



A nice passerby took a picture of all of us in Annapolis!



The husband and E.



Tee and Mom chilling.

Jay and Ry

Nath and my boys.

Cooling off with drinks.

Quite the crew.

the family

He finally got brave enough to move from the safe area.

Future sailor!

 The next day we decided to visit the Aquarium.  Baltimore does have a nice Aquarium.  And we even got snuck into a dolphins show.  We only caught the end but it was good.

Yes, more pictures.

 And the kids spent a lot of time outside in the pool.  My sister in law got a lot of neat pictures of the kids but I only got a few.

The boys (except Tee) all went to a minor league baseball game.  They all had a really good time.  A few of the boys got game balls and one got a soft ball that was thrown into the stands. 

We were so glad they were able to visit.  The boys were so sad when they left.  Jay was finding all reasons why they should come back or why we should meet up with them somewhere.  We hope to be able to see them again sometime soon.

Home again, Home again, jiggity jig

It is hard to believe that there is only one week left before school starts.  The summer has been fun and August flew by.  The boys have said that summer has gone by so quickly.  I guess that is a good thing right.  They are not ready for school to start yet. 

We were so happy to have the husband's sister and her family visit the beginning of the month for a week.  The boys LOVED playing with their cousins.  They so looked forward to their visit and it did not disappoint.  We had some fun outings but mostly hung out and played in the pool.

Once they left, I switched gears to get ready for our vacation.  We visited 3 states, which included lots of driving, visiting a good friend, a wedding, beach time, some cool sight seeing, more beach time and much more.    We were gone 10 days and we had a blast. 

I have lots of pictures that I have to go through with lots of stories.  More postings soon.

Another summer week

Nothing like spending a few weeks on a 1000 piece puzzle only to get to the very end and realize you have lost a piece. The boys and I spent so much time doing this really hard puzzle. We had fun and are looking forward to the next one that I purchased.


Well, this week started off with Tee getting into a fight at a birthday party. This really caught me off guard. The kids were playing in the yard. She had a big water slide, there was a playground and a little playhouse. It ended up that the birthday boy and his cousin were throwing toys at Tee. He ended up trying to fight the cousin.

I did make Tee apologize and explained that the best thing to do is to walk away. The birthday boy came over the next day to say he was sorry for throwing things at him.

The boys had fun at golf camp but I wasn’t extremely happy with the camp. I am not sure that they were really taught much. I feel like there was a lot of messing around vs. instruction. The boys seem to like the golf pro but I personally don’t think he has much personality. I am going to try to find a different golf program for them next year.

We did go up to the gym pool this week also. It is a big pool with a zero entry area and a few big slides. I kept trying to get the boys to go down the slide and they did not want to. I then realized that Tee could go down the slide. I asked him and he jumped on the offer. He spent a lot of our time there going down the slide and loved it. Then the boys finally started going down the slide.

It has been so incredibly hot here. I feel like a hermit. We have everyone one of our blinds closed and all fans going. Friday made me realize that we needed to close up a little bit because it got way too hot in the house.

We are fortunate enough to have the pool and we have definitely used it this weekend. We have all been emerged in the water the entire time.

This week is a quiet week. We are done with camps so I will have to make sure to find things to do to keep us busy.

Low key

Last weekend, it was 3 cookouts in 3 days and 2 of those were at our house.  We went to a friend's house on Saturday evening.  I ended up making a cake batter and baked in ice cream cones.  Then I frosted them.  I got the idea out of a Rachel Ray magazine.  They turned out really cute, but transportation was an issue.

On Sunday, we had a party for the boys' baseball team.  The boys typically only see each other on the field so it was nice to socialize a little off the field.  We had over 40 people here, that is a lot of people.  The party turned out really nice, even though a storm moved in during the middle of it.  I am talking a wind blowing storm.  Our lounge chairs ended up at the bottom of the pool kind of storm.  We were all stuffed into the basement but the kids managed to find things to do.  After it settled down, the boys went swimming again and the party didn't end until 8:45. 

I decided on Monday, July 4th, that we needed to get rid of some of our leftovers.  So we invited a few friends over for swimming and food.  It was a nice evening and definitely not 40 people here.

We had nothing last week but the week went by fairly quickly.  Rain came in on Friday and I decided to take the boys to see the Cars 2 movie.  They all really enjoyed it.

This past weekend was really low key.  We spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool.  Saturday evening we spent with our neighbors, swimming and hanging out. 

Yes, I don't know what we would do without our pool.  It does provide us a lot of entertainment.  The boys had friends over on Sunday and they played out there for a good few hours.  And we spend time out there just about everyday. 

This week, all the boys have vacation bible school at our church.  Today at pickup Jay says wow that was short.  Well, compared to their all day scout camp I am the 3 hours felt like no time at all.  They had a great time. 

The last days of summer

This is the last day of summer for the boys. Beginning Monday morning we will be back to the mad rush of getting dressed, fed and out the door. We had such a nice summer but I think that I am ready to get back to a routine. I think the boys are ready also.

Yesterday, for the first time this summer I took the boys to the pool at our gym. Luckily, a few of their friends were there. They all had such a good time. EE was non-stop going down the slides. I had to make him stop to eat lunch. Jay went down a few times and that was good enough for him. Tee loved playing in the zero entry area with the fountains. It was such a nice day and I still got to get a workout in. I am not sure why we had not done that all summer.

We got teacher notifications on Wednesday. Well, I got one postcard telling me the teacher EE had gotten. I ended up calling the school the next morning to find out who Jay got as a teacher. Like last year, his postcard got lost in the mail. The 2nd grade team at the school has a really good reputation. There are 7 2nd grade classes with 17-18 students. We feel lucky to have such small class sizes. There were a few teachers that I would have liked the boys to have gotten but I am sure we will be fine with who they have.

We just got back from the meet the teacher at school. Of course, it started raining as we were getting ready to go but it let up as we got to school. Our first stop was EE's class. I had to read the instructions written at the front of the room so I could figure out what to do with his supplies. She gave fairly simple instructions on how to put all of the supplies away. He should be ready to go Monday morning.

Our next stop was Jay's class. The teacher is a little older but seems very nice. My stress level started when I saw a neighbor who had been sitting in the class for 20 minutes following instructions on what to do with supplies. I had to label every pencil, crayon, marker, eraser etc. These were very specific instructions. I don't like to follow instructions much honestly. My neighbor was giving me a hard time saying that I had to follow instructions like the rest. But the rest didn't have a 2 year old who was trying to get into everything. It took me over 30 minutes to finish and I probably didn't do everything correctly. I have a hard time figuring out why each crayon had to be labeled. She did assign each child a number and we only had to put a number on the crayon but for the love of God....why. What made it worse was that the office came on the intercom asking the families to leave. Then we had to slip out through the office through a sea of people waiting to get in for the next go around.

I think it will be an interesting year.

Too ambitious, maybe, but rain does not make for a great outdoor party

I don't know why but my husband and I tend to think we can accomplish a million things in the matter of a few days. My husband had a week off and we had a long list of projects. We didn't account for the 2 days we would be away. We probably had 15 items on our ever growing list and we maybe completed 2.

It wasn't for a lack of trying that is for sure. We decided to change out our outdoor lights. My husband went to the home improvement store and picked some out. He pulled the first one out of the box and it was broken. He was ready to give up but I thought he should at least open one more. The second one was broken as well. They were returned.

Our outdoor furniture is in need of some major tlc. It is very faded. On Thursday my husband painted one of the chairs. He tried it with a brush first and then decided to get the sprayer out. The sprayer was much faster but we knew there was no way he would be able to get them all done by Saturday for our party.

The rest of our time was spent cleaning and getting ready for our party. The weather forecast was not promising. I always feel like the weather is not what they say it is going to be so I was a little hopeful.

Saturday morning brought us some rain but then we ended up with cloudy skies. As the party time approached I hoped people would arrive on time because it was clear that our outdoor time was going to end fairly soon. The kids were able to swim and jump in the bounce house for about 1 1/2 hours. The party then moved indoors, in the basement.

My most embarrassing moment was when Tee got out of the pool walked over to the grass and pulled his bathing suit down to go potty. I know we are a little redneck but I can't take that child inside every time he has to go while we are swimming. I am thinking it is good he doesn't do it in the pool. Luckily, only a few guests had arrived at that point.

The party ended up being fine just not the way we had planned it. And we still have a long list of to dos.

A little fun

My husband has the week off. The week will mainly be a "staycation" but we did manage to have a little fun early this week.

A few months ago when I visited my friend in Pa. we talked about meeting in Hershey Park. It just so happens that she and her husband have the same week of vacation. Our plan was to meet at the park.

We ended up getting there before my friend so we did a few rides while waiting.


Tee was looking at the ride he was about to get on.

Here he is on his very first ride, the balloon flite. He liked it the first few times around and then he was crying a little. He remembers the ride and he also remembers crying.


The boys rode on the carousel.

We got family pictures early in the day. It was so incredibly hot this day. We were full of sweat the entire day.


The boys were good sports in riding rides with Tee.

My husband and my friend's husband rode on a ride called Storm Runner. It takes you out on the track and counts down from 10. Then it shoots off like a rocket at 70 miles per hour. It goes every which way it can. Not a ride for me.

In fact, I did not ride on any rides. I was typically the one either with Tee or taking pictures. I do not like roller coasters so I was fine. The boys rode on one little roller coaster. Ee loved riding on the Swings up in the air. He went on 2 times. Jay did not want to have anything to do with them. He was definitely a little more conservative. He rode a rocket ship towards the very end. It is a ride in which you get to decide how high you go. You can go all the way to the top or stay in between by pulling on the lever. As he and his Dad were getting buckled in he says that he has to go to the bathroom. He stayed in the middle for the ride.

We let the kids play in the water area for a little while as well. It was a nice little cool off for a very hot day. They did not do any of the rides but played in the little fountain area.

Tee was so exhausted. Luckily, my friend brought a stroller with them (I had an umbrella stroller) which she let me use for Tee to take a nap. He got a good 1 hour cat nap. This was certainly a blessing otherwise he would have turned into a crank and we would have had to leave the park.

We were able to have dinner in the park and then went and toured the Hershey Chocolate Factory. It was very neat and I am glad we were able to do it that evening instead of going back the next day.

We had the best time. My boys and my friend's boys get along so well. I am hoping we can get them together again soon. Her boys are very well behaved.

We ended up at our hotel around 8:30. It was the worst night sleep I have gotten in a long time. Jay was having a hard time staying asleep. He kept getting up to go to the bathroom. We had the ice maker on so that we have ice for the cooler the next morning. I woke up every time the tray turned over. The hotel was off the highway and all night long you could hear the trucks driving by shifting their gears. Then morning started at 5:30.

On Tuesday, we drove to an outlet mall that was sort of on the way home. We were all tired but we managed to shop a little before we headed home.

The rest of the week will consist of house projects that we need to get done. We are also getting ready for the "work" family party this weekend. Hopefully, after this weekend we will spend some time on the weekends doing and visiting some of the places I wanted to do this week.

Hopefully an hour or so of quiet

The older boys are at a birthday party a few houses down and I put Tee down for a nap a little while ago. He has skipped his nap 3 out of the last 4 days and I am hoping he has a little shut eye today. When he doesn't nap it means that I have to hurry through dinner and clean up to get him bathed and in bed no later that 7:30(preferably by 7:15). It is a definite trade off between napping and early bedtime. I am not ready for him to give up his nap just yet. I still hear him talking upstairs. I guess I better move on.

This past weekend was a hot and humid one. We spent the day in the pool on Sunday. This was for sure the only way we managed to stay cool. We often ask ourselves what we would be doing without the pool in the back yard. It is a good way for the kids to expend some of their energy and they have fun doing it.

My niece finally received a job offer yesterday and believe it or not started today. We were all very excited for her. She literally has been looking since January both here and Flroida. It is an admin support position. She will have benefits plus vacation and a few sick days. This is what she needed. I am going to miss having her around during the day, but I am glad she found a job.

One of the nice things about having my niece around is that the husband and I can go out every once in a while without having to pay a sitter. The sitter I have bee using is not cheap. A few Sundays ago we went out with our neighbors to a restaurant that we had not been to before. They sat us in eye shot of a board that had a wine listing but no prices. I saw one that caught my eye so I ordered a glass. The restaurant was primarily seafood which I don't eat much of. I ended up getting a salad and a shrimp appetizer. And I also got another glass of wine. Imagine my surprise when we got the bill and noticed that each glass of wine was $15. The wine was more expensive than my meal. I am positive we will not be going back to that restaurant again.

I am in the midst of planning a party for my husband's work people and their families. We are doing a pool/moon bounce party. I am struggling with the fact that many of these work people don't have children and what will they do here. I guess we will have to see what the RSVP is like.

Well, today will be one of the no nap days. I have him watching the Little Einsteins and must get a few things done before I have to focus my attention back to him.

The bizarre, the frustrating and other stuff.....I will let you decide

My friend and neighbor (NA) ran into another neighbor, the husband, (NB) at the grocery store yesterday. They were in line and NA was trying to make small talk. It is not easy to strike up a conversation with NB. He had a bag of ice and a cooler in his hands. She asks him if he is getting ready for a cookout, logical question based on what he had in his hands. His response was that their 21 year old cat passed away that day. His wife was out of town and coming home the next evening. He needed to preserve the cat until she got home so they could bury in their yard, probably next to the big lump in their yard where their dog was laid to rest.

I don't think I have mentioned that my niece has been with us for a while now. She followed us home from the beach vacation. She is still on her quest for a job. It is very hard for someone who has no real experience to even get an interview. She finally got a call today and has set up an interview for Monday but it is a telemarketing position. We (her Mom and I) keep telling her to keep her options open at this point. She also needs to get experience interviewing. We are hoping she finds something. The boys love having her around.

The husband has not been home before 8pm any work night for what seems like the last 2 weeks. It really is probably closer to 9pm before he gets home. It is their busy time.....I am not sure when it will end. I supposed I should keep this blog more up to date so that he can know what is going on around here. I am sure he won't think that is funny. As he walked in from work the other night, I told him that I was beginning to think there was another women.....he got a laugh out of that one.

Tee had a great day today potty wise. I took the boys to the child watch at my gym. I was a little nervous that Tee would have an accident. He would not be able to get to a potty himself and it tends to get busy in there that I don't know if he would be able to get the attention of a worker. I ended up putting a pull-up on him when we got there. I had to hurry home (more on that later) and wasn't' able to take the time to get him back in his underwear. I was so pleased when I got home and noticed he was dry.

I believe I mentioned that when we purchased our new appliances we also purchased a drop in gas stove top. Last Friday, I had a plumber come to give me a quote for removing the old and installing the new. The quote was unbelievably high at least double what the appliance cost. When I called my husband he told me to pay my $19 fee and escort him out the door. Next we called a home company to do the installation. I was very clear in what I wanted in my phone call. The plumber was set to come out this afternoon. He called at 10:15 and wanted to see if he could come at 11. My niece was here to get his call and told him I would be home around 11:15. This is why I had to leave my workout class early and rush home. The plumber gets here only to tell me that he doesn't do the installation of the new appliance, only the gas hookup. He was very nice and told me to contact an appliance store and ask them who they use. I finally got through to a company and they will come out on Wednesday to give me a quote. The person I spoke with said they may or may not be able to do the job that day. I have to pay $35 for the quote and I am not even sure they will deduct that from the total if I hire them to do the job. Who thought this would be so difficult?

Speaking of the gym. I attend a barbell strength class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They are given by 2 different instructors and are structured differently. Both instructors tend not to do much, if any, ab work. One totally focuses on planks, which I understand are good but really would like some old fashioned sit ups. The other instructor may do a few minutes of ab work in addition to planks. I look forward to the regular instructor coming back from maternity leave because I know she will work those abs for us.

Tee decided not to nap today. He came down around 45 minutes after I put him down and said he was ready to swim....so we did. Bad that I didn't get any down time and good because it meant that all the kids get to go to bed early. The last few nights have been later that I would like. Tee and EE got in the tub and I sent Jay to my room to get in the shower. I went to check on him shortly after he "supposedly" got in the shower only to find him done. I made a comment about being done so quickly and told him I was going to smell his head. His head was not even wet yet he tried to get me to believe he had bathed. He was made to get back in the shower to try again.

The fun days of summer

We have not done much this week. I purchased workbooks (math and reading) for the boys and they have been working on those. We have been in the pool a lot this week. Each afternoon we have been outside. They swim a little, they play out of the pool a little and then go back to swimming a little. Tee loves to swim in the pool.

Today we took a walk (with Tee's buddy and his Mom) into the wooded area (a park) around our neighborhood. I guess you could call it a mini-hike. We walked to a little stream. The older boys found a salamander. The younger boys picked up rocks and threw them into the water. By the end of our visit Jay and EE had fallen in and gotten wet. Tee got a little wet as well. It was a nice morning walk.

Jay and Ee started tennis lessons last week. They have a practice during the week (Wednesday afternoons) and then practice on Saturday morning. A friend's Mom is the coach and their friend is in the class. They have done well and are enjoying something different for the time being. Tee would also like to play tennis. It is a must to bring his racket with us.

An update on potty training. I remember way back when I trained the twins, every time I mentioned they were doing well we would have an accident or two. It seems to be the case this time as well. Tee is still doing well but not always telling me when he has to go. He can and does hold it in for a long time. Yesterday after swimming he had 2 accidents (an accident is defined as me having to clean pee up off the floor). He probably drank too much pool water.

After dinner last night, I went down to clean up the pool area. It was probably 7:45. My neighbors down the street (green lady and her husband) came over and wanted to talk to me about our pool. I have heard that they have been talking about getting a pool for years now. I tried to answer as many of their questions as I could, but I am new to this pool stuff. I had to listen to him tell me that our pool was going to get damaged because we are on a salt water system and that the company who put our pool is was not a good one etc. Really people....it is late and I need to get my family ready for bed. But it went on until it was interrupted by Jay telling me that Tee had pooped in the tree house. Yuk! It was all over him and the slide and in the tree house. I had to hose him down and poor Diego ended up in the trash. In Tee's defense I think that pool water tends to loosen the stool. I do think he is doing well. He has no problem sitting on the potty when I ask. I will continue to tote around the potty for as long as I need to.

Should I feel Guilty?

I feel extremely guilty about that fact that I am happy that school starts next week. I have spoken to several other Moms who are all sad that summer is ending and that their kids will be back in school. Are you kidding me? I have gotten to the point where I can not stand the bickering that goes on daily between EE and Jay.

Some days I would just love to turn on the TV and let them sit there all day. They would be occupied (read: out of my hair) and off of each other's backs. But I don't let the boys watch TV. Although, they do get to play WII but I limit the time and it is not everyday. They do get to watch some occasionally but the TV is not on everyday. It is hard to believe because their first year of life I put them in front (strapped in their bouncy chairs) of Baby Einstein videos, 2 times a day. This was really the only break I got from the two of them. I loved this time of day. Yes, I had read the many articles stating how bad it is to let your children under the age of 2 watch TV. The TV sucks the imagination right out of their head. I didn't let that deter me one bit. Once they were able to play on their own the TV went away. For now, I will let them watch movies or a show from time to time. Their favorite shows are Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Luckily, the boys do not need the TV to keep them entertained. They can typically find something to do on their own (especially bicker with each other): work on crafts, read a book or play outside. The baby is not interested in the TV. NOTE: I do not judge other because families work differently.

Well, just a few more days and we will have to start back on a routine ready or not. I look forward to getting the household harmony back.

Lots of questions

It was another difficult morning and a lot of bickering going on between E & J. J always has to have the last word and will do annoying things to his brother if he does not do what he wants. Hmm...a little of this reminds me of my brother.

J has been taking care of his baby pet frog we found in the pool yesterday. There were actually 3 of them. J put one in a bucket with some water and they are trying to catch flies to feed it. This has been a nice distraction for today.

We have been faced with answering lots of questions for the boys lately. Last week I found myself explaining divorce to the boys. My neighbor (the Dad) has custody of his two children and their Mom gets them during her allotted time. The boy is a rising 6th grader, who is currently fighting Hodgkin's Lymphoma (and responding great to his chemo treatments), will come play with the boys sometimes. He had to leave one day because his Mom was here to pick him up. I had to explain why the kids' Mom did not live with them. It makes it more difficult that my neighbor has a "friend" that is at his house a lot. This past weekend the hubs (got a name from hubs' Mom - thanks) drove by a cemetery and explained death and being buried in a casket in the ground. The questions the boys asked: "Do the bugs get you when you are underground?" and "How do you see down there?". I think the hubs did a great job with this topic. And this morning during breakfast, J asked me how Santa see everything that everyone does. I was not ready for this one. It is July right? I gave a lame Santa sees all response. I am going to have to come up with a better explanation than that. I am sure that this is the start of many years of difficult questions. On my to do list is to prepare for the multitude of questions little people can ask. I guess by the time Baby T gets older we will be ready for anything.