P-U-S-H

Overhead from Brady while reading the lid of a trash can, "P-U-S-H. That spells throw it away!"

Summer Fun

A few highlights from our summer. We've managed to make a trip to the zoo, go out of town to visit some family members, and put up a fence around our yard (more Ryan, than we on that one). Brady got to spend his first overnights with both sets of grandparents. He also lost a fingernail in an unfortunate door smashing event but his response after the fact was it was okay as he still had 9 left. (The fingernail is now growing back quite nicely.)

My personal favorite was waking up one morning and fishing a squirrel out of our wading pool. Poor thing couldn't get out, but I learned that squirrels are pretty good at treading water. Brady thought it was the silliest thing and spent the next few weeks checking his pool for swimming squirrels every time he went outside.

Awanas kicked off at our church this week and thanks to a picture from our church's children's minister, we have an example of Brady's growing need to do things his own way, even if it means wearing a crown upside down.



















Here's a couple of recent pictures of Luke who is all smiles anymore. In fact he spent most of today smiling at the antics of his brother. That can't be good.

Out of the Mouths of Babes?

So I haven't put the baby mirror up in my car yet. You know, the kind that in conjunction with your the car's rear view mirror allows you to see your rear facing baby. Instead, I've been relying on Brady to let me know what's going on with Luke. A few weeks ago, we were driving down the road and Luke suddenly goes from crying to instantly quiet as babies that age sometimes do. The relaxing calm that comes over me from a baby that has stopped crying changes quickly to worry as I remember that I had a blanket on Luke's lap and oh no, what if he's moved it up over his face and is suffocating, and I can't see him, and, and, and so on with the type of hyper vigilant yet cloudy thinking that comes with the combination of having a newborn and sleep deprivation.

I decide I'll just ask Brady if Luke has fallen asleep or not. The conversation:

Me: Brady, look over at Luke, is he asleep?
Brady: Yeah, he's asleep.

I decide that wasn't a good question as a passed out baby and an asleep baby would look the same to a 3-year old. Time to get more specific.

Me: What about his face, is the blanket over his face?
Brady: No. Yeah.

Okay that's no help.

Me: Look at his mouth, is it open or closed? Can you see it?
Brady: Unintelligible answer.

At this point, I look for a place to pull over so I can check on Luke. If you're thinking to yourself, why didn't she just do that in the first place, did I mention the whole sleep deprived/ cloudy thinking thing? Anyway, as I start to pull over, Luke wakes back up and begins crying again, clearly not muffled by any blanket. As we drive on down the road to the sound of an unhappy baby, I hear Brady say, "Mom, Luke's mouth is open." "Yeah, it is." I reply.