Summer Fun

We have been enjoying our summer so much. Our days have been filled with swimming, boating, playing outside, enjoying our garden and CSA, travelling near and a little far, hosting visitors and lots more. I'm really enjoying the increased flexibility or freedom that comes with slightly older children. Unfortunately for you readers, I'm finding that slightly older children spend less time sleeping and really want to play with you when they are up, so the blog has been suffering. I'll keep trying my best to carve our blogging time.

I have a bunch of pictures included in this blog. The first half is from Father's Day weekend when Maggie came in town to visit, and the last ones are from our trip to Minneapolis. We decided to go to Minneapolis to visit our Notre Dame friend Sarah and Chris Roark and my Atlanta roomate Jessica Zazworsky. We thought that the boys were old enough to just go out of town for the weekend. The trip was great. The 5-hour drive there was suprisingly smooth until we arrived at N Newton Ave. instead of S Newton Ave. at a house with an eviction notice posted on the door. We were suprised to say the least, but quickly realized the error in our ways. S Newton Ave. is only 20 miles away from N Newton Ave.! The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out with good friends visiting the St. Paul Sicence Museum, Lake Harriet Beach, and the 5 8 Club. So glad we decided to take advantage of a free weekend!

Aunt Maggie enjoying the nice pool!

At the Henry Vilas Zoo!

Trying out the violin at the zoo.

Small Christopher, huge lion!

Compare the size of Matt's tree frog to Christohper's lion. Ha, ha!

What do you do on Father's Day when the little one wakes up early and happy? Breakfast in bed for Daddy!

Cleaning the boat to get ready for our ride. Goggles are a must for this activity.

Chillin' on Lake Mendota!

Anyone up for a swim?

Garden raid!

Checking out the fish in Lake Harriet.

Christopher enjoyed making transformers at this exhibit. Mindboggling if you ask me.

He also loved making the ball drop out of the airstream.

Learning about the Lee's Norwegian heritage at the Norske Nook in Osseo, WI. From what I can tell it's all about pie, pie, and pie with a little Leffe on the side.

Another must-see in Osseo, the water tower. I'm sure they have those in Norway, too.

Christopher trying out the new run bike with his newly fitted bike helmet.

Gardening aka Snacking

This post is for Grampie. He's the one who helped plant our garden over Easter last year, and inspired me to continue the tradition this year. I know he would have loved to hear Daniel calling Chrisotpher over to the garden this afternoon saying, "Christohper come inside the garden. It's so nice here in the dirt."

Our garden is doing great. The boys and I got out there today to do some weeding. It must have been exactly what Daniel needed. I think he stayed in there for 45 minutes. Yes, Daniel actually stayed in that fenced area for a long time! I was disheartened to see my peas topple down over the supports today. They had gotten very tall in the past week and had grown over my head! I actually put up a trellis this year, and boy did they climb. I just hope that the stalks did not break when they crashed. I put in some tree branches for support, but I'll be suprised if they do much. Then the peas were attacked by a four-year-old hankering for peas. All of the peas were stripped from the vines and consumed on site by Daniel. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. At least he is eating something healthy.I just hope the vines are not too bruised for all the flowers that have blossomed to turn into peas, and I know he does too.

Christopher's garden snack of choice are the carrots. They acidentally pulled some young ones up when they were weeding and they ran all around the house to chase me down to show me the two carrots they found in the garden. They were so proud. The other snack of the day was dill. The previous owners had it planted, and every year we have several dill volunteers. Not so bad when you grow cucumbers. I told the boys they could eat it if they wanted to, so they just started eating it like carrots. They would never eat anything with dill if it were served for dinner. Maybe we will have to relocate dinner to the garden? 

Christopher is the brave soul who eats carrots straight from the ground.

Lettuce ready to eat!

Carrots on their way or if you are my boys, ready to eat. Natural baby carrots ;)

Trying to find a few more peas.

End of an Era

When Christopher woke up on Monday morning a few weeks ago, he announced to us that he was ready to give his nunu (pacifier) to a new baby. I couldn't believe my ears. Christopher really likes his nunu, and up until the day before would cry for it anytime that he was feeling out of sorts or wanted to go to bed. So I asked him if he knew a baby that might like to have his nunu. He informed me that he would give it to Tytan who is a baby at his school. Typically at this point in the morning, I would be looking for any opportunity to swipe nunu up and put him out of reach until bedtime, but since Monday was clearly different, I told Christopher that he could keep nunu in his pocket until he was ready to give him to another baby seriously doubting that this event would actually take place.

Well, sure enough he made it to school, bestowed his beloved nunu to Tytan and was off with his day. Meanwhile his older brother was having a sad moment on his cot worried about how Christopher would feel when he had to go to bed. Christopher reassured Daniel that, "I will feel happy at bedtime, Daniel." Christopher was singing the same tune when I picked him up at school that afternoon. It all changed at bedtime. The poor kid was very sad for about 30 minutes and then decided that he could sleep without nunu. The next night was a bit easier, but Christopher was still a little sad for nunu for about a week or so.

This is a perfect insight into how Christopher works. He sets his mind to something and very quickly decides that things will be one way or another. It is an amazing, although frusterating at times, quality.

I started this post several weeks ago. We are now nunu free and rarely even hear about missing him. Letting go of the pacifier must have just been one step among many for Christopher to move from being a baby to a big kid (in his mind). Prior to giving up nunu, Christopher more or less potty trained himself, and since giving up nunu, he has moved his bedtime back an hour so that it more closely coincides with Daniel's bedtime. We also get to see him much more between the hours of 7:30 pm and 6 am. I can only assume that he would use all his awake time during that stretch to sit in bed and suck on his pacifier. I have visions of Christopher spending hours each morning in his bed awake just waiting to hear a sound outside his door, so thta he knew it was time to get up. Now we usually hear from him first each morning. Another time of transition.

Joyful Voices

Nothing better than the freedom of the woods, sticks, and a great song.