What in the world????

So, isn't there a philosphy out there that once your child gets hurt from something that he probably shouldn't be doing, that they won't do it again??? For example: touching a hot stove, climbing over the couch, falling and hitting his head on the window seal, running too fast and making friends with the pavement, climbing on the kitchen chairs and falling, etc, etc. These are all examples of what my fearless second child does, cries about it, comes to tell me what hurt him with a small hug from me and then goes about his business to do it once again. Crazy!!!! I didn't get a picture of his first black eye, but here is his second one he received yesterday by trying to catch himself while falling and ended up sliding on the pavement with his cheek. I would say poor little guy, but he doesn't seem to care that much, but it is sad and of course I don't want him to keep injuring himself. I want to get 18 month pictures taken in a couple weeks, but at this rate I don't know if I will be able to. I am just surprised, but so thankful, that he hasn't broken anything yet. I will keep praying for him on that one, among everything else. Gotta love the second boy wanting to be like his brother way too fast.

Okay, so I had every intention of posting a picture, but after I wrote this I ended up getting sick and have been down and out for the past week. Today, the following Thursday is the first day I have had any energy and that's not that much to begin with. It hasn't been the greatest week. Thank goodness my mom was here part of the time to take care of the boys, but bummer that we missed days to do fun stuff. So, sorry there is no picture, just use your imagination.

Beach Weekend (back in May)

Over Mother's Day weekend we were able to go to the beach with our friends the Fureigh's. Joseph and Britney invited us down to their condo and who were we to refuse. We drove down on Friday afternoon and returned Sunday evening. We arrived in time to unload the car and head to dinner. The kids did fairly well considering they had been in a car for three and a half hours and we had some of the best grilled shrimp I have ever tasted. I don't know what kind of seasoning they use, but boy was it good. After dinner we stopped to have some ice cream and then back to the condo for bedtime. Joshua and Rylie went right to sleep, but Nicholas, of course, took a little longer. Us adults stayed up and watched tv and talked for awhile and then hit the bed ourselves.

The next morning after breakfast we headed out to the beach. The boys loved it. Nicholas went straight to the ocean, but we couldn't actually swim due to high tides. We just waded and splashed in the water as much as we could. Joshua loved playing in the sand and just hanging out in the puddle we made for him. Rylie wasn't so sure about the sand, but did play in it some. After a couple hours at the beach we headed to the pool and then up to the room to have lunch and take naps.

While the kids napped Britney and I headed to the outlets to shop. It was a lot of fun to go shopping with a friend and just go to look for myself. I haven't done that in quite awhile so it was nice. I didn't buy anything for the boys. Hard to believe isn't it. We met up with the men and children for dinner at Lulu's. While we waited the kids played in the sand and Rylie got her hair braided. Then at dinner we sat where we could see the boats go by which entertained the kids. By the time we were done and headed home it was bedtime. Yeah for that. Although, even though the kids were in bed and we had time to actually play cards or Wii or anything we just sat and watched tv and talked. What is up with that???? What party poopers we are. Oh well. It was nice to just sit and relax and listen to the ocean.

Sunday morning we opted to just stay at the pool. Joshua wasn't interested in doing much so he just sat outside the pool and played in a bucket of water. Rylie and Nicholas swam to their hearts content until lunchtime. We ate, packed up and tried to make it out before the meltdowns began. We did pretty well I think. Joshua slept the whole way home and Nicholas took about an hour nap and then watched his movie the rest of the way. All and all it was a wonderful weekend and first trip to the beach. Hopefully there will be lots more to come.

This picture has nothing to do with the beach, but it is one with all of us in it. This was taken back in February.

Wrestling match

Burt caught this on his phone last night. It is pretty funny. Joshua thinks he is the big man on campus, although it didn't end the best for him. Noone was seriously harmed in the filming of this video :-)

Calgon, take me away

I feel like I need to preface this by saying today hasn't been such a "take me away" day, but just thought I would still share what has been going on around here lately. As I am typing this Nicholas is standing over me since he doesn't want to nap and doesn't get the concept of "quiet time". Fun times. In anycase....as most of you know we have been trying to potty train Nicholas. This has not gone well at all. After two weeks of trying, trying anything and everything, I was unsuccessful and as each day passed I could feel my level of frustration rising my the minute. I was getting more agitated and felt like yelling at him all the time knowing that he can control when to pee and just refuses to sit on the toilet to go. So, after much deliberation we decided to hold off on the potty training for now. My mom will be visiting a couple of weeks, so maybe she will have better luck if we decide to try again then.

On top of the whole potty training fiasco, Nicholas has also decided to test his limits to the max. He is not listening to anything I say, purposely being defiant and won't share with Joshua, just to name a few things. Terrible three's anyone???? He is generally on his best behavior when with other people or we are out and about, but he certainly turns on the heat when we are at home. It has become a daily occurance, more than once, to have him in time out or receive a 'pop'. This doesn't seem to phase him. It is just craziness. Where has my sweet little boy gone???? Oh wait, I know, he is still there, like the times he does give Joshua a toy, or share his snack with him, or comes up to me to give me a big hug, or says something that just makes me laugh. He definitely has those moments still, but somehow I keep focusing on the bad things that have been going on. I have been praying a lot to keep my focus on the good and not get so frustrated, but it is hard, very hard. Today has been good though. No major fights or defiance which is sooooo great. I really don't like raising my voice and I seem to be doing that a lot these days. It is no fun.

So, there you have it. My last couple weeks in a nutshell. There have been other things going on too, like visiting with friends, going to the park, playing outside in the sprinklers, etc, etc. Oh and we had haircuts on Saturday. I will post pictures of that later. For now I just wanted to vent and let it all out, at least a little bit. Thanks for indulging me. Gotta go keep Nicholas busy so he doesn't wake Joshua up. We are trying to move him to one nap a day. That's fun too.

Curls, curls, curls

Well, I haven't had Joshua's hair cut yet and this is why.....

Aren't they just too cute! I keep having second thoughts about his hair, but deep down know something needs to be done with it. At least have it trimmed around the ears and up top so it doesn't hang in his eyes. I realized this after this morning from being outside in the heat for a couple of hours. His hair was pretty out of control. So, I guess I will be calling the hairdresser tomorrow, but only a little bit will be taken off that's for sure. Oh and when I was taking pictures of him he kind of sounded like he was saying cheese. This is the face he made when saying that.... And last, but not least, here is his mug shot, but I think it shows some of the curls pretty nicely.