Staying busy

We've been staying busy around here, but I suppose when you have three kids that's inevitable, and Memorial Day weekend was no different. Tommalamma and I ran errands all day on Friday, to the bank, setting up a meeting with the financial adviser, getting Sexy Flexy inspected, dropping off stuff with Tom, AND buying the kids new shoes. Nordstrom was having a sale in the children's department and since I had a gift card I decided to check out their shoe selection. They happened to have Keens on sale and Anne's always raving about them and our kids tear through shoes in record time, so I decided to give them a chance. I got both girls a pair to wear now (and hopefully they last through the fall) and got Tommy a pair to wear when he's older and walking. I foolishly bought Stasa's pair in her current size and they were a tad too tight so we went back to the mall that evening to exchange them for a larger size. The girls love going to the Nordstrom kids shoe section because there are free balloons there. Of course once we were at the mall we let the girls have some play time at the play place and watched Stasa and Lexi play their version of hide and seek.

After the mall we decided to eat out and on a whim chose Benihana. Tom wasn't sure it would be kid friendly, but I figured the girls would enjoy watching the "show" and I was right. The chef flipped food around and made an onion volcano and generally just entertained the kids at the table. I was slightly surprised at what the girls ate. Stasa was really adept with her chopsticks and even managed to grasp the tiny slices of scallion in her soup. She ate most of her soup, including the scallions and mushrooms, all of the shrimp appetizer, some of her chicken, and a ton of rice. She tried the veggies, but wasn't a huge fan. Lexi played with her soup - shocker - and ate all of her rice and none of her chicken, but she did eat most of her shrimp appetizer. Both girls enjoyed the rainbow sherbet that was included with their meal.



We spent Saturday at dance class and hanging out at home. It was way too cold for the pool and pretty windy so Tom took the girls out to play and fly their kites. Stasa did a pretty good job getting the kite up on her own and both kids had fun playing outside with Tom and I enjoyed some "quiet" time with Tommalamma and the vacuum.


Sunday was spent running all over the place. I made our meal plan for the week and then a shopping list for Target, Costco, and Safeway. We did the usual Merkel family trip to Costco and the girls had a blast sampling all of the food. I'm always amazed at the variety they're willing to eat when it's served on a toothpick. Before we went to the store I gave Stasa one of our old digital cameras and she was snap happy at Costco. So much so that I had to clear the camera's memory a couple of times during our trip so she could continue to take pictures of boxes and food and strangers.


She's quite happy with herself and her photo taking abilities. As soon as I find the cord for that camera I'll share her many artistic shots.

The pool was actually open on Monday, but it was still too cold and I knew the girls wouldn't get in the water so we hung out at home and thoroughly cleaned the kitchen and both of our pantries. The girls were pretty patient and entertained themselves for the most part. After their nap we took them out to the playground and let them run around for a bit before dinner. Lexi is still apprehensive of the swings and prefers to just sit on the big kid swings and avoids the kiddie swings. Well, of course there was a long wait to use the big kid swings as is usual on a nice day so we tried to convince Lexi to use the kiddie swings since she wanted to swing and we didn't have all day to wait. Stasa, being the good big sister that she is, hopped off of her big kid swing and ran over to the kiddie swings to get Lexi to join her. With Stasa by her side Lexi actually enjoyed the swings and even cracked a smile.



I love watching the girls at the playground. They have so much energy, especially Stasa, and it's nice to watch them run all over the place and climb and swing and slide. It's even better to watch them start to run out of steam because that means they'll sleep soundly and get a good night's rest.

All the busyness makes for one tired mama during the week. Well, that and the little man who insists on waking up for every possible feeding available to him, which means I'm up about every 2-3 hours at night and then listening to him grunt from 5:00 am until our alarms go off. So Tommy spends nearly every morning and afternoon napping and then takes cat naps on me the rest of the day. He's the first of our kids to really nap in the bouncer and I'm so grateful because it allows me to have two hands so I can make dinner and eat my lunch and shower. And he's just so adorable when he's sleeping.


When he's not sleeping or eating or pooping, and believe me those three things fill up the majority of our days - when he's not doing any of those things he's hanging around staring at me. And I kinda love when he does that because he's got beautiful eyes, eyes that I'm pretty sure will be blue like Tom's. And when he smiles his gas smiles he has the most adorable dimple forming on his left cheek.

Goofballs

The girls and I had a pretty good day last Sunday while Tom and Matt went to the game. We played around the house in our pajamas and finally got dressed and out of the house after nap.

My silly weirdos:






In the midst of all of the silliness, they painted some farm animals and a barn I made out of old file folders.



More silliness at the park:




And after the park we all decided we needed a treat, so we went to "the ice cream store" to get ice cream for the girls and hot chocolate for me. Stasa looked through all of the ice cream options and finally settled on one of the pink ones and then Lexi picked the same.

We stopped the swaddle. Cold turkey.

As you've seen from my many posts about it, Lexi is a rolling machine. Well, unfortunately her rolling over isn't limited to awake time anymore; she's rolling all over her crib, which casuses her to wake up well before she's ready, which makes for a crabby baby and a crabby mommy. No bueno.

She forced my hand a little early. I was hoping to keep her swaddled a bit longer, at least until we had Ferberized her, but I worry about her rolling over without having her arms free to lift her head off of the mattress.  So we ended up putting her down unswaddled for her nap on Saturday. I checked on her no less than 15 times, every time I was sure she would have her nose in the mattress, but she was on her tummy with her head turned to the side. And she actually slept a decent amount. It makes me kind of sad though that she doesn't need the swaddle anymore. ::wipes tear:: Such a big girl. Look at her, getting ready to roll over and soothe herself to sleep.



Oh, I didn't mention that? Yeah, not only is she going down unswaddled, I've also been putting her down awake. And she's been quietly putting herself to sleep. I'm loving it.

Of course the Great Unswaddle wasn't our entire weekend - we kept pretty busy, especially since it was so nice out. Saturday we walked to the pool and splashed around for about an hour or so. Tom got Stasa chicken fingers and fries at the pool snack bar since she was being so well behaved and she scarfed those down in between playing.

It was still nice out when the girls woke up after nap, but it was also the time of day I loathe - mosquito time, so we took them to the mall to let Stasa run around the play place. Loony toon loved that.


Sunday was pretty jam packed. After breakfast we took a walk to the playground and found that if we put Lexi in the stroller without her car seat, she's happy as a clam (for the most part), so walks will soon become much more enjoyable for everyone. We also learned that if you go to the playground at 10:00 am on a Sunday, you'll have the whole thing to yourself. Nice, but kind of boring.

We were so hot and sticky when we got back from the playground (since it's about a 30 minute walk), I decided to suit up and take Stas over to the pool to cool off.

We ran into the same little boy she played with on Saturday, only this time he was a little bit mean. He got mad at his grandmother for taking away a toy, walked up to Stas, and pinched her. She looked at him like he was crazy, walked over to me, and said "he not nice, mommy." Other than that, she had a lot of fun and didn't want to leave at all. Of course I neglected to put sunscreen on my legs, so they got a little more sun than I wanted. Oh well.

It's always fun playing outside

Since it was relatively nice on Sunday we took Stasa out in her wagon for a bit and then to the playground to burn off some energy. If given the choice she'd have us stay at the playground for hours - she never seems to run out of energy. She was not at all happy with us when we said it was time to go. I can't wait until we fence in our entire backyard so we can just let her run free. 

Enjoying the weather (and some cookies)

It was so beautiful last night when Tom and Stasa got home so we decided to let her run around outside in the common area, only we didn't make it past our neighbor's old swingset and slide. The neighbors recently moved out so we let her play on it for a bit. I don't think that swingset has been used for years, but it looks sparkling clean now that all of the dirt is on the seat and knees of Stasa's pants. Since it's supposed to be another gorgeous day today I think I'll take her to the big playground after daycare. 


Sorry the pictures are a bit dark and grainy, but the sun was already setting by the time I decided to take some pictures.









Once it got dark we came in to relax while Tom grilled our dinner. 
"More juice!"






And since she ate all of her dinner, she got some cookies for dessert.

Playground fun

Ohhhhhhhh man, Stasa LOVES our playground. It's huge and has multiple sections. We usually take her on the one built for the smallest toddlers and she'll run around and climb on the equipment and swing. 


Oh, look! She's eating mulch!









The other day we decided to try out the 2-5 year old fenced in playground and she went crazy. There's a little bouncy bridge connecting two of the larger pieces of equipment and she spent most of the time running across that or standing at the end and jumping. She loves sliding, but gets so mad when she can't climb back up those slides because they're too steep and she just doesn't have the upper body strength to pull herself up yet. 


I wanted to try yet another playground section, so after the 2-5 year old one we headed over to the BIG kids playground. Our kid is such a big girl. She was fearless and wanted to go down all of the tallest slides and tubes and was able to climb back up one of the tallest slides. She spent about 30 minutes sliding down and climbing back up, the whole time saying "vweeee!" 


I can't wait until the weather is a bit cooler and the slides aren't as hot so we can spend more time at the playground. Oh! And they even have a volleyball court and we saw some other smaller kids making sand castles on it, so we're going to bring her sand toys next time. 


And when your kid spends all of that time running around and climbing up and down a slide, they are EXHAUSTED on the way home. 

A year ago today

A year ago today Stasa was just a little peanut crawling around the playground and today she's climbing up and down the big kid slides and running all over the place.

Bathing, playing and pigging

So far we've had an action-packed summer. Stasa and I have spent many an afternoon soaking up the sun at the pool and this weekend Tom and I took her into the big kid pool and she LOVED it! Plus she can stand and walk in the 2 feet section and even climb out using the ladder. She especially loves when we count to 3 and then dip her in the water. I love our little water baby.


And speaking of water, this kid can't get enough of it and squeals when it's bath time, too. She stands at the edge of the tub, stretching to get into the warm water and the minute her butt hits the tub, she scrambles to toss in her toys and spends the majority of the time splashing and thrashing like a wild child.








On Thursday, I spontaneously decided to stop at the playground on the way home from work since I had packed flip flops for myself and it was a gorgeous day. Stasa ran straight to the swings, but then was ready to get out and run around after just a few pushes. She figured out how to climb up the structure to get to the slide and even sat and pushed herself down the slide, but she hasn't quite grasped the "take your turn" approach to playground play. As soon as she reached the bottom of the slide, she clamored back up the slide to go again. Unfortunately there were a few other kids waiting not-so-patiently for their turn, so Stasa learned a hard lesson that day: SHARE. She also managed to scare a little girl who was about 3 by simply running up to her with her shark teeth exposed in a humongous grin. Apparently this little girl is never around other kids and gets frightened easily. Kind of strange.






And it's not quite summer without crunching into a slice of watermelon, is it? Stasa LOVES watermelon, as do Tom and I, and the way she eats it cracks us up. She DEVOURS eat piece just like her daddy.





I LOVE SUMMER!