A sticky summer Saturday and a not-too-Shabby-Sunday

I realize that I just may be the odd man out here, but I loathe summer. Don't get me wrong, I love a nice sunny day just as much as the next girl, but this humid, sticky, make-you-sweat-walking-into-the-grocery-store weather is a real bummer. For me, it might as well be the dead of winter here in good ole Michigan, because I just can't seem to enjoy the weather when it's 85, feels like 106 and the humidity is, well, so thick that you could cut it with a knife. NO THANKS. But here's the kicker: I give myself a real complex when my big kid doesn't get to go out and enjoy the outdoors. I start feeling like some kind of a failure as a mom. If you ask anyone that knows me,  So, in an effort to entertain our kids and well, ourselves, too, we made the most of this sticky summer Saturday by doing what we do best on days like this getting back to the basics: nothing fancy here, just good old fashioned fun (and a yummy dinner, to boot):

Little Miss Busy Bee Charlie decided that it's time she just start bathing herself and Ethan had himself a grand 'ole time painting in the tub. Who knew shaving cream could be so artsy (we do this when we want to keep him occupied).

Busy and her Bumbo (make that bald busy - my kids apparently prefer the minimalist look until about 1)

I think she honestly may be the world's happiest baby

I think I see a little blonde peach fuzz here

An afternoon coffee. Even when the humidity is at 132 %, I still enjoy a hot cup of java in the mid-afternoon.

 Homemade shredded beef taquitos and guacamole. I.Love.Mexican.Food.

Watching the Olympics (very carefully, I might ad). His dad has convinced him that he should cheer for Canada, his home land. It's a long story.

Charlie and her new best buddy: her thumb

A late evening run before the storm rolled in (nothing like a little lightening to put some pep in your step)

We figured 1) Since the Olympics are only on every 4 years and 2) it's awfully cute when Ethan cheers for anyone that "does good", we'd let him stay up late. He lasted until 10 and then crashed. So did all of his "guys".

The weekend didn't leave us completely cooped up. In fact, Sunday ended up being breezy and beautiful. So, in a fashion that is very anti-Redmond, we flew by the seat of our pants and quickly packed up. (Mind you, our "quick" still takes about an hour these days).

Every day when we pick up the kids from daycare, we get a little itinerary of what they did. Almost every day, the kids go for a walk in the garden. I figured it was just a couple of plants under a tree. Then one day, when I was getting my hair done, my stylist and I got on the subject of daycares, which lead us to a conversation and this magical garden at their school. I thought to myself, what could possibly be so great about this place? Sunday seemed like a good day to investigate. We pulled in and very quickly I became jealous that my kiddos get to enjoy this little slice of green bliss everyday:

Ethan was our little tour guide

Honestly, how gorgeous is this?

Charlie was really getting into it. Hee hee

"I want a take a pee-ture with the turtle, mamma"

Learning about herbs.

This little piggy went to the garden

After our trip to the garden we had lunch at the park. Ethan was probably beside himself...mommy let him have chicken nuggets for lunch...

And hot off the press, Busy found her feet this weekend

I'm also very excited because this weekend I got started on a new project I'm working on. Here's a little sneak peek:

Until next time .......................................

Tick tock on the kid clock

You know the sucky thing about kids? They get big so darn fast. It's kind of annoying, really. My little busy bee, Charlie, already seems like she's twice the size she was when she was born (well, that might have something to do with the fact that she literally is twice the size, but that's neither here nor there). It's amazing how quickly their little personalities change. Take this girl, for example:

For the first couple weeks of this little bee's life she was one cranky lady. In fact, I remember telling my husband "She is NEVER" in a good mood" (a bit of an over exaggeration, I'd say). She, thankfully, wasn't colicky, but on a bad day, I'd swear she was. Slowly but surely she started to mellow out and after some trial and error on a LOT of things, we figured our little Charlie bean out. One of our biggest saviors? The swaddle: Exhibit A:  Nothing calms this crazy girl down quite like her "crazy coat" can.

She has now morphed into this SUPER happy baby that only cries when she's hungry or overly tired. Which, let's be honest, that kind of makes me want to cry, too. Other than that, she's our happy girl.

She's learning to do all sorts of fun things these days. At almost 3 months she's holding on to her toys like a champ:

Last week, she found her thumb ( and hasn't let it go since)

She has been such a wonderful addition to our little family.

And then there's my homie. My first born. My big kid. My Ethan. Sometimes we swear that he's 2 going on 6. He's a FANTASTIC big brother:

He brings me her cute fluffy diapers, tells me when she spits up: "Mamma, Chaw-ie pit up", and has started giving her toys to play with. He has really amazed both Gabe and I at how well he handled having a sibling. He is constantly amazing us with the things that he says (both good and bad). We have to laugh when he says things like "My milk ready, mamma?" Or "Leave me alone, daddy". Gabe and I are often left looking at each other in amazement saying "Ummm, where did THAT one come from?"

We're still trying to figure out how he went from this:

 

To this so quickly.

He's so smart and so funny. I love this age, but if I think about it too long I turn into a teary mess thinking that one day he won't want to dance silly with me in the living room or say "Play with me mamma". So, for now I'll just pretend that both of them will stay little forever.