Lazy Lazy

Tonight marks the end of our first week of summer break. It's been delightful. Spent some time at the pool, at the zoo, visiting friends, and lots of just hanging out. What has been really nice is not having to worry about when I'm going to get the laundry done, go grocery shopping, or clean up the house since we're always short on time for those things. Now, if I don't feel like doing it right away, I don't really need to, because I'll probably be able to find some time later.

Here's a pic of Sam in the zone - the TV zone, that is. He's watching one of his favorite shows here, Super Why.

A frequent sighting: Jude after a meal with food stuck to his behind.

This weekend, Jude's been practicing hard on standing up without holding anything. Our friend Greg saw it first while we weren't looking, but we've had plenty of opportunities the last 2 days since he keeps trying it over and over again. Probably won't be long before he's walking! Crazy to think about...

Coney Island

We are loving Coney again this summer. Jude got to ride his first ride last week! It was pretty sedate, but he looked like he was having fun. Sam took good care of him and had his arm around him the entire ride "so Jude wouldn't fall out." Luckily for Jude, it wasn't in this choke hold for too long!

Rock and Roll!

We've been having lots of fun this May, even though it's been really busy! Sam has his first admirer, his friend from school, Isa. She is an adorable little girl with blonde curly hair. Their cots are next to each other. Miss Polly told us that about a week ago she looked over and Sam was rubbing her back to help her go to sleep. The next day, she saw that they fell asleep holding hands. And the next day, Sam got his first kiss courtesy of Isa! He told Miss Polly, "Isa kissed me." When she asked, "Where?" Sam pointed to his lips. First kiss at 3 years old!

Every day after school, Sam wants to play soccer or baseball or some other form of ball outside. He loves to play ball. Now we just need a break from this incessant rain.

Here's a picture of Sam after a bath doing his rock 'n roll pose:

Jude's busy getting into everything....dog bowls, behind chairs, under chairs, in the dog's crate, pushing the button that sets off the carbon monoxide detector....he is so much more curious than Sam ever was. We never had to baby-proof with Sam; Jude is perfectly content crawling around to see what he can get into. He loves Sam's toys and is always trying to play with him now. When Sam gets rough with him, Jude screams back and pushes him. Go Jude - defend yourself!

I can't resist posting more bath pictures. :)

Rain Rain Go Away!

We've had fun stuff going on over the last few weekends. We've been out of town the last three weekends, trying to dodge rain. We managed to have a few nice days! I took over 300 pictures since 3 weeks ago, so here are just a very few highlights:

Joseph's First Birthday in Louisville - this is the way to eat cake!

Jude enjoying the sun out at Joseph's party

At the zoo over spring break.

Brothers at Easter at Neenee's house

At COSI in the submarine! Can't believe Ben got Sam to go down in that thing. We went to COSI and a Columbus Crew soccer game for Ben's birthday and had so much fun.

They had some practice areas set up for kids to play. This is Sam post-kick in the air! He loved this.

Soccer is a serious game.

Fun with Instagram

Enjoying my break so far....here are some pictures from throughout my day today with those nearest and dearest to me.

So that's where all the Puffs went

Sleepy baby

"Pretend sleeping"

Time to relax

Spring is here! (for a couple days, at least)

St. Patrick's Day, we enjoyed a little porch time with the boys. Sam was having so much fun just running around and Jude loved having the breeze blow through his (crazy) hair.

That night, the boys took a bath together for the first time! They loved it, although Sam kept trying to wash Jude's hair and made him cry. A few minutes later, he was staring in awe at Sam as Sam kept squirting water at himself, cracking himself up...

Sam is pure joy in this picture...he was laughing so hard he looks like he was screaming!

Sam is FREE YEARS OLD!

I have a bit of catching up to do! Blogging is hard for a working mom of 2. Luckily, I'm still taking lots of pictures. I uploaded about 200 today from just the last month! I had plenty I wanted to post, but I'd be uploading pictures for days if I didn't get selective.

Jude and Sam are growing up so fast! Jude is starting to have a little personality. He's still pretty laid back and now that he's not throwing up all his food, he's happy almost all the time. (Unless he's teething...then watch out!) He LOVES to watch his big brother. It's easier for Sam to play with him now that he can sit up and interact a little more. Yesterday, we all played ball together. Jude's pretty good at rolling the ball around! He laughed every time Sam rolled it to him.

Last month, I tried to get some brother shots. You can see how that turned out.

Finally got Sam to try to make Jude smile. It wasn't too hard - like Sam, Jude's pretty easy to get to smile.

Jude's eating all kinds of food now! My favorite baby product ever, the Beaba, is getting lots of use again and I'm making all kinds of crazy baby food. Jude's favorites are ground turkey with apples or pears (which looks an awful lot like cat food - yum), mango, carrots, and blueberries!

Most Saturdays, after a little bit of lounging around in our bed together while Jude eats, we all go downstairs and Ben makes pancakes. Sam likes to request different shapes, and I have to say that Ben has gotten quite skilled at meeting his requests. Can you guess what Sam asked for here?
If you guessed a snowman playing the violin, you are correct!!! The funny thing was, Sam's first comment after Ben gave him his plate was, "Where is his bow?"

Sam turned 3 on February 24. We still can't believe it. He started talking about it daily about a month before. There were lots of things for him to look forward to with the big 3: a birthday party, birthday cake, moving to Mrs. Polly's class at school, and just about everything else. Everything he does that's new is explained with, "I did that because I turned free years old!" Almost all of his good buddies at school turned 3 in February, too, so we heard a lot about Neely, Jack & Anna, Kate, and Rishika all turning 3 and moving up to Mrs. Polly's class. It's been nice that they've all been transitioning around the same time and the school has been great about having a gradual transition over 2 weeks. This is his first week in Mrs. Polly's class all day and it's going well, although I know Sam misses his beloved Ms. Cassie. We love her so much, and we look forward to Jude having her. We're lucky that we have such wonderful people taking care of our boys...it sure makes being a working mom and dad easier.

Sam's actual birthday landed on a Thursday. We had a little family party for him that evening. He requested his favorite meal, pasta with "regular" (meat) sauce. I got him his own green cupcake since green is his favorite color and we sang to him. He loved it, but was really excited for the real party that Saturday.

Jude enjoyed the Sam's birthday, too. :)

That Saturday, Rachel brought the boys up and we took Sam and Jackson downtown to the Taft Theatre to see Children's Theatre's The Jungle Book. It was so cute and the boys loved it! Sam's favorite character was the snake. Both boys were so well behaved! About 30 minutes into the 45 minute show, Sam leaned over and whispered, "Is it over yet?"

Afterwards, we had a little family party at our house with my parents, Rach and the boys, Neenee, and Uncle Brett and Aunt Dianah. Sam kept calling it his "house party." It had a Toy Story theme (obviously - what else?). Sam just loved having everyone there to celebrate.

The big gift from us was a new bike. He was speechless he was so excited! I think he forgot about wanting a bike after opening his other gifts. A couple weeks before his birthday, he'd asked me one morning, "Mommy, why do you and Daddy go to school?" I told him that we went to school so that we could have money. He asked, "Why?" I told him we needed money to pay for our house and to buy food to eat. Then he added, "And so you can get me a bike for my birthday?"

He figured it out the next day. Now we just need some warmer weather so we can get it outside more!