Back Yard Beauties

 

Each year we get a few photographs of our back yard in bloom.  Here is our apple tree with ripe red apples. This was the first year we really got any apples from the tree, and some were quite nice!  Most of them have lots of bug holes and rust.  Considering that our garden was small and ridiculously weedy this year, we still managed to grow green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, basil, raspberries, strawberries and one single beet.  Next year we have a better plan for the garden and our backyard.  But we'll see.  We will also have an 8 month old and a 3 year old to manage at the same time, and they'll be growing right along with the weeds, but are a little bit more important!  

Cha Cha Cha Changes

 Oh so many changes these days!  First and foremost, we have about 2 months left until the second baby arrives!  Anna's due date is coming right up.  It's amazing how quickly this pregnancy went by (it seems like a blink of an eye) compared with Anders gestation, which felt as slow as molasses.  Baby number two certainly doesn't get the same pre-birth perseveration.  

Anders is clearly aware of the new baby and as time gets closer we will prepare him even more.

Next on the list of changes, Anders has begun to use the potty!  this is a major milestone!  He decided on Sunday all on his own, that he had to pee in the toilet and has been doing really well ever since.  We bought cute flashy car stickers and also some zoo animals as rewards.  So far, so good!  

Sleeping has been another major hurdle, and we seem to have landed safely on the other side.  He loves his new bed, bedroom set up, and his bedtime routine.  All in all, I'd say our boy is growing up.  

Finally, there is pre-school.  YIKES!  As excited as I am about him beginning, I also feel pretty anxious.  What if it's too much for him?  What if he's too young?  What if they won't appreciate him the way I need them to?  This one will play out over time.  There is open house tomorrow and we'll take it one day at a time.  We will make it a slow transition and ease him into it lightly. But at the same time, I am n e r v o u s.  

Family Vacations II

 

One week after our big family vacation in Bar Harbor, Maine, the three of us headed to Cape Cod.  Round 2 of summer bliss!  The beaches were the absolute best part, besides our early morning routine of a freshly baked, warm, flakey croissant from right in the center of Provincetown, and our early evening routine of 2 scoops of ice cream in a waffle cone.  Coffee almond fudge was the flavor favorite, but Death by Chocolate came in a close second.  Anders doesn't like ice cream and only eats an empty cone, so it was just Anna and I who enjoyed the ice cream.  We deserved it though, because we were camping in mosquito hell. Who knew our site would be next to a swampy pond?  We were lulled to sleep by a chorus of bull frogs and awoke at the crack of dawn to the most amazing bird song.  Then we high tailed it right out of there to avoid the stinging bugs!  Anders had fourteen bug bites on his forehead alone!  You see, the early morning croissants were a very just reward (as was the ice cream) for our hardships at the campground.  I snapped this photo of the rocks on the beach and I happened to notice three heart rocks...can you spot them?  

Hiking 1, 2, 3

 

Family Vacations

 

Happy Fourth!

 

Anders was in his first parade!

The first annual children's parade in our neighborhood!  I dressed him up in red, white, and blue and he really loved his hat!  Take a look at our cute neighborhood - Anders in in the front row to the right of the red wagon. 

These Days

 These days are blissful.  Have I said that lately?  Anders is so much that I swear not a day goes by when I don't have at least one moment in which I feel deeply happy about this life with Anders.  That doesn't mean he isn't difficult and trying at times.  But, there is something about this particular age that is simply incredible.  He is so alive, so happy, so interested in everything YES.

He's funny, has a great vocabulary, and has a real knack for manipulating words into funny rhymes and weird sentences. For example, if you read the sentence, "I want more milk." he would say out loud, "Ia wanta moa milka." followed by "Iada wantada morada milkada."  He would keep going like that changing the suffix o all the words in a sentence until it morphed into a completely different linguistic experience.  All the while he s completely amused with himself.  I think one of his dominant intelligences is auditory.  There are so many experiences like this that are so interesting and funny.  The other day he was sitting and blinking his eyes like mad, and said to me, "Mommy, my eyes are clapping!" 

So you see, it's so easy to be happy.  Even his moments of terrible two's are short lived and so far, easy to handle as a parent.  Today while we were outside playing, I thought to myself, "WOW!  I can not believe that after more than two years we are still completely smitten with this little fella!  Luck, Lucky, happy me!