Berries and kitchen helper promotion

Thank you neighbors for your invading blackberries. A bit more sour than Wisconsin black caps, but Rowan doesn't mind.

Wally's summer napping set-up.

I found this idea on the interwebs to help little ones join in the kitchen fun and help with the constant whining at my legs when I'm working in there. It's a "pimped out" IKEA stool. The first project was washing the alphabet while I cooked dinner...so much more peaceful!

Until he had an idea (you can see he's really contemplating it.)

I thought he was so occupied I turned my back to start sweeping the floor 5 feet away and in the blink of and eye and with the silent stealthiness of a ninja, I turned around to see this!

Our little genius: from the latest EBAY boy clothes lot, size 2T. Have I said how great this method is for kids clothes!! Our little Meatball's sizing is roughly this: shirts with a nice easy fit are 2T, waistline fits 18mo-2T, leg length is hovering around 12 mo. So, pants require a lot of rolling, but don't forget to empty the sand out everytime he comes in the house...

Toddler agility training

Videos!!

Video 1.standing baby silent concert
Video 2.boy with nectarine
Video 3.he sleeps like a baby through this! @ Portland Highland Games
Video 4.dizzy baby game

Baby vs. peach

First try  with a whole fruit, no learning curve for him.

Inspiration for his kitchen play unit.

We have no idea why bottles are so messy for him

50 magnets were on the fridge, 2 minutes later they weren't, sigh.

Camping trial #2- the best of times the worst of times

Family camping scene

Our little pigpen, dirt and grime galore.

Fell asleep after extended lullaby-ing by Dad, who became exhausted, then we transferred to the stroller and I looped around for a while.

Highlight: I set him at the dry edge, but he migrated in and his diaper ballooned out like mad.

loving mud

Rowan packs by dumping dirt and pine needles into the toy box as we scramble to pack up in the dark

Squirrel got us again!

Home and recovered!

If you haven't heard, this trip got packed up a day early and after dark with the fear of another endless night of being the bad camping neighbor with the screaming baby. Night 1, he fell asleep at 7 with some work and slept until 4:30am, waking up screaming. He was up. We finally got him to sleep at 7 by driving around. He was very crabby and sleep deprived, imagine that. Day time was ok but there were so many bursts of tears: when Doug blows his nose, when I wipe Rowan's dirty snotty mug, at any little thing. By 5:00 he literally conked out at 5:00 accidentally. Doug and I looked at each other wondering what this means for night, a 3:00am morning? He was so hard asleep we wiped him down, changed his diaper and put him in pjs...while he was asleep in Doug's arms! at 7:00pm he was startled awake by a passing child. We could not get him back asleep even after a drive he was even more awake. We came back to new camping neighbors who were singing around the campfire, not looking good for us. At 9:00, with Rowan wide awake and whining, Doug said, "We should go." So we packed in the near dark as fast as we could and Little guy joined in hanging out by the trunk and loading and unloading dirt and rocks into his toy container. He fell asleep on the way home. And at 1:00am we had a blood curdling scream fest that ended as abruptly as it started, but at least we didn't have to worry about our neighbors!

4th of July Weekend

Pint sized camping chair

Photo-op on great uncle Jim's parade float. We're a few years off from ridership.

1

A parade in cowboy country

Mom badge: earned

Happy B-day to me: paint brush cake made by Lynne. Delicious.

Rowan approved.

Belly!! Tired, hot little boy.