His mother's son and other various summer ramblings

Well, as you will see below in several of the pictures, Luke has had some restless nights this last week or so. When it happened last week, I was shocked that he was still functioning at almost MIDNIGHT!

WITHOUT A NAP!

After I left him almost asleep in his bed, or so I thought, I probably had to go back 10 times before he finally passed out. He tested the lights in his room, played with his toys, read some books, sang some songs, tried on some clothes, came to check in with me several times, you name it.

Different week, same story.

He seemed to finally settled down after awhile. I just ignored him as long as he was not waking up his sister. And he did try! So after it got quiet, I went to check on him and found the following. Sorry for the poor quality. I turned on the lights, but it was still hazy.

Guess I can't blame his insomnia or desire to stay up late. He comes by it honestly!



the crash


this doesn't look comfortable


i love little feet


dreaming of food no doubt

I went to straighten his bed before picking him up off the floor and found this! Apparently, he got hungry for a late-night snack while I was ignoring him!


the remains


saving some for later

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The kids have had a chance to go to the pool quite a bit this summer. We are lucky to have 5 different pools in our large extended neighborhood. One has a slide, another some things for the kids to play with, and the other 3 are simple pools with baby pools included. Both kids had swim lessons this summer. Anysa really rocked. She is a fish by nature and did well enough to make me nervous after last year's lessons. This year, she learned so much and I was amazed at her ability to do both a front and a back stroke, as well as swim for so long under water. Last year, I had to be with Luke throughout his entire lessons. This year, he had to go it alone with our teacher. We weren't without tears at almost every lesson, but we made it and as I expected, now that lessons are over, he has suddenly discovered his bravery. He will go under (as long as he can touch the bottom and simply go under and stand up) and is even using his boogie board out in the water by himself. We had 1:1 lessons at our own pools with our same gal as last year. She is just great with kids of all kinds!

A couple of weeks ago, Luke was mesmerized by some older women at the pool. You know, 12 year old girls are fascinating. Anyway, they were playing in the smaller pool and were being nice to Luke so he started flirting with them. I know they were impressed with his ability to jump up and down in and out of the water. At one point, he got out and came over to me. "Psst, Mom!" And with his thumb cocked towards the girls and his eyes cocked towards me, he said, "Those are my fwiends over there!" And back he went to entertain them!





This pool was empty on Tuesday and the kids decided to watch the shooting stars while lounging on their towels.

OK?

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On Monday, I decided that the kids and I needed to actually go do something rather then waste time around the house, fight the battle at the store, or go swimming. So, we went to the National Scouting Museum in our area. While neither of my kids are old enough for scouting, the fact that it is indoors and advertised as having interactive activities, I figured it would at least be something to do. I made it seem all exciting to them by saying the word "MUSEUM!" when talking about it. Oh, and the fact that Mondays are free admission made my decision an easy one. Even if they got nothing educational out of it, we were still ahead of the game. I took one of my friend's daughters. Her older daughter has been my summer babysitter, but this young lady, while not old enough to baby sit, made a perfect mother's helper. I highly recommend that!


practicing knots


listening to some stories


Indian prince


a fun day

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My children, especially Luke, seem to think they are incomplete without something foreign attached to their skin. I have had to start buying large boxes of cheap band-aids to manage all the boo-boos. Tattoos run a close second around here. I don't where he ever got the idea that adding something to the body that God gave him was ok. I mean it is not like his mother would ever do anything like that. She, of course, would go for something a little less permanent!!


Luke showing off his new tattoo


He wants everyone to know his devoted love towards his girl Barbie

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My son has learned great pretending skills thanks to his sister. On this day, he found some chair pads that had come off the legs and thought he was pretty funny being a pirate.





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I thought about documenting their knock down fights

or

the looks of denial as they both point fingers at each other, exclaiming "She/He did it"

or

the pouting and cries of "It's not faer!",

but went for the

"I love my sister/brother" look,

just cuz they are so darn cute.



Stacey