tidbits

long naps for the boys and my case cancelling yesterday because the lil guy was sick gave us an impromptu park adventure. the air was still warm, but it didn't deter us. we walked as a family and were graced with a quiet park. we were the only ones there. and so caleb climbed and chatted. lucas watched and smiled. dave pushed and chased. i snapped pictures and soaked up our family time together. it was the perfect way to end a good monday.

swings

hanging on the monkey bars with daddy's strong arms near to catch

the curve of a smile watching big brother play

 

sweet sleep.

life seems to have settled down for a bit, finally. we have our appointments all set up for caleb later this month and next. lucas is sleeping like a dream 12-13 hours at night now without waking up and needing us in the night, when we lay in him in the crib at night he doesn't cry at all anymore, he just curls up with his little lovey friend. this is a wonderful thing. i love sleeping and i love that both boys are finally sleeping so good. but i'm still nervous at night that one or both boys will wake up...we're still in new sleep land with lucas and caleb's been doing great with the door closed once again :) (why did we wait so long with the door again?? his melt downs basically stopped as soon as we closed his door at night and his nighttime sleep went back to normal! he is totally back to his happy self! oh sleep. caleb you have always needed your sleep!! even if you fight it the most!)

 anyway.. i'm about ready to click the 'register' button for a half marathon in october in morgan hill....after all the back and forth it is easier to do a race locally instead of down in slo so that the boys can be there and we don't have to try and figure out night time camping/hotel reservations, yadiiya. so the training is um...kinda starting. the longest run i've with my running friend is 4 miles (since our 10k)...so hopefully this weekend we'll do our long run and our 3 mile runs will hopefully get faster. work is good for dave. and life seems a little more smooth sailing once again. it finally feels like summer for me. hot. sprinklers. barefeet. warm summer mornings and evenings. i've been relaxing in the swing outside while the boys play. we're done with all the apts. and busy-ness that that the past couple months have given us. and it is nice. oh so nice. for however long it lasts, i'm thankful for the peaceful place we are at right now. all those hard, busy, stressful, tearful moments of the past couple months make me so appreciate these calmer days.

weekend in ipics.

so here are some weekend snapshots-all on my phone with instagram-cause i'm obsessed (this is sometimes the best way to capture those little everyday moments)

starting with friday. oh how i love friday. daddy walks in the door, home from work, and the weekend begins.

 

i love how the boys are perched on their daddy. leaning in-listening. a little hand on his knee, a toddler hand on his chest. little moments like these make my heart melt.

 so these are flowers i picked from our yard (grown by green thumb hubby of course) i'm not sure why i haven't picked our flowers and put them in a vase before. but this is something i need to do more of! dave on the other hand has done this for me in the past-picking our flowers and displaying them on the table for me. they always smell so good and look so pretty!

 like i've said in the past, little man is crawling everywhere-but now he is also standing everywhere too. i'm glad this kitchen can be used by two little boys now. it is a nice distraction for them while we're in the kitchen baking or cooking!

 and i just love that lil bum.

 we did some yard work this weekend (and by we-i mostly mean dave-and two little 'helping' boys. i mostly kept lucas from hamming his way right into dave's pant legs and tools while caleb observed and kept up a constant chatter. i mean-i weeded a few plants if that counts) anyway dave took out a 'weed' tree/plant that was gigantic and a huge, overgrown 'not so catching for the eye' plant. in their place he planted a grape tree (to hopefully grow onto the arbor for some patio shade) and some pretty flowers. caleb watered those flowers today, while lucas tried to ham in again, and i watched from my perch on the swing.

and this was my favorite morning moment. lucas woke up from his nap so big brother went in to greet him with smiles and 'hi lucas'  plus some chatter. he brought over the Ottoman to stand on-of course. and they had themselves a 'brotherly convo' while i spied from the doorway and snapped a couple pictures. i think lucas was trying to get his hands on caleb's raisins.

so we had a nice, hot, mostly relaxing weekend. it continues to be hot but i don't mind so much. we spend the early mornings outside before it gets too hot and then the boys spend the afternoon napping in the cool house. i'm ready for a hot week. water, pool, sprinklers, bare feet, (early morning runs-because i die at the 5pm, 90 degree runs) and cold watermelon and crunchy grape snacks. the week is looking good.

happy monday :)

mud puddles

Happy Friday!

we've been slipping outside every morning this week. 8:00am sunshine. and then we hole in the house for the (very hot) afternoons-cooling off during nap time. yesterday daddy came home from work and turned on the sprinklers. caleb assisted and lucas splashed his way through every mud puddle he could find. i love long summer days with my boys. and now the weekend is upon us. we'll most likely be found in the backyard-finding mud puddles.

i finished my very good book (that after thinking it through i don't think i already read...maybe just a book by the same author?...excited to have found another author i like!)

a funny story about friendship with some twists and turns. i was really pulled into the characters, especially the main character. this would make a great book club book! (especially if it is all females) i love stories on female friendships and can't wait to read another one of her books :)

i hit the jackpot and am reading another really good book this week. two great books in a row? i never get this lucky in finding great library books back to back! can you tell i'm excited?

i just started this book today and am already hooked. it is based on a true story, and is another beautiful story on female friendship and strength! (another great book club book) it mostly takes place in Afghanistan and sheds light on the women over there and their amazing strength! more info here

we have a birthday party and some backyard weeding activities this weekend...hoping to wash our cars too. it may not sound all that exciting, but i'm excited to just be home and relaxing this weekend!

off to do some happy friday skipping, sashaying, and twirling, with a dance or two thrown in there too :)

sunshine and breeze through the windows.

the backyard beckoned this morning (and every morning this week). the sun shone through the open windows letting in a soft breeze and fresh air scent. we ate breakfast and scooted outside where rays of sunshine warmed our skin at the early 8am hour. the boys played. i swayed softly back and forth on the swing, deep in my book. a camera by my side capturing the little moments that make up our days.

 

 rocks and sticks. bare toes and sunshine's warmth. two little boys-happiness.

 

p.s. lucas slept (quietly) all night last night (no check-ins. no nursing) i woke up once. to go to the bathroom (body.is.not.used.to.full night of sleep!). so dave and i can't figure out why we're so tired> could it be maybe cause it's been almost a year since we have not had to remove ourselves from the bed. so used to our once/twice/wakings with babe...anywhoo. sleep feels so good. way to go lucas!! what a champ. it took 10 minutes last night before little man fell asleep at bedtime. i think it is safe to say a week after our 'self soothing' mission for lucas we are all experiencing... happy dreams in the land of nod. :)

and tomorrow is friday. double goodness wrapped up over here.

tidbits here and there.

moments like this-where the boys are happy with their task at hand. happy sounds in the house. a smile on my lips.

random tidbits this week.
we were finally able to make caleb's apt. with the pediatric endocrinologist! what a relief to have that scheduled. our dr. put urgent on the paperwork because they had no openings till the end of the year. as it is the soonest is sept. 14. which we took because otherwise we wouldn't be able to get in until after December! this is a huge relief to have scheduled and taken care of. I've been on the phone back and forth with the dr.'s office and children's hospital trying to get all the paperwork through. What a process.

for now we can rest and wait until our OT apt. and endocrinology apt.

it is hot here. running in the morning is nice. running at 5...not so nice. and maybe all the heat made me a little crazy. I had my first face splat yesterday on our run. I fell-face planted- into the street. all cars there to witness. i'm left with bruised pride along with some scratches and a really sore shoulder! hello. the last time i face planted like that was in high school! how embarrassing.

lucas is now officially weaned at night :) last night he went 13 hours. and only woke up twice before putting himself back to sleep after a few minutes (with one check- in from dad). as for dave and I, we still haven't slept through the night...hoping that'll be soon. maybe when we take our first vacation just the two of us (which i am hoping is sometime in sep. or october!) have i mentioned the love i have for my wonderful (purple) sleep book? it is full of amazing help and information.

we've been watching the gymnastics (online...no tv remember? lol) i cry every time! track and field is next. oh and swimming too. gymnastics and swimming are my fav. running is dave's. (now i get a little more excited about the running though!)

i'm reading a really good book...but i can't remember if i've already read it. does this ever happen to anyone else? so random i know :)

we had a new friend come over this morning. sweet as can be and her mom is the one who ref. us to the OT we will be going to at the end of the month. (her sweet little girl goes there). Watching the two of them play made me feel like we added another special friend to our lives.

Wednesday is my friday...and tonight after work, i will feel like the weekend has almost started. i'm ready for a relaxing weekend. life has taken us on a busy path....i'm ready to get back to relaxing barefoot backyard days.

happy half way through the week wednesday :)

Happy 11 months lucas!

Happy 11 months little man! I'm a little late on this one, but better late than never!

Here's what our little  guy has been up to this month :)

 crawling. everywhere. and by everywhere-i mean everywhere.

 eating. everything! this includes everything we eat, plus some....meaning anything found on the ground. (as you can see from the picture he found the bucket of tree apples and decided to try a munch)

 playing. laughing. saying 'ma ma' 'da da' 'ba ba' maybe a hi in there? waving. playing peek-a-boo. looking at books. mostly just crawling. everywhere. and pulling self to stand on everything.

sleeping. we've finally helped lucas learn how to self-soothe. it has been about a week. we started after our trip back from camping. no travels for awhile, no new teeth, no sickness, etc. this was as good a time as any. we used my wonderful sleep book (the sleep easy solution) more info about that here. it includes everything on sleep. how much sleep for each age....how to help through each developmental stage. i think i've probably read it hundreds of times. it is a wonderful resource for the land of nod. anyway lucas is doing great. he's sleeping 12 hours and last night was his last middle of the night nursing (i've been slowing weaning his one night feed). we're almost back to getting a full night of sleep. and lucas just cuddles with his lovey. he was ready (he started waking up a ton at night and it was just affecting us all!) anyway.  he's sleeping about 12-13 hours at night and napping once or twice a day (depending on his wake him) for 2-3 hours.

Lucas we love you so much. You bring so much joy and happiness to our lives. We love watching you as you learn about your world and interact with you brother. You just love to wiggle your way into everything and you always want to be right in there and part of the action! If we leave the room you follow right on our heals in speedster crawl. We love each stage and can't believe we are almost to your first birthday! Happy 11 months little man :)

shout of from the eye doctor's.

hey there.

 

quite a look with those glasses. am i right? so my sisters and i all had glasses starting in kindergarten. i'm thinking if the boys need them...it won't be so bad. they're pretty cute wearing them in a nerdy sort of way :)

anyway caleb had his eye dr. apt. follow up yesterday. it was a brutal drive but well worth it. his pediatric optomologist is amazing. we actually had three wonderful doctors in the room for his eye exam and they checked lucas' eyes too-free of charge-. i'm so grateful for such a wonderful and amazing eye dr for caleb. both boys did great. lucas' eyes are totally fine and caleb's working so hard correcting his eye on his own (he has intermittent exotropia) that for now we don't need to do much of anything. we have a follow up apt. in a year. it was such a relief to hear that good news! as for his blood work we are still waiting to schedule an apt. with the pediatric endocrinologist at standford children's hospital. (his lab work is still processing through). this has been a slow process. but we are in the best of hands!

i couldn't resist. we were pretty cute with those glasses right? i mean my mom 'helped' us pick out those frames. excellent taste. i especially love lor's.