Summer Daze

It's 99 degrees at 9 pm here. Summer in Texas is an interesting experience when you're trying to get two toddlers into carseats when everybody wants to do things "by myself!" (I'm still in denial about this fact. How do they grow so fast? Although technically Ella probably doesn't count as a toddler since she won't let go of my finger while walking...except for when she thinks we're not looking and she wants to walk from one toy to another.)





Both kids experienced their first 4th of July fireworks this year. It turned into more of an outing than planned when we got stuck waiting for a shuttle out of the park and didn't get home until almost midnight. Foiled in our plan to try the smaller fireworks out at the lake in hopes that it would be less crowded than the Austin ones! Ella was pacified with some snacks, and enjoyed the first few minutes of fireworks before getting overwhelmed and laying her head down on my shoulder for the rest. Ethan really enjoyed the fireworks and even stayed awake for the drive home, chatting away about the night.




Ethan finished two weeks of swim lessons, and I got a lesson in adjusting expectations and relaxing about what others might think. (Let's just say that the other parents were highly amused at hearing Ethan emphatically tell me, "that's really enough" when encouraging him to try something new.) Putting your face in the water is overrrated, right? In a turn of events likely to be repeated many times in our future, Ella has proven to be far bolder in the water. This tends to encourage Ethan to stretch himself past his comfort level, and he has tentatively done some floating on his back and blowing bubbles in our neighborhood pool in the last few visits.



Ella has had some major developments in the recent months. She decided that she likes to eat now, and frequently puts away an amazing amount of food. While still pickier than Ethan, she has expanded what she'll try by quite a bit. She still chooses to keep me guessing by having no consistency about what veggies she likes or doesn't like. She's also added so many words to her vocabulary that I couldn't begin to guess how many she says now. She goes out of her way to talk in sentences; most of the things she says now are two to five word sentences ("I dropped food on floor" is a frequent one, as is "I do it myself"). She sings most of the alphabet song (recognizable with some mixed up letters), Jesus Loves Me, Halleluh, and Deep and Wide, and counts to 10 (skipping 7 every time). For a long time she would ask to sing a song from a Steve Green CD with the Bible verse "Do Not be overcome by evil". Nothing like having your 16 month old chanting "Come Evil" through the grocery store. In an amusing and somewhat scary turn of events, she's been begging to use the potty and has actually peed in it 4 times over the last few days. Almost 17 months and she won't walk by herself, but she's telling me all about what she wants! She LOVES her babies and animals and frequently makes everybody kiss, hug, and feed them with her. (She also happily drives Ethan's cars and trucks around and calls all loud vehicles a "fire truck"---having a big brother broadens her toy horizons!)



Ethan has also been keeping us on our toes. He decided about a month ago that he was done with diapers, and he's had very few accidents since. We now have a detailed knowledge of the public restrooms in every place we go. While he is actually able to go quite a while between visits to the restroom, he is fascinated by checking out other restrooms and usually wants to go to the bathroom as soon as we get to a place. This leads to some interesting juggling acts with both kids. It also leads to some really awkward conversations, like the one we had at Walgreens a couple weeks ago when a homeless woman was talking to herself and making some odd animal noises in the other stall. Errands take a lot longer these days.



He's also full of funny observations, questions, and philosophical discussions. He's informed me that God doesn't take a car to Heaven, but walks. We had a long discussion about lightning one day where he asked if it needed a ladder and a long cord to plug in for the electricity to work, and then asked me if it had a face, hands, etc. After multiple times of explaining that it wasn't a person but a thing, he got exasperated with me and asked if it at least had a hat.


He's been stalling at bedtime trying to avoid going to sleep. After several trips to the potty, when he's been told we're all done, he starts trying to get creative about why he's crying out for us. Lately he'll say, "I need something!" but never give you a specific thing. In frustration the other night Brent finally said, "okay, we'll get you something in the morning." Ethan woke up after Brent had already left for work, and within a few minutes told me that Daddy said he could get something in the morning. After more questioning I told him that I couldn't help him if he didn't tell me what it was he wanted. He walked into the other room to play, and I could hear him muttering to himself, "I wanted something and Daddy said yes but Mommy said no. I'm not happy anymore. Now I'm really sad."



We've been trying to beat the heat with water activities and indoor fun, so the kids got to experience their first movie in the theatre this week. Older movies are run each week for free, so we decided to try out a Veggie Tales "Pirates who didn't do anything" movie. The kids did great and have been playing upstairs by pulling out their toy bins and sitting in their "boats" for the last couple days.


Today we were on the way to check on the watermelon sorbet we'd started earlier in the kitchen and had to take a potty detour. Ethan paused and asked me, "The ice cream maker won't get my underwear?" Not sure where that one came from! He usually is worried about Ella taking his underwear (not without cause, as she has been known to take them and wear them on her head or hide them!)


They're enjoying each other more and more these days, and their play is a source of great amusement to me on a pretty regular basis. They're also tagteaming us these days, with Ethan often prompting Ella to ask for something they both want or to do something he thinks would be funny. I know I've said this several times before, but I'll try to keep up with the blog more frequently, if only to remember some of the random little things that happen around here. Hope you're all enjoying your summer!