Soccer and the beach

 

 

This week marked the start of itty bitty soccer for Eric.   So far soccer seems to be his favorite.   That could have something to do with having his cousin, Jason, on the same team.  

So a little back story on this cousin, back in my infertile days I was really disappointed to not be expecting at the same time as several sister in laws.  I had wonderful close cousins growing up and wanted my children to have the same.  It really hurt me to think that we might be on a different family schedule than the others who were still adding to their families.    Imagine my joy when I found out that one of my wonderful sister in laws was expecting a baby just 6 months after Erics due date and even more excited to find out this baby was a boy (because let's face it, boys had been scarce on both sides of the family).

Fast forward 3 years and here are the two running laps together at soccer.  I love seeing the friendship developing these two.  Add to that how wonderful all the older cousins are on both sides and the babies born between Eric and Luke on both sides my fears for my children's cousin situation were completely unfounded. 

 

**please excuse all the horrible phone pictures.  That's pretty much all I use anymore.  

Speaking of great cousins,  Brians side of the family coordinates a weekly cousin activity during the summer.  It's a great thing others take charge and do this because I am an aweful planner and never get around to actually scheduling time with cousins if someone else doesn't do it.  But this week was at a little pond nearbye that actually has a fun beach to it.  The kids all had a wonderful time playing in the sand and the water stayed shallow for a little while so it was good for the littles.  Luke ate more than his fair share of the sand (I promise we do actually feed him), eric loved the cousin time and was telling me he missed his cousins as soon as we were backing out.  It was a great pond and I think we will be planning a picnic donner there before cooler weather starts rolling in. 

Update and Itty Bitty Ball

It's late and I should be in bed, but I have to admit, I'm beginning to relish these few quiet moments after everyone is in bed and I get the house to myself.   I haven't been very good at posting to the blog lately, which really is sad because it's probably one of my most enjoyable time wasters.  We've had a busy few months.  In December, Eric turned three, Brian turned 35, and we celebrated 13 years of marriage.  Our little Lucas turned one in February and I turned 32 so it has been a couple months of heavy celebrating.  I am still teaching piano and keep on taking on more students because I have a hard time saying no, plus let's be honest, I really enjoy teaching and sharing my love of music with others.  Brian is still working at the University of Utah and we are both trying to complete our masters programs.  Eric is starting to really turn into a little boy.  We started him in his first sports class this week.  The rec center holds an itty bitty ball course where they learn some basics of a sport every day.  It's just three times a week for two weeks so it's very manageable for me.  The first day was baseball and Eric looked like a natural out there.  He seemed to really enjoy himself and made some new friends on his team "Team Batman".   

 

Look at this perfect baseball stance. 

 

Potty Training

I thought I'd share a little bit of my journal entry from yesterday.

Oh the joys of potty training.   I had to run grocery shopping with the boys today.  Before we left I had Eric go potty because we wouldn't be able to while we were out then had him put on his underwear with a pull up over top.  We got to Smiths and I decided to not bring Luke's car seat into the store because he was wide awake and that bulky thing takes up too much room ( I promise that little detail is important to the story).  So I loaded both boys into one of those shopping carts with the car in front, you know, those huge trains that are impossible to maneuver but the only carts that you can actually load more than one kid into.  We are doing pretty great going through the grocery store and when we get to the back Eric says "they don't have a potty here".  I asked him if he needed to go potty and he says yes so I start looking around for a restroom.  Luckily smiths does have public restrooms in the front of the store, unlike the grocery store I went to as a kid where you had to go into the storeroom and up some rickety wooden stairs to the employee restroom.  We get to the restroom and I realize that I can’t leave Luke out in the cart nor can I set him on the nasty bathroom floor while I help Eric on the toilet, so I have to maneuver that huge monstrosity into the tiny bathroom.  Of course it is even too big for the handicap stall, not like it could make that sharp of a turn into the stall anyways.  So I leave the cart in the middle of the bathroom and run Eric to a stall. He sees the toilet and freezes.  I assure him that I will hold onto him and convince him to try to use it.  All the while I have the door to the stall semi-open so I can check on Luke.  I sit Eric down on the toilet and am in front of him because, you know, those stalls have so much room to move to the side. Luke is starting to get fussy because he can't see us so I'm a little distracted trying to keep a hold of Eric and call out to Luke that he's okay when Eric starts to do his business.  Well, public women's toilet seats are a little funny.  The seat doesn't actually go all the way around so there's this nice open spot at the front of the seat.  Not really a problem for little girls, but for little boys…..well that's a different story.  Next thing I know, I start feeling my pant leg get wet and notice that it's all over the floor.  Luke is screaming by this point and suddenly all the women in the store decide that nature is calling just at that moment.  So there I am, pee all over my pant leg, trying to wipe it off the floor with toilet paper, and a screaming baby that I am panicking is going to be kidnapped by one of the nice ladies talking to him in the bathroom stall (and of course, the suburban of grocery carts is blocking the way into the bathroom so all the women are having to shimmy around it).  And after all that work to get to the grocery store, do you think I'm actually going to just leave my full cart of groceries and go home.  Heavens no. I still h At least the guy in the soda pop aisle (cause you know I wasn't leaving there without my diet coke) got enough of a kick out of me telling Eric we don't spit on people that I'm sure he didn’t even notice my pants. Needless to say, all grocery trips will be done after Brian gets home from work now.

 

Related?

I was looking at pictures that we took at a recent family reunion with Brian's family.  Brian got a picture of Lucas with one of his great-grandma's.

 

The picture strangely reminded me of another picture we got a couple years ago of Eric with the same great-grandma in the same outfit.  Hmmm, do you think Eric and Luke might be brothers? 

Pioneer fun

Living in Utah means there are a lot of pioneer museums and memorials.....I mean A Lot.   Being a huge fan of history means this is a-o-k with me.  One of my sisters (really sister-in-law but from now on they will all be referred to as sisters because really, that's what they all are) but anyway, one of my sisters found out that a local pioneer park does pioneer activities there once a week though the month of July in celebration of Pioneer Day (like I said, lots of focus on pioneers).  It's been a tradition for the last few years to get together and go experience a bit of pioneer life for a day.  This year Eric was finally old enough to start getting it.  The first year we went I just held him and grabbed with my sisters.  The second year he ran around chasing his cousins but didn't really understand anything and wasn't big enough to play the games.   This time Eric got to see the fort, wash clothes by hand, see how they made butter and make a "water stick" (more commonly called a candle".  Did you know many pioneers only had one shirt.  That would make for a cold winter wash day.  Just another reason I am glad I live in modern times.

Listening to how they washed laundry

Soaping up the washboard

 

 

Luke along for the ride. 

Enjoying some hand -churned butter on breadq 

A Broken Arm

 

At the beginning of June, Eric was walking down the stairs to our kitchen when his toe caught on the edge of a step and he fell.  He was close enough to the bottom that he went straight down on his hands on our tile floor.  When I picked him up, I noticed his arm looked a little funny. 

Now I'm no medical expert, but I was pretty sure arms aren't supposed to bend like that.  So I called Brian and asked if he thought his mom could watch Luke for a couple hours, called my mother in law who hurried over to pick up Luke, and off Eric and I went to the hospital.  

He was such a trooper in the emergency room.  The nurses didn't think his arm was broken because he was so sweet and cheerful the entire time.  But one look by the doctor on call confirmed what I thought.  Definitely broken.   Now came the tough parts, an x-ray to look at the break (those big machines sure are scary for little ones) and an IV to knock him out while the doctor set the arm.  The IV was really hard on Eric and I began to wonder if we should have just let him stay awake to have it set but because of the type of break it was a good thing he was out.  He only broke one of the two lower arm bones and in order to keep the arm straight the surgeon had to break the other bone in his arm.  Because Eric was asleep, he was able to push hard enough to break it there so we didn't have to bring Eric back for a surgery.

 

On July 7, we got to take the cast off.  Eric was a trooper again. 

 The saw was a little scary.  Good thing daddy was there to help him feel brave.

  

 

 

 

And finally a cast free arm.  Eric was great with the whole experience.  He didn't ever complain about the cast bothering him and was brave every time we went to the doctors.   And now he can say he's tougher than his mom.

 

A Truck Ride

You know those Tykes cozy coupe cars?  Those plastic red and yellow cars that have been around for years?  Growing up, my friend next door had one and I was so jealous.  Hours were spend outside driving to the store, to school, to Disneyland, to China, wherever our imaginations could take us.  Such fun memories came from that big piece of plastic so when I saw one of my neighbors was selling a truck version that her kids have outgrown, I couldn't resist picking up this piece of childhood for my own boys.  So far, it has been well worth the $15.  Eric loves his truck and we even found that there was a great spot for Luke to ride along as a passenger. 

 

"Uhhh mom, should I trust him to drive?"

I have a feeling this will be happening in real life far too soon for me (only Luke better not be in the bed of the truck)



The pictures say it all.  You can read their thoughts.