Mid-Week Musings

I've made one or two half-hearted attempts to get a good 6-year-old shot of Nolan to distribute to family and friends. This is not made easy with a cheeseball son. This is the only one that comes remotely close to capturing Nolan. And there are flamingos flocking out of his head.

Avrie was pretty out of sorts last week. She fell asleep on the stairs at 9:30 in the morning. I was afraid she'd startle and fall down the stairs. Nolan and Cole just went around her...she was oblivious.

After a long, long week without Daddy we attempted a family fun outing on Sunday afternoon. We went to Como Zoo. What a zoo. It made me panicky and claustrophobic. We didn't stay very long. Seriously, could hardly move through the masses of stinky, sweaty, grumpy humanity. I remember why I love Como in the school year on a Tuesday morning. Because we're the only ones there. Almost.

The kid's fantastic Great Auntie picked them up this morning to take them on an outing. This left me with 90 minutes of free time. What do you do with 90 minutes to yourself? Mani/Pedi? Coffee break? Novel? Me: I hauled out as fast as I could. I removed everything from the van, drove to the car wash and vacuumed and windexed the entire thing. Washed it. Drove 10 minutes to a specialty store to pick up two bottles of my perfume oil. Stopped on the way home at the nursery to pick up another tomato plant and two more peppers at 50% off. Picked up the yard so I could mow later today. Cleaned up the breakfast dishes. End of 90 minutes. I feel so accomplished. You have no idea how gross our van was. Yeah, the same van I was going to keep clean forever. Haha.

I haven't listened to country music in years. This song may have just redeemed the genre for me. Love it. It's one of those feel-good-lovin'-life songs. I first heard it in cycle class. Which I'm addicted to. I plan my life around group cycle. Feelin' down? Group cycle, baby. Speaking of which:

Met a lady at cycle this week. She's run 63 regular marathons and 16 ultra marathons (41 miles). She's 53. Just a wee bit of inspiration there. Uf-da. Not that I want to run marathons or anything. Just hope to be that active when I'm 53.

My darling Cole baby has horrid eczema. Last week it was bleeding he was scratching so much. He's on day 7 of zero dairy to see if that's the culprit. It doesn't appear to be. I'll try eliminating gluten next week and see if that's it. Otherwise I'm assuming it's heat, humidity and nature triggers. I hate seeing him miserable.

I'm currently "growing" kombucha, kvass, water kefir and coconut kefir. I'm a little afraid to leave home this weekend for fear that my cupboard will blow up from all the fermentation!

Have a fantastic 4th weekend! We will...big family campout extravaganza coming right up!

Vocab? Who needs it?

Cole's Vocabulary: Mama. One single word. That's it. To be honest I've enjoyed him staying a baby so much longer than the other two. Thing is...we know he can talk. He's a smart little bugger and knows if he starts spewing the language that he'll be held accountable for things. In the van the other night:

Evan: Cole, can you talk? Can you say banana?

Cole: *laughs* Banana.

Us: *flabbergasted*

Evan: Can you say it again, Cole?

Cole: *shrieks hysterically* Banana.

Us: *shake our heads*

Let me emphasize that it wasn't baby babble "banana". It was banana clear as a bell. Every sound made clearly. Stinker.

Cozy Cousins

Successfully Spoiled Six-year-old!

A belated shout out to Nolan! He turned the big SIX on June, 4. We had a park birthday party planned but got rained out so the party was at our house...worked fine aside from the fact that pictures do NOT turn out at ALL in our living room. Horrid lighting. So, this photo is an accurate description of Nolan and how happy he is at SIX! I can't believe it. He got so many awesome presents:

• Metal detector! A child sized version. He's wanted one for two years.
• Remote control ATV. He's also wanted this for ages.
• Nerf gun with laser sight. He LOVES this. As does Cole. Many Nerf fights have gone down.
• Books.
• National Geographic Kids subscription.
• Your Big Backyard subscription.
• Solar system and constellations model.
• Cool shirts and shorts.
• Crayons and markers. Can never have too many of those.
• Juggling balls and instructional DVD.
• Scooter.
• Bike horn.
• Electric pencil sharpener. He's wanted this for a long time. Our pencils have never been sharper.