Child's Play

Are you all having a good summer?
Our summer has been filled with a little of this and a little of that.  
This heat makes it hard for the boys to get plenty of outside time.  As long as they turn the hose/sprinkler on, though, they can manage to stay out for awhile.  Also, as I mentioned in another blog of mine, I made up these popsicle cozies so the older two usually get one popsicle a day to help cool off. 

They get a little Wii time each day...

"Daddy, can you cuddle me while you play?"

"Hey, New Kid, you're supposed to play with ME!"

 ...a little computer time, a little Netflix, and then I make sure they do things that have nothing to do with batteries or being plugged in.   Well, I guess the dancing they do does come from music, and that is usually from YouTube, but it is still exercise.

National Ice Cream Day

Did you know that back in the 1980's President Ronald Reagan declared July as National Ice Cream Month?  And that the 3rd Sunday in July was National Ice Cream Day?

To celebrate National Ice Cream Day, Biju and I took the boys to Braum's for dinner and got them an ice cream treat for dessert.

Both boys got Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  It was a big hit.

Aren got a taste of it and signed "more" over and over again!

Alex gladly gave Aren more.

Then Aren wanted more again.  Even said "ahhhh" with his mouth wide open for it.  And SCREAMED for it. 

And what post about a baby eating ice cream would be complete without a video??

(As we were leaving, the ladies that were in the booth diagonally across from us were leaving as well.  On our way out, they told us what well behaved children we had.  I smiled and said thank you as if we got this compliment on a regular basis.  Inside I was jumping up and down in excitement and thinking "Whew!  It's been ages since someone has said that to us!! It's so nice to hear it again.")

More from our visit

So I got sidetracked and didn't finish posting about our 4th of July visit with my family.  I'll try to cram the rest in here so we don't drag it out any further.  Prepare for a photo bomb!

All three boys playing with one of Jenna's friends.

Jenna modeling her school-colored visor that I made as her 8th grade promotion gift.

Couch.  Couch Cushion.

Oh!  There was a sleeping child under that cushion??

Slip-n-Slide fun on a HOT day! 

Niece Tessa getting a hand down the wet plastic.

Nephew Thomas zooming along. (Logan in the background getting a drink)

A friend of the family helping Ajay shoot - was it a .22?  The next level up from  BB gun.

Jeff and a family friend, Greg, shooting the clay "pigeons" - can you see that shell casing in action flying between the two of them?

Having good old fashioned fun.

Alex enjoying the sprinkler - this was out not only for the children to play in but to soak the ground so we wouldn't burn up the place when we shot of fireworks that night.

My niece, Lenley, playing with Aren.

Nephew Brandon hanging out.

Nephew Logan showing off his red tongue.

Niece Jenna sticking her crocheted photo frame to her head (birthday gift I made for her).

Happy Aren!

Alex playing on the air hockey table.

Ajay playing against Alex on the air hockey table.

Aunt Theresa and Ajay had to cross into the neighboring field to retrieve a parachute (it had a toy soldier attached, so we couldn't just let it go!)

Alex playing with his soldier/parachute

Can you see the soldier dangling there above the rocks?  He was pretty big to be stuffed inside a firework!

Aren gave Aunt Tina some good cuddle time!!

A few of us helped the boys shoot of some of the leftover daytime fireworks on Sunday. 

If you made it through til the end, thanks for hanging in there!  These were all originally going to be split up into multiple posts but I decided to chuck them all in together.  Lucky you, right?

Aren: 14 months!

Aren is officially 14 months now.  He is probably pushing 18 pounds, too - can you believe it??  This little guy who could barely put on a few ounces after his 4 month check up?  He was right at 15lbs around his 1st birthday, and he was 17lb 2oz. when we took Ajay in for his well check at the end of June.  (so over 2lbs gained in, what, maybe 5 weeks?)  It might be time to start putting away those 3-6 month clothes and use only the 6-9 month clothing!

He cut his 5th tooth on Sunday.  

He has started signing quite a bit.  "More" and "Eat" are his all time favorites.  He's also pretty proficient with "water."   He hardly ever uses "All Done" because he could just keep eating and eating.  We try to use it when we read books, too, so he knows he can use it for things other than being all done eating.  He combines a lot of his signs - I taught him "Book" and he uses it to ask people to hold him.  I taught him "Sleep" and he uses it to mean "Phone" - which is quite cute when he tells you the phone is ringing.  He also tries to answer his hand and says "aloo" (hello). 

Ajay carried him outside this morning and put him in his exer-saucer.  While I was in doing some baking in the kitchen, the boys played with water.  It seemed as though he really enjoyed the water play when it was sprinkly-fun but when Alex got too close and sprayed him directly, he got quite angry!

The boys LOVE to dance around in our living room.  Alex and Ajay typically end up on their heads at some point so Aren logically thinks this is how you're supposed to dance.  So Aren starts to wiggle, then ends up in an upside-down-V shape, imitating the boys.

His latest accomplishment is standing on his own from a sitting position.  He just mastered this today!  He goes from that upside-down-V position, to standing.  He is so proud of himself!  We can't help but think that walking (unassisted) is just around the corner.

He can stand longer but was getting tired.  Can you see how excited he is?? 

I have more to share from the last couple of weeks but figured I should post today's post today! 

Celebration with my family: Gardening and Fishing

Independence Day came in the middle of the week this year so we decided to celebrate with my family the weekend after.  Biju was planning on going up with us until he got the sore throat that the rest of us had earlier in the week.  We also had guys out working on our garage, so he had to stay back for them.  So, with him staying behind, we decided to leave Friday afternoon and come back Monday, as opposed to leaving Saturday and coming Sunday.
The boys love farm life.  They love helping gather the eggs, help in the garden, and doing any chore that involves the tractor. 
Nana decided to go out and check on the garden after the boys had already changed into their jammies, so they just rolled up their pant-legs and joined her!

The classic stand-next-to-the-corn-stalk photo.  (Alex, Ajay, Jenna)

Grapes!

Ajay stealing a baby carrot.

 Ajay had also asked to take his fishing pole up to the farm with us.  Papa had already told us long ago that the pole would need new line, as the line that came with it was too thin.  Here is Papa restringing the pole - and showing great self-restraint as he got more and more frustrated with the line and pole!

Alex waiting patiently for his turn to go out to the pond.

A holiday and a haircut

We hope everyone had a fun and safe Independence Day! 

We took the boys to an Indian restaurant for lunch.  It was quite tasty - all kinds of good dishes out on the buffet that day!   We then dropped Biju and Aren off back hom (naptime!) and I took Ajay and Alex to see The Lorax at the "cheap" movie theatre.  Afterwards, we all went down the street a bit and picked up some fireworks.  The older two boys enjoyed the poppers and little champagne bottles (didn't even save any for Aren to try!) and set off some smoke bombs and cracklers.

Ajay will tell you that it took for-eh-ver for 9pm to come!  It was still fairly bright outside but we went ahead and started some of the night time works. 

We only did a few.  We're saving the rest to shoot off with my family this weekend. 

With it being so hot, we've been trying to figure out some fun ways to keep cool.  I got out the sand and water table yesterday.  The idea of the table is for the boys to stand at the table and play.  I guess they didn't figure that would cool them off enough.

Our neighbor, who is doing some work on our garage, saw what the boys were doing and told them they should go over and play with his daughter in their pool.  They jumped on that opportunity!!

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Aren got his first haircut today!!

A couple of before shots:

Here is Aren at the beginning of the cut...not too happy!!  Of couse, it was naptime, he was in a strange place, and there was a woman he'd never seen coming at him.

She asked if I wanted to try the clippers to clean up his sides and neck.  I told her he's already mad, we might as well try.  Can you believe he actually calmed down when she used the clippers?

 See?  Not so traumatized.....

And here he is after:

Happy and handsome!!