Summer Staycation Journal

To capitalize on the day off work for the 4th I took some extra days off last week. Below are our adventures.

Thursday:
In the morning Cole and Henry had their first swim lessons. I have been mocking swim lessons for awhile now because I know that they will end in failure (they are too young to swim). Anyway, it pretty much stunk. The instructor seems to be an odd duck, with big old man-boobs. This is only relevant because it makes my man-boobs look like little-boy boobs which is always nice. The classes were just very boring and he did the same exact things with the baby group as he did with the toddler group. Cole, of course, did not like it at first and didn't want to go in the pool, which is funny since he whined about going into the pool for about 20 minutes while we waited for Henry's class to finish. He warmed up though and enjoyed being thrown around. I went rogue with my own advanced class and had Cole dunking about half his face. Not quite to his eyes though. At the pace this guy runs these classes, he will have kids swimming when their about 14 years old. Funniest thing: Cole heard some announcement through the school's loud speaker system and pointed at the speaker and said, "Oh no. A guy is stuck in there."

After swim lessons I had to go do some work at the apartment building. Usually I fail at pretty much every repair, but I'm happy to say I took apart and fixed the washing machine coin slot thingy and fixed a clogged sink. Not complicated stuff, but I'll take it.

Friday:
Our big event for Friday was taking a trip to the Hoyt Park pool. We met the Kroners and Emily there. It was fun, but I was quite disappointed with the concession stand nacho cheese sauce. Barely any flavor and I really psyched myself up for a cheese dog. Luckily I also got a brat. I guess, more importantly, at least the kids had fun.

After nap time we hit up Bayshore mall to make some returns and to do some walking. I have been in need of a few extra pairs of sunglasses for about 3 summers now so I found a nice cheap kiosk with a good 2 for 1 deal. The sunglasses are cheap and poorly made but at least I look stylish. If you ever see me in them, that is not a big fake nose...just the real thing. Hopefully the boys got their mother's nose. Good luck guys.

Saturday:
We ditched the kids and had some friends over for a BBQ. I will spare you the details, but embarrassingly their was some dancing involved towards the end of the night.

Sunday:
I don't feel good.

Monday:
Monday was a busy day. We first went to the Betty Brinn Museum. Cole had a blast. I felt bad for poor Henry. He was just stuck sitting in his stroller. He actually doesn't seem to mind his plight of being stroller bound for everything. If he wasn't so squirmy we would let him out more often.

This was Cole's favorite. The baskets would just fly up through the tube and he loved it. It was a struggle pulling him away.

Looks like he is enjoying himself.

I can row a boat. Canoe (Can You)? There's a lame Jason Hansen joke for you.

After nap time, we ventured to the Jelly Belly factory for a tour. Cole enjoyed the train ride. Although he broke the only two rules we were given; no eating on the tour and you have to wear the Jelly Belly hat. Kristin and I tried our best to be stealth with his raisins, but Cole would grab one out of the box and announce to the whole train, "this is a big grape!" (He calls raisins grapes). Luckily no one seemed to care too much. The tour ends in the candy shop so of course we ended up buying way too much candy.

Choo Choo

Way too much candy. Just couldn't resist.

Cole's favorite take away...the Jelly Belly catalog. Someday I'm going to have to let him know he doesn't know how to read.

On the way home we hit up the Cracker Barrel for dinner. Seemed like a good choice since they serve breakfast 24/7 and Cole loves pancakes. You can see him trying to stuff his pancake in the tiny syrup bottle - hard work.

The Tank took down a whole order of scrambled eggs

Tuesday:
On Tuesday we went to Kids in Motion, which is basically an indoor playground. We met Kristin's Aunts Sue and Barb and her Cousin Megan and her kids Tildie and Etta. As usual the longer we were there the more comfortable Cole got and the more fun he had. Henry was crawling all over the place.

After nap we played at home outdoors. I also finally got the bike out for the first time this summer. Cole and Henry both were good about wearing their helmets, so we had some good bike rides.

Sometimes we like to just let everything breathe. Luckily, neither Kristin and I made into the photo.

Wednesday:
Wednesday was filled with more bike riding and playing in the yard. In the afternoon we went out on the pontoon on Pewaukee Lake and did lots of swimming. We had dinner with all the grandparents and Jess and BoyFriend Dan (who Cole now calls "Gran" or "Friend Dan"). We heard lots of fireworks but didn't stay up to watch any. All in all another activity packed day to end my time off of work.

The staycation was fun and we kept very busy. It might actually be nice to go back to work (not really). Now the challenge will begin to get back to a normal schedule and less eating. Between the BBQ and the leftovers, candy, Cracker Barrel and eating out a lot, I think I have put on a good 10 pounds taking this little vacation. Soon enough my man-boobs are going to be as big as Cole and Henry's swim instructor's. Yikes!

Secret Drawer

I have started to use my top dresser drawer as a secret drawer from the kids. My plan is to start filling up the drawer with stuff that the kids shouldn't have anymore or things that are just plain old annoying. I started with Cole's nuks. Slowly, but surely, I will get all of them in the drawer and he will be forced to deal without them. Everytime I see a nuk unguarded I grab it and throw it in the drawer. So far I have only snagged a few. Kristin has tried and Cole has caught her twice. He knows how many nuks he has (10!), today he realized some were missing, after looking around his room he told Kristin, "Daddy took my nuks to work."

3 down. About 7 to go.

Next on my list are Cole's extra toothbrushes. He had a dentist appointment and got about five toothbrushes as bribes for good behavior. We have always let him choose which color toothbrush he would like to use. He now likes to pick them all up individually to look them over and say whether he wants that one or not. He always picks the green or red, never the penguin brush or the green brush or any of the others, yet he still has to take out every single one and put it back in the holder. The whole process takes about 5 minutes. By the time bedtime comes around, any delays are a big deal, so we are saying goodbye to those extra toothbrushes. Probably a good idea since he has another dentist appointment coming up in a few weeks, likely we will head home with some new options...I will have to take those to work too I guess.

5 toothbrushes

Ha Ha. In the drawer.

Red or Green! So much easier.

Hopefully this new stealing/hiding plan we have going isn't considered too cruel and won't have any lasting effects. Well actually, the reason we are getting rid of nuks is because of the negative lasting effects they have on Cole's teeth so...

Plenty of room left.

Hungry Hungry Henry

These days Henry just can't get full. I don't know where it all goes, but he can just sit and eat for hours. We just can't seem to fill him up. A typical meal may consist of: 1) a Cheerio appetizer; 2) two scrambled eggs; 3) one container of baby food; 4) one baby yogurt; 5) one cup of milk. He also snacks on cheese, black beans, wheat noodles and fruit. The boy is bottomless. And in the case of most meals he either starts off or ends with an 8-10 oz bottle.

Now that Henry is one we are supposed to begin weaning him off bottles. With Cole this was not difficult so we just expected it would go off without a hitch this time around as well.  We were wrong. The plan was to cut him back to 6 ounces, as opposed to 8 oz, and then would reduce from there. This has not worked at all and in fact, it has made things worse. Henry ends up waking up in the middle of the night starving, so we have to give him another 4 ounces (at least).So in trying to cut back on bottles, we now give him 10 ounces/bottle. Oops. Something is not working. Maybe Henry will just be a formula lifer. Do they make big gulp bottles?

Father's Day 2012

I'm happy to report my third Father's Day was better than the second. This is an easy call since last year we had to take Cole to the emergency room with blood gushing from his forehead. I still hate that piece of furniture at my parent's house, but at least my Dad does pad up the corner now. The boys and I went to my parent's house. Sadly Kristin couldn't come with us because she was on Grammie duty. (Her grandma needs a babysitter and it's only sad because without her I am solely responsible for those kids of ours).

Cole and Henry had a blast at my parents, especially outside. This, of course, means that taking Cole inside was not easy. He put up a pretty good fight, but I got him in there eventually. Henry put about 100 baby miles on his walker. He looked like he was getting too much sun, so he had to wear a thermal long sleeve for awhile.  He must have been so hot in that thing, but he also probably lost a few unneeded pounds. All Henry kept doing was just going around and around the cul-de-sac (and I'm not talking about my Dad's head). As the below pictures show he was really cruising.

Cole had a great time with cousin Lisa. They played in the rocks and Cole practiced riding his trike, with Lisa pushing. He can't quite figure out the foot motion and that he has to push. It was great though. Lisa basically took care of him the entire day. Cole even wanted her to change his diaper (she's only 8). Unfortunately now that Cole and Lisa are BFFS the Hanlon family has to go move to Columbus, Ohio. Obviously we don't want them so far away but I really want Lisa close to help watch the boys. I think Kristin and I may have to have her live with us for a couple months.

On a sadder note, I thought I would just mention that my Camry has finally had enough. It needs about $1,200 or so in repairs, which seems like a lot for a 1999 with about 186,000 miles, a broken window, broken door handle, broken A/C and heater, bald tires and well, the list goes on and on. It was such a good car for so long I had kind of started to hope that Cole could have it when he got his license.

Happy Birthday Henry

This weekend we had a birthday party for Henry. We had 15 adults and 6 kids - luckily it was a beautiful day and we were able to be outside the whole time. Henry enjoyed some special attention and Cole had a blast with his cousins. After much party planning, cleaning, and preparing, it was really nice to kick back with friends and family to celebrate Henry's first year.  It is amazing to think that 365 (ish)  days ago Henry was just making his debut. There was definitely a learning curve, figuring out how to parent an always-starving baby and an 18 month old. Figuring out how to balance the needs of two, figuring out how to get two kids down the stairs when there is only one adult home...and then how do you get them both in the car? During simultaneous meltdowns, who is the priority? Looking back on the day we brought Henry home and all that "figuring out" we did, we realize how far we have all come.

As we did for Cole, we also made Henry's birthday cake. We made a robot cake for Cole, and as the pictures will show, Henry's party had a whale theme, hence the whale cake. I think it actually turned out alright - much better than expected.

Henry thoroughly enjoyed his cake.

Prepare to be bored by the amount of party pics included below.

Lots of dessert

Henry the Birthday King

Henry and cousin Ellie, and surprising, no Cole yelling that someone is in his car.

Henry and the Ladies

At his one year check-up, Henry weighed in at 24.3 pounds. Seems huge, especially since Cole barely weighs 30 pounds, but is actually only in the 70th percentile for weight and 85th percentile for height. Not anything crazy, but he is gaining on Cole quickly. I can't wait until Cole goes for a toy Henry is holding and gets pushed on his little butt. Cole has it coming to him.  

So that concludes the celebration...Happy birthday to our sweet and happy boy Henry!