Playground Fun

Yesterday Holly and I took the kids to yet another new park that we've never been to before. This one is awesome, despite the lack of shade (there is a shade structure since there are no mature trees, but you've got to hit it just right in the day for it to do any good). We will definitely need to show Grandma and Grandpa how to get there when they're up here next month because not only is it the PERFECT size for the boys right now, it also has not one, not two, but THREE steering wheels to keep Sutton busy! We had a nice time, as we always do when we get together with Holly and Hattie, but Sutton's need for a morning nap kind of squashed the fun a little early, and we had to head back home for an early lunch.

The new park...I have no idea what its name is!

Sutton showing Hat how to drive

Sawyer and Hattie on the "bouncy bouncy fire truck"

Sawyer loving the sound of his own voice

This kiddo LOVES to swing

We're getting ready to build the boys a swingset this weekend - yay! Right now the HUGE task at hand is sorting and labeling three gigantic boxes of about a zillion pieces of wood and hardware (nothing came labeled!) before we can begin on Saturday. My grandpa is likely going to be coming down to visit this weekend, so I will probably take the boys down to my parents' house for an afternoon BBQ while Mitch can get some of the work done without Sawyer stealing all of his screws and tools out from under him. It will probably take a few weekends of leisurely work, but once it's done, it'll look like this:

Complete with a clubhouse w/mailbox and doorbell - super cool!

Here's a few more pictures of us just hanging out around the house yesterday:

Sawyer's new "Cheeeese" face. I have 10,000 pictures of him doing this now.

Sutton jumping on the couch and destroying my pillows

Sneak attack of the baby brother

Me 'n My Boys

My half naked bunch of guys - they have to be just like Daddy

We had a long work-filled weekend this weekend. Saturday Mitch went to work with my dad and Erik to help catch up a job that's moving a little more slowly than usual, so I spent the day home alone with the boys. I haven't been feeling all that well for the past couple of days, so it was extremely nice that they were both on their best behavior for me. We did a few art projects in the morning and played outside in the new rock/garden area, but the yellow jackets were far too abundant, so to my barefooted boys' dismay, we had to move our little party back indoors. Since Sutton had skipped his morning nap, the boys went down for their afternoon naps at the same time, and I was able to squeeze in some work time.

Sunday morning we had a meeting for work, so we packed up the boys and headed down to my parents' house. While we were busy discussing job estimates and numbers, the boys were having a great time playing on the pirate ship and having donuts with Gigi and Aunt Debby. Lucky guys! We hung out down there for awhile after the meeting while Sutton finished up his morning nap, and it was really nice to just sit around my old back patio under all of my parents' nice shade trees and just relax for a minute amongst all the flowers and the waterfall. When we came home Sutton and I got to have a nice chunk of one-on-one time while Mitch and Sawyer took long naps. We watched a few episodes of his favorite show, "Yo Gabba Gabba!" and cooked up some fried strawberries and lettuce in the play kitchen.

After dinner we spent the rest of the evening playing in the backyard with the neighbor boys, Nathan and Connor (I think they're 8 and almost 2, something like that). All of the boys love playing in the rock area, so they did that for quite awhile before we busted out the parachute for some fun in the wind. It was really nice outside, so we took advantage and let the boys stay up a little later than usual. Mitch set up a wasp trap earlier, and I think it's already starting to work since there weren't that many lurking in our grass tonight. Hopefully it will get rid of that pesky little problem so we can enjoy more time in the yard because it was certainly really nice tonight. I'm so glad that we finally have grass to play on and a patio to ride bikes on!

eyes glazed from skipping the morning nap (and yes, he has a shiner on his left eye from bumping into Sawyer's bed, poor guy)

the ONLY picture from yesterday where he's not making a completely goofy face at me

the rock area and future garden beds

Sawyer and Nathan (who was growling like a dog at Saw)

parachute time always rocks!

spinning Connor and Sutton on the "Whirly Rocket"

pooped out after LOTS of running around

The Soothie-less Night

Well, last night didn't exactly go as great as I had hoped, but it also wasn't as bad as I had expected. After listening to Sutton cry for the better part of 3 hours (despite the fact that we went in there twice with fresh sippy cups of water and reassuring pats on the back), Mitch made the decision that it's probably NOT time to wean him of the Soothie yet. First of all, he's only 15 months old, and although we'd love to break both boys of the habit at the same time, it's probably going to take a bit longer for Sutton to figure out another way to soothe himself. After all, he doesn't "get it" yet that he doesn't actually need it. We decided that it's probably not the greatest idea to have Sutton crying for hours on end when we're trying to keep Sawyer asleep so that he doesn't wake up and in turn start crying his eyes out because he's awake and missing his Soothie too. Sooo, that said, we're going to wait a couple of months to take it away from Sutton. For now he will get his Soothie only after he's in his crib (so that Sawyer doesn't see that he has one...gotta keep up the illusion that the fairy has taken the Soothies from both of them, at least for awhile), and we will make sure to get it out of the crib and hide it away first thing in the morning so that big brother is none the wiser. I'm not thrilled with the decision, because I really don't want either of them to have the Soothie anymore, but I do have to agree that having Sutton's wailing waking Sawyer up a gazillion times a night isn't helping Sawyer in his efforts to sleep all night without it...so, wait we will. For a little while anyway.

Sawyer actually did better with it than I thought he would. He did wake up crying three times last night, and hearing him say "I want my sooothieeeee" over and over again was rather heart wrenching for Mommy, but each crying episode only lasted 10 minutes or so, and then he was able to fall back asleep on his own. He kind of looked like hell this morning though, and he complained about a dozen times that he was tired, but I know that it should only take a few more nights before he gets used to it and we'll all sleep better. A few more rough nights will be worth it...and then we can figure out when and how to work on Sutton.

The best part of the morning was seeing how much Sawyer really, REALLY seems to like the Fur Real puppy he got. When he woke up he told me that he wanted his Soothie back in his bed, but then I reminded him that he traded it in for the puppy, and he ran and grabbed it and started petting it and told me with a huge smile, "I love my puppy." Maybe it will (temporarily at least!) stop him from asking for a real puppy all the time. The other day he even felt the need to grab one of his blue dirty diaper bags to demonstrate to me that he knows how to use a bag to pick up dog poop (thanks to Traci and her dogs...not that she lets HIM clean it up, just that he's seen her do it) because I always tell him that maybe we'll get a dog when he's big enough to clean up after it. Silly kid.

The puppy pal...complete with cute pink bows and carrying purse

Susie the Soothie Fairy

Today we hosted a playgroup at our house, and the boys had a blast playing with water in the backyard. I set up their baby pool, the octopus sprinkler, and some tubs of water to splash around in with all of their most fun bath toys. Sutton is truly the most water-loving kid I've ever seen. He would stay in the water all day if we let him, but at least we never have to worry that he'll try to get out of having bathtime! Sawyer somehow managed to snack his way through almost an entire bag of Pirate's Booty (puffed cheesy snacks), and then threw up all over the bathroom...which was a JOY to have to clean up in the middle of trying to have company. At least he made it to the bathroom, I guess. Yuck! Fortunately for my work schedule, that little episode left him actually ASKING me if he could take a nap, so I got to get some extra work time in since the boys' naps overlapped for once. It's always very, very cool when they do that for me.





We all know that Sutton adores water...


...and that Sawyer LOVES to spray Sutton with a hose!





Mommy & Baby Self Portraits...started out sweetly enough...



and ended with him "drumming" my head and screaming "Yaaaay!" in my ear!

Tonight we had a visit from “Susie the Soothie Fairy.” After waking up with both kids numerous times this week while they were crying for their lost nighttime Soothies, I decided it was finally time to take some action in getting them to drop the habit. I’m honestly not sure if they’ll ever want to quit on their own, so this morning I told Sawyer that he had gotten a letter from the Soothie Fairy, and that she was SO happy that he was such a big boy now. She told him that she would be really happy if he would collect all of his Soothies to give to babies like Baby Stella who really need them…since he’s SUCH a big boy now that he doesn’t need them anymore. At first when I asked him if he would give his Soothies to the fairy, he looked at me like I was crazy and said a firm “No.” After a few minutes of apparently thinking about it, he went into his room and got his two Soothies and asked me if he could throw them down the stairs since he “no need ‘em anymore.” He asked me “Sutton need Soothies?” and I told him that I thought that Sutton was a getting to be a big boy too and that he didn’t need them anymore either. That led to him immediately going and getting the two out of Sutton’s crib and throwing them down the stairs too. I got a paper lunch bag, and at the bottom of the stairs we put all the Soothies into the bag, and I quickly shoved it in the cupboard when he looked away. So far so good…

After taking a quick solo trip to Target to stock up on Soothie Fairy rewards, it was bath time, and time for the Great Soothie Swap. Sutton took his bath first, and Sawyer and I put the bag of Soothies on to the high bookshelf for the fairy to come collect. Sawyer kept checking the shelf to see if she had come to get his Soothies yet…super cute. When it was Sawyer’s turn for the bath, it was time to set the plan into action. I got Sutton distracted with watching Curious George, and then took the bag of Soothies and stuck them in my dresser drawer (hey, I can’t get rid of them yet…just in case, of course). In its place I left a bunch of “fairy dust” sparkles and two bags, one for each of them. Sutton’s bag had a really soft and snuggly stuffed green frog, and Sawyer got a cuddly doggie as well as one of those Fur Real puppies that move and bark and stuff when you pet it.

Sawyer came out of the bath and after a few minutes Mitch asked him if the Soothie Fairy had come yet. We went over to the shelf and he was really excited to see what the fairy had left for them. I told him that the fairy had left a message thanking him so much, that he got an extra special puppy present because he was such a big boy now, and that we were all proud of him for not needing the Soothies anymore. I said that the fairy wanted him to know that he should sleep with his doggie, and that if he ever felt like he missed his Soothie he could just hug his dog instead. Seems like a simple enough plan.

Sutton went down to sleep quickly and easily without his, but he also had a bottle of milk before bed (which we’re going to stop giving him in the next couple of weeks, but I didn’t want to stop both at the same time and just totally freak him out), so that probably helped. Sawyer asked for his a few times during his bedtime stories, but after we told him that he gave them to the fairy, he seemed to get the idea and stopped asking. He seemed to fall asleep easily enough, but I’m pretty sure I’m in for a long night when he wakes up in the middle of the night, and there isn’t one there. We’ll see *crosses fingers* I’ve heard that it’s usually about a week of fussing, extra crabbiness and night crying until they find another way to soothe themselves. Kids are adaptable, and I’m sure that it will be worth the time and effort. I’m just worried that they’ll both start sucking their thumbs all the time, and then I won’t be able to take that away from them. I guess time will tell!

Birthday & More

I know, I know, I’ve been slacking with my blogging again! I’m sorry! We’ve been SUPER busy around here lately. I celebrated my 30th birthday last week, and spent the day shopping and going to lunch with my mom and Krista, and then we spent the evening letting the boys devour a good portion of the birthday cake that Krista made for me (which was SO yummy, thank you!). We had a get together on Saturday night to celebrate, but I’ve been so busy with work that I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed at the idea of entertaining a whole bunch of people, and I ended up just keeping the guest list to my sisters, my cousins and a couple close friends. It was actually much nicer and more relaxed that way, and I had a GREAT time! Jess and Erik spent the night here with Stella…she has got to be the best behaved baby, I swear! I didn’t hear her make a single peep all night long. She’s so cute, and she’s starting to look a lot like Jess when she makes certain faces, especially her little pouty face!




Sutton in a "sugar coma" from too much cake


Holly & I at my party

We’ve just been spending our time doing the things we usually do – spending some time at the pool, going on bike rides around the block (Sawyer LOVES to ride his trike while you ride your bike next to him), playing with the play kitchen and working on good old potty training (still not much progress on that front, unfortunately). The boys have both really gotten into their Baby Einstein “Baby McDonald” day on the farm video lately. Sawyer will call out the name of EVERY new thing that pops up on the screen (including some less obvious things like “fields!”), and Sutton usually tries to copy everything that Sawyer is saying, which is really cute. He's been saying a lot more words lately. I have a feeling he's going to end up being one of those kids who has a "language explosion" and then starts talking up a storm. The boys have been playing really well together lately, and their new favorite thing to do in the car is to see who can make each other laugh hard enough that one of them or the other gets the hiccups…which is infinitely better than a bunch of random screaming, albeit not much quieter!


Sawyer at the pool


Sutton playing around the house


He can do the puzzle all by himself now!


Sawyer being goofy


Sharing breakfast cereal

Our backyard is looking really nice, and the grass has pretty much filled in and is looking healthy. We’re giving it the ultimate test by having a playgroup of about 13 kids (ages 4 months – 4 years) come over tomorrow for some water fun. Hopefully it will be warm enough! It’s actually been kind of chilly these past couple of mornings. If I can remember to bring my camera outside, I should have more pictures tomorrow!

This Week, So Far...

I've got a miserable headache from all this smoke, so forgive me again if I sound cranky! I'm just getting rather tired of snuggling up with the boys only to realize that we all smell like we've been sitting around a campfire. It's disgusting and unhealthy, and I sincerely hope that fire crews are able to get a handle on things soon, and not just for the sake of me being crabby! I added a couple of photos to the bottom of this post so that you can see how hazy it is around here. It is almost deceptive enough to look like there's a cool coastal type marine layer outside...and then you step outside and realize it's 108 degrees outside despite the dense cloud of smoke. Okay, no more complaining about things I can't change...I promise!

Yesterday I ended up only having Sawyer with me, because Liz assured me that despite Traci being out of town this week, she would be perfectly capable of watching Sutton, so off he went, and on to a special Mommy-Sawyer day we went. We met up with Holly and Hattie and tried to check out story time at the old Lincoln Library...little did we know that half the town had thought it was a good idea and a good way to beat the heat too, so we didn't stay long and then went back to Hattie's to play for awhile. We hit up Blockbuster before lunchtime (omg since when is it almost $5 to rent a kids movie!?! Clearly I shouldn't have given up my online subscription. I had no idea! Actually, apparently the "kids" movies are only $1.99, but the ones we got were "family" movies. Jeez.), watched Over the Hedge, and then Sawyer worked on making an elephant puppet out of felt from a kit we bought a few days ago.

I clearly underestimated the patience and concentration of my child. I didn't think Sawyer could do it, but he took that purple plastic safety needle and piece of yarn and after a quick demo from Mommy on how to sew through the pre-punched holes, he sewed almost the entire elephant by himself - impressive! I just sat there watching him and thinking that maybe the Montessori preschool is a pretty good idea after all. He didn't even get impatient or frustrated at all! I tried to take a photo of the end result with him, but somehow in the course of two hours Ellie has gone missing already (even after I cleaned up ALL the toys!).

While Sawyer and I were having a crafty good time, Sutton was checking off another box on his list of firsts – First Movie in a Movie Theatre! Liz took him to see Wall-E with the rest of the daycare kids, and she said he did really well and actually sat through most of the movie and laughed at all the appropriate times! I guess he starting crying towards the end because Ty started crying, and we all know that Sutton is a huge sympathy crier. Liz said the key to keeping him interested in the movie was lots and lots of snacks – should have known! I think that maybe next week we’ll attempt the free kids movie on Wednesday at the Regal theatres. Just don’t let me forget the snacks!


"Hey, what do you guys have over there?"




"Can I see too?"




...I guess you get what you ask for!






"I should have known better."

It was deemed "too hot" for a bath the other night, but being determined to rid these kids of their stinky smokey hair, I decided that we should have a combo bubble bath/pool time. Worked like a charm! (Excuse the fact that Sutton is in full-on naked bathtime mode!)





Lounging on the guest bed


Too Hot for Pants

The natives are restless...




Visibility is at less than 1 mile right now...these are actually pretty clear compared to the "fog" that has settled in during the past hour

Hot, Hot, Hot (and smokey)!

It's barely past 8:30 am, and it's already 95 degrees outside. The forecast today called for a high of 108, but then again, yesterday it said 104, and the thermometer on my car actually read as high as 110 when I was driving to pick up the boys at 4:30 from Traci's...so I'm guessing today will be at least 111 here...and it's supposed to get even hotter on Wednesday and Thursday! Our severe lack of trees around here means minimal shade, and even hotter temperatures than the weatherman predicts for Sacramento. It's also STILL super smokey, and the most horrible words I heard on the news last night in regards to the smoke and fires were "it looks like it could remain this way for the entire summer." Good God, let's hope not, pleeeeeze. They said that this is the first time in 30 years that they've had to call in the National Guard to help with the fire fighting efforts. The air quality prediction for the rest of the week is deemed "unhealthy," and the newspaper headlines read "Sacramento to Sweat it Out in Triple Digit Heat All Week" and "Stay Inside, Doctor Urges." Even with our air conditioner cranking around the clock, I couldn't get it to drop below 82 in our house yesterday. I'm sorry if I sound bitter and cranky, but the kids are antsy to get outside, and then as soon as they step outside they start crying that it's "too hot" and "peeeyew...stinky." Even water play isn't that appealing to them anymore, and it's starting to feel downright miserable around here. I can't even imagine having to work outdoors in this like Mitch does!

Tomorrow I will have both of the boys at home with me for the day, so we're going to attempt to make animal puppets from a kit Sawyer picked out at Joann's yesterday. I've got a whole slew of projects lined up to keep them happy indoors, and we might even take a trip to Blockbuster and call tomorrow "Movie Day." With unhealthy air, raging heat and not being allowed to play on the replacement grass in the backyard yet, we're in for a looooong week indoors! I'll take some pictures tomorrow of the kids working on their projects...wish me luck! As for today, I've got a super busy day of work, and then an elaborate fruit salsa and cold chicken dinner to get prepared early (you know, for that hard working Daddy who's spent all day in this funky heat). A Mommy's day is always a full one!

4th of July

Well, it's almost midnight, so the 4th of July is almost over, and we definitely had an eventful day. We went to McBean Park after Sutton woke up from his morning nap, and the boys had a lot of fun there. They had a ring of different bounce houses set up, so Sawyer took full advantage of those for awhile. He also took a trip inside the petting zoo with Mitch, but he decided that he liked the animals better from the other side of the fence. We had some BBQ lunch and listened to the old man band play some patriotic tunes (Sutton was GROOVIN'!) before heading home for a quick nap before we were off to Jim's for some swimming, more BBQing and fireworks.

The boys had a great time swimming, and Sawyer even jumped off the diving board to Erik! Krista and Cristina took their "burnin' down Chinatown" idea to another level, and somehow it morphed into a complete Godzilla vs Mothra scenario with an entire 8 foot tall city backdrop. It promised to be a show to remember...only I wouldn't completely know, because BOTH boys decided they wanted nothing to do with the fireworks! I expected Sutton to be scared, so I put him down to bed right before we started the show, but I was completely caught off guard by Sawyer (who had loved fireworks the last two years!) crying, saying it was "too loud," and then asking to "go in the house, please." I got him settled in to watching some horrendous Sponge Bob at my mom's house so I was able to run back and forth and catch a little bit of the pyro display though...it was definitely awesome!

Anyway, we're exhausted and headed to bed, so I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.

The original setup

Just for a sense of scale...

The first firework that set Sawyer running towards the house

I'm not kidding when I say that we burn stuff down!

They were SO proud, and yes, Mitch IS lighting fireworks with a blow torch