If you can't take the heat.....

This week has been the hottest I can remember here in Oregon. 104 yesterday. Arg! And we, like most people in Oregon, don't have central air conditioning because for the most part our weather forecast for the year is rain and oh yeah more rain. So we have two small air conditioners and have been hiding out in the back part of the house where the AC is.

Here's a taste of our week:

We bought two large fans, 1 costco size box of otter pops, fudgecicles, several bags of ice, a set of blinds for our back deck door (didn't have one), and one roof fan thing (supposedly sucks out all the hot air) to help us keep cool.

I was able to read the last Harry Potter book again (when I was hiding out with Max in the back air conditioned room), I'm can't wait for the movies to come out.

We haven't really done any cooking (the kitchen is unbearable without turning anything on) so we've lived off cereal, otter pops, microwaveable burritos and of course lots of water.

Hardly any dishes have been done and the living room is a mess.

The pool has been filled twice and visited frequently.

Ahhhh. I love summer.

Breakfast buddies

Every night Levi INSISTS on sleeping with ALL his stuffed animals. If they aren't in his bed already, he gets them after we lay him down. When we go in to check on him, we find him in the weirdest positions and covered with all sorts of animals and pillows. I guess he loves being surrounded by friends.

Morning comes and out comes Levi with a friend for the day. It could be the monkey (he has several), or the bunny, the dog, or the chicken (but usually not the elephant cause he's HUGE). He carries the animal around for wake up time, breakfast and sesame street. Then it is normally tossed aside until bedtime that night or if he remembers it during the day.

When taking his friend to breakfast he pulls out the chair (the one where dad usually sits) and carefully sits his friend where he can see him when he eats his breakfast.

Lately it's been cars at breakfast time. Oh and he INSISTS on sleeping with at least some of them too. His bed sure is getting crowded.

Already?

Two months ago we met our Max. I'll have to say, I was very nervous about having two kids, especially two in diapers. Mostly I worried if I was going to get enough sleep because Levi woke me up most nights every 2-3 hours and I don't do so well sleep deprived. I worried about how I was going to handle everything overall (we help take care of my grandma, I work part time from home, and am trying to finish up my last little bit of my bachelor's degree, oh and Levi is EXTREMELY active)

But Max has been a dream baby. I hoped and prayed for one but I didn't think it would actually happen. He is a very happy baby (except of course when he is hungry or tired) doesn't spit up much, and sleeps a lot. Not to brag but it has been anywhere from 7-9 hours at night. The difference a good night sleep makes......

So here he is, our two month old sweetheart. Oh, for those who care, at his 2 month check up he was in the 75% for everything, a little smaller than Levi but so long as he sleeps, I don't care.

Calm before the Storm

This year we went to Jason's family reunion up in the Tri-cities (Washington), a 3 1/2 hour drive. Saturday we got up early, packed sunblock (expected temp 92), a change of cloths for both boys, plenty of diapers, lots of Levi snacks, and a myriad of other things for our first 'long trip' with both boys.

Both boys did pretty well on the way up, though they were tag teaming it and waking each other up just as the other got to sleep. Eventually we got there in one piece.
Levi loved all the family members but he really loved the water fountains.

I love reunions with Jason's family because there are tons of cousins to keep an eye on the little ones, they just up and volunteer to do it. It's great.

We got there, ate lunch, chatted with family, Levi played in the water, Max napped. Despite the very hot weather, we were having a good ol' time.

So after Levi had his fill playing in the water we headed over to a snow cone stand nearby. He, of course, only felt up to walking half of the way, so I had to carry him the rest. We got in line. Mid way through our order....

HE PUKED ALL OVER ME!

I have never been so stunned, grossed out, embarrassed, at a loss for words, my entire life. I didn't know what to do. We were in Washington, 3 1/2 hours from home, not planning on staying the night so had no where to go and I was covered in puke. I just looked at the guy I ordered from and he said 'looks like he ate too much'. All I could say was 'yeah' and turn around and leave. My only thought was to get wet in the fountain and get as much rinsed off as I could. Luckily it was mostly liquid (it looked like he had drank one too many Capri Suns). Levi of course refused to go to the fountain so I had to drag him over to dad (who was watching Max) who was oblivious to the whole thing.

To make a long story short I temporarily put on a hoodie I had in our car (after rinsing as best I could), we left and I went and bought new cloths and body spray to make the trip home more tolarable. It's a funny story now but then not so much.

As we drove home I realized I left a puddle of puke in front of the snow cone stand and hadn't done anything to clean it up. How rude of me. I'm sure it did WONDERS for business that day.

Arrrrrrrrg!

I'm going to go wash puke from my hair. Levi's, not mine. More on that later. Let's just say I've been traumatized.

A Swingin' Good Time

During the holiday time, a time when you'd think someone would take a lot of pictures, is usually the time when I completely forget about the fact I have a camera and should take a picture or two. Usually I am running around getting stuff done and having fun. So. For the Fourth of July Jason's family came and we had a ton of fun. We did a lot of BBQ'n, helped at a pancake breakfast, did fireworks and ate ice cream. Pretty normal right? Well. Larry (Jason's dad) also decided to build a swing set for Levi on the fourth. I couldn't believe my eyes. He did it all in a couple of hours and it is so sturdy it could last till the mellenium (well at least it's strong enough to hold all the boys we have running around here).

Can I just say, Levi LOVES his swing. And I love the swing becasue it is something we can do in the backyard when we just aren't up for going to the park.

To distract Levi from his favorite little uncles and grandparents leaving after the weekend, we had Levi go and play on the swing. He sat on that swing for ONE AND A HALF HOURS refusing to get off. Jason got this awsome video. I think we should send it to America's Funniest Home Videos. It was pretty much the only picture/video I got that whole weekend. But I think it's all about quality, not just quantity.

What a day

Being a mom is a difficult task. I never quite understood that until the day my #1 was born (ok, to be honest it started BEFORE he was born and made me sleepy, tierd, achy and kicked me for nine months). Until today I never really thought about how a little one (or two perhaps) could influence my mood all in one short period of time.

For example today: I was FRUSTRATED when Levi refused to eat a yogert at the table and kept trying to eat in the living room screaming all the way (after a 20 minute battle he sat at the table and ate it!). I felt LOVED when he gave me a number of unexpected hugs and kisses throughout the day. I was FURIOUS when he stood on a chair, got one of my favorite Willow Tree statues and threw it at the fireplace breaking it into at least a dozen pieces. I felt like LAUGHING when he took dads electric shaver and tried to shave Max. I felt like CRYING when it took 1 1/2 hour to get him to nap and then woke up only 1/2 hour later. I wanted to KISS him when he saw me holding Max and wanted to hold and rock him. And HOPELESS when he wanted to hold and rock Max.....while Max was in his bassinet sleeping (thus waking him up, after it took quite a bit of effort to get him to sleep)

All in a days work I suppose.

I'm SO excited!

Levi ate part of an apple today. I know, big deal some might say, but I am SO excited about it. Lately he has been super picky and hasn't wanted to eat much of anything, let alone anything healthy. This whole Levi eating hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, string cheese and raisins as main sources of nutrition, has made me feel like an irresponsible, bad mother (I do make him take his gummi vitamins-luckily he LOVES anything resembling candy. What toddler wouldn't?) . He used to eat vegetables and fruits but all the sudden he got VERY opinionated and refused to eat a lot of what we gave him and we are not ones to go forcing food down a toddlers throat. I was thrilled when I got an apple out for me to eat, he said 'aaa' (apple in Levi's world). I took a bite and offered it to him and then instead of saying no or throwing it, he took a bite. Well, at least he tried to. Then I offered him a smaller piece and he ate it! Then he ate a couple more. Woo hoo!!!!

Now we'll just see if he'll eat it tomorrow.