Bath-time!

I am still so far behind... I must make an effort to devote more time to blogging. I have had many great thoughts of things I wanted to share, but have forgotten them before I sat down to type. Last night I went to bed very early (9:30) instead of blogging. It was nice to sleep.

Anyway, about a week ago we tried to have MJ and Joey take a bath together. They both really like it. Joey likes to grab the ducks and letters floating around in the tub. And MJ doesn't even bring his cars in the bath like he used to b/c he only wants to play with Joey. It's very fun. MJ even tries to wash Joey with a wash cloth. He pours water on him (but not over his head).

Let's see, I think this cute picture is from Thursday. A neighbor was throwing out this table and it was just perfect for my collection. Mario thinks I'm gathering junk but I've been wanting a table to put our sandbox on for awhile. I found some cheapo kid tables for $8 or so, but I really didn't like how they looked so I didn't buy it. I figured free is the best price I could get. My hope is that it would help keep sand in the box and I think it's working.

Joey liked playing on the deck too. Wouldn't you know it, the little stinker was trying to pull the blanket back again and feel what's underneath.

Oh before I forget:

MJs new things: He says "Please, may I be excused" when he is finished eating at the table, I feel there is a light at the end of the terrible two discipline tunnel, and he is going on several weeks in a row where he's been really good in church. He tells us in a whisper-voice on the way to church "You have to be quiet in church b/c people are praying."

Joey's new things: Still eating solids, may be beginning teething, lunges from a sitting position and is really trying to crawl. He tries to reach for things but his movements seem to make him go backwards more than forwards. Oh and his 6 month numbers:
34 lb 3 oz, 28 7/8 inches
MJ was (at 6 months and 2 weeks) 37 lbs 4 oz, 28 3/4 inches

Little Friends

Mario had to be at a meeting early on Monday, so he left Sunday night. MJ was sad to drop his daddy off at the airport, and in his emotions decided he should bring his baby with him. Here he has the baby cuddled up in a blanket. It's cute to see him mimic how I care for Joey with his little baby. I don't think we've ever asked him to do that, he just likes it. He tries to feed the baby (Mario would prefer I not share that story) but he also holds the baby and burps him and then puts him down to sleep.

And now we'll skip to Wednesday, b/c I think I already shared the computer issues of Tuesday. Tabitha and her kids came over for lunch and to hang out in the afternoon while she ran to a quick appointment. She took baby Catherine (8 months old) with her. It was so great to see them all again. MJ is getting much better at playing nicely with his cousins. Peter (who is almost 3) ended up napping in the other bed in MJs room. I really wanted to sneak in and get a picture of them napping together because it was so cute, but I didn't want to wake them. While Peter, MJ, and Joey were napping I took the 4 older kids out to our pool to play. I wish I had gotten more pictures of all of them, but here's Joey playing near the older kids (Teresa, Mary, Elisabeth and Tommy).

And after they left we went over to Kristin's house for dinner. We try to get together every week. We really enjoy their company. We have MJ 2 1/2, Pete ~ 22 months, and Joey 6 months. I guess after sharing all morning, MJ had about had it. He

Computer Issues

I think it was Tuesday morning when our home desk top computer "died". I thought it was a huge issue because the screen showed rainbow colors and then the computer would no longer turn on. Mario is pretty handy with computers (though he hates to spend time working on them), so he thought he might be able to fix it, or we could just buy a new one. The deal he found was up Thursday night, and as we hadn't really decided by then, we didn't get a new computer. He was gone all week so I figured I could use my lap top until then. Well, Wednesday afternoon, the internet stopped working. So, I was without half of my brain; everything - everything is on our main computer for a few days. It was rough. Mario's flight was delayed Thursday night, so I guess he got in around 11:45pm. And when I woke up, he said he had fixed the computer already! He is so amazing. And I am so happy! I went and backed up all of our pictures, just in case, and will do more backing up today.

So, here is where we left off on our great weekend. Saturday night we went to a moonbounce birthday party. MJ is usually scared of those (I think b/c kids are typically screaming in delight, though he thinks they are being tortured). Mario ran around a lot with MJ getting him used to it, and buy the end of the night he was flying through those things like it was his job! It's so fun to see them grow and overcome challenges.

Sunday we tried "Moon Sand". This is one of our new favorite toys. It's kind of cool stuff... if feels like sand but molds kind of like brown sugar. It claims it will never dry out. This is Mario actually saying "cheese" for the camera. Maybe I'll have to choose a different word for pictures.

Joey is getting a bit more used to new foods. He alwasy like rice cereal and oatmeal, but the other stuff wasn't so fun. He's getting more used to pears and carrots. He loves to try to drink from a cup. I end up squeezing a bit of the water out of the cup and he kind of swallows it. After that, he smiles so big and seems quite pleased with the new beverage. Drinking from a non-sippy cup or a water bottle also works. It's a little tricker to pour it in his mouth, but he likes it too.

Growling Joey

Oh, this video thing is fun! I found another short video from the end of July. Joey sometimes growls...that seems to be the best way to describe it. We think he's getting ready for football. He's got to strike fear into his opponents somehow.

Climbing MJ

I thought I'd try to be fancy and publish a video. I found a long one of us playing at the hotel pool in Ohio. It is really cute, but 95 MB and they take a max of 100MB. I thought it might take too long to view it. So I went with this very very short clip of MJ climbing the moon bounce instead. He could make it up the whole way by himself. The dad behind him was just there ready to climb next (and he cheered him on).

Mario just suggested I figure out how to link to u tube so that I can put longer videos on. I'll save that for another day.

New Pool!

Friday morning, we showed MJ the new playhouse I found for him. On our way to library story time awhile ago, I noticed a neighbor was throwing away a Little Tikes playhouse. The door was missing, but otherwise it was fine. It wouldn’t fit in the minivan, so I dragged it over the common area grass behind our homes back to our house. It was quite a work out; but well worth it. I think I’d pay $45 for one of those used. MJ likes it a lot… I’ll have to take some pictures. There were crickets jumping around in it, so he had fun learning about this new bug.

Later Friday morning, I was inspired to think about Christmas. Which then made me think of my old favorite hobby – craigslist. So, while the boys were napping I looked into Little Tikes playgrounds and found 4 of my favorite style (the 8 in 1 Playground) listed. 2 had been purchased, and the cheaper of the two that were left was being picked up on Saturday, but the seller said I could come get it Friday night if I wanted it. So, I grabbed my boys and we headed on our 3 hour adventure to get it. It is a large playground with 13 pieces. We fit all of the pieces in the Odyssey with the 2 kids in car seats. I LOVE our minivan!

Saturday morning: Mario had a work call from 9-11 and it was a nice morning, so I thought I'd clean out the garage a bit. Joey hung out on a blanket in the front yard while MJ played with cars and other things. Our street isn't very busy, but I'm so glad MJ knows not to run in the street. We got rid of a few things, yay, and I thought I'd clean up the inflatable pool I rescued from the trash. The same neighbor who got rid of the playhouse was also throwing the pool away. It was wet when I picked it up, so I figured it must have been used recently, and something might be wrong with it. It turns out that the screw on cap for the inflatable entrance to the bottom ring was missing... thus not allowing any air to stay in. I thought we would be able to find something in our house to make it work, and sure enough, we did. I got two salad dressing caps from the fridge and one of them actually screwed on. The top ring (not the salad dressing lid) has a slow leak, but otherwise the pool works great.
Mario and I tried it out before the boys - though we weren't in bathing suits. MJ was napping while we were filling the pool and hanging outside with Joey. Mario just couldn't resist dunking me in. I was proud of myself for turning the hose on him and getting him almost as soaked as I was. Then MJ got to try it out, and he seems to like it. The slide between the pools is kind of fun. And the pump to our inflatable air mattress fills the pool quite nicely. There's even a water inlet so that you can hook a hose up and have water spray onto the pool. We are going to have fun in these last hot summer weeks!

We found we enjoyed our tiny backyard even more now that we have more to do out there. Joey really likes sitting outside. Well, he's a happy guy pretty much all the time, but it's a new environment for his happiness. He likes to pull the blanket back and grab at the leaves and grass (which of course he tries to eat).