Summer time...and the livin' is...

Drew has been learning about Pokemon from some of his older friends at summer camp. It actually started last year as the kids in his class had older brothers. But now he gets to spend face to face time with said older brothers and is very enthralled with this new world. He then went to a birthday party that had a Pokemon theme and came home ready to spend his piggy bank money on Pokemon cards. The day we bought them, we heard about it the rest of the day except for when we were swimming in the pool. As we were getting close to the day's end, we had the boys tell Kate goodnight as always. Drew says "Goodnight Kate...I bet I do 50 damage against you tomorrow". Cracked us up! (Apparently each card can do so much 'damage' against the other in battle. We are learning all about something we didn't care about at all!)

Noah has 2 favorite things he likes to eat for breakfast..."hot dogs" (breakfast kolaches/pigs in a blanket) or "a PBJ sandwich" (bagel with PB and J). One morning Matthew had to wake Noah up, who is usually very groggy when this happens and doesn't talk, but more so grunts, for the first 5 minutes or so. Well, one morning, he rolled over and first thing out of his mouth: "do you smell...hot dogs?!" Laughingly Matthew had to say no, but we got a kick out of it!

The boys went to Houston with Grandpa and Nana for a week this month: "Camp Glienke"! They had a blast, no doubt about it. We enjoyed a much quieter house with just Kate. It happened that the Monday of the week was our 13th anniversary (as Kevin put it..."You're old!"). So we both took the day off, Kate went to daycare and we had a nice relaxing day together. I posted some pics of the day on FB and Nana showed them to the boys the next day. There was one of us eating ice cream and one with me kissing Matthew's cheek. Noah's response was "They never let US have ANY ice cream!" and "I don't like people kissing!" Silly Noah!

The boys had an AMAZING time with Grandpa and Nana in Houston! They were super busy every day and still had things left that they had planned to do! But the boys didn't even know the difference. There was a new adventure, or 2 or 3, every day! From Pump It Up, Children's Museum, 2 different public pools with awesome kid zones, Learning to ride bikes!, multiple train rides, Nature Center, outdoor play/theatre, Movie night, helping wash the cars, mow the grass, snow cones and learning to use different tools, you could say they all had a good time! There were no problems getting the boys to sleep at night, that's for sure!

Drew is using the word "Epic!" a lot lately. It just flat out cracks us up! No doubt he learned from an older friend at camp!

The boys get to play all sorts of silly games at camp. One day they played a jelly bean mountain game. There was a jelly bean on top of a mountain of powdered sugar for each kid. They were supposed to scoop the sugar away with a spoon until the jelly bean rolled down and then they could eat the jelly bean. Well, Noah just took the spoon and started to eat the powdered sugar! Hilarious! But really, pretty smart! :)

Every now and then Noah has a chance to take a bath by himself while Drew takes a shower. Lately when this happens, Noah just flat out swims around in the bath. He puts his head under water and wiggles and worms around in the water! It's so funny to watch, especially when he's in the big garden tub in the master bathroom! Such a funny kid! He's SO determined to swim without floaties! I guess he will practice any way he can!!!

Kate keeps smiling and giggling and lighting up our lives as always! She loves to smile and laugh and her giggles and laughing have really turned into a real, for real, laugh at times! It's so much fun! There was one night out at dinner with just Kate (the boys were in Houston) and Mommy and Kate laughed back and forth for so long! People started to stare and then started smiling themselves...she was just so funny laughing so much! Oh, she is so precious!

She is still a stinker at school and only takes 1 nap a day, and sometimes it's only about an hour. But otherwise she's been very happy at school and has adjusted to several changes in teachers, which is a big deal for her because she is slow to trust people usually. They say she does really well though. She is usually pretty clingy in the evenings after days at school, but we manage...and I'll take those snuggles!

We have enjoyed several opportunities to have neighbors and friends over to swim in the pool already this month. The boys have invited some friends over and several of our neighbors have babies close to Kate's age, so all the kids have some friends to play with. Kate absolutely LOVES the pool. She loves being outside, but will start shaking with excitement if she thinks we are walking out to the pool. She loves to sit and splash on the tanning ledge. She tolerates the baby float a little, but mostly wants to be out in the pool with everyone else like a big girl I guess!

The week the boys were in Houston, we took the opportunity to do all sorts of things! We went out to dinner almost every night just the 3 of us...no cooking, no cleaning up, no wrestling boys to stay in their seats and off the floors of the restaurant! It was great! We also used it as an opportunity to get Kate to stop waking up in the very early hours of the morning! When we've tried to let her soothe herself back to sleep at those times (AKA, cry herself back to sleep) she ends up waking up one or both of the boys. So Mommy has sacrificed herself for the cause and just goes to nurse her and everyone can stay asleep and Mommy and Kate can go back to sleep quickly. Well, with the boys gone, we didn't have to worry about that part anymore! So the first night she cried for about 45 minutes, but by the end of the 5 nights, she would wake up briefly with a slight whimper and be back asleep within minutes! Hooray!!! Oh, so glorious to not have to stumble out of bed sometime between 2-5 every morning!

New things Kate is starting to do this month: pulling up to stand, cruising, crawling/scooting, waving bye-bye and sometimes Hi, and she got her first 2 teeth, both on the bottom. She just LOVES to stand! Until late this month, I was a little curious if she'd skip crawling all together, she just wants to stand so much! She will pull up on anything and she especially likes to climb up on us if we are sitting on the floor. Then she'll move her feet, but just not go anywhere...it's so cute, it looks like she's dancing! She is doing well with lots new foods and in general loves table foods. She will mimic sounds and some movements, and has really started enjoying clapping her own hands, as well as making us clap ours together. She is making more sounds and has the sounds Nana, Dada and Mama in her repertoire, but pretty sure she doesn't know they mean anything yet.

She loves to open and close drawers, which means she's pinched her fingers a number of times. And she loves to play with her music shakers...she's so cute with them, just shaking back and forth and grinning the whole time. She is now taking her baths without any sitting support, which she loves because she gets to play in the water more!

We are a happy, tired, blessed family!

May stories

Ok, so I'm going to change up the format of these blog posts...after spending way too much time trying to catch up from the last 5 months, I realized it's just not reasonable to keep up in that way...there's just too much other life happening around here! Plus, I ramble too much! So, from here out I plan to share some funny stories that happened in the past month, mostly from the boys inevitably. And I'll try to keep my updates on Kate brief too. And then just share my favorite pictures. So, we'll see if that helps me stay up to date a bit better and keep you readers maybe a little more entertained! :)

One evening, Daddy and the two boys were outside. Matthew was doing some final touches and clean up from finishing the landscaping around the pool. The boys of course were begging to get in the pool. It was way too cold for that, but Matthew compromised and let them play on the tanning ledge. Since it was completely unplanned, the boys just got in with their clothes and got soaking wet - completely fine. However, as they got out and started making their way in for the night, clothes of course were being peeled off as they got into the house. They got down to their underwear, took those off and somehow turned it into a game of throwing their underwear up in the sky. I mean, of course it did! But it gets better...this turned into both pairs of underwear getting thrown up into the gutters! Noah of course thought it was hilarious, and Drew did too, but knew there was potential to get into trouble too. So Drew came running in to tell Mommy about it and prefaced and ended the whole story with, "It's not my fault, it was Noah's idea!"

The boys were very sweet and generous on Mother's Day this year as always. Lots of handmade gifts from the boys, which is always so sweet! Matthew had purchased a book off my wish list - The 5 Love Languages of Children. Drew asked about the book and so I told him it was a book that was going to help me be a better Mommy. His response, "Oh good!" in a tone that said 'you really need to read that one now!' A few minutes later he brought the book to me again and asked me to start reading it so I would know Kid Language! Ok already!

Noah, Kate and Mommy went to the zoo this month with our neighbor and her son that is a month younger than Kate. She stays at home and teaches music lessons. I was asking her how much she charges out of curiosity and after she answered Noah piped in. It's always funny when they listen and you aren't expecting them to follow along, especially when they are trailing behind a good 10 feet. But he chimes in and says, "I charge zero dollars!" We both chuckled and asked if he wanted to take lessons...without hesitation, "NO!"

The boys have really had fun playing the game Plants vs Zombies on the phones this month (thank you Daddy). But it has now trickled over into imaginative play. One night, Drew found a random piece of cardboard, stated it was his newspaper, and started walking slowly and groaning, moving toward Noah saying "brains....brains". Nice! Noah found something to carry too and before we knew it, they were acting out the different types of zombies and plants and creating their own real life version of the game. Oh my! Sometimes at dinner they will reach out their arms and open and close their hands toward someone...this apparently means they've eaten our brains! How fantastic! :) Boys, boys, boys.

Mommy had to work 3 Saturdays this month, which means Daddy is home with all 3 kids! He laid Kate down for her morning nap and the boys were playing in the Lego room I think. A few minutes later Drew runs into the bathroom to say, "Daddy, I don't think you are going to like something..." (Such a scary statement from your children...the options are endless!) Noah had heard Kate fussing herself to sleep, so he tromped up the stairs and went into her room, climbed into the crib and was lying next to her - made her as happy as can be...Daddy, not so happy! Drew also said on one such Saturday, "When Mommy is gone, all the rules are broken!" Is it obvious to anyone else that Daddy is "the fun parent"!

One evening we were getting in the car to go to a friends house and we hear this:
Noah announcing, "Booger! Booger!"
Drew: "he's gonna eat it!
Mommy: "don't eat it!"
Drew: "he already did! That's cuz I used mind control to make him like them"
Noah: "I like it, it tastes good...I like it even better with snot"
Drew: "yah, boogers with snot is like whipped cream with ice cream!"...."it's like bread with butter, makes it so much better!"

Kate is still a happy little girl, we all just love her to pieces! The boys fight over who gets to play with her, and Mommy and Daddy love spending time with a child that doesn't yell or scream at us or threaten to run away...yet! She's a pretty happy camper, but she's a little princess diva too sometimes...this girl gets what she wants! She knows the difference between people she knows and likes and wants at the time, and if it's not you, she will not give up until she gets what/who she wants! That person is usually Mommy! :) But same goes at her school...she's gotten used to a few select people, and those are the only ones she is willing to accept for her care! Goodness!

Noah is still really good at making this girl smile and laugh. He really had her going one Sunday at church...he would duck to either side of me while holding her to play peek a boo, and man did she love it! It was only slightly distracting to others around us I'm sure! He does get a little too excited though, often pulling her toys away and out of her hands to then shove them back in her face or make a part of it shove back into her mouth...sheesh kid, back off a little! Drew gets it a little bit more, bringing toys to her, but not right in front of her, and isn't as rough. Though a few times the boys have fought over who gets to be closer to her or whatever, which turns into them fighting, which has knocked Kate over or really upset her...so, that's super fun!

She still loves to be outside, loves playing in the water in her baths, and is starting to like playing with the bubbles too. She even had fun splashing in the pool - there was one day the water was pretty warm in comparison, so Mommy and Kate sat at the edge of the tanning ledge and she splashed and splashed...oh, she's going to love it when it gets warm enough to really get in! She giggles more and more at things. One of her favorite things that makes her laugh is grabbing Mommy's hair or face...thanks Kate! She thinks it's just great! She likes to do that alot while she nurses and then when I'm burping her. But she's also super sweet sometimes while she nurses...I'll hold her hand, sometimes give her kisses on her hand or head and she gives me the sweetest giggle and smile...oh, it's so precious to hold this sweet baby! She has also learned to make Mommy laugh by squinting up her face and making a 'hehahehaheha' sound...so stinking cute! She's figured out how much I love it and will do it just for me lots! She still shakes her head back and forth at the boys because she knows that's their favorite...she's already figuring things out...so crazy! She likes playing with, and seems to take notice of balls more lately too...the boys love that!

She's been all over the board with sleeping and eating this month. We started out the month with her sleeping 10-11 hours, thinking we'd finally made it. And then she was back to waking up super early around 3am. Ugh! So now we are working our way back to 4:30/5am wakings, but even that is rough. There was one night she woke up super early and I gave her 15 minutes to try and go back to sleep. Well, she screamed so loud (that's right, not crying, straight up yelling/screaming) that you could hear it through the boys' monitor, woke Noah up, who threw a fit when I took him back to his bed (because he's starting to love sleeping in our bed when the storms wake him at night!), which woke up Drew...so 15 min of her crying woke up the whole house! This doesn't give me much leeway to 'help' her get out of the pattern...sigh! Oh well! I'll just have to focus on loving my moments with her! I'm also pretty sure she's officially down to 2 naps/day now. It's been awhile since the evening nap has been successful despite seeming really tired. You'd think she'd be tired enough to sleep longer at night...but that's apparently just crazy talk! We think she went through a growth spurt this month because she would just plow through her table food and was eating alot at school too. Then for the 2-3 days after wasn't really hungry at all...that seemed to throw off her sleeping too as you can imagine. She's moved up to 3 solid meals a day now, and enjoys being able to feed herself the Mum Mums or Cheerios. I have to balance that with spoon feeding her or it gets real messy real quick...when she wants to feed herself, she'll grab for the spoon, which means the food starts flying of course!

She had her first trip to the zoo this month, and I think she liked being outside, but ended up having to held lots by Mommy to stay content. She made 'ma-ma' sounds for a few days in a row and then switched to 'na-na'. It's so fun to hear her make actual letter sounds! Fun times! We of course love that hopefully it moves to meaningful words of Mama and Nana! :) She enjoys having books read to her (when we remember, ugh, 3rd kid problems!). She giggles at the changing pictures and loves to flip the page back and forth and back and forth...so it's actually really hard to read to her! :)

She is working on hands and knees a little more this month, but we need to be better about getting her on her tummy more...she just likes to sit so much more it seems. But toward the end of the month, she's also really wanting to pull up on Mommy and Daddy to stand!

 

We ended the month playing in the pool. The temperatures are starting to warm up and Matthew and the boys just can't help themselves. It was a beautiful weekend and day on Sunday and so Mommy and Kate joined in the fun. Kate really liked it...just lounging away in her floatie. When she got tired of that, she LOVED splashing the water, especially the bubblers - extra fun and splashing. Should be a fun summer!