Lots of pictures...

Recently, Grey has begun to throw tantrums. He's a fan of throwing things down, including himself (although he always lands on his butt) and then crying.

Aww, isn't this face so sad!?!

Before it reached Hell temps, we went to the neighborhood park several times a week. The kids loved it, I loved it, and they got to play in the sand. Gross.

Here's Grey's first taste of sand...

I have no idea what this face means. Was it good? Bad? Who knows.

The park has a little track around it that the kids love to walk around, picking up all of the rocks.

He was trying to find Skylar, who had climbed up into the top area of the playset.

I'm still practicing here, but for some reason, Grey has a tendency to photograph as one large blown-out white spot. Maybe its the pale skin against blond hair? Even in pictures where everyone else is normal, he will be one big blur of whiteness.

My little cheeseball!

She will turn me gray early, but I love her little attitude!

She really loves Grey too! She always has and even now as he is getting bigger, she still loves on him!

Err, and sometimes that love takes the form of hitting him in the head with some reeds.

You okay, Grey? Hey, you okay?

He just loves to share. No baby, Mama doesn't want any, thank you.

Lazy Sunday afternoons

This afternoon we went over to Nana and Papa's house to visit and see Uncle Bill and Aunt Kristen. While dada took a nap, Nana, Bill and Kristen went to run some errands, so I took the two stinkers out for a walk. I quickly learned that Grey is not a long-distance walker and once he reached his limit (about ten steps past the driveway) he wanted me to carry him the rest of the way. Completely refused to move another inch!

So, we walked a few houses up and then got chased by a pack of ravenous dogs… three boxers… and decided that was a good place to turn around. We went back home and tried out Nana's new rocking chairs on the front porch!

Until Grey realized it was hot outside and he wanted in.

After everyone returned home and woke up sleeping beauty, we all decided to take a walk… to see the horses. One of the wheels on the stroller has a hole that we haven't patched up yet, so once again, I carried Grey all the way up to the horse barn.

Skylar loves horses and has decided that she wants us to get one for our house. She wants us to go to the store and buy a barn and a fence and then we can go buy a horse. She kept trying to call the horses to come to her so she could rub them, "c'mere horsey horsey! C'mere horsey, I want to touch you!"

Grey was not at all sure about those huge beasts.

And this one makes me laugh! What in the world happened to his hair!?! It wasn't the wind 'cause Grey's is flat… he didn't throw his head down suddenly because it is still up straight… what happened here?

GYC Carnival

This past week/weekend, the GYC carnival was going on by the Coliseum. Being that we are broke, we don't usually do things like carnivals and fairs, but I thought I had read something somewhere about there being some free time for kids… so I looked it up Friday night and lo and behold, Saturday was free entrance and free rides from 10-11! So, we got up and headed out the door Saturday morning to meet my Mom and niece at the carnival! We still had to pay for parking, and threw in a few bucks for some cotton candy, but otherwise it was perfect! The sky was overcast and it was early, so there was hardly anyone there. We got to ride everything we wanted to in the park before they started charging!

Skylar was a little skeptical at first, and kept throwing her hands up at me when she went around on her first ride… but she quickly got the hang of it!

Grey kept trying to get down out of the stroller so he could get on some rides too, so I took him on the carousel with Skylar. The first time, we all sat on a bench and he loved it. The second time I put them both on a horse together and he gave me this face the entire ride… until he saw a lady walking by with food and then he kept trying to locate her in the crowd and forgot to be scared.

Granny and Cheyanne rode the ferris wheel which Skylar was adamant that she would not be going on. She did tell me that she would go on a "little big wheel" though. And side note, this past Monday a worker was cleaning up the ferris wheel and fell and died. Sad story.

Skylar was evidently, "weally weally weally weally wEALLY weally weally lotsa hungry" when she spotted all of the food booths, so she pigged out on some cotton candy while Cheyanne and I rode the Himalaya. I think she's a fan.

Grey also got his first taste of cotton candy…

I think he's a fan as well. :)

That's cotton candy in his hand there, hidden by his elbow.

I hope they do this free thing every year!

Self-feeding = 10 minutes free time for Mom!

Grey is a mama's boy. Through and through.

I used to think Skylar was bad, but Grey has her beat times ten.

He's 15 months old and I just stopped nursing. He gets very angry at me when he doesn't get to nurse. And that has made it hard to stop before now.

But its getting embarrassing. He likes to grab my shirt and try to pull it down. Or push it up. And I found out that can be very awkward when I'm holding in while trying to carry on a conversation. There's nothing discreet about trying to not flash a person standing directly in front of you.

And I started having nightmares. Of Grey being five years old and having to be home-schooled because he still nurses.

I didn't want to be that mom. And I didn't want Grey to be that boy.

So, I pulled the plug. And he is so much happier (angrier) than before!

Lately I've been super busy with take-home work from school plus doing homework for my online class that I have needed to take some time while the kids are still awake to work. But Grey really doesn't like that and hates it when I am on the computer at home. And then I end up writing sentences that make no sense or putting the wrong date on the school yearbook.

So, enter in 10-20 minutes of free time for me, in which Grey is happily occupied. And immobile (very important!).

Give this kid some food and a spoon! Preferable when he doesn't have any clothes on! These pictures were all taken the day that Skylar went fishing with Papa and I was sitting inside at the kitchen table trying to write a paper. I did actually finish the paper at a later time, but it was too distracting with Grey sitting right there and the camera just inches away…

Throw in a few strawberries for him to dig for and it gave me an extra ten minutes!

And just throw him in the sink to clean up while he plays with the water. It's a win-win.

Fishing with Papa

It's been awhile... These last few weeks have been filled with lots of projects and fun, with a teeny tiny bit of stress thrown on top. So, I've been a slacker. Every time I thought about posting a new blog, I would get incredibly stressed out thinking about all of the pictures that I would have to scan through, and trying to organize those that are most important and those that are just fun. And I would hyperventilate just a little bit thinking about it all.

And then I would start cleaning.

Because, that's what I do. I clean when I am stressed, angry or just want to procrastinate.

You would think I'd have the cleanest house on the block! But I don't.

Sometimes I think Ken makes me mad on purpose, just so I will clean.

He might have hinted at it a few times over the years...

But, I finally had a weekend free of any large projects looming over my head, so I thought I had better just get to it. And so, I cleaned all weekend until now, 9:30 pm on Sunday, and I'm just too tired to clean anymore. Besides, Skylar has been intent on messing up everything I have just cleaned, so I'm not even sure what the point was.

Back in April, Papa invited Skylar to go fishing with him so she could use the new princess rod she gave him for his birthday. Skylar was stoked! She's been looking forward to this for weeks and finally the weather and scheduling worked out!

They started up on the bank in Nana and Papa's backyard, but didn't get any bites. I joined in for this part to take some pictures, but then had to relegate myself inside to finish a paper for school.

They decided to move onto the lake and hopped into Papa's boat.

Grey wanted to join in the fun, but as he is still suicidal at times (no fear), he had to stay on land. Besides, he needed to practice his walking skills on sloped ground.

Turns out the boat was the place to be! I think they caught 5(?) for the day! And Skylar loved the fish, the bait, the hooks… all of it.

Small victories are huge bounds

We reached a huge milestone, or breached a major road block, (whichever suits you best) this past week. ...

Skylar actually talked to her teachers on purpose. She has slipped out a few words here and there in the past at times when she doesn't think they are listening, or when it is just a second nature decision to answer a question and she didn't remind herself in time that she is supposed to be mute. Wow, that was a run-on sentence.

But, on Thursday, Skylar actually responded to her teachers and answered some question(s) about colors! At least, I think that is what it was. When Ken called me, all ecstatic, after picking Skylar up from preschool, this was our conversation:

Ken: "Skylar talked to her teachers today!"

Me: "Really! Yay, what did she say?"

Ken: "I don't know, something about naming her colors. We're on our way to McDonalds for Burber-fries and sliding."

Me: "Awesome!"

Sometimes its like pulling teeth I tell 'ya.

N-E ways, so we were really excited about that, and so is Skylar. She and I pretty much had a verbatim conversation when I got home from work on Thursday. Although she did happen to add in there that she took school pictures on Thursday and all the other kids got to bring in their animals and babies.

I forgot. Doh! I am so not good at this mom thing. I couldn't even tell you what she was wearing on Thursday...

Skylar has since been arranging objects all over our house and telling me she needs to pose with those said objects while I take her picture. It's like she wants me to feel really, really bad about forgetting her school pictures on Thursday.

BUT, moving onto better and brighter topics!

Like I mentioned before, Skylar is currently playing on a pee-wee soccer team and I am coaching. It's actually been pretty fun, although we are consistently the "worst" team each week. We don't actually keep score, and let me tell ya, that is a good thing.

I'm sure I wont be asked to coach again next fall.

But, I thought I would show you a few pictures...

Here is the team at practice, stretching our arms. Skylar chooses not to participate in stretching activities.

This is before our game today, Skylar was practicing her goal shots.

And then she remembered that she is supposed to be anti-social, so she decided to take herself off to the wild, wild wonder. She's pretty cute though, right! Seriously though, where is she going?

Here we are about to kick off! See the orange and blue ball? Well, Skylar thinks that is her ball and has decided that if she is going to play in the game, we have to use that ball.

Notice the hand holding? She literally will not move unless I am holding her hand. And even then she still wont move most of the time.

Notice the two kids in the background? Looks like they are about to go at it! Not sure how I missed this!

I like this shot b/c it really shows why we are the worst team... one of my players wont move (Skylar), the other one is doing ninja moves there to her right. And then the other girl in while is practicing her interpretive dance.

But wait, is that Skylar running? On her own? Towards the ball and not the sideline? (That is what all of the other parents were thinking. And some said out loud to me.)

Oh yea baby!!

And, now she thinks she is the schtuff!

Aaaand, then she remembered she was supposed to be anti-social and took herself off to the wild, wild wonder again. But don't fret, all it took was the offer of chocolate cookies and a juice box to bring her back! (Of course, not with a thank you though... that would be asking too much.)