Yesterday was GORGEOUS.  Temperatures about 79 degrees with low humidity.  Delicious.  Last night we went to the the Seaford Marina and ate dollar meal suppers at the pavillion there and puttered around looking at the boats bobbing around, resting in their little niches.  This put Tim in a boat mood.  

Today we went to our friend Audra’s house who lives next to a massive pond and puttered around in boats.  

We saw a baby copperhead swimming in the water, water lilies,

and wow. algae. seaweedy stuff.

Like, wow.  It was overgrown because of the excessive heat this summer.  

We started out in the paddleboat

and then Tim and Gabe and Israel checked out the dinghy

while Zion and I puttered around

and then Zion also defected,

leaving me all alone in the middle of the pond to float and be by myself.  

 Hey.  I take my alone times where I can get them.  :)  It was startlingly refreshing.

Gabe and Israel had a great time floundering nets around in the water, and searching for frogs and turtles.  

Baby got too close to the edge of the water as he was inspecting the beached paddleboat and toppled over into six-inch deep o’ nasty.  :)

 Lol.  He was FILTHY.  

More startled than scared.

Zion was cute on the dock.  He was very cautious about the spaces between the boards and had to crawl on his first go around.

Thanks for letting us use your pond and boats, Audra, and thanks, Brandon, for all your help!!  We had a great time!!

Today, Gabriel had this conversation with me as we were headed out the door in the evening to go help clean the school that he’s going to be attending in about another week:

“Well, my wife, Maddie (his imaginary friend that I haven’t heard him talk about for a long time), we have two children, and it’s hard, because Maddie has to stay home because we have a baby…[Mommy - oh really?  Why is that hard?]…Well, because she can’t go to meetings and things like that. [Mommy - meetings...oh, I see.  Hmm.]  We have two children, and our oldest one is six years old and he is in first grade, and his name is…Morocco.  Morocco…Shannon.  And our baby is going to turn 1 on Thursday, and his name is….Rocky.  Rocky.  Rocky…Caleb.   Like Israel’s middle name.  And Maddie is soon going to have to go to Superhero Hospital, because she is going to have a baby girl!”

And then he had to go outside and I had to go inside and that conversation was over.  :)  I love the world inside his head.

It has been just amazing, astoundingly, utterly hot this summer.  For soooo many days.  Like, wowsers.  It’s kind of as bad as winter, in terms of boys being cooped up inside.  We’ve gone to the beach several times lately, after suddenly realizing it was mid-July and the last time we had went was April.  The water on the bay side is awesome to swim in – so nice and warm from all those hot days.  Not too warm, but just right.  

Then a beautiful sunset on the way home.

And ice cream.  :)

9

Zion is talking so much!!!  It’s just amazing how many words he can say.  Some of the most common:  ”Bish” (fish), “bak!” (bike/motorcycle), “shrahn!) (train), “bet” (bed), “betch” (bath), “Noo” (Snooch/Chloe), “Coe” (Chloe), “Bob!” (Sponge-Bob), “Gae!” (Gabe), “dadee”, (Daddy), “di-soah” (dinosaur), “trak-ee” (tractor), “loon” (balloon)…lots more.  He has long conversations about “Eyes.  Ears.  Nos’.  Behbutn. (Bellybutton)  Hair.  Toes.” He says a lot of words as he points to pictures in a book.  He also loves books.  And trains.  And motorcycles.  He gets very excited about them when he sees them.  And bicycles.  And animals.  And bugs.  Oh yes.  How could I forget bugs – that should be first of all loves.

 He LOOOVES bugs.  He will come to me big eyed and excited about the poor dead bug he has squashed in his little fist.  No hesitation about them at all.  ”Buk!!  Buk!!”  Many a poor firefly sputtered into darkness clenched in his eager little fist in the early part of the summer.  

He’s just such a cutie.  A cutie who is soon going to need a haircut.  Sniff sniff.  Wipe of tear.

This is Zion on the way to the beach one day.  He LOOVES to be tickled, and I was tickling him in his carseat to keep him happy.  

Is he irresistible or what?

Israel has settled into a new developmental stage that is a huuuuggge sigh of relief for his parents.  The prolonged, extended, roaring, tearful tantrums that have made up so much of this past year have mostly stopped, with only an occasional relapse.  PHEW.  Talk about an exhausting, overwhelming experience.  I finally feel like we are coming into a bit of a breather parenting-wise with that change.  We started seeing a change in him and in our parenting methods after having him prayed for one night at church.  One of the things we found helpful (after nine months of no change in either the intensity of his crying or the duration of it, no matter WHAT we tried ) was just not making it a power struggle, and distracting him instead.  Now, about a year after it all started, the same things will happen, like the right sippy cup won’t be available, or whatever random teeny item wasn’t right, and instead of roaring tearfully for 45+ minutes, he will pout and sometimes fight tears, but usually regains control pretty quickly.  Can I say again – PHEW.  PHEW.  Man, that was a long stage.  

Now he just seems a combination of quiet and chatter-y.  Usually the most chatter-y when Gabe isn’t around, because Gabe fills the air word-wise normally.  

One of his big interests is growing to be big like Daddy.  He is very excited about this, and is a diligent eater at meals, specifically because he wants to “grow and grow!!” (arms flung out in illustration)

Gabe is getting ready to start school in two weeks.  Pouty lip from Mommy.  I’m realizing that I was kind of spoiled by the flexibility of life without having to plan around a school schedule.  I’m really going to miss him a lot.  He will go 3 full days a week.  I know he will have a great time, but he calmly informed someone the other day that he isn’t getting excited for school until another week or so.  He actually is sort of grouchy about the fact that I told him that he can’t have long hair at school (which makes me sort of cover my mouth and grin at his continued crankiness about it), because he does NOT like to get his hair cut, and bellowed tearfully the other month when I was attempting to make it look a mite less trashy, that he didn’t LIKE it, that he didn’t LIKE the way his hair looked when it was cut, and he wanted to wear it LONG!!!  I could not help laughing at him, because his reaction was just so over the top for a guy who normally just bee-bops his way through life.  I don’t mind it being longer, it’s just that he doesn’t want to be approached with the scissors AT ALL, even to make it look nicer while it’s growing.  

Other aspects of Gabe that is significant to his life are:

His thinking and his imagination.  He spends lots of time thinking and inventing.  This is him laying on the chair in front of the window chewing his fingernails and thinking.  

He is a very distracted eater.  He is so busy talking during meals that he has to be reminded repeatedly to eat, and to be encouraged to eat, because he really has lots of things that he would rather be doing.

He is very squirmy/bouncy/wriggly.  At the table I often tell him that he needs to pretend that his bottom is velcroed to his chair, because he bounces away from it so often.  

Zion has been the squerkiest sleeper of all of my young chillun’s.  If he is sick, he’s up till 12.  If he’s teething, he’s up till 12.  If he slept too late in his nap, he’s up till 11.  It’s really totally annoying, I must say.  We often plop him in front of the some Wiggles or Sponge-Bob after a while, so we can have a break.  Seriously, child.  Shake of head.  Of all my kids, though, he has been the most able to handle missing a nap or having a belated bedtime.  

He has generally has a very mild personality so far.    He’s definitely been more Mommy/Daddyish than the other two though, and if he is not in the mood, will turn his head, gaze, and entire body the exact opposite direction of someone trying to interact with him.  Goof.    He does these things with his eyes that just makes me laugh out loud.  He will meet your gaze, and then deliberately look down with just his eyes, and then to the side, and then slide his eyes back to meet yours.  

Israel came in the door the other morning after a rain, talking very excitedly and matter-of-fact-ly about Squirmy Worm, that he found Squirmy Worm, and that Squirmy Worm needed this or that.  I wasn’t quite sure what he was talking about and then he brought me an earthworm to see, held carefully in his hands.  It just made me laugh that he called it that, like it was it’s name.  

 

1.   Why does every question in this world start with “Mom?”, and not continue until I say “What?” at LEAST twice??  Why can’t we all just ask the questions, plain and simple, with no need for a Mommy acknowledgement to go on??

2.  Why must I be informed, preemptively, of all bathroom activities that are going to take place?  You have to pee??  GREAT!  So go pee.  You have to poop??  I am THRILLED to be informed.  Call me when you’re done, with no advance warning, just so I have that much less time to delight in the knowledge, thanks.  

3.  Why are there 47,897 questions that must be asked in one day?  Deeply essential questions, like: “Mom?  What is that?”  ”Water, Israel.”  (As the water comes out of the kitchen faucet just like it has done every single day of his three-soon-to-be-four-year-old life.) “Why?  Why?  But why?”  

Gabe has all kinds of questions these days.  ”Do we still have birfdays (birthdays) in heaven?  Does God have a Father?  Does space have an ending?  Is the universe getting bigger or smaller?  What is dirt made of?”  

Uuuuummmm.  Ask Daddy.  

4.  Why do are all stools and loose pillows in the house in constant migration over my house?  Can’t a stool just stay where a stool belongs??  Why are the pillows on the couch more often on the floor than they are on the couch??  

and for that matter -

5.  Why aren’t new couches free?  

“I’ll just take a quick shower,” she says to herself.  The boys are watching PBS in the living room.  Surely nothing much can happen in a few showery minutes.  

Her first warning comes as she is toweling her freshly scrubbed tresses.  Israel walks/limps in with a large grin and a chocolatetey big toe.  ”What is that?” his mama asks warily.  ”I had an ac-ki-dens!!” he proclaims happily.  ”I need a baff!!”  His mama hastily scoops him off of the carpet and sits him on the sink where they clean the offended toe.  

Here comes Gabe.  ”Israel made a huge mess!!” he declares.  ”He spilled his hot chocolate over EVERYTHING!” 

Oh.  That stinks.

As I tread with trepidation out to the living room, I encounter Zion perched on top of the counter BUSILY scattering flour from the flour container I had failed to return to it’s spot from making cookies yesterday.  He squawks an angry protest as I lift his powdery self from the counter.  He stamps around, leaving floury footprints.

I peer into the living room.  Sure enough.  Israel had helped himself to a vast quantity of Hershey’s syrup in his hot chocolate, and spilled the cup onto the couch and two books that were sitting there.  I wearily scoop up the books and take them to the kitchen to clean.  As I am wiping them down, baby is grabbing strawberries from the container on the counter and mangling them as he attempts to get the leaves out.  He drops the pieces in the flour, and disappears into the living room, with a lone strawberry in his grasp. 

I find him sitting in the chocolate on the couch, with a somewhat baffled and delighted expression on his face as he tastes his fingers, his strawberry forgotten on the cushion.  I wipe up strawberry, boy, and chocolate, and then flour from the floor.  I think I’m tired before my morning has even started.

I need a new couch.  But at least my hair’s washed.

Zion has two favorite people right now.  One is “Daa-dee” or “Da”.  He asks about Daa-dee during the day when Tim is gone, and he gets a biiiigg grin if he thinks Tim is coming home.  He will run up to Da and give his legs a big hug.  He loves to hug and wrestle and sit on Daa-dee’s lap.  His other favorite person is “Gae!” or “Gae-Gae!”  He thinks Gabe is the bees knees, and Gabe just adores him right back.  Gabe has a hard time backing off on the Zion hugs sometimes, but I’d rather have that problem than the opposite.  It’s just really sweet how much they love each other.

It’s not that he is less affectionate with me, but just newly thrilled with two additional people. 

Gabe is so imaginative.  Today he came in from outside, and was “showing” me his imaginary parrot that was sitting on his arm.  He was talking about it, which melded into a discussion about his imaginary kittens, one of which he asked me if I would like to hold.  I obliged.  Then he told me he had something that he needed to show me, and it seemed quite important, so I followed him to his room, where we looked at the imaginary submarine he had built that had arms like wings, and could float in the water.  Then we went to the living room to see another unnamed contraption – although perhaps we were test driving his submarine, I’m not sure.  He warned me that when it came my way I needed to be ready to jump, although he said that he often just stepped over it like he was climbing a fence.  But of course.  Then he showed me how to climb inside, and where the button was to push when you wanted to be all covered in red.  I pushed the button.  

I really don’t think I was like that when I was little.  I’m pretty sure I was decidedly not like that, although I think maybe Tim was more.  I just have never liked pretending, and always found it quite boring.  :)  But Gabe thinks and thinks and thinks and pretends and sometimes he and Israel pretend together.  

I find it quite nifty and charming.

I feel like I am spending so much time outside lately.  For some reason, this year I have been greedily drinking in the sunshine…hanging out my gobs and gobs of laundry on the clothesline (…seriously.  How much laundry can one family CONTINUOUSLY produce?!?!?), or picking up the other playroom called “the yard”, or happily churning away in my garden….my garden.  I am so loving this gardening thing.  Perhaps I won’t in a month or too, but right now it is just such satisfying labor.  Feels like “good honest work”.  :)  

Today was another great Saturday.  Tim watched the boys while I fled the reservation to go to the mall for a bit.  I had to “shop for a gift” and try on lots of clothes.  :)  I was back for lunch and then we decided to build a sandbox for the boys that we had been wanting to build; I had caught sight of the aforementioned Jeremiah’s sandbox, and instantly decided we had to build my three busy diggers one.  They are used to all cramming into their little red crab sandbox, and their new sandbox is 8′x8′ with 12″ tall boards, so there will be LOTS of sand to dig in.  I am totally excited about it.  The sandbox is ready for sand that we will try to obtain on Monday.  Sigh of deep satisfaction.

The boys were splashing in their pool and I got curious about the random assortment of water gear we had in the shed and put the air compressor to work, blowing up an inflatable “jet ski”, an inner tube, another floaty thing, and another inflatable pool I discovered we had.  The boys were VERY helpful to dutifully water the grass  spray each other with water fill the pool up, and a fine splashing time was had by all, what with TWO kiddie pools, a Little Tikes slide, and a random assortment of floating toys.

After supper I scurried back out to the garden with my hoe.  I’m catching up from NOT hoeing enough earlier.  Lesson learned.  The boys bounced out the door after their video was over, and as, always, were falling over each other in their eagerness to “help”.  I’m sort of on a “helping” hiatus, after having one too many plants industriously hoed by Israel, and the rest of them trampled by the baby.   Everyone is mostly banished from the garden, mainly because if Baby sees anyone remotely his age in there, he is on a mission to get in there and tread on all things plant-like.  He is a very VERY busy baby.  

When twilight came, I was squinting to finish up hoeing my row, and the little critters were joyfully chasing fireflies.  Fireflies are really such a magical delight. I still think they’re great.  

We tramped in sweaty, dirty, and apparently NOT TIRED as NONE of them would go to sleep until AFTER 10:30 pm.  Arrrrrrrgggghhhhh.  

A good day, though.  A very good day.  

Today was just one of those nice days that summer is made of…we went to the Greenwood Mennonite School Spring Festival today, which has the joys of fresh homemade doughnuts, people that you know, pulled pork sandwiches, iced coffee, smoothies, iced tea, music, a great petting zoo that the boys spent hours at, and at which Zion was just totally delighted and raced around so happily – he loves animals.  And there was the big inflatable water slide that Gabe spent hours on going down with his best buddy Nevin.  I found a new Slip and Slide there for only $5.  We eventually staggered home, sunned and exhausted, where the boys watched a movie while Tim and I crashed down for a nap.  We saw a bunny in the garden through our bedroom window, and Gabe grabbed his new big water gun and tore out the screen door and around the yard, chasing the poor bunny from hither to yon.  Then Tim mowed the lawn and then we laid out the boy’s Slip and Slide and turned the water on and they had a great time slipping and sliding and then they all busily stalked around the yard with their water weapons looking for a bunny to chase.  :) Lol.  We had a fun supper on the porch with candle lit citronella buckets and triangle-cut chicken salad sandwiches and cheese curls and smoked provolone slices and fresh sliced veggies with ranch dip, and finished up with ice cream cones.  The boys played for a while longer on their slip and slide and then raced around catching lightening bugs and putting them in a jar as it got darker, and the air was just so warm and soft and gentle and beautiful.

This is why I love summer.