Toothy Grins

When Aidan's baby teeth started to get a little loose, he was excited, but he refused to wiggle the tooth to speed up its loss. He was content to wait out the tooth as it slowly worked its way looser and looser. In fact, he currently has a loose tooth that the dentist told him six months ago to wiggle out.

It's been six months and that tooth is going nowhere.

Brennan discovered a loose tooth on Wednesday. It was one of his bottom front teeth and it barely wiggled, but it was just a bit loose. He was overjoyed with this discovery and spent every waking moment wiggling that tooth.

After three days of wiggling, he cornered our good friend Dr. Dylan at the pool today and asked him to yank his tooth out. (Dylan is famous for yanking all the kids' teeth out. Of course, Aidan refuses to even open his mouth wide in Dylan's vicinity.)

After a few yanks and a nice tug, Brennan was down his first tooth.

I cried like a baby.

Brennan carried the tooth around the pool like a trophy, showing anyone and everyone the gap in his mouth and his sweet, little baby tooth.

I still, cried like a baby.

Wegmans - the Love Affair (again.)

Oh Wegmans, I love you so. I love you so much that after I described all your admirable qualities to someone who had never been inside your glorious store (sad, so sad), they asked if I worked for you.

I wish I did.

But your bakery with your homemade artisan breads, your gelato bar and your ultimate chocolate and white cake might just do me in if I did work for you. And do not get me started in on the chef staffed pasta station or the menu station with a chef creating new recipes for all of us to sample as we shop.

You have wrapped me around your little finger Wegmans. You have me.

But then you always have to go one better. After my boys enjoyed their supervised and free (!) play time, while I did the shopping, we were told by an ever so helpful and polite Wegmans employee to head outside for clowns, balloon animals, tractors and pictures. (All Free!)

Wegmans, will you marry me? Pretty please?

Touch Tank

Whoville boasts a pretty spectacular rec department. Our rec brochure comes out seasonally and is as thick as a magazine, complete with sponsors and advertisements. We try to take advantage of as much as we can, but sometimes lazy days spent at the pool prevent us from sharing in the fun. We did, though, make it a priority to get to the Touch Tank.

The boys were thrilled with the chance to hold starfish, touch lobster claws, and watch crabs up close, all in the comfort of our local Whoville library.

Missing Naptime

I loved nap time. I loved the guarantee of at least an hour of peace and quiet. An hour of freedom to do such decadent things like shower and shave my legs.

At nap time's heyday, I was guaranteed almost two hours. Two hours of freedom to do such exciting things like load the dishwasher and throw in a load of laundry.

After the boys stopped napping, I started to enforce "quiet time." Quiet time required they all be in their rooms and play quietly while I collapsed face down in bed for a quick snooze. Quiet time didn't have all the guarantees of nap time, but it was still enough to give me a nice boost to make it through the rest of my day.

Alas, we now live in a world without napping and without quiet time. It is a very sad world indeed. But while the boys no longer officially nap, the long days of summer swimming, playing and running here, there and everywhere can wear a three year old out to the point of utter exhaustion.

It looks like nap time has moved to the playroom couch - usually around 2 in the afternoon. That's okay - I'll take it.

A Blueberry Bonanza!

We have made good headway into our summer fun list. Things are getting crossed off left and right. This weekend, we made good on yet another fun summer activity and headed to our local berry farm to pick blueberries.

Blueberry picking lived up to all of our expectations. All of us loved it. The blueberries were plentiful. It was fun work. And it was easy for all of us to get picking.

The boys carried buckets over their shoulders and picked, picked, picked. Well, Aidan, Brennan and I picked, picked, picked. Griffin may have started a bit slow and instead ate, ate, ate. I found him standing in front of a bush, sampling blueberry after fat juicy blueberry. It may have explained why his bucket of blueberries was a little light.

After about forty-five minutes of picking time, we had picked ten pounds of blueberries. TEN pounds! And that whopping ten pounds came to all of 12 dollars. A steal!

We all loved the experience so much we are already planning on getting back to the blueberry patch before the season is over. And after freezing up a whole bunch of blueberries, making blueberry muffins and whipping up a delicious blueberry buckle, I need to restock!

Bathtime Buddies

My cousin Nikki is the best babysitter in the world. She has spent alot of the boys' life at our house, playing with them and loving them up. She has been my savior.

Nikki has always been advanced for her years and has been adept at babysitting my boys since she was all of 12. Now at 14, she handles them better than anyone I know. I never return from a night out and hear of tantrums or delayed bedtimes. Nikki gets it done. And she makes it look easy.

She watched the boys for us a couple weeks ago. When Chris and I returned from our dinner out, she casually mentioned that the boys were a bit dirty from their outside play so she gave them a quick bath before bed to clean them up. A few days later, I went to download pictures off my camera and found these pictures tucked in among the shots I had taken.

Yes, best babysitter in the world. She bathes them, gets them to bed on time and even manages to document the cutest little bath time buddies in the process.

I adore her. And the mohawks too.

Take Me to the Zoo

Thanks to Griffin's "bestest friend" Ryan celebrating his birthday with a bash at the zoo, the whole family got to spend the day amongst the animals. The boys got to lovingly touch a sweet baby bunny and then handle a mammoth snake. (I hid as far away as I could from that huge reptile.)

How can you not love a man who will rock the zoo animal hat? That's a cool Dad.

Fourth of July

We celebrated the fourth of July with a day at the pool, a backyard birthday cookout and extended bedtimes to enjoy the explosion of fireworks. Water balloon wars, slip and slides, glow swords and sparklers galore. A good time was had by all.

First Swim Meet

Thursday night is swim meet night. After a week of practices and lessons, the team is ready to strut their stuff.

Brennan took on his very first swim at his very first meet, racing in the 25 meter freestyle. He handled it like a champ. (You know him by the choice of color in googles. Orange. Of course.) The parents like to refer to Brennan's age group, the youngest swimmers at the meet, as the controlled drowning group. There is something undeniably sweet in watching these tiny children get up and give it their all as they struggle to make it across the pool.





At the first meet for the season, Aidan swam in an impressive four events - freestyle, back stroke and two relays. He has come a long way from the crazy, crying kid refusing to put even a toe in the water.

Brennan was scheduled to swim in two events - freestyle and a relay. After he finished, he sat down beside me and snuggled into a towel to watch the next heat of his age group's relay. One of his coaches ran up to Brennan in a panic, grabbed him and said, "Brennan! We need you to swim again! Can you come with me?"

Calm and collected, Brennan ran off with the coach and with barely seconds to go, got himself into position as his relay partner touched the wall. Off he went, swimming another lap in his second relay. I ran next to the pool cheering him on, overwhelmed by how easily he had adapted and how willing he was to dive right in.

Sweet Summer

We have been soaking up summer in Whoville, making a nice huge dent in our "Summer Fun List." We have spent entire days poolside, soaking up the giggles as the boys play, dive and chase themselves into a stupor of exhaustion. We spend nights cheering on the boys at their swim meets or hosting backyard barbecues to celebrate my mom's birthday on the fourth of July.

The boys are loving up summer. Aidan and Brennan swam their hearts out at their first swim meet. Aidan ran, swam and biked his way through his first triathlon. Griffin can now dive into the deep end of the pool and swim straight across it. Brennan loved his first golf camp and Aidan is, I am told, impressively hitting the golf ball on the course. All three boys are enjoying swim, golf and tennis lessons. And Chris and I have found time for ourselves with our summer loves, golf and tennis too.

The boys are tanned, brown little berries with sun streaked hair. They spend most of each day outside, first at the pool and then in the backyard swinging on their swings, digging up dirt and playing massive, complicated games of pretend.

We have eaten dinner outside and breakfast too. I have enjoyed my cup of coffee in the bright morning sun, early, much, much too early, as I watch my boys run barefoot across the dewy grass. Summer, with all its sweetness, has truly been good to us.