Week Recap

Ella got her first black eye this week from falling face-first onto a chair leg. The hazards of being an almost walker!

Rand learned how to write the letter "H" and figured out how to read a few more words (zoo, up, egg).

Ella got hold of a bottle of dish soap which necessitated my first call to Poison Control. They said she would be fine and might have a bit of an upset tummy. She threw up a little bit and had bubbles coming out of her mouth for a few minutes, but after the nasty taste was out of her mouth she was back to normal.

We are having serious sleep dilemmas with Rand. It's becoming very obvious by his behavior when he's tired. If he takes a nap, he's not tired enough to fall asleep until around 3pm, and if we don't wake him, he sleeps until 5pm. Which means he's up until 11pm. Not cool. If we do wake him, then he turns into Oscar The Grouch until bedtime. If he doesn't take a nap, he falls asleep at 7pm and is up at 5am. Arrrgh!

Summer has officially arrived. It is getting harder and harder to find cool (in both senses) things to do with a 3-year-old. He was much easier to entertain when he was a baby. What makes it harder is that it is too hot to even go swimming unless it's early or late.

We love the new Dunkin Donuts by our house. It makes a lovely little afternoon break to grab an iced coffee for me and a donut with rainbow sprinkles for Rand. For now, Ella is satisfied with a straw to play with.

Character

Yesterday Rand was A.W.F.U.L. He was tired, and wouldn't take a nap, and was like a miniature Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. We went to run some errands in the car, and Rand kept asking for things that just weren't possible at the moment -- can we get some ice cream? can we go to the bookstore? can we go to Westgate? I want some apple juice! can we go swimming?

Finally, I said I was sorry for telling him no to everything, but I was trying to mold his character.

He immediately replied, "I want my character back!"

For Grandpa

The tongue-rolling ability lives on!

A Phrase I Never Thought I'd Be Happy To Hear....

Rand: "Mom, I threw up a little bit in my mouth, but don't worry, I chewed it back down."

Mommy, can we keep him?

We have had a huge upswing in dog boarding over the last month. On the weekend that we had seven dogs at our house, I took the kids over to my friend Amy's house for a party. Her Corgi had recently had puppies, and Rand had a great time holding them. He liked to pick one up, hold it a moment, put it down, and pick up another one.

At one point, Rand looked at me while holding a little fuzzball of a puppy and said, "Mommy, can we please take him home?"

Blue snails

Rand and I were playing that age-old game of "I'm thinking of....."

Rand: "I'm thinking of something blue."
Me: "Is it the sky?"
Rand: "No. It moves very slowly."
Me: "Um....a train?"
Rand: "No! It moves REALLY REALLY SLOW."
Me, thinking back to past games: "Is it a snail?"
Rand: "Yes! It's a blue snail!"

Fast forward a couple more rounds....

Rand: "I'm thinking of something fast."
Me: "An airplane?"
Rand: "Nope! It's blue."
Me: "Our car?"
Rand: "Nope! It's super super fast."
Me, getting smart: "A snail?"
Rand: "Yes! It's a super fast blue snail!"

Even with all this, I think our current version is better than when he starts reading Ranger Rick and knowing all of the obscure animals.

Sneaky.

Hmmmm......big brother is distracted.

He's still not looking.....

Denied!

Luckily, Ella doesn't hold grudges. Not yet, anyways.

Lovable Tyrant

Rand has become the next to fall victim to the plague that has hit our house. He's quite the (sweet) little tyrant when he is sick. He requested an otter pop, and then said, "Mommy, it's too cold. Will you hold it for me?" So I sat on the couch, holding his otter pop, while he ate it and watched Thomas.

Zoom!

That's how it's felt that last few weeks....after months of little to no dog training or boarding, May was super busy and June, while a little slower, is still going strong. Currently we have our two dogs, two Cocker Spaniel puppies, and an ancient little black dog staying at our house. Add to that the end of the school year for Werner, and then he went out of town for a week, along with all of the normal cooking-cleaning-maintenance-of-two-small-children, and while nothing much has happened, the days go by very quickly.

Werner is done with school and is working hard at getting the high school's theater in working shape by the time the school year begins. It's been pretty neglected the last few years, so there's loads of trash to be thrown away, sound systems to explore, and lots of paper to organize.

We took Rand to see his first real movie theater movie. We saw "Up," and while it was lots of fun, it was pretty intense for him.

Both kids are loving the swimming pool. We got Rand a life jacket and he's starting to get comfortable dog paddling around without holding onto mom or dad's hand. We're still close by, of course, but he gets good and tired out kicking his way around the pool!

The following photos were taken at Rand's request -- we did not lock him inside the dog crate. He's also just pretending to be asleep. The orange necklace hanging from the top is a smoke detector.