Riding bikes

It has been very hot and humid here, but it hasn't stopped us from enjoying the outdoors. The boys have been riding their bikes around. Leaf has inherited Everest's first tricycle. Everest still tries to ride it sometimes, it is hilarious to see him on it. 

Leaf is still hanging out in the buff, but he is peeing in a bucket more often. He was out cruising on his trike and I had to take pictures. His legs are not quite long enough to reach the pedals the whole time, so he is still not moving too much. He is having fun though.

Everest is relearning how to ride without training wheels. He was doing great at 2 1/2 with no training wheels, but for some reason we put them on for him (I think he fell and was scared to ride again.). He does really well, but he doesn't have the confidence to ride without Nathan right beside him. Once again (I was pregnant with Leaf when he first learned), I can not run beside him waiting to catch him. Nathan does it every time (sometimes even carrying Leaf-who always wants upppppppp) and never complains, even when the bike falls on him and bruises his legs. He is a great dad.

 We rode the bikes around the Montessori school parking lot one evening. Everest was tired and didn't want to ride home, but Leaf did. Everest's bike has pegs on the back tires (for doing tricks-why a bike that small would have them is beyond me, but they do come in handy). Nathan was pushing the bike and then riding along with Leaf. Of course, Leaf loved it, he wants so much to be like Everest.

A new form of seaters- Tim and Mark would be proud!

I don’t know if you grew up with a trampoline, or if you had LOTS of uncles who were a little older than you, or if your uncles were as crazy and fun as mine are. My mom has 11 brother’s and 2 sisters. She is 3^rd in line, the baby of the family (Mark) is only 5 years older than me. My parents got a trampoline when I was younger. I LOVED my trampoline! We didn’t have a fenced in yard and all the neighbor kids would jump when we were not home. My dad did not like this, he was worried someone would get hurt. So the trampoline was packed up and sent 10 miles away to my grama and grampa’s house. There we spent hours with my uncles, cousins, and friends. My uncles had amazing imaginations, they would make up all kinds of different jumps and give them names. We would play games where we had to imitate the jumper or they would just put the younger kids in the middle and form a circle and see how high they could “jump us”. There was no protective cage or much safety at all. I remember getting my fingers pinched in the springs and falling off (or should I say, being “jumped” off) the trampoline more than once. I remember some of my uncles landing on the springs (which I am certain did not feel good), and I remember the trampoline coming very close to hitting the ground.

The boys now have a trampoline, thanks to my parents. I love it as much as they do. Before I got pregnant, I would go out and jump after they went to bed. We do have the cage and the foam around all the poles. The boys know they have to zip the cage shut before they jump, and no shoes or hard toys on the trampoline. Nathan, Doug, Lisa and I have taught them all the “trampoline lingo” we know. Everest knows what a seater (start by standing and jumping then drop on your seat and try to bounce back to land on your feet) is and what it means to jump someone. After we had dinner with Doug and Lisa, Everyone wanted to jump for a while. I even got in for a little bit when everyone was sitting. We were rolling the balls around the trampoline and the boys had to chase them. (I miss jumping- hopefully I will get some good jumping in this fall). Everest and Nathan came up with a new version of a seater.

First you climb onto daddy’s legs, sit down, and try to balance.

 But daddy is trying to knock you off…..when you land, you do a seater

 Leaf does more of an airplane than a seater, but he is young and still learning…

 Soon he will be schooled in the art of jumping. Until then, he has fun doing what he can. He did not like the trampoline until he was about 16 months old. He hated being on it, even when you were holding him. You would never know it now.

Everest decided to play “leap frog” with Doug. Poor Doug, he was a very good sport about it.

Remember the raw choconana pudding?

I made it on Mother’s Day and oh, it was yummy. I made a huge batch a few days later, and when we had Lisa and Doug over for dinner, we had it for dessert. They were both amazed at how good it was. We ate all of it!

On Mother’s Day, Leaf had not eaten any of his dinner, so no pudding for him. At least not until bedtime, when he decided he was hungry. (Leaf is going through a control issue, he refuses to eat sometimes, even though we know he is starving. He eats when he feels like it on his terms. We are letting him go through this his own way, our only rule is that he sits with us during dinner whether he eats or not.) Then he ate all his dinner, pudding and shared a pear with Everest.

He liked it as much as the rest of us. Of course, he wanted to feed himself and use a big spoon, so it was a little messy.

Everest enjoying a pear. I am glad my boys love their fruits and veggies.

Leaf’s turn. If we don’t watch him, he will eat an entire apple, pear or banana. When I say entire, I mean all of it, stem, seeds, peel, everything! It is funny to watch him eat an apple or pear, he eats straight through until there is nothing left.

Nathan loves to take these pictures. My what big eyes you have….

Where's the ball?

I have said many times, Leaf is obsesses with balls. Ball was one of his first words. He loves chasing, hiding, throwing, finding, and playing with them. One day while Everest was at school, Leaf was playing so contently with a box full of balls, I couldn’t help but take pictures. He was so funny.

Hmmmm…What do you suppose is behind the curtains?

Could that be Leaf and some balls?

Restocking… our floors is not completely flat, so the balls kept rolling out from under the curtain. I had to pick them up and put them back in the box, then Leaf would hide them again.

There’s Leaf. Balls, a box and a curtain…what more could this boy ask for?

 Everest came home and was very quiet (usually not a good sign). I found him playing with the farm and animals in the corner behind the banana tree plant.

 This is a typical look for Leaf. After playing with the balls, he decided he wanted to wear his apron. But then, one of Everest’s capes caught his attention too. He brought it to me and said “on”. He walked around the house strutting, he was so proud. He always makes me laugh.

Doug and Lisa

A few weeks ago, our neighbors, Doug and Lisa moved. We have enjoyed having them as neighbors. Not only have we become good friends with them, but our kids adore them as much as they adore our kids. They are young so they still have enough energy to jump on the trampoline for an hour or more with the kids. They are the reason Everest loves Purdue so much. Over the past year, they have taken the time to really get to know us and our kids. When they went on their delayed honeymoon in Europe, they brought the kids back perfect gifts. When I had morning sickness to the point I could barely get out of bed, they would come over and get the kids and they cooked dinner for us on Friday evening.

We are happy for them and the new adventures they will be embarking on, but we will miss them very much. Luckily, for now, they are only in Indianapolis (about an hour away). They came up a week after they moved and we went to dinner at a great sushi/hibachi grill restaurant. We have plans to visit in the next week or so and on throughout the summer. There is plenty for us to do in Indy.

A few days before Doug and Lisa moved, it rained for a week or more. The grass kept growing. Doug had given away their mower so he was borrowing ours. He had cut the grass a few days earlier, but it needed cut again. Nathan was cutting our grass and decided to leave Doug a message. He wrote MOW in his front yard. Nathan giggled the whole time he did it, while Leaf rode in the backpack. Silly boys.

 

One of the days the home inspector or someone was at the house, Doug came over to hang out with us. Leaf was wearing his apron and naturally wanted Doug to wear one too. He picked out one of Everest’s aprons for Doug. What do you think? Doug is always a good sport.

Moving Day. Everest helped push boxes from the front of the truck to the back and down the ramp. Nathan said he was amazed at how well he pushed the boxes because many were very heavy. Everest had a great time, although Nathan said he was on the border line of being annoying. He would push the boxes down the ramp and then say “Excuse me, could someone please get this.” Nathan said it was cute at first, but he continued to do this the whole time they unloaded. They went out for pizza and beers after. That night Everest crashed and slept really well. We are thinking of getting him a summer job moving boxes! 

On the bright and weird coincidence side of things…..the family that bought Doug and Lisa’s house happens to be one of the very few families we already know. Nathan works with Brad, he met him at orientation and they get along very well. We went to a Halloween party at their house and I really like Jeaneen also. They have 3 kids (6,5, and 3- I think). They worked on the house for a week and a half before they moved in, it was weird knowing no one was living there. But they are moved in now and the kids play together very well. It is nice to have neighbors we get along well with.

Reading with Daddy and snuggling..

Leaf is getting to the point that he can sit for a few minutes and enjoy a book. Right now it is more the act of listening to us read, than him following along. Everest usually picks the book, more often than not, it is The Magic School Bus.

I love to see my boys cuddled up in bed reading. It always makes me smile.

Nathan spends a good majority of the evening sitting on the floor with Leaf, while Leaf sits on the potty. They sing, play games and laugh. The other night, Nathan was laying on the floor, Leaf got off his potty and laid down with him. It was so cute to see him snuggling with his daddy. I missed the best pictures, but this one turned out ok.

 Everest and Leaf have been having breakfast picnics in the living room lately. They love it and for the most part, they eat in a reasonable amount of time. They only get so long to have their picnic, as soon as Kenya comes back into the house, the food has to be on the table. It is a pretty good incentive for them.

Leaf is obsessed with 3 things…his fingers, balls and shoes. The first thing he does in the morning is ask for a ball or his shoes. When we get ready for bed, he always asks for his shoes. Lately, he has been getting our shoes and putting them on us too. If we already have shoes on or can’t put them on, he puts them on instead. He tried to give Everest his shoes, but he already had shoes on, so Leaf wore them around the house. Every time one fell off, he would bring it to one of us to help him put it back on.

Tissue paper sun catchers

While I was reading a few blogs one evening, I found a fun craft that Leaf could easily do. It is hard to find art projects that both boys can enjoy at their own level. This one is perfect. It does take some prep work on my part, but it was worth it. The blog I saw, did this as a Cinco de Mayo craft, but you could do it for any holiday, season, or gift.

I choose a leaf, for Leaf to do. It was a simple shape, and it was big enough for him to be successful. I also found some outlines of bugs, vehicles, and flowers online (if you look up coloring pages or black line master, you will come up with more than you can ever want). I traced and cut out the shapes on construction and scrapbook paper.

We had plenty of scrap tissue paper left over from making flowers for Nathan’s birthday (I save everything…I knew we would find something to do with the scraps). Leaf helped me tear the tissue paper into small pieces. 

He had fun doing this, who doesn’t? It is fun to rip paper!

Next, I cut clear contact paper to the same size as the paper they were working on, and let them get to work. The only part that should be sticky is the cut out, so the kids put tissue paper all over. When they are done, you add another piece of clear contact paper to hold all the tissue paper in place.

We messed up on Everest’s rocket. I put the sticky part on the white side of scrapbook paper. That meant he had to work on the side with the clouds. It turned out fine, but you can see all his work, instead of just the rocket. He chose to do his rocket in red because rockets make fire. He enjoyed this enough that he wanted to make one for Nathan’s office. He decided on another rocket. He made it very colorful and then wrote his name on it. I forgot to take a picture before Nathan took it to work.

 Leaf wanted to hold his while he was sitting on the potty. Everest sat beside him, so I got a picture of their creations.

Everest took his rocket in to preschool for sharing. As soon as he got home, he asked me to hang it up by Leaf’s. 

 

So far, so good....

We worked on the kitchen most of the weekend. Sunday, I was very tired and didn't help as much, but Nathan had Everest and my dad to help. Monday we started rearranging the kitchen the way we want it to look. Nathan had to move the stove, fridge, lights and light/outlet switches. I didn't have a preference on where the fridge went, but Nathan thought it would go best between the kitchen and dining room area. It turns out, I love it there. It is so much more convenient. 

Nathan cutting out the bulk head and checking out the light above the sink.

 

Nathan working on removing the florescent light. Neither of us likes this light. He also cut out the rest of the bulk head. Dad- making sure everything is ok. He helped out a lot. Thanks dad!

Dad thought it would be easier to pull all the ceiling down, instead of trying to patch it. It turns out it was a good thing, the builders used roofing nails to nail up the ceiling (you are supposed to use screws). Over time the nails started coming out and the ceiling was hanging about 1/4 inch lower  than it should (not the end of the world, but not a good sign either). We need to fix the rest of the ceiling throughout the house. We noticed bulges in areas when we moved in. Now we know it is the nail heads coming through. Nathan is going to put screws in all the dry wall and then patch or refinish the ceiling. A project for another day.
Check out the lights....Nathan put in recessed lighting. I like it so much better.

Everest really wanted to help Nathan hook the stove up into its new home. He was very helpful. He loves wearing the head lamp to help. These pictures are a little grainy, it was getting late and we didn't have as much light to work with.

Here is one side of my new kitchen. We are hodge podgeing our existing cabinets together for now. We want to live with it for a few weeks, while we decide if this is the way we want it. We are also using the time to figure out what types of cabinets and counter tops we want and if we will buy them or build them.

We want some type of floor to ceiling pantry type shelving by the door and an 8 foot island with a breakfast bar. We will also put in a window by the stove and pantry. So for now, my cupboard sizes do not match, my floor and ceiling are not finished, and my counter top is in 3 pieces, but I don't care. We want to make sure we like this before we invest the money into cabinets, tile and windows.

Once we get the cabinets situated the way we think we want them, I will post more pictures of that. For now, this is my kitchen and I love it. I was able to hold a conversations with my mom, who was sitting in the living room, while I was making dinner. It was really nice to be able to see and talk to her, and also see what she and the kids were up to.