Finding a new normal

HA! Bet you thought I'd dropped off the blog planet! I'm just taking a break. A much needed time of relaxation and enjoyment of my family. Brent came home about two weeks ago and I handed him a honey-do list about a mile long. When you've been out of your home for a year, the home improvements just kind of pile up. Since I've been keeping my dear, sweet husband so busy, I haven't felt able to just sit down and pour out my every feeling on my blog page. We're trying to find a new normal for our life. We go through this every summer when Brent gets out of school. Suddenly, I have my husband home all day, every day. The carefully constructed routines that the kids and I have are a bit disrupted by the addition of another person, albeit a welcome intrusion. We have to learn how to enjoy the long sultry summer days with Daddy in the mix. We've come up with a plan for maximum summer enjoyment this summer before Brent has to head back to school. We've got lots of fun and surprises in store and we can't wait. Below are some of the photos of the beginning of our summer together.

Despite a cool and rainy start to the summer, we were able to find a break in the clouds to go over and swim with Angie and Sarah. Tristan just loved the dog. All the kids loved the pool, although you can tell from Sarah's expression, it was a bit nippy!

Ta-da! Poor Sarah, are those lips turning blue?? Tristan did his best to drown himself in the kiddie pool, but I saved him...many times.

Tristan learned to dance with the vacuum. He loves anything with buttons, hence the fascination with the vacuum. If only I can foster that fascination up into his teen years! Baby Alexandra came to play many times in the past few weeks.

We took the opportunity of another rare break in the clouds to head to the strawberry patch. Maura loved picking the strawberries. They're really the perfect fruit for little pickers--no thorns and they grow right on the ground. Maura reminded me of the book Blueberries for Sal, one of her favorites. In it, the main character picks three berried and eats the rest. You can see the evidence in her basket! She ate WAY more than she picked! Thank goodness the strawberry patch can't weigh and charge you for the ones eaten while in the patch!

My little man is a strawberry addict too and I kept him happy in the stroller by remaining close by and plying him with strawberries. Grammy and Maura with their bounty.

Maura thought this chair was just a little too big!

Tristan enjoyed crawling through the tunnels on the playground at the orchard. Aunt Lorie introduced him to the fun of sliding...while Maura tried of the REALLY BIG SLIDE!

Tristan even tried his first lemon at the orchard. Don't be fooled by the face--he asked for more! My kids will kill me for this one day, but they were just so darn cute wrestling in their skivvies!

We went to Vacation Bible School last week and Maura LOVED it! They had a separate class for the preschoolers, and I was surprised at how into it she became. The teachers said she participated very well. She especially loved the "recess" time they gave the kids!

I took the kids down to check out the "boats" that had been constructed downstairs in the church. They took turns climbing in and out. Daddy with his little crocodile. Even Tristan did well at VBS.

On the last night, they had an ice cream social--hands down Maura's favorite moment of VBS!


"Maura, you better sit down or you'll rock that boat!" "Tristan, I'm not sure if that boat is designed to hold you, hefty boy!"

Dinosaur World

Last Monday on my way back from Tennessee, I wasn't sure if I was going to make it home.  I was travelling alone with both kids and I was SO sleepy!  I had taken some cough medicine with codeine the night before and I think it was still in my system.  I was so worried that I was going to fall asleep while driving.  When Tristan woke up from his car nap at just the right moment, I seized the day and made a spontaneous decision to visit Dinosaur World.  I've passed this place for twelve years on the Bluegrass parkway as I've made my way to my in-law's house and I've never stopped.  It's a true tourist trap in Cave City and like all tourist traps costs an arm and a leg.  I REALLY needed the chance to get out and walk off my medicine head, so I gladly paid the price and we headed in.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was really nice. They had a long shaded walk through the woods with dinos along the way.  They were pretty realistic looking, so it was fun to see them all in the woods.

These raptors looked ready to spring on us! The kids were very interested in all the dinos and Maura wanted to know all their names for the two seconds that she looked at them before running off to the next statue.

Look how huge they were! We don't do too many spontaneous day trips and this was certainly an anomaly to stop in the middle of a long car trip.  I was so glad we did, though!

I told Maura to climb up and look scared.  This was the best she did!  She did get a little worried when I told her that the giant T Rex was going to eat her.  She got a worried look and said, "NO Mommy, he's just pretend!" Brent says this is an anklesaur.  I think he's full of it!

Maura loved petting the triceratops.  She thought the babies were SO CUTE!! It's kind of amazing to think that this is how the world might have looked many thousands of years ago.

Tristan liked riding the baby triceratops. Maura loved the tire swing and spent most of her playground time in it.
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This T Rex mouth was Maura's favorite attraction.  She's talked about it ever since.  She loved pretending like she was going to eat me. She LOVED pretending like she was going to eat her baby brother!

This good little boy stayed in the stroller the whole time without protest.  It's a good thing too--I'm not sure how I would have held him, pushed the stroller and kept up with Maura if he'd been unhappy! Maura went digging for dino bones and I only had to restrain the sand flinging once!  It was such a fun stop along our trip and I'm glad I did it.  I was able to wake up while we were there and continue our trip with very little hazard to myself or my kids.  So, I guess the moral of the story is that tourist traps can be fun, especially on long drives!

Spontaneous Tennessee Trip

Those of you who know me well knew that I probably wouldn't be able to wait out the whole three weeks to see my hubby back from Georgia.  You would be right!  Brent decided to make the drive to Tennessee last weekend to celebrate his father's birthday and we drove on down to join him.  It had been a long two weeks without him and we were ALL overjoyed to see him

Here are the kid's reactions...IMMEDIATE mugging!

They were so excited to see their daddy!!  I was so excited to see my husband.  We were so happy to be a family of four again.  Single parenting is for the birds!  I need the support of my awesome man!

We couldn't wait to try out Nan and Poppa's awesome swimming pool.  They thought it was cold, but we REALLY enjoyed it!  Maura was a real water bug this year.  She's always loved the water, but this year I think she's really gained the strength and confidence to strike out on her own.  We put the water wings on and off she went. Daddy stayed nearby for guidance and security, but she was swimming all on her own.

Poppa joined them in the water and they had a great time. Maura and Nan enjoyed a nice tea party in the shallow end. Talk about a baby being comfortable in the water.  Tristan really took to the water this year too.  He's never had swimming lessons and hasn't been in a pool for months, so I wasn't sure how he'd react.  He immediately started kicking and splashing and giggling all at the same time.  Nan laid him back and he floated on his back for at least a minute.  I'm proud of my baby boy!

What a fun day for the whole family at the pool.

Daddy and Tristan really enjoyed themselves. Even Patton got in on the action.  He took over the top step and chilled out in the water.

Whoa!  Talk about a wide load!  Tristan came straight to the pool from nap time and he didn't get a swim diaper applied.  This diaper had to be uncomfortable, but he wasn't complaining!

Grandmother Chambers met us at church on Sunday and we were so glad to see her.
Tristan was truly Poppa's boy on this trip.  One morning, Nan and Poppa let us sleep in and took the kids for us.  When I woke up, I went to take Tristan from Poppa and my little man had a fit.  He started squealing and holding out his arms for his Poppa.  I think Poppa felt honored and took Tristan off for a golf cart ride. Nan enjoyed playing with Tristan too.  He loved it when she drank her "bottle."

Tristan sitting in the same highchair that GG and Poppa sat in as babies.   I want to know where the tray and the safety straps are!! My little Maestros.  They played us a piano concerto or two for Poppa's birthday.  We spent the afternoon at GG and Grandpoppa's house to celebrate birthdays.  We had a great Tennessee visit and I'm glad we made this spontaneous trip because we probably won't get another chance this summer.

Random Summer Fun

I'm so glad that we're able to finally experience summer.  Generally I love spring.  I love the new life, the leaves coming out on the trees and the flowers blooming everywhere.  Sadly, this year most of that was obscured with cold, nasty, rainy weather.  I've never been so glad to see the summer come.  I don't love hot weather, but as long as it's sunny I'm pretty happy!  We're so excited to get outside and enjoy some outdoor fun!  Here's some pics from the last few weeks.

Brent is going to kill me on this one!  Tristan's hair is just so beautiful and curly that I couldn't resist!  I stuck one of Maura's bows in and he looked so cute! Aww, little Trista!  I promise I'll never do this again, it was just too tempting!

Tristan and Alex have had several walks together in the double stroller.  The stroller also has a little platform over the front wheel and Maura likes to sit there and hold on to the bar.  Try pushing that load!  That's over 65 pounds of kids+a heavy stroller!
We went out to Mom and Dad's to "swim" the other day.  Their big pool wasn't open yet, so we enjoyed the baby pool.  Tristan took some refreshing drinks--yuck!

Maura played fetch and set up her own "diving board." Watch out below!

Tristan finally moved on to my drink and had himself an icy snack! Here's Maura's most recent acquisition.  She calls it her "teeny tiny vacuum" and she sucks up all of Tristan's messes after each meal.  It's worth it's weight in gold!

I was being goofy the other day and stuck Alex in Maura's doll stroller.  Tristan was enchanted.  He loves the baby and he was so excited to have her on wheels.  He would NOT let me touch this stroller.  HE wanted to push it! Alex actually liked it despite being all squished up.

Too cute.  I love that my kids are going to be able to grow up next to at least one set of cousins.  I hope they'll always be great friends.

This one is for Brent, my wonderful, loving husband who is so sad to be missing his sweet baby's milestones. Tristan started really letting go of things on Saturday and by Sunday he was taking a few steps away from support. All this week he's been gradually increasing the distance he'll attempt--too far and he still just flops down on hands and knees to get there. I still wouldn't say he's actually walking because long walks like these are few and far between, but he's definitely on his way. It makes his momma sad!! It's funny to me--Maura walked at about the same age. She took steps the day of her first birthday party and started walking in earnest a few weeks later. It seemed to me that it took FOREVER for her to walk. Maybe it was because she crawled and cruised for such a long time before she walked. Maybe I was just a first time mom who didn't realize the full implications of having a toddler! I haven't been in any hurry for Tristan to start walking. It is crazy to think about that he was just learning to pull to stand two months ago. Crazy how they develop so very quickly. I'm going to miss my little baby--toddlerhood here we come!!