We were wearing matching hats 😆
It took an eternity, but I think we’re finally all well. That illness was the gift that kept on giving. It was three weeks of hell. Ash and I had a pretty mild case of pink eye, which cleared up after about a week. However, I did end up taking him to see Dr. Amanda on the Wednesday after my last post because he woke up during the night choking on his phlegm. It scared me because it sounded like he kept stopping breathing because of it. He was so miserable. She sent us home with a nebulizer and an antibiotic, even though she suspected the cause was viral still, she said at his age, they treat with an antibiotic anyway. He had so much snot. I constantly had tissues in my pocket. It reminded me of my grandma, who could always pull one out of her pants or purse 😂. The problem with putting them in your pocket is you have to remember to take them out. Otherwise, you get a really fun laundry surprise 🤦🏻♀️.
Just when our pink eye started to clear up, Philip’s got extremely worse. He had both eyes infected and all the worst symptoms that come along with it. He was scheduled to get Lasik eye surgery that week and had to reschedule. He had it done last week instead. I wear contacts, too, but have no desire whatsoever to have that procedure done 😅. After two C-Sections, I’ve had enough traumatic surgeries to last me a lifetime. Every time he talked about how they cut a flap off your eye to correct your vision I was like 🫣🤮, but then I got to watch it happen to him, and I can honestly say it was in the top ten grossest things I’ve ever seen 😂. I got very anxious and wanted to vomit. That was an unexpected reaction for me because I’m stupidly calm during emergencies. I can handle shit in the moment, but give me a bleeding eye without my flight or fight adrenaline response and I’m ready to pass out 😆😆. Anyway, we had to drive to Pittsburgh, so 2 hours round trip, while the procedure literally took 9 minutes. He ended up getting a migraine (he’s very prone to them) by the time we got home. He said the lasik was nothing, but he had the worst head pain he has ever had. We’re not sure what triggered it, aside from like, ya know, the stress of getting his eye ball cut open 🤮. We think they’re typically allergy related since they happen more in the spring and summer, so that may have contributed, who knows. He had to go back to Pittsburgh the next day for his follow up vision check and he went from 20/150 in one eye and 20/200 in the other, to 20/20 in both. So the surgery was a success. Recovery has been going well. He isn’t allowed to do anything too physical for at least a week so as not to get sweat in his eyes. He has to use 3 different kinds of drops—a steroid, an antibiotic, and rewetting—for several times a day for 7 days. He got some sweet goggles to wear in the shower because the informational packet threatened him about getting soap in his eyes 😆. There’s no “What To Do” section for if it happens, just a DO NOT warning 😳. We tested out his vision vs mine one night on our walk. As we approached a sign that we see every day, I told him to tell me when he could read it clearly. We both made it out at the same time. The last time I had my eyes checked (2 years ago, I have an appointment next month so this could change), my vision was 20/15 with my contacts. He should be all healed up this week and won’t need corrective lenses on the regular, but will likely need reading glasses one day.
The view from the waiting room. I watched them slice his eyeball on that screen 🤮
👀
Ash has still been intermittently cranky and snotty, a side effect of his incoming molars, I think. I took the boys to watch my niece, Haleigh, at her track meet the week before last, and Ash was even cranky there. Kate walked him, and I provided snacks, so the conditions for making him happy were met, I don’t know what his deal was 😂.
He did have some smiles for the camera, but don’t let that fool ya, he was a crank 😂
Cousins make the best friends 🥰.
He and Quinn are polar opposites when compared to Quinn at Asher’s age. Quinn was the most easy going, laid back baby. Even when he was sick, which was rarely, doing what needed done was no big deal. He’s the only kid I’ve ever known who liked having his nose sucked. Ash will fight you 😂. When I took him to see the doctor, she wanted to have him checked for flu, Covid, and RSV, which required a nasal swab. Two nurses came in the room with us. Ash was sitting on my lap, so they asked me to hold his hands away from his face. One got the swab stick ready, while the other was standing back. Before the first one even tried, I said, “Oh, he’s a resister, it’s going to take all three of us.” 😂. The second one came over to hold his head, and he proved me right.
He is sooooo dramatic. And ornery. I didn’t often pull the Mom thing of yelling first and middle name at Quinn, but this one gets Asher Cole-ed every single day 😂. Those second borns really ought to come with a warning. He throws tantrums when he doesn’t get his way, which 75% of the time is because we didn’t let him use us as a walker. When you’re holding him and try to put him down, he will latch onto your fingers, attempting to force you into laps against your will. Marsha loves all of the Laura Numeroff books, such as If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, so I joked that we could write one called, If You Give An Ash A Finger, since his response is so predictable. Seriously, we have to spell the word “walk,” in our house, and it’s not because of the dog, like it used to be. No, Soph doesn’t get too worked up about that word, but the baby does 😂.
Some of his orneriness involves dumping every single container possible, and putting it on his head. I know this about him, yet I continue to leave him with unattended snacks 🤦🏻♀️.
He often has greasy hair from putting chip bowls on his head.
Those eggs didn’t need to be in that basket, right? 🙄
Any time I put up my hand, Ash grabs it and brings it to his face like this 🤣.
🚶
He even makes Quinn walk him 😂.
He’s getting better every day ❤️.
Although he’s bossy, I appreciate that Ash knows what he wants, most of the time. He’s really good at communicating his needs, especially hunger and thirst. We ate at Jalapeños two weeks ago and Ash pointed to the food he wanted a bite of, and then his cup when he needed a drink. One downside is he views me as a human milk fountain and will point to my chest and say, “Drink.” 🙄🤦🏻♀️. Yes, he’s still breastfeeding, and yes, I still want to stop. Someone help me 😂.
I love that he can communicate effectively. I wish it was always easy to know what either of them want or need. When they were sick, that constant uncertainty about whether or not they needed to go to the doctor, what I should be doing to help them, etc. was exhausting! On the regular, Quinn is pretty easy to decipher. He’s usually good at either getting a snack or telling us when he’s hungry. He does get hangry though, so if he starts being a sass ass, I ask if he’s hungry or tired. He always says no at first, but then usually says he wants something to eat within a few minutes. Ash isn’t so easy because he has teeth and, occasionally, belly issues to contend with.
Speaking of belly issues, the boys got a ridiculous amount of candy for Easter 🙄, and the day after, Quinn kept asking to eat it. I try to limit what he has, especially because he’s still getting “potty candy,” although I think the habit has probably been ingrained enough that we could quit that. Anyway, later that evening, he said his belly was hurting and then proceeded to lay the blame on me! He said, “Mom, my belly hurts. Why did you let me eat all of that candy?!” 🙄🤦🏻♀️. It must have been a decent life lesson because he didn’t ask for any candy the following day 😂.
I hate that every friggin’ holiday is now expected to include so much…well, everything. I don’t want to get them an Easter basket full of candy when they get so much from the egg hunt at the park and from everyone else. Going forward, I’m choosing quality over quantity. I’d much rather get them 1-2 things they’ll really love, rather than 20 things that will fill a bucket. Or a stocking 🙄. I also don’t want the daily struggle of arguing over candy. Quinn will ask for junk and when we say he has to eat a meal first, he will ask how many bites he has to eat. No, I refuse to assign bite numbers to earn junk. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. He needs to eat until he’s full, not to meet my quota 🙄. I hate everything about having sweets in our house. Hate it. Does anyone have any good strategies you use to combat this issue? I don’t believe in throwing perfectly good food away, but I also can’t tolerate having all of this around!
Ash stayed home with Dad for the egg hunt so that I could focus on Quinn. We met up with Kiki and the boys’ bonus cousin, Luka.
Ash liked all of the eggs Quinn brought home and used one to transform into a bird 🐦.
Mimi got them super cute personalized bags ❤️
❤️
And these awesome writing boards with their names on them!
Lulu got them a basket, too, but this is the only pic I got 😂.
When Quinn got up Easter morning, he didn’t even notice the stuff in the living room.
When I finally told him he should take a look around, he was very excited 😆.
Ash was happy about getting a new hat 🧢
Quinn was happy that he got a big stuffed turtle, something he had been asking for. He named her Sally.
He also loved his new Spider-Man sunglasses 😂.
We had an egg hunt on Easter at our house with my family.
Look at that cuteness 🥰
Oldest to youngest. I love these kiddos. Even Lincoln, who does not know what the gesture he was doing means 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️. We took like 10 photos before anyone realized he was doing it.
Our Easter pics that I took:
Some people thought this was a pregnancy announcement when I posted it to FB 🤦🏻♀️. There will never be another one of those!
Switching it up 😉.
Baby bunny
Big boy bunny
I thought we were going to have another issue involving Easter because when we left the library the week of, Miss Pat told Quinn she hoped the Easter bunny would visit him, and he said, “The Easter bunny isn’t real.” I was like 😬😬😬. Luckily, we were the last ones to leave, so no kids heard him say that. We had a conversation in the car about it. He told me bunnies are just small, so the Easter bunny couldn’t be real. Just like with Santa, I’m not completely on board with lying to him, and usually approach the subject with a, “What do you think?,” if he asks. I told him that if he believes the Easter bunny isn’t real, that’s okay, but I didn’t want him to say that around his friends. I explained it using how he likes to pretend Big Foot is real, saying his friends like to pretend the Easter bunny is real, and we don’t want to spoil their fun. He agreed not to say it around any kids. But he also changed his mind by then end of the week and said he is real. However, when we did the egg hunt at the park, Quinn didn’t want to sit with or get his picture taken with the Easter bunny. When we talked about it later, he said, “Sometimes I’m just shy when people are dressed up in big costumes because I don’t know who’s in them.” All I could say in return was, “That’s valid. I get it.” He has more introspection than some adults 😂. I bet there are people reading this who have never met Quinn who probably question some of the things he says. I can’t blame you, I probably would, too. Anyone who has spent time with him can confirm his little brain is magical sometimes 😂.
Quinn got to make a cool bunny mask at the library.
And do an egg hunt
Miss Tella made the kids giant marshmallows dipped in white chocolate and sprinkles 🤤.
Ash got to play in the sensory bins with his friend, Carlowe.
Like, another ridiculous thing he said to me recently involved a conversation about taking care of our things. We were outside and he disappeared into the building, emerging a minute later with a golf club from Philip’s bag. He started hitting a pole with the pitching wedge. I immediately told him to stop, and he immediately asked me why 🙄. I said, “Because you’re going to break it. That’s dad’s golf club. We don’t break other people’s things. Not to mention, you could hurt yourself or someone else.” He then asked for my golf club 🙄🙄, so obviously, what I had just said really sunk it. I said, “No, you’re not going to hit the pole with my golf club either. I don’t want my stuff broken.” He then said, “Well, I want my own golf clubs.” I said, “Why would we get you your own set if you won’t take care of them? We won’t buy you things if you destroy them.” He then applied his burn when he said, “I’m still learning. Calm down.” Excuse me, what?? 😳😂.
He has been telling me, “I’m mad at you,” a lot lately. I appreciate him being aware of and vocalizing his feelings, but sometimes they’re misplaced. Ever since being sick, he has been making up for the days he didn’t have an appetite by eating everything in the house. We went through 3 bags of “Lulu crackers,” (Ritz Sour Cream and Onion. He ate them for the first time with Lori, so now they’re named Lulu crackers 😂) in almost as many days 😳. When we ran out and he asked for some, I told him we didn’t have anymore. He growled at me and said, “I’m mad at you!” I asked him why, and he said because we didn’t have anymore Lulu crackers. I told him he was the one who ate them all, so he shouldn’t be mad at me about it 😂.
Another time, Quinn got mad at me and tried to hit me. He stopped himself but still made contact, so I put him in time out, and when I went to get him, I asked him why he was in time out. He said, “I am mad at you.” I said “That’s ok, you can be mad at me, but you can’t hit me. What can you hit when you get mad?” He said, “A pillow or a stuffed animal, but I’m not mad at anything but you.” So, I guess in that instance, he wanted to make sure his anger wasn’t misplaced 🙄.
And another time, I wasn’t getting the candy I said he could have fast enough for him. He wanted me to stop what I was doing, and get it for him right that second. When I didn’t, he said his usual, “I’m mad at you!,” and raised it with an, “I’m gonna sass you.” I told him, “I won’t get candy for you at all then.” He changed his tune and said, “I’m not trying to be mean to you, but when you come back out from laying Ash down, I’m gonna under arrest you. I’m the police. See how strong I am? You can’t push these down,” as he showed me his big muscles 💪🏻 🙄🤦🏻♀️.
I can commiserate with Quinn’s feelings of anger, as I’ve been struggling with my own. Quinn had a fresh round of limit testing after his sickness, while Ash turned into a stage 5 clinger for almost a week. I took my frustration with Ash out on Quinn, which wasn’t right, of course. However, there are times when Quinn just Will. Not. Stop…Like, you almost just want to preemptively put him in time out because you know he’s not going to quit his shit until that happens. It’s maddening. You could warn him a million times about what’s going to happen if he doesn’t XYZ; doesn’t matter. I’ve found, though, that I’m quick to react with anger or irritation about many things Quinn does, perhaps expecting too much from him. Lately, I’ve been striving to stay calm and ask him why he’s doing the things that are driving me crazy. There’s always a driving force behind misbehavior. I’d estimate that 98% of the problems we see out of Quinn are fueled by hunger, tiredness, or lack of attention. That last one isn’t always easy to fix, like, when we have to cook dinner, tend to Ash, or do any number of other things that need to get done. Aside from those factors, sometimes Quinn really doesn’t know that he shouldn’t do something that seems like common sense to me. He’s three, common sense doesn’t really apply too much, but that doesn’t stop me from initially being irritated anyway. I’m working on it.
Quinn and I have different love languages, and his is definitely physical touch. The more disconnected we become, the more likely he is to want to be glued to me. While it’s not his fault, Ash really depletes my cup when it comes to touching, so when Quinn wants to lay on me, I really struggle. He gave me a big dose of mom guilt last week when he was trying to lay on me and I said, “Can you get off of me for a minute, please?,” and he replied, “Yeah, but I want to love on you.” Boy, did I feel like a jerk 😭. I’m not a big toucher, I get overstimulated easily when I feel like I’m being held down. I do like cuddling with both of my kids (and husband), but I like it on my terms, not when it’s forced on me. That’s another thing I’m trying to be more compassionate about. It’s just really hard to be what someone else needs when it’s not what you need.
Quinn got a dose of unwanted touching the other day, and took a page out of my book with his response. Quinn is always trying to climb on me anytime I’m sitting on the floor, which, obviously, I don’t like. I tell him all of the time, “I’m a person, not a jungle gym.” Asher used a sitting Quinn to balance one day and Quinn said, “Mom! I don’t want him to stand on me! I’m a person, not a stander!” 😂
He has hit the tattling phase, and let me tell you, that’s so much fun 🙄🙄. Not. I do sometimes get a kick out of some of the things he tells on Asher for, even though I have to pretend to reprimand the baby for them. The other day, we were riding in the car and Quinn said, “Mom! Asher threw his bink at me!” 😂 So, then I had to be like, “Asher, dont throw your bink at Quinn.” When we were playing in their room last week, Quinn yelled, “Mom! Asher chopped me in the head!” 🤣🤣 Seriously, how to do you say, “Asher, don’t chop your brother in the head,” with a straight face?
I can handle the tattling on Asher because that’s preferable to Quinn being mean to him. I tell him to tell me when Asher is trying to take his toys or whatever it is he doesn’t want him to do, and that usually keeps him from pushing Ash or something of that nature. What I can’t handle, however, is him tattling on his friends. It is SO obnoxious. We had to leave our friends’ house the other day because he wouldn’t stop keeping a running list of their indiscretions, and how they had wronged him: ex. “Micah threw that ball over my head, and Kenny grabbed me.” When we planned to go back to their house a few days later, he started in with how he didn’t want Micah to do this or that, and I had to be like, “You have to forgive him. He did that a few days ago, that doesn’t mean he’s going to do it today. We’re going to their house to have fun, so we can’t go being mad at him. Everyone does things we don’t like sometimes. He wasn’t trying to hurt you, let it go. If he does something you don’t like, tell him. If he won’t stop, then you can tell a grown up.” They played fine together that day, though. It’s actually funny watching how differently he plays with boys and girls. With the boys, he wants to tackle and play rough. He doesn’t do that much with the girls next door. It’s also interesting to watch him interact with them because the oldest girl, Scarlett, is 6, while the younger, Savannah, is 3, like him. He plays more with Scarlett, surprisingly. They’re both first borns and think they’re both in charge, so things can get bossy sometimes. Quinn pretends he doesn’t know the rules when it’s just us here, but as soon as someone else is around, he suddenly remembers and wants to enforce them 🙄. I don’t know how many times he told Scarlett she isn’t the boss the other night. I finally had to tell him that I’m the boss and everyone needed to chill and be nice.
Quinn and Micah played at their water table. Asher just stole Carlowe’s hats 😂.
Sometimes he gets on his bossy kick and it is incessant. He just latches onto any sassy phrase he has heard before (granted, it’s usually from me 😑), and just keeps saying it, whether it applies correctly or not. We went rounds one day, him arguing, “That’s the whole point!,” when I had zero clue what his point actually was. He gets really worked up, and the madder he gets, the louder. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I told him to stop talking. He doesn’t like that, so he’ll ask if he can say something else. I tell him when he’s ready to use kind words, and can talk to me nicely and at a normal volume, he can talk again. That usually flips his switch. It puts me in a bind when he repeats something sassy I’ve said to him, and then I have to backtrack to make him understand why he can’t say it. He told me to stop talking the other day. I told him that’s not a nice thing to say, and before he had a chance to remind me where he heard it 🤪, I said, “I know I’ve said that to you before. I was really frustrated when I said it. I will try not to say it again, but neither should you.” 🤷🏻♀️
He used yet another phrase he heard from me, but incorrectly. I was getting ready to take Ash to the doctor and Quinn told me he already had socks. I told him he wasn’t going because Philip was off that day and he was staying home with him. He said, “But it would be easier if you just took both of us” 🙄. That is never a true statement 😂.
You really never know what he’s going to say, or who he’s going to be. He walked into the kitchen one morning and said, “Hi Mom.” I said, “Hi Quinn.” He informed me, “I’m not Quinn, I’m hulk. I don’t have a shirt on.” Right. Can’t believe I missed that sign 🤦🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️.
Take this outfit, for example. He’ll come up to me and ask what he is. I don’t know, a goob? Lol
We’ve really ingrained the “You do stuff for me, I do stuff for you,” value. It’s lopsided, of course, because I do way more for him than he even realizes. I said before that while Quinn was sick, he forgot how to do anything for himself—put on his shoes, get his water bottle, find literally anything. He asked me to get a snack for him that was very close to him, and I reminded him that he is capable of getting some things for himself. Then he reminded me, “I want you to get it for me, I get lots of tissues for you.” 🤦🏻♀️. The tissues that I ask him to get are usually for Ash’s snotty nose, and sometimes his, so, I was obviously in agreement with that logic 🙄. Around the time that this happened, I read an article on a parenting site that said when big kids ask us to do things for them that they know how to do themselves, it’s because it makes them feel loved. While I think sometimes it’s just laziness 🤪, I agree that Quinn requests for me, Philip, or another adult to put his shoes on because he likes the attention. He wanted my friend, Lisa, to put his shoes on him after our market meeting, and asked for Haleigh to strap him into his car seat after a senior pic session. I guess if he connects with someone, he wants them to help him with things 🥰.
Life gets easier when they start being able to do things for themselves though. Quinn recently figured out how to properly work the screen door (the button is hard to push), so now he is able to go inside and get things when we’re outside. That’s actually really helpful to me. Asher learned how to climb on EVERYTHING, which is not helpful to me at all. I can’t leave him unattended for more than a few seconds if there is an elevated surface. He ended up on the couch the other day and I still don’t know how he accomplished that. He climbs on the kid picnic table, onto Quinn’s tractor, onto the rocking chair in the living room. I had to get out Quinn’s old learning stool that I saved for him because Ash wouldn’t stay off of Quinn’s. Now his grabby hands are into everything on the kitchen counter 🤦🏻♀️. There’s a learning curve to remembering not to leave anything out that could hurt him.
He loves being able to see what’s going on.
On top of the picnic table 🤦🏻♀️.
He climbed onto the tractor, so I took him for a ride. Quinn is still scared of it, but Ash loves to ride.
It’s a good thing it has a seat belt because he doesn’t always hold on 😳.
He can get up there, but he can’t get down by himself without a boom.
He can climb onto this by himself, too. He loves to bounce.
I had a really nice encounter with a neighbor I’ve never spoken to before last week. I was outside with the boys and had just finished mowing the front yard. I was rinsing the deck of the mower out before I put it away, and was holding Ash while doing it. She pulled up as she was going around the block and stopped to tell me that I deserve the Mother of the Year award. I thanked her for that, and she went on saying she and her cousin watched me mowing last summer with the baby strapped to me, and they both thought I deserved that award. She really made my day. What an amazing compliment to get from a stranger! I’m not telling you this so that you will agree with her or pile on the accolades. What I really hoped to convey from this story was just how much power you have to brighten someone’s life by saying something nice. I’ve never spoken to her before and she didn’t have to stop to tell me that, so the fact that she did just really warmed my heart. I know we all have nice thoughts about others, I try really hard to do my best to take the few seconds that are needed to tell them to people. I could be better about it, though, and she has inspired me to do so ❤️. I have many awesome people in my life who are good at this. My friends always have my back and make me feel loved. Another person who came to mind while writing this was my mother in law. Every time she’s at our house, she always tells me how organized everything is, how smart the boys are, etc. I appreciate that she does that.
The neighbor couldn’t have picked a better time to say something sweet because this ⬆️ was the kind of day we were having 😩. He was mad I left him in the fence while I mowed.
Anyway, I don’t want to brag or anything, but I won the last to mow in our neighborhood competition 😜. We have a few neighbors that I swear mow twice a week. I refused to give into their peer pressure though 😂😂. No, really, with Philip’s allergies being a migraine trigger, I try to do the mowing, but it isn’t always easy to get it done with the children, so it wasn’t a priority until it had to be 🤷🏻♀️. Philip would probably have rathered I didn’t mow though because I ended up causing a near catastrophe 😬. I got the mower caught on the outside spigot and pulled it completely off, causing water to spray like a fire hydrant out of the side of our house, at exactly 4 minutes before he was scheduled to start a meeting at work. I went running in the basement to get to the main shutoff valve. After his meeting was over, he came out to tell me what parts I needed to go pick up so that he could fix it on his lunch break. For the first time in 17 years of home ownership, one thing finally got replaced with minimal hassle. I bought the parts, the parts fit, and the crisis was averted. That has literally never happened before in life 😂. No, usually when something breaks around here, we have to buy the wrong parts first, or they don’t make the parts we need anymore because our house is old, or it won’t go back together right, or …. There’s always something. That’s what sucks about having an old house. I’ve been slowly working on redecorating it to fit my taste (Philip doesn’t care what I do 🙄. Which is good and annoying at the same time to have no input 😜), and after this many years, I wish we were further along in making it what we want it to be. Oh well. We would get a lot more done if it weren’t for these kids 😂. We spent all of our money in our pre-kid era going on vacations instead of working on our house. We all choose how to spend our time, and now most of our together time is spent actively engaging with our kids. When they get bigger, they’re gonna learn how to help upgrade 😂 💪🏻.
I can’t get anything done around the house with this weather lately; we’ve been spending so much time outside!
We’ve been to the blue p-a-r-k, another word we have to spell 😂. Quinn is starting to catch onto that one though.
😛
We played balls with friends.
They both look exactly like their dads! Baby Ryan and Baby Philip 😂. AKA Sully and Asher
And rode bikes with friends (with a backwards helmet 🤦🏻♀️).
Speaking of backwards helmets, Ash managed to get this one on by himself.
We went to the market park, as Bruce Park has come to be known.
Ash fell asleep in the car on the way there, so he got to nap in the stroller.
He woke up in time to play for a few before we left ❤️.
Since Ash didn’t get to do much at the market park that morning, we went back to the blue park that evening, but took a detour along the way. I had wanted a midnight Milky Way all day, so we walked to the gas station before going to the school. We spent too much money on junk and had a picnic at the park. Quinn thought that was super fun 😊.
Ash practiced his multitasking skills by pushing a car while directing traffic 😉.
I made the boys another sensory bin where they could fill the mini buckets with peas and plant flowers, and I printed flowers and cut them in half so that Quinn could search for the matching pieces and stick them to the diy contact paper/cardboard frame.
It has been a hit among all of the kids.
So was the diy water table aquarium tote.
Ash was outside for approximately 9 seconds before he got himself soaking wet.
Ash had his first sucker from our neighbor who likes to give them out to the kids when he sees them outside.
Ash looked so cute in his little romper but I had to change him because his knees were red from crawling on the patio. He’s going to have a hot summer if he doesn’t learn to walk on his own soon!
We’ve played in the bouncy house.
And I’m pretty sure they had just as much fun stomping the air out to put it away as they did playing inside of it 😂.
We got out their pool. I guess they thought it was a bit chilly 😂.
I warmed it up with buckets of hot water 😊.
When we got it out again the next day, Quinn wanted to go surfing 😂.
They got to try out the new garden tools they got for Easter. I had to move Ash to one of my garden beds because Quinn and Scarlett were being too crazy with their shovels. I haven’t planted anything yet, to it was safe in there from the dirt eater 😜.
We did plant some cat grass, but we put it in cups. I printed out their pics so it will look like hair growing, a diy chia pet, if you will 😂.
I made some chalk paint. Ash painted himself
Quinn and Scarlett painted his garden house. It needs painted for real. Let’s see if I get that done this summer 🤨.
We went to prom walk-in to watch my oldest niece and nephew 😍.
Haleigh disappeared before the group photo 😩
😂😂
We found dandelion seeds to blow. Ash got a little too close to his and ended up with a mouthful of seeds 😂. I told Quinn we could pretend to blow on a dandelion the next time he gets upset, it’s a good way to take a deep breath and release it. When I got frustrated later that evening because Ash dumped snacks for the 50th time that day, Quinn told me I needed to pretend to blow a dandelion and calm down 😂.
We’ve logged 111 hours and 45 minutes outside this year!
Other activities we’ve done lately:
Quinn searched for the letters of his name written on gold coins in his kinetic sand treasure box.
I made Quinn another spring theme sensory bin with the split peas we used before. He had to use the tongs to put the bees back in their hive, find and plant the carrots in the egg carton, and put the baby bird egg jelly beans in the nest 🪺.
Quinn and I made caterpillar crafts to go along with The Very Hungry Caterpillar book.
We each colored a butterfly and Quinn cut his out.
Our finished products 🐛🦋
I made Quinn a superhero matching game. This was the first time he really did well with taking turns and following the rules of the game.
I helped Quinn make a craft from repurposed planner covers that I had when I worked at The Center for Children and Families. I saved them because I loved the flowers and hoped I could use them for something one day.
We worked on their hand eye coordination by hammering golf tees into dots on foam garden boards.
I amused myself by putting the Easter stickers Pap brought the boys on Ash and watching him try to take them off 😆. He was able to even get a few stuck onto paper. Fine motor skills, body part recognition, amusement for mom = a perfect activity 😉
We went to Playgroup 😂.
And to the library. That’s Ash in the middle. He left my lap to sit with the boys on the floor. That’s progress. Now, if I can just get Quinn off of the seat next to me 🤦🏻♀️.
We made extra special ice cream treats on Sunday Family Funday. We had chocolate and vanilla ice cream to choose from, with chopped milk chocolate, cosmic brownies, spring fun cakes, mini Oreos, sprinkles, and eyeballs to top it with.
Your Sophie PUPdate:
She tolerated my shenanigans putting bunny ears on her. Don’t worry, she was rewarded for her cooperation 😉.
She visited with her cousin, Kenobi, on Easter. She was scared of him 😂. She’s such a baby.
All of that socializing wore her out.
This is her “I just can’t with you people sometimes” face.
How she sent the cold, rainy day yesterday 😴.
