grandmom and pop pop

Why is it that I always decide to do some random, huge, home improvement project the week before the Bugs' birthday parties? More on that later...

Last week the Bugmen received a visit from Daniel's grandparents (Danny's parents) Grandmom and PopPop, who were in visiting from Georgia. If my memory is correct (which is rare) this was their first visit with Mr. Bitty Bug himself. Both boys took a few minutes to warm up (which is pretty typical these days), but were then as friendly and loving as can be giving out squeezes and 'nuggles like it was nobody's business.

And in case anyone was questioning the Bugs' fashion sense they were both wearing their PJ's, which explains Bugman's tight shorts, slight wedge, and protruding middle :)

"i three august"

If you ask Bugman how old he is you won't hear him say "I'm two," or "I'm two and a half," you'll ear "I three August." This is the first year that he understands what a birthday party is and that he is excited for his birthday, excited to "play with friends," and excited to eat cake and open "BIG BIG presents." Of course he wants MORE trucks, cars, tractors, etc (as if our house can hold anymore.) Everyday at some point he asks me "Where my party?" and I have to try to explain that its not quite time yet because its still July not August.

In honor of his upcoming party (by the way family, your invites are on the way, but we're celebrating August 2nd this year to avoid both sets of grandparents' vacations) Bugman and I went out and tried to get a fun picture for his birthday invitations. While we didn't get exactly what I had in mind, he was pretty cooperative and we got a few cute shots. Here are the non-winners.

morning at our house

Mornings at our house are pretty consistent in routine. Anywhere between 7:30 and 9:00 I hear Bugman pick up the baby monitor and yell "MOMMY!! Time get up! MOMMY!! Time get up! MOOOOOOMMMMMMYYYYYY!" until I make it down the stairs where he meets me at the gate. He goes potty and then snuggles up in the big chair with a glass of "warm chocate milk" while I change Bitty and bring him out. They pick out breakfast (this morning was zucchini muffins and watermelon). Max sits at Bitty Bug's feet waiting for crumbs, someone drops their bowl, etc., etc. After breakfast the Bugs head to the livingroom while I load the dishwasher and clean up. You can usually hear the crash of Hotwheels as they dive off the ottoman and onto the floor.

This morning was a little different, they headed back to their bedroom and not long after I heard "MOMMY!! Come look Kellan! COME LOOK MOMMY!" I instantly though either Bitty Bug had snuck into the bathroom with Bugman and was playing in the toilet, had climbed up on a chair and was trying to feed the hermit crabs, or Bugman had locked him in a closet (all things that have happened in the past week). When I made it to the Bugs' room, I found them both lying in Bugman's bed under the covers, reading books. Of course I made a dash for the camera, which meant the abruptly stopped cuddling and moved on. I did however catch the many faces of Bitty.

Excited

Silly

Irritated (that he can't get down without help and Mommy won't put the camera down)

The Bugman remained busy reading 'chillin'

And reading his favorite car book (Aunt Ashey saved this big book about cars from the school library throw away cart).

And finally checking out a little "Biscuit."

a realization

Hi, my name is Leanne and I am a pack rat. Shhhew... it feels good to get that off my chest. I called my mom last week with this epiphany of sorts and she simply laughed in that "ummm, yeah, I know," kind of way. But anyway, it was news to me. SOOO, that being said we've been busy decluttering. It all started with the 4022 toys that have invaded every inch of our home. At any given moment there are toys in the living room, under the furniture, on the furniture, in the Bugs' bedroom, occassionally in the playroom, in the bathroom, outside, in the basement, in the cars, and in our bedroom. I think that covers it, but I'm sure there are a few other places I've failed to mention. Bugman and I gathered up all of the smaller toys we could find and made a pile in the living room. It looked a little something like this:

I don't really think the pictures do justice to this pile, and remember this was only the small toys, oh, and Daniel had already put up over 150 hotwheels.

We sorted all of the toys into three piles, keep, give-away, and trash (i.e. missing pieces or broken) and managed to throw away 1 garbage bag, and give-away 2 garbage bags. We even had "Aunt Ashey" come over and review our decisions for approval because she's a task master when it comes to weeded out unneeded items.

We then sorted the toys left into 5 small bins, so there is one bin dumbed in the toybox, one in the basement, and three in the closet. This way we can stay on top of the mess and rotate toys every week or two. I'm hoping this will also encourage the Bugs to play with a bigger variety of toys as before it was somewhat overwelming and they tended to always go for the same things.

We even found the perfect spot for all of the puzzles, in the drawers under the TV.

We continued our 'purge' by sorting through the 11, 18gallon bins of baby/toddler clothes, and managed to weed out three bins of items that were stained (its weird how stains that you thought were gone show back up after being stored for awhile) or that we can be given-away.

This week I'm hoping to sort through Daniel and my clothes, and then off to the basement... which could take the rest of our life.

Stay tuned - tomorrow we're back to the Bugs!

other people to visit

Over on the sidebar ---------------------->
you'll see my list of other places to visit. I'm not sure if any of you have visited these places yet or not, so I will give you a run down of who/what they are.

Its All About Me - Meet the Bugs' cousin Anna! Inspired by me (I sware she really said that!) Sonia just started a blog for us to keep up with Miss Anna. Anna is 6 weeks younger than Bitty Bug, and one day younger than the Bugs' other baby cousin Jacob (Anna is on my side of the family, while Jacob is on Daniel's side). Lots of you already know Josh, Sonia, and Anna so go check them out!!

Jordan Krogman Photography - I love Jordan's photography style, as well as her dialogue about her two girls (Peyton & Emmy) and her brand new baby boy (Hudson).

Matt, Liz & Madeline - I'm not sure how I came across Matt's blog, but I check up on them everyday. Matt and Liz welcomed their first daughter Madeline March 24th and Liz passed away 27 hours later. Matt chronicles the day to day survival as both a single dad and widower (he's doing an amazing job.) Warning, you WILL cry and Matt has a potty mouth.

Mommin' It Up - Moms/cousins Emily and Jenny give a hilarious, pee your pants from laughing, commentary of their lives as moms. They also review various baby/toddler items, and you can witness Jenny's mad couponing skills. I found out shortly after I began reading, that I went to school with Emily!

PicturesbyTracy - You all know I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Tracy, who photographed Ashley's wedding, and also photographed the Bugs back in the fall. She just photographed her first destination wedding in Turks and Cacaos (which I don't think I spelled correctly).

Confessions of a Pioneer Woman - Definitely stop over and see Ree, city girl gone rancher who homeschools her four children. Somehow she doesn't fit my mold of what I envision those "crazy homeschoolers" to be. I promise you'll laugh until you pee your pants at her daily tales of calf nuts and cow manure.

The other two blogs listed are private, so you can't actually go there. Eleven Months Apart is written by Janice, an Ohio mom of two (who are - get this - 11 months apart.) She has the same camera as I and I have loved watching her skills grow! Ainsley is the daughter of my high school friend Brooke. I wish you could read it. It is written by her husband, from Ainsley's point of view and will make you pee your pants.

PS - I don't pee my pants - in case you were wondering.

I love this pictures of the Bugs :)

getting braver

To be honest, Bugman has not been around water enough in his (almost) three years. It is my fault, but in my defense I was sick as a dog two summers ago (thank you Bitty Bug), and last year we made it to the pool a few times, but it was rather difficult to go anywhere with a 1 year old and an infant so our outings were limited. As could be expected, Bugman has been a little fearful of water this summer. He was VERY CLINGY at the pool while we were in Litchfield, didn't get in the ocean until our last day at Topsail, but has been warming up as he has gone swimming with "Munca Nick" and his girlfriend Erin (who I babysat when she was super little, which makes a girl feel her age), and we have ventured to the Miamisburg pool with "Ashy" in tow to help out. Most of our water time happens in our good ol' backyard (the one that will soon be fenced in). Friday, Bugman asked me to move the slide over so that he could slide into the water. I really didn't think he would end up doing it, but after sitting at the top for some time he went down, sliding through and out of the pool. This continued for quite sometime until he said...

"No more take my picture. Put that camra way!"

On a side note, we were watching the Home Run Derby and ladies, Google Josh Hamilton... I promise you won't be disappointed :)

Thursday evening "Munca Matt" and the cousins stopped over to help with the fence (and grill some dinner.) The fence is now at 10/29 posts. So, to quote my 8th grade social studies teacher, we're moving right along "like a herd of dead turtles."

The kiddos hung out in the "super sandbox" (our giant sandbox the boys great g-pa built last summer.) ...then the mosquitos began to attack, forcing the little ones to go inside. Mosquitos are the downfall of living close to a creek in the summer.

"let's all go fly a kite!"

No beach trip would be complete without a little kite flying. Topsail now has a whole store dedicated to kites, windsocks, kite surfing, etc. We stopped in one evening on our way to the infamous Crab Pot for dinner. We helped the bugs (OK, so I picked it out) pick out a turtle kite, and Bugman got a Bugman sized Blue's Clues kite.

Bitty Bug was the first one to demonstrate his kite flying skills.

...he didn't get to high off the ground

Daddy gave it a try next.

Up, up...

...and away!

Bugman got his kite up in the air.

I wish you could see how small this kite was. I would geusstimate that it's about 6" x 7." It flew amazingly well. We were quite shocked.

upside down again...

I know I promised kite flying today, so maybe that will get done this evening. When I opened these pictures of The Bugman, and had just posted his silly upside downness (yeah, made that word up) last night, I thought I'd stay on the same topic.

We're (OK, there is no "we" its daddy) is building a fence to contain the monsters in the backyard. It has been quite a process and it appears it may never be done. Its a good thing appearances can be deceiving because its really quite pivotal that it gets finished. Anyway, while daddy was out working on the fence the Bugs and I went out to help. And by help, I mean mommy taking pictures, Bitty trying to escape the backyard, and Bugman doing what Bugmen do best, hanging upside down on the tunnel to the slide.

"Hee Hee, look at me!"

"I'm so silly!"

"This is 'supa' fun!"

"Ummm... I think I'm done, help please!"

back to the beach

No, we didn't take another vacation, but I'm going to get back to posting more of the Bugs' experiences from our trip.
Anyone who talked to me before our trip knows that my goal was to bring home two children as albino as they were when we left. This meant slathering on bottles and bottles of sunscreen, putting up an umbrella, and making sure they ate lunch and napped during the hottest part of the day. Bugman also found another way to avoid the sun - playing under the neighbors' steps. There was a platform where the steps made a turn and it was a perfect little hideout. Bitty Bug followed his big brother over and they would sit and dig, use shells as tools and 'work', and push the bull dozer around. Bugman discovered that he could climb on the supports and demonstrate his version of "LOOK! I hang upside down!"







Come back tomorrow when we'll do some kite flying!

15 months

Somehow this little man is 15 months already. It seems like his first birthday was yesterday, and he was born the day before that. Time flies when you're having fun, right? Bitty celebrated his 1/4 birthday with a run on the beach on our last day of vacation. This morning he went for his 15 month check up with Dr. Cata and he is developing normally (although a little slow in the speech department, but is still ahead of where his brother was at this age). He is a champ at using a spoon and especially a fork. He loves imitating his big brother (and his big brother loves imitating him as well). He is working on his 4th molar and as soon as that bad boy comes through we plan on ditching the binky (pacifier). Bitty is pretty coordinated and loves to throw balls and dig in the sandbox.

His list of (kinda) words includes:
uh oh
thank you
hi
bye
night night
love you
quack
roar
up

His signs include:
please
thank you
more
eat
mommy
yes
down
up

I'm sure there are a few that I'm not thinking of right now. We're not lighting the world on fire, but its a start. I'm hoping that when we lose the binky he will pick up more quickly. Bugman took a huge language jump between 15 and 18 months.

Official stats are:

weight: 21lbs 1oz - 10th percentile
height: 30.75" - 35th percentile
head circumference: 47.8cm - 70th percentile

Even though he's still little with a melon for a head he's staying on his own growth curve (and gaining a little height)