Boys of Summer

My boys of summer ♥

This is another delayed blog post, but it's been an interesting few months. The Summer of 2013 was quite an eventful and fun few months for the Morton boys and me!  Perhaps the biggest event was learning that I'm pregnant, but there was a lot of fun in addition to that too. I may be one of the few stay at home moms out there that actually loves the words "School's out for summer" almost as much as the kids do, but I honestly loved spending the summer with Dominic and Blake. I mean, what's better than spending these long summer days outside at the pool with my 2 little fish? Being able to sleep late later than usual doesn't hurt either, and I not only love all of fun of going to the pool but I also adore all of the other summertime festivities: playing with the slip 'n slide outside down our steep front yard (perfect slip 'n slide yard), the splash pad, grilling out, and going to the beach among other things. Summer has been my favorite time of the year (with Christmas being up there too) since I was a kid because of my birthday (no longer a pro for summer), swim team, and of course no school. That no school reason continued on throughout college and then when I was a teacher as well. It's so fun reliving the fun of my childhood with my boys this summer. Having fun and a very lax schedule, and of course making amazing memories doesn't hurt either. The fact that we learned that we're expecting Baby #3 this summer made for an even more amazing summer too! 

Fish 1

Fish 2

However, getting things done around the house or running errands are fails over the season. It's hard to get a lot done when we're constantly at the pool or playing outside (first world problems), and taking both boys to run errands is nearly impossible. I have vowed never to take both boys to Target ever again many times, but I always end up needing to go back. The cart situation is the biggest problem. I can't drive their big carts, so I end up using a regular cart and just putting Dominic in the big section and seating Blake in the kid's seat facing me. Unfortunately, Blake ends up wanting to be carried, and we run out of room in the cart with Dominic. So, then I've tried having Dominic walk, but the kid gets distracted by everything and walks at a snail's pace, driving me nuts. This situation improved by the end of the summer, but of course at that point all I felt like doing was laying around the couch thanks to my pregnancy sickness, so that didn't help my level of productivity. 

We loved going swimming about every other day! Dominic swims independently, eventually making it the entire length of the pool (25 yards) completely on his own without stopping. He also enjoys going off of the 3 meter (see the video here: Dominic on the High Board!) and 1 meter diving boards especially the low one (which he calls the "little board").  I don't worry about him drowning, which has made this summer 100X easier. 

Just hanging around the pool

Wet and wild!

On the other hand, Blake has been a lot crazier at the pool. He believes he can swim too, and yes, he's learning too and doing an awesome job, swimming about 3 feet between people on his own and being able to grab the wall, but I really have to watch him and chase after him because he likes to just climb down into the water and always goes under with a big smile on his face. Blake loves to kick and pull and tries to swim but doesn't have the strength quite yet. By the end of the summer, he has started propelling himself between 2 people a few feet and started pulling his head out from under the water. What really stresses me out is that he loves to get in and out of the pool and walk all over the pool deck, getting into everything. I literally chase him all around the pool, just holding my breath waiting for him to face plant and chip a tooth or worse. 

Taking both boys to the pool by myself is something I've only done a couple of times because it's too stressful especially when I have to worry about taking Dominic to the bathroom when he needs to go. Since Dominic has been so great about letting me know when he needs to go #2, that's been great and he only wears a reusable diaper (or underwear/big kid pants as he and I call them) instead of the plastic cover on top of the diaper. I still want to ere on the side of caution and he doesn't realize the reusable diapers are anything other than underwear, so I figure what's the difference. Better to be safe than sorry and have an accident in the pool! At the beginning of the summer he did have an accident in our inflatable baby pool in the backyard, but that was because he was wearing a disposable diaper. 

The Outer Banks

In addition to the spending the summer at the pool, we've been staying surprisingly busy with playgroups, beach trips, day camp, and other fun! Brian and I went to the beach 3 different times this summer and the boys came with us for 2 of those. Our first beach trip was to the Outer Banks in North Carolina with Brian's family. Because we were meeting Brian's relatives from the New Jersey area, we met sort of halfway. Unfortunately, that meant that Brian and I had to drive close to 12 hours in the car with 2 young kids. Although the boys were FANTASTIC on the drive (mostly thanks to the best invention ever, the portable DVD player), it was still such a long drive that we had to split the drive up and stop overnight on the drive up as well as the drive back. Once we got there, it was a lot of fun, and the boys did well sharing a bedroom aside from waking up way earlier than usual. The sand was beautiful and soft, so there was a lot of sand castle building especially since the water was too cold for us to get into the water. This made for a different beach experience since typically we spend most of the time in the water instead of on the beach. There was a lot of pool time too since we had our very own private pool (pretty awesome). Not knowing that I was barely pregnant, I enjoyed frozen drinks by/in the pool. Brian's family was a big help too, helping it be more of a vacation for me, which was nice, and the boys love all of the attention too. :) 

In July, Brian and I took a long weekend and went to Clearwater Beach in Florida to celebrate our belated 5th anniversary. It was beautiful but obviously not exotic or anything. However, 3 nights away was exotic in and of itself. This was the first time Brian and I had been away from the boys for that long together. We did take a 2 night vacation away from Dominic in November of 2011 at Northside Hospital to have Blake. ;)  It was a group effort as far as babysitters that weekend. My mom stayed with the boys on the Thursday afternoon that we left, over night at our house, and all day Friday until my sister Stephanie arrived and was able to stay with the boys overnight that night, all day Saturday, and overnight again on Saturday night. Then Brian's parents stayed with the boys during the day on Sunday until we got home that late afternoon. It's times like these when we are especially thankful to have so much family who live so close to us! 

Celebrating the best 5 years of my life with the love of my life!

The trip itself was wonderful and I can truly even refer to it as a vacation! Even though I was in the midst of first trimester pregnancy sickness and obviously not able to enjoy real frozen drinks, it was still incredibly relaxing and fun and an altogether different beach experience from taking the boys the month before. It was an actual vacation because we got to sleep late, I got 10 consecutive hours of sleep for the first time in over 3 years, dinners out at restaurants where we didn't have to rush to get done before a meltdown occurred, laying by the pool instead of chasing after little boys, and best of all spending lots of alone time with Brian. It was a great way to celebrate 5 years since we said "I do." I have to admit though that I did miss the boys a lot, and we were happy to get back to them at the end of the weekend. As much as I love relaxing, the beach is more fun with wild, little boys. 

Riding the waves in Amelia

Splishing and splashing in the ocean 

Our last trip to the beach was our annual trip to Amelia Island, Florida with my parents. Every year we go down to my parents' beach condo, the same one I've gone to since I was a baby. It's right on the beach and on an exclusive resort, so it's a great vacation. This time Brian didn't get to partake in the vacationing because he was working the entire time. He literally only made it out to the beach with us twice the entire week. :( This beat him having to stay in Atlanta and me having to drive the boys on my own, but it was still not fun. This truly was a working vacation for me since I had to take care of the boys so much. Luckily my parents helped too. Dominic and Blake had a much different experience from earlier in the summer because this time they were OBSESSED with the ocean. Dominic loved getting in the water and being hit by waves and Blake liked getting in too and just sitting in the surf. 

all ready for his first day of summer camp!

SporTots Camp!

In addition to our multiple (amazing) beach trips and lots of pool time, Dominic also participated in his first summer camp, a sports camp, which he loved. I only had him do one because I wasn't sure how he'd like it, and then the rest of the summer I wanted to keep things lower key. I'm thinking next summer I might have him do another camp, but this summer I really enjoyed our time together and want to enjoy the time with him (and Blake while I can). Honestly, I would much rather have a constant day each week throughout the summer where they go to "camp" and I can get things done. Anyway, Dominic loved all of the running around, ball playing, and sports at the camp, so that was the most important thing. 

As school ended and summer began, Dominic went from inconsistently napping (not napping every 3 days but napping the days in between) to napping very regularly. I'm not sure if was the warm weather or just exhausting him with swimming and other outdoor activities every day, but I didn't question it. I just took advantage of those 2 hours a day throughout the summer when I could nap, relax, or get things done (although not long after becoming pregnant the 2 hour break primarily consisted of my nap time). Blake continued his 2 - 2.5 hour naps each day as well. 

Just a spoon full of cuteness!

Over the summer, Blake grew immensely! Our gentle giant went from a size 5 shoe at the beginning of the summer to a size 7 in the course of 2 months. It was crazy. Over the summer, he decided he wanted to start feeding himself with a spoon (although he's still perfecting that skill and making a huge mess until then!). He also gained some 2 year molars as well as a great deal of 1 year old food pickiness, so now his meats are limited to turkey and he refuses to eat vegetables. He literally eats 2 to 4 bananas a day, as bananas are his favorite food by far. He likes grapes and apples too in addition to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, yogurt, Cheerios, Rice Chex, Goldfish, crackers, graham crackers, bread of any kind, fettuccine Alfredo, and cheese. Not a lot of variety especially considering 6 months ago the kid would eat anything you put in front of him with peas being his favorite food. 

 Blake has also acquired a ton more words in his vocabulary. I can't count the number of words he's saying, but right now some of his favorite words and phrases include jump (also a favorite activity of his especially when he wants to jump off the diving board at the pool), it's stuck (because he tends to get things stuck a lot), tickle tickle (when he wants to be tickled), Cheerios, eat, cheese, plane (every single time he hears/sees a plane outside), train, truck, TV (as he holds the remote control in his hand to turn it on), hi and bye ("dye" to everyone he sees), slide, outside (more like a demand like "Let's go outside!" as he stands at the window), and various animals such as sheep, dog, cat, turtle, fish (which actually sounds like he's saying "shit"). 

Blake's first jump off the diving board!

Blake enjoys RUNNING around all over the place, playing with his trains and cars, going down slides, running around more, reading books especially Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? (which he has memorized and reads along with us and identifies by name when he wants to read it and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It's the cutest thing when Blake will walk over with his book of choice, sit down on your lap, and open the book up for you to read, re-read, and read again. The same thing applies with the song and dance for "Ring Around the Rosie." He LOVES that but cries when it's over until you keep doing it. He also enjoys seeing and doing the gestures for the "Wheels on the Bus" as a close second. "Curious George" and "Super Why" are his 2 favorite TV shows but he's also a fan of Elmo on "Sesame Street." 

Cray Cray and oh so cute!

Along with the 2 year molars came the Terrible Twos behaviors (not fun). When he doesn't get his way, Blake often becomes upset and screams ridiculously loud and/or lays on the floor sobbing. He hates being told no or being scolded at all and will often cry very sadly when those things happen. He's even started serving time in "the timeout room" aka the dining room which we have gated off. This is also where Dominic goes to timeout but he sits in the timeout chair, the eventual goal for Blake. Blake stays in timeout for 1 minute (a minute per year of age), while Dominic sits in timeout for 3 minutes. 

Perhaps the biggest challenge with Blake recently is the fact that the child runs off. He loves to explore and be chased and worst of all is very fast which doesn't work well with the fact that I'm pregnant watching 2 boys run in 2 different directions. Fenced in playgrounds are a requirement now for park play dates. I know Dominic went through the same phase but this seems even worse because it's so much more difficult to chase after 2 kids than just 1. I look forward to Blake moving out of this lovely stage, but on the other hand, I do think this is just more in line with his personality. I have a feeling his teen years will be filled with incidents of Blake sneaking out of the house. I can't wait for that. No matter what mischief that Blake gets into, he almost always ends up looking at me with the biggest, cutest smile across his face that makes it nearly impossible to be mad at him. I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse. 

As Blake is running all over the place, Dominic continues to request that Blake chase him. The two are very best friends and never have as much fun as they do with each other. Thank God for the constant entertainment that they provide for each other. Brian and I jokingly refer to the boys as "natives" because they act so wild and crazy. 

One of Dominic's favorite activities this summer: jumping off the diving board!

As Dominic hit 3 and a half years old this summer, he wore size 4T shirts and pajamas, 3T shorts, and 9 shoes. He continued to successfully use the toilet over the summer even at the pool (thankfully). I honestly neglected doing a lot of the academics I planned to do with Dominic over the summer mostly because we were either busy or I didn't feel up to it, but he continues to excel at reading sight words, knowing his letters and letter sounds and be on the cusp of reading. Dominic can rote count to 20 but we are still working on one to one correspondence. We did work on counting and calendar skills throughout the summer. 

Dominic continued speech therapy over the summer and seems to be improving as he is speaking more and more and better and better. He's finally pretty much broken his tendency to speak in 3rd person, which has helped immensely. His words in a sentence still get a little out of order at times, but he seems to be doing better with that as well. With his improved speech has come bossy speech. Dominic has taken over the role of boss after being bossed around by so many of his (girl) friends in the last couple of years. It has become clear that he is quite the rule follower. If anyone - especially Blake - is breaking a rule, Dominic is the first one to tell me. Such a creature of habit, he now almost always takes his plate after meals, wipes it off in the trash can and either places it on the counter or in the dishwasher without having to be told to do so. 

These days Dominic's favorite thing to do is go to the beach with a close second swimming at the pool as well as reading and going to Jump Jump, an inflatable place. He continues to love reading the Little Critter book series along with Clifford, the Bearenstain Bears, and Curious George books. Dominic loves to read in his bed before he falls asleep at nap time and bedtime. Dominic really could sit and "read" for hours. I can't wait for him to truly learn how to read. Dominic's favorite movies/TV shows over the summer continued to be Curious George but expanded to Disney Movies like Dumbo and Bambi when I was suffering through my first trimester and was too sick to get off of the couch in the afternoon. Those movies saved us, and Dominic loved them. 

Part of our typical summer routine - picnic lunch poolside. Love!

I can't believe that the summer is over. As much as I appreciate the time I'll have to be productive while the boys are at school, I truly will miss them and spending time with them this summer. I hate to even think about when the boys go off to kindergarten and I won't get to spend the days with them. It's also crazy to think about the fact that this was the last summer that I will be spending with just Dominic and Blake, just the 3 of us. Next summer, I'll have have a 3rd child to juggle! I can safely say I won't be having a relaxing summer for a while, but honestly I think it's a lot more fun that way. :) 

A fun summer for our family of four (and a half in my belly)