Father's Day Fun

We had a great Father's Day, celebrating Matt, Emil and my Dad (in absentia, to be celebrated in person in 2 weeks).  Thanks to all three of you for being wonderful role models, playmates for the kids and pillars of support and love for our whole family.  xoxo

Here are some pics from the week.

Dad opening his gifts and cards from the kids.  Claire is wearing a "Daddy's girl" shirt and Luke is wearing h "Daddy's wingman" shirt.  Unfortunately this is the best I did on getting a picture of the three of them.  

Nice new shirt Mr. Handsome!

Donna & Emil came over on Father's Day to spend the day and we spent all of it outside enjoying the perfect day.

First time Emil has EVER been in our pool!

My First Speedo:)

Loving his special little deck chair from Kristin & Cory.

First burgers of the summer season!  Yum.

"Here's my PICKLE!"

Shirt reads "Daddy's wrapped around my finger" - fitting for Father's Day

Saturday we had a playdate with Tonya, Justin, Drew and Taylor.   It was supposed to be an outdoor playdate, but the rain forced us inside for the morning.

Drew and Luke playing trucks together was soooo cute.  Baby sister Taylor  played more independently.

Everyone likes Sophie!

Later that day we did go swimming.  Claire was relaxin' in her easy chair float.

Glad to see someone using that gazebo!

Strawberry harvest time, Luke is very good at picking the red ones.

Lying on the grass on a warm summer evening, holding a smiley Claire, looking up at the sky and those majestic trees while I hear Luke running around playing with Matt, I think of the Louis Armstrong song 'What a Wonderful World'.  I don't do hash tags, but if I did I would write #lovemylife.

Selfie!

Hiya cutie!  Holding toys is no problem, now.  

This is what I see when I leave for work in the morning, this adorable puppy dog in the window as I drive away:(  Incidentally, I took this picture after Luke waved goodbye to the garbage truck.  He has the same expression as when I leave....huh.   

Smiley attack!

There got to be so many strawberries that Luke couldn't eat all of them, so he started collecting them in this little bucket. 

"Gentle, please, Lukers!"  Note Claire's expression.

Sophie squeaking at Claire

I got you my pretty....

She can stand by herself already, when leaning of course!

Quality couch time together.

Luke helps me water the flowers, he's pretty good at it.

Claire gets her first toenail polish

My morning run with Spumoni is such a treat!  Before Matt started his new schedule I would never be able to run in the morning.  It is gorgeous.

Matt brought me an extra fridge for my office and he also brought Claire in to meet my work friends.  Of course she was a huge hit!

A weekend with Grandma Mary & Grandpa Craig

We welcomed Grandma Mary and Grandpa Craig for a nice weekend visit with plenty on the agenda.  Between showing them the train garden at the Botanic Garden, to going on the boat for the first time, to seeing Donna & Emil's new house, we had lots to keep us busy.  My favorite part of the weekend was just watching them interact with Luke and Claire.  (My least favorite part was watching 'The Impossible", the movie about the tsunami in Thailand.  I basically cried or hid my face in the pillow for 90% of it.  Moms beware, it is a tough one to watch.) 

Kid observation log:

• Luke loves to turn off all the lights in the house, and shut all the doors, too.  He is methodical, going from room to room, it is really funny.  This kid is not afraid of the dark.  The sad thing is (at least for me) that he can reach all the light switches WITHOUT his stools!  How did he get to be such a big kid?  
• Luke is singing and dancing so much more, it is really fun.  He used to just want you to sing to him, but now he gets in on the action.  In the bath one night we were singing "Wheels on the bus" and we sing "The Mommies on the bus" verse and instead of saying "Shhh Shhh Shhh" he says "The Mommies on the bus say 'Don't drink the dirty water, don't drink the dirty water, don't drink the dirty water.'"  Then he laughed at how funny he was.  I laughed too at his good memory and clever lyrics - because even though I have told him that many times, I hadn't for a while.  Smart kid:)
• Luke is newly obsessed with his night light turtle, even though he's owned it for a couple years now.  It actually is an incentive to going to bed at naptime and at bedtime - without the nightly fight of "only 3 books".  Amazing miracle product.
• Luke usually just ignores Claire, but the other day I was in the bedroom putting away clothes while Claire was in her swing and Luke was playing with his puzzles.  Luke came in to tell me that "Claire Bear is crying, Mommy".  This was the first time he seemed aware of her and concerned enough to come and tell me.  It was either that or her crying was hurting his ears and he wanted me to stop her from making all that noise!  
• Claire is holding herself up so well.  I can hold her on my hip with just one arm, instead of having to support her neck and head.  That means we have a baby now, not an infant!
• Claire is a grabbing machine.  She grabs onto toys, my clothes, my jewelry and my hair most of all (ouch!).  I forgot that a few months after you have a baby you lose a lot of hair.  I have been experiencing this crazy hair loss, so when Claire pulls more  of my hair out it isn't helping the situation!

Walking to the train garden.  He never lets me hold his hand, but asked to hold Grandma Mary's hand.

Looking at a train going by.

Love the puffball flowers

It was a beautiful day to go to the gardens

Boating time!  It was pretty chilly on the water, but still pretty fun.

Claire's first time on the boat!  The baby who never fusses hated the life vest, as all babies are required to because they are awful and uncomfortable.

Grandma reading Lukers stories, notice Claire craning to hear the story too!

SO big!

Enjoying a lovely visit in D&E's new backyard.

We walked to giant Bowen Park through a beautiful ravine trail from D&E's house.

Look at this beautiful face.  

Super strong stander-upper!  Rolls on the legs going strong.  We actually have to put a cream in between her skin rolls to protect that skin because it never sees the light of day!

Back to reality

Our baby is 3 months old already, hard to believe!  So you know what that means...(cue the foreboding music)...back to work I must go.  It was an absolutely unbelievable, amazing, stupendous three months.  I could definitely be a stay-at-home Mom, provided I still had Isolene here to help everyday and Matt here a lot of the time too, of course.  Wait, that's not what being a stay-at-home Mom is like at all, I'm told.  That's more like the lives that Hollywood starlet Moms have.  Hmmm.  Maybe check that.  In any case, I guess all good things must come to an end, and reality has invaded in the form of my full-time job.  Not that I don't enjoy my job, I do (for the most part).  I just enjoyed the set-up I had for the past few months quite a bit more.  Going back to work this time was so much more difficult than it was with just Luke.  Now I have two babies to kiss goodbye in the morning, and having been home with Luke so much more made me realize everything I had been missing with him.  Also, unlike when I went back to work the first time, he can talk.  So now he can vocalize "Mommy, don't leeeeaaavee!  Don't go to work today, stay home with meeeee!"  Ahh!  Straight through the heart!  Anyway, going back to work was fine - I was suitably overwhelmed by the workload, concerned about work/life balance, and wondering about my decision to go back to work.  You know, typical working Mom stuff.  It didn't help that I caught a cold immediately and lost my voice, so was feeling crappy physically.  But after the first week it started to get better, and now it isn't so bad.  I just needed to get back into a new routine and reassure myself that I will still see my children, and I am not missing their whole lives.  I do like what I do, and my life/career coach Katie Richardson just reminds me that I need to set boundaries to maintain my work/life balance.  I can do it!

Anyway, tell me about Roon....(inside joke, sorry, movie quote from Big Business (best movie ever)).

Claire is 3 months old and still a big adorably chunky baby!  She has officially passed Luke up in weight - he was less than her at 3 months despite being born a half a pound heavier.  She is verbalizing so much, and laughs at so many things, and is holding onto toys and being much more interested in everything in general.  She's getting so much more interactive, it is really fun.

Weight:  15 lbs

Length 25.5 inches

Here are some other cute pictures from the week.  Not much news to report on the Luke front.  He has a toy phone that he got from Aunt Diane & Uncle Garry that he calls his "iphone" (how about that branding?!  I have to appreciate it as a marketer myself).  Anyway, he carries his iphone around and asks me to "smile, Mommy!" so he can take my picture, he even presses the little button on it.  So cute how he mimics me with my phone.  We tried to have him sleep in his bed without the bed rail up because he rarely moves around when he sleeps.  But wouldn't you know it, the night we try to do this he wakes up in the middle of the night all tangled up in his blanket.  I was watching him on the monitor for a couple seconds as he tried to stand up and re-cover himself.  I shot down the hall as soon as I saw what he was trying to do, but before I got there he lost his balance amid all the sheets and stuff and fell out of bed on his head!  He was pretty shaken up, but then went back to sleep pretty quickly.  We'll have to try the no bed rail thing again another day.  

First time on the swing!

First time on the slide!

She loved it!

On Saturday we had a nice visit with Katie's Dad and girlfriend.  They were in town from Tucson for Bobbi's son's graduation from the Great Lakes Naval Station, not 10 minutes away from us.

Saturday night out on the town with my former swim friends!  

Sunday we hosted a brunch for the Eichinger side of the family since Dan, Amy and their kids were in town from Springfield.  It also was Uncle Mike's birthday and Dan & Amy's anniversary.  This is their pose when I asked to take an anniversary picture of them.  Typical:)  They're so funny.

The guys chatting around the table.

All the kids playing in the basement.  It was a really cold day - in the 40's in June!

Three boys in the ball pit.

Lila, Sara and Claire.  Claire looks like she's a little concerned about something!  Ha!

Pretty girl Lila.

All the kids, minus Claire, on the playset

Pretty competitive races on the driveway.

Happy Birthday Uncle Mike!

cake time

Dan jokingly asked to borrow a "parka" because it was so freezing out, so I brought out my Purdue swimming parka!  We aim to please:)