What We're Up To

Having Mia home from school for the summer is so awesome! We are having so much fun, but the time if flying by so quickly. She is full of energy. Writing songs, creating businesses (the nail salon), constant playdates and exploration of the "wilderness" in our backyard. The house sits on almost an acre, but backs up to several more acres of undeveloped forest some of which is rocky. There are multiple hideouts the kids have either built or claimed and the swingset is a regular part of our days now. Lennon prefers to lay across the swing on his belly. Mia has been playing with her Polly Pockets and Barbies a lot more this week. I have long felt like she had some of her creative energy sucked out of her by going to school and now that she's had such a nice long break I can see some of it coming back. It makes me nervous about putting her back in school in the fall, but I know I can always try something different if it doesn't work out. Who knows. The school here could be a much better environment for her spirit.

Lennon is changing so much every day. He begs to play "Hunnny Hipppos" on a regular basis and he does pretty well too. It's easy to tell when he's had enough because he just starts throwing the marbles across the room. He's doing much better at listening and obeying (when threatened with time outs.) Not to say, by any means, that he always or even usually obeys, but he's getting better. I've said it a hundred times I'm sure, but boys sure are different than girls. Lennon's has also been getting lots of use out of the math manipulatives kit Mia got for Christmas. He has fun playing with the beads and stringing them together in different patterns. Obviously, he doesn't know he's making patterns, but he has fun and it keeps him occupied. He's gotten so much better at playing with other kids lately too. There's really starting to be some give and take in the play style instead of just the side by side stuff. He LOVES his sissy's Barbie's and "Baabee Home." Which he's only allowed to play with when she is not playing with it because if she is playing with it she goes crazy when he moves a bowl or takes a shirt out of Barbie's dryer or whatever. There are lots of little tiny pieces and she, like her father, has a very specific vision for where everything should be in her creation. She's great with him though and doesn't at all mind him playing with it as long as she isn't trying to.

Lennon's sleeping which was once erratic and out of control is so awesome these days. He goes to bed super easy at 7 and sleeps until 6 30 or 7 15 every day. Then he takes a 2-3 hour nap every afternoon. the three hour naps are not nearly as often and the 2, but when they come along it's awesome. I get so much done. It's a really fun time for me and Mia to get to play games or read together. Both of them are loving living here and having built in playmates across the hall. A friend of mine recently said coming to my house was like visiting someone in a college dorm. People coming and going from every direction all the time. It's crazy sometimes, but it's fun so far.

I've organized a camping trip for a big group of our friends for Labor Day weekend and we're all looking forward to that a lot. We're going to go to New Hampshire and go to Storyland one day and hang out at the lake at our campground the other days. So far there are five families booked. Shelby will be done with school in about another week for about 6 weeks which will be a much needed break for him. I'm up to the same old same old. Cooking, cleaning, playdates and coffee.