Sunny and 75 with a chance of hail

We've had a busy weekend, but it's been relaxing at the same time. Saturday morning was an all-Mariemont garage sale. We decided to purge some of our stuff, so we set up shop at 8:30 am. It was A's dream come true.... we were outside all morning. We took a break for lunch and then he was back to playing outdoors. Though it was a little stressful getting everything together and organized the night before, the day of the garage sale was actually really relaxing. It was GORGEOUS and P, C and I mostly sat on the shady front porch and watched A run around with the neighborhood kids. It felt like it was out of a Norman Rockwell painting. When the sale wrapped up, we packed the extra stuff in the car to give away. It is amazing how much stuff we sold/gave away and how it didn't even make a dent on the stuff in our house. God sure has blessed our family! Oh... and we actually had people come through the sale. I would have bet money on the fact that we wouldn't see a single soul all day, but we made over 25 dollars which is quite a bit seeing how almost everything was 1 dollar or less.

The afternoon was spent at a graduation party. I have to admit, hanging around high schoolers again made me feel old. Not that I was any cooler a year ago, but I've spent the last year curled up in a cave listening to the Wiggles and reading Bob the Builder books. I felt a little out of my element hanging around teenagers again. But it was fun to see my friend Molly and get to celebrate with her. And the best part... both kids were sleeping at home so I didn't have to drag car seats and diaper bags with me.

Saturday night ended with a birthday celebration for our friend's baby, Hannah Gray. She turns one soon, and it was so great to see them again, as they have recently moved to Maryland. It was hard to have deep and meaningful conversation with about 10 kids running around, but it was great to see them anyway. And, in the middle of the party, the 75 degree sunny day morphed into a hail storm! It was pretty crazy and the kids thought it was so weird to see ice cubes the size of marbles falling from the sky.

This morning I was greated with a waffle breakfast and a "Happy Birthday, Mommy" from my favorite 2 year old. It's been a great, relaxing day, and the boys have been extremely happy. My wonderful hubby has done a great job of making my transition into the 30's enjoyable and relaxing. Like my dad says, age is just a number. Of course, that number is getting amazingly large, but it's still a number nonetheless.

Both boys are sleeping now, so I'm off to be productive... or read a magazine. I'm not sure which. :)

wisdom or oatmeal?

We were reading the story of Solomon in our kid's Bible this morning. God told Solomon that he could have anything he wanted. If you are familiar with the story, Solomon chooses wisdom. I asked A if he could have one thing what would it be. His answer... oatmeal. I am glad his desires are still so simple. I'm sure in a few years the answer would be very different, but for now, I love knowing I can provide my kid with his one great desire! :)

two more

A making a tunnel for C.  He is such a great big brother and is really very gentle with C (as gentle as a 2 year old boy can be).  C loves it and is usually full of smiles and giggles when A is around.

I just love his face in this one.

More pics!

P's cousin gave these two stuffed animals to A while we were at Kelley's Island.  It was such a sweet thought, and he loves cuddling with them.

Is baby C really 5 months old already?!  I forgot how hard it is to take these monthly pics once they get older and more squirmy. This is one of the better of about 10 tries.

A didn't want to be left out of the picture taking.  He insisted on holding the sign, too.  That's one big 5 month old! :)

Daddy "protecting" the boys from a thunderstorm.  A was terrified of the thunder and sat like that for pretty  much the entire storm saying "no wonder" (meaning no thunder) over and over.

4 antibiotics later...

Poor sweet baby C has had the hardest time shaking this ear infections.  We were back in the doc's office yesterday and are on yet another antibiotic.  This one seems to be working, though, and we had our first good night of sleep and first happy morning in almost 4 weeks!  hurray!

We had a great time at Kelley's Island with P's family this weekend.  Gramma the Great (NOT great gramma) got to meet her newest great grandson, and A got to ham it up in front of a whole new audience.  Yesterday was a difficult day back.  A had to get used to just having mommy around and not an entourage of kids.  And I had to get used to being the only set of hands to help with the boys.  It was an adjustment, but today was much better. 

Here are some pics from the past few weeks.  It's been hard to post since the kids haven't been feeling well, so I think I had 79 that I just downloaded!  Don't worry, I won't post them all, though.

A few more

C is getting so big!  He's almost 5 months old, which I can't believe.  He can roll from his back to his belly, so anytime I put him down, he automatically rolls over.  He loves seeing the world, and he gets frustrated if he can't see what is going on around him.  He's trying to sit up and can do it with some help.  He wants desperately to crawl, which I hope he doesn't figure out for a long time.  He watches A run around the house and I can tell that all he wants is to follow after him. We call him Mr. Chill, as he as gone from the grumpiest baby to the happiest baby.  He also has some pretty funny facial expressions.  I love the one in the bottom picture.

new pics

A loves playing baseball.  He insists that both players need gloves, but since we only have one baseball mitt, he likes to use our oven mitt as a glove.  He actually caught the ball with the oven mitt the other day!

A putting on a concert.  the drawer under our oven was the stage.  I think the pans and pot lids were his audience.  He loved seeing his reflection in them!  This kept him entertained for 45 min which gave me enough time to get our house cleaned for a showing!  I couldn't believe he kept it up for so long.

A is such a great big brother.  Here he is putting his arm around C.  The silly face is only because the camera is out.  Before that, he was having a "conversation" with C in words that only the two of them understood.

Baby C playing with Gramma.  The family was over celebrating Gramma's birthday.

P was having some father-son time with the baby.  A didn't want to be left out, so he made himself at home.  

The Pink Stuff

I ended up taking A to the doc on Saturday. His cold had lasted 2 weeks, so I wanted to get his ears checked out. Turns out he has a sinus infection. Then today I took C to the doctor because his cold had lasted 2 weeks. I thought he might have a sinus infection, too. Turns out he has an ear infection in both ears. So, I had the diagnoses reversed, but the cure is still the same.... ammoxacilin (sp?). Our refrigerator is now stocked with a shelf full of little pink bottles. It's a good thing it tastes alright. A keeps asking for more pink stuff. I was pretty impressed that when we went to fill A's prescription, he wasn't even in the computer. He is 27 months old and this is his first prescription medication! Not too shabby.

I do have some cute pics from the week. I'll try to post them soon.

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day yesterday. It began Saturday night when P cooked a wonderful meal for me. As part of A's gift, he actually ate some dinner without a fight. Sunday was super relaxing. We went to church, both boys were in a good mood all day. We had a picnic lunch on our front porch. They even napped at the SAME TIME! It was great. I had a chance to go to Starbucks by myself for some relaxation time. Then we walked to a park and played basketball together. The boys went down with little fight and I went to bed with a clean house. It was such a wonderful day.

And to top it off, I think A is almost back to normal. He was so much happier yesterday and he woke up happy this morning for the first time in 2 weeks. Maybe he's finally shaken off this sickness! Hopefully C is next to feel better. He's still congested, but he slept much better last night than he has in awhile.

Classic!

After a week and a half, I think the cold/flu/fever bug has finally left our house.  Thank goodness.  In the spirit of good neighbors, we got the bug from one set of neighbors and past it along to another house of neighbors.  

Now that we are all sickness-free, we were able to venture out of the house today.  We met up with my sis and nephew for a trip to the Butterfly Show that comes to Cincy every year.  It was a memorable trip.  If you know A and his cousin, M, you will agree that this is a CLASSIC adventure with the two of them.

A has been excited about going for the past 24 hours.  He has talked to me about it and begged to go see the butterflies.  We show up to the show, and as we are entering, A starts clinging to my leg crying "no butterflies".  I drag him in as M darts through the door to immediately climb on a fence and try to grab the flowers.  A stands scared in the doorway until he spots a 7 year old girl.  He bee-lines it to her and stares at her with hearts in his eyes.  She happens to have a butterfly on her hand, so she tries to hand it to A.  He pulls his hand away, the butterfly falls to the floor and slides right under M's shoe just as he's coming down from the fence.  The poor girl stares in horror as her butterfly is smashed by the unsuspecting foot of M.  Meanwhile, the mom of the girl is nearby and for the sake of her horrified daughter, tries to save the butterfly, is not surprisingly unsuccessful, and then gives us the "bad moms" look.  My sis and I couldn't help  laughing as we both realized how classic the whole thing was.  It was a great start to the day.  

C did great throughout the entire trip.  He never cried and just enjoyed the activity.  He went an incredibly long time without a nap and then took a GREAT nap at the SAME TIME as A this afternoon!  I had time to take a shower, make some phone calls, clean the front room, do dishes from lunch, and fold two loads of laundry!  I wish every day was like that.  It was a great break... especially since yesterday I had a total of 10 min. (not in a row!) to myself.  

Tomorrow we are hoping for no rain as we are supposed to meet a friend at the park.  We should be in luck since the weather forecast calls for thunderstorms all morning... they haven't been right yet this week, so I'm hoping they are off again tomorrow. :)

Photo Shoot

Gramma came over  last weekend to take some pics of baby C and the fam.  Despite the fact that we were all at the beginning stages of not feeling well, we were able to get some cute shots.  Here are a few.