I really don't like getting this far behind on the blog, because then with each passing day, I wonder how I'm going to explain in a nutshell all of the notable things that have happened in the however many days I've missed. But I've done it again.....last week was a good week, but I always had other things to do while the boys were napping. And I don't like being a complete hermit after the boys go to sleep, working on the computer for an hour and then going downstairs, only to find that Dean's on his way up to bed!

Anyway, here goes a short synopsis of last week. We had a fun time at a playdate on Monday with Melissa, Evan and Torin. Evan is a year older than Grant, and Torin is a few months older than Drew. Evan has tons of cars and trains, which of course thrilled Grant (and Evan loaned him a few cars when we left, which is nice because it's like getting brand new toys!). And Drew just LOVED Torin.....he is totally intrigued by other babies. They're close to the same size, and Drew kept crawling over to him, grabbing Torin's feet, cheeks, eyes, and anything else he could! He wants to play and make friends with every other baby he sees....I don't remember Grant being this way.

On Wednesday our friends Shannon, Graham and Kate came over. Grant and Graham always have fun playing together, and little Kate (3 months) fell asleep when we put her in the Bumbo chair....so cute!
Then on Wednesday during the boys' naps, I did my routine Craigslist search.....yes, I am a total Craigslist junkie when I have something on my mind that I want to buy. We had been looking for a sectional couch for our den, and I found one that day that was exactly what we were looking for. So I emailed the girl, and afraid that it would sell quickly (this happened to us the previous weekend), I packed the boys in the car as soon as their naps ended to go see the couch. Of course any time I find something on Craigslist, the item is either in Katy or north Cypress......both of which are about 50 miles away. This wasn't quite as far......and Dean was working late that day anyway, so I thought it would be a perfect time to go.

So we saw the couch (it was perfect and we went back the next day to pick it up), then I had also found a toy for Drew for his birthday that was literally down the street from the first house. Afterwards, we went to Nottingham Park......it's near Kirkwood and the Beltway for anyone reading this in Houston.....SO much fun! I wish we lived near a park like this.....there was a fun little kids' playground (with a place you could "order" food and sit down to eat). And the best part was a fun splashpad. Grant got himself soaking wet, but he loved running in the water. This was far different from last summer, when he was apprehensive of things that squirted water like this.

And then (I know this is getting very long but I want to record this for my own sake) we stopped at Memorial Park to have dinner on the way home. This is one of my top 10 favorite places in Houston.....before we got married, I lived close and went there to jog all the time. I hadn't been there in over 4 years, and it felt a little strange showing up with two small kids (just because my life was so much different the last time I was there!). Anyway, we found this new playground, and the boys had fun.....Drew enjoyed crawling through the tunnels, and Grant was riding down slides head-first.

One funny thing......at one point we were walking past a picnic table (with a lady sitting there), and I looked over to see Grant's hand inside a plastic bag, grabbing a chip, then sticking it in his mouth before I could tell him to put it back! I was flabbergasted.....I yelled at him a little bit and profusely apologized to the woman, who was gracious and just kind of laughed. Well, Grant just started sobbing.....I thought it was weird because he normally doesn't get upset like that when I get mad at him (usually he responds in anger). He didn't stop crying, so finally I picked him up and carried him back to our spot. Then I noticed that he'd spit out the chip (it was stuck to his face), and he told me that his mouth hurt. I smelled a strong hint of jalapeno right at that same time. I felt bad but couldn't stop laughing! I finally got him to drink some water and eat some grapes, and he was fine after a minute. But hopefully it was a good lesson for him!

Okay, that is enough for now! That was much longer than I intended, and I only made it through Wednesday (although that was, by far, our most exciting day). A picture of our new couch coming soon.....

Some new things.....

Just a couple of new things the boys have done today:

- Grant discovered the joy of Pez candy! We went to Kroger this afternoon, and he noticed a Lowe's 18-wheeler toy (not realizing it was a Pez dispenser). I figured that would be a nice surprise for him (not only a truck, but one that holds candy too.....right up his alley!). So I bought it for him, then in the car I told him the truck holds candy, and we'd get some when we get home.

Immediately when we got home, he went over to the place on the counter where I keep the candy, and said he wanted some to put in his truck (not realizing you can't just put any kind of candy in there). I opened one of the packs of candy that came with the dispenser, and showed him how to open the truck and put the candy inside. He was in heaven! He took it into the train room and showed Drew (and ended up giving him a piece, which Dean had to fish out of Drew's mouth). Then when I came in, he showed me the truck with the front piece sticking up ready to eat, and he said, "pop goes the weasel! That's silly!" At dinner, he was showing Dean how it works, and was so excited to have such a cool new toy. It's fun when Grant finds joy in these little things that I remember fondly as a child too.....and to watch his fascination over something that's no big deal to us, but new to his little brain.

- Drew and I were playing this afternoon while Grant slept, and I put my hands over my face to play peek-a-boo. While my hands were in front of my face, Drew reached up and grabbed them and pulled them down. He laughed and laughed, then he pulled my hand back up to my face again. He did this time and again. He is definitely getting a little personality and starting to show his independence. If he crawls out the door when I'm feeding the kitty, and I grab him to bring him back inside, he's not afraid to express his displeasure! And he'll sometimes go limp when he doesn't want me picking him up to take him away from something. He is becoming a pesky little brother too.....he loves crawling up and bothering Grant while he's getting his diaper changed; he'll grab Grant's hair or try to pinch his cheeks or nose. Grant gets irritated and I really can't blame him! But it's hard to keep Drew away......I only have two hands (which are busy with a diaper), so there's not usually much I can do. It's funny, though....Drew laughs and thinks it's so funny, even when Grant pushes him away or comes to lay on top of him after his diaper is changed. Basically, I think Drew's going to be an instigator of a lot of fights with his big brother!

Matching swings

When Drew gets the chance to swing, he LOVES it....but unfortunately we only have one swing (we threw away the big kid swings that came with our swingset because they weren't in the best shape and I assumed they'd only cost $5 to replace. Actually, they're more like $25.....oops). And Grant tends to be very possessive of his swing....if he sees Drew in it, all of a sudden there's nothing more important to him than riding in it himself.

So, the other day (the same day as the poopy fiasco), I found a swing just like Grant's on Craigslist and took the boys to Pearland to buy it. So now Drew has his own....and he has so much fun in it. The past couple of nights we've gone outside to play after dinner, and tonight Drew actually crawled over to his swing and pulled himself up on it, as if to tell us, "this is what I want to do now." I've taken some better pictures the past couple of nights, but here are some from the first day:

Grant looks HUGE in his swing.....he actually does great in the big kid swings, but I'm not sure when we'll buy one of those. Plus, his little red swing has gotten so much use and has spent so much time in the sun that the straps are falling apart. So I figured Drew could use a new one anyway.....In these pictures Drew is watching Amminadab.....he gets SO excited and starts squealing when he spots one of the cats.



Grant got into the shed (a favorite place to explore) and decided he needed to fix this window screen. Here he's thinking with his hand on his chin. He loves doing pretend play like this, where he acts like he's talking to people about things he wants to buy. Here he was pointing and saying to me, "I need that nail and that screw so I can fix this window."

Taking the "window" outside so he could fix it. I swear, he is such a boy......he loves tinkering with tools and finding things to fix (especially these days, while we're working on house projects so much). I know it makes him feel like such a big boy....

Super cute

Erin and John came over today to play.....Erin is GREAT at photography and tried teaching me a few things. I have a good camera and a lot of my pictures happen to turn out well, in spite of the fact that I don't know the first thing about aperture, shutter speed, or any of that. But Erin knows her stuff.....and she has an amazing camera on top of it. Drew was clingy to me all morning (he was like this yesterday when my parents were here too.....), and this is a perfect picture to show it. All the credit goes to Erin for this one! I told her that I was glad I shaved my legs this morning (but my goodness.....does my knee look dirty or what?!).
Something not so super cute......Grant didn't have such a stellar day. He's been fighting going to sleep lately.....he'll play up in his room before naps and bedtime for hours (literally) sometimes before finally going to sleep. Today I thought he was asleep for his nap when I heard him making noise. So I come up to see him 1) out of his room, 2) without a diaper on, 3) talking loudly under Drew's door (which caused Drew to wake up and start crying after only sleeping for an hour). As I walked up the stairs, I smelled a strong whiff of poopy. Grant had removed his (clean) diaper, then proceeded to go poopy on top of some of his toys. Then he stepped on it, spreading it across the floor when he walked.

Man, was I fit to be tied. Not only had he pooped on his floor, but then he came out of his room (he's figured out how to break the childproof door handle cover) and purposely woke Drew up. An accident like this would be one thing if he was 18 months old, but he definitely knows better (and is capable of controlling when and where he goes to the bathroom....at least better than this!). I was so livid.....I don't think Grant has ever seen me so mad. Hopefully I scared him enough to deter him from ever doing it again.

Kristin mentioned yesterday putting him in some kind of preschool.....he did this last year and I've definitely decided to do it again (I was on the fence earlier this summer). I'm counting down the days until August 26 (and today I considered enrolling him in the four-day-a-week program instead of just two!).

Whew.....

I am so beat.....these two little boys of mine take so much more out of me than I ever would have imagined before having kids. The past week I've had a hard time coming up with blogging topics because, well, we just haven't done much worth blogging about!

Last week was not our best ever. It always seems to go like this....we'll have one great week, followed by one (or more) really crummy ones! Grant is so wild and crazy. I think some days go by without him sitting still for more than 10 seconds (except during his naps and meals). He's climbing on top of things, pushing cars off tables, running around, riding on his scooter and tricycle, opening drawers and taking things he's not supposed to have (many times this is my fault because I'll open a locked drawer then leave it ajar), yelling at the top of his lungs (often just being playful), playing with Drew in a not-so-nice manner, and throwing fits when things don't go his way. In the past two weeks, we didn't have our TV for a combined 10 days, so I didn't even have Curious George or Handy Manny as a temporary distraction for him (unless we happened to be in our bedroom and I thought to turn it on for him).

The summer is so hard because it is almost impossible to be outside in the daylight hours. They have limited patience when we go shopping somewhere (although they're both getting better, especially when I bring lots of snacks). And I don't know if he's a boy or because he's still too young, but Grant is NOT into crafts or structured activities of any kind. He'd rather be bouncing off the walls!

So days just get very boring (we have so many toys at our house, yet Grant just gets bored with them and ends up getting into tools and other non-toys), and even getting together with friends can be difficult because it seems impossible to have a complete conversation with the other adult(s) there! But don't get me wrong.....days always seem to go MUCH better when we have plans with friends, or when I take the boys on a random outing (I love finding cool things to do that aren't just typical activities). It's just that many of these non-typical outings tend to be outdoors (which is an impossibility in August). I love going up into town (there are so many fun parks and things to do), but I just don't know many good indoor things to do up there (at least that are kid-friendly!).

So.....all that to say.....it's just a frustrating time for me. My goal earlier this summer was to do one "fun" thing every day......which could even be something like playing in the sprinklers, getting a treat from Sonic, or going to a kid-friendly store we rarely go to. I've definitely gotten away from this. If I can think of something to do the night before (when it involves getting out somewhere), we tend to get an early start and we have fun! But if we just sit around the house while I try to think of what to do, those days almost always end in disaster.

And the one thing that I still haven't fully accepted (or realized) about being a mom is that my list of projects will continue growing much faster than I am able to keep up. I so desperately want to work on a picture wall that I started in January......and I would love to get caught up on scrapbooking and putting pictures into albums......and about a thousand other little projects around our house. But my free time every day is so short....I think one of the hardest parts of this "mom of young kids" stage is the feeling that you're not really able to pursue things that interest you personally. I feel like I do a pretty good job playing with my kids (and I love doing this), but it would be nice to have a small break from them every day to work on something that doesn't involve them!