August. It’s like when you go to a restaurant and ask for a Coke, and they reply in an apologetic voice, “Will Pepsi work?” I always answer, “If it has to.” That’s how I feel about August. I’d rather not August (can August be a verb, like adulting, Augusting?). And yet we Augusted, and it was all good… I wish I could say the same about Pepsi. Much like other months, my memory is lacking. Especially now that we’re Septembering (I had to). Pictures help, here goes:
Blueberry picking. This has become an annual tradition. If you count two years in a row—with plans to go next year—a tradition. Last year I randomly picked a u-pick farm and it was gorgeous. Bybee Farms right under Mount Si in North Bend. Absolutely beautiful. We went back. Jean came with us and helped us beat our poundage from last year by three pounds. We left with nine pounds total, and they were all gone within a few days.
Much like last year, we had a baby who realized she could pick and eat from the bush.
More picking. Blackberries this time. We went back to our old stomping grounds… our old neighborhood. It’s always fun to go back. We miss living there for some things, like the coziness of the smaller place and our awesome old neighbors. It was to their place we went, visiting after they returned home from a long trip back to their old stomping grounds in South Africa. When we lived there, we’d go blackberry picking together; there are several bushes lining the main street. It was there last year I was picking a blackberry and a snake slithered next to my hand on the blackberry bush. Not cool, snake. The kiddos made out with a plastic baggie each. Blaise took it serious as usual while Laine let others pick for her and put them in her bag… both kids gaining skills necessary for life, haha.
Laine date. We try to take each kiddo out for one-on-one parent time. It was Laine’s turn to go with me. Frozen yogurt was the request… more like a ridiculous amount of candy toppings and a smidgen of frozen yogurt. After the candy yogurt concoction, we stopped at the dog store next door and picked up fancy dog treats for Mayah and Melvin. They approved.
Saige being motherly. That poor baby doll. It still has food—now mold—stuck in its mouth (and has been banished outside). She was busy doing something else, stopped, grabbed the baby, sat the thing in the high chair, grabbed baby food and a spoon, opened the food, and proceeded to feed the doll. She took a bite for her after each baby bite. Which is weird, she never really ate pureed baby food.
At the Lainey Bug picnic. I love how the kiddos are always using their imaginations.
Scooter McGavin. Vaile doesn’t crawl, she scoots. Turbo scoots even. It’s pretty entertaining. With scooting, baths are impossible because she scoots the entire time, and often scoots so hard she either thrusts forward or falls backward. Solution: kitchen sink baths.
Climbing dome. Long before trampolines and play structures, I had the climbing dome on the brain. I think it was sitting in my Amazon cart since Christmas. I was going to get it then but it was so rainy and our backyard was a swamp. And then I forgot… until I remembered thanks to a Facebook friend. Now our backyard is complete.
Baby cage. This is the best thing ever. Now that Vaile is mobile, she gets around. Fast. And she eats everything she finds. I zip her in the trampoline, toss in a few toys, and she is the happiest kiddo. When she scoots, she gets a little jump and laughs hysterically. It’s pretty adorable.
iPad Saige. This kid. She is a force of nature now. No longer content being the little sister. Everything the big kiddos have, she has to have. We bought Blaise and Laine iPads two years ago. Now Saige has to have one. Brian has one he uses for surfing the web that we’ve converted to Saige’s. It’s still Brian’s, just in a kiddo case (she doesn’t know this). She currently loves matching games and watching the same My Little Pony music video over and over and over and over. Zippy sack pjs on backwards, kiddo likes to strip at every opportunity. Home or not.
She sleeps! The non-napper naps now. August started the transition moving Vaile from our bed at night to the Pack ‘N Play. After she got nights down, I started putting her in there for daily naps. And she actually naps… for over an hour even. What? Yes. Here, she’s on the floor because she was napping in the Pack ‘N Play and we were getting ready to leave. I pulled her out and carried her downstairs. She stayed asleep so I put her on the floor.
Party! The kiddos will probably be too old for this again but we had a joint birthday party. Their birthdays are eight weeks apart so we split the difference and had a party four weeks from each of their birthdays. They have the same friends at this stage in life, and I don’t want to take two weekends away from their friends and their families. They asked to have the party at Remlinger Farms again (we did a joint one there when they turned three and four). And of course they wanted to invite anybody and everybody, including kiddos we’d meet places and we’d never see again… like at the grocery store. I suggested we narrow it down to kiddos they’d seen in the past months. So they did. And it was a great time (despite the super hot day).
California, again. We left for California after the birthday party. What a long day. This trip wasn’t on the books until about a week before. We were down in July helping my sister and checking on my mom who was admitted to a hospital back in May, and subsequently released to a rehab care facility. We needed to go down and help move her to an assisted living facility. We were down for a week and it was work. Between doctor appointments and handling mom-related stuff, it was a packed week. Thankfully the kiddos were able to hang out with cousins and see Brian’s side of the family, so it was fun for them. And now that we’ve done the drive twice this summer, we’ve realized it’s better to break the trip up and stay in Oregon overnight. The drive down in July we went straight; the drive home in July we decided to stay in Medford. Dogs and all. For the August trip, we split the trips down and up. Best decision.
Pup cousins. Melvin and Lewis. My sister and I each adopted pups around the same time, and they got to meet when we were down in July. Now they’re old pals. I took pictures of the pup cousins and none of the human cousins. Haha.
I really didn’t take many pictures at all. Here is Laine at Brian’s dad’s (Papa) house. Laine and Blaise went golf ball hunting with Aunt Genna behind Papa’s house (they live on a golf course). They ended up with over 30. Laine helped clean them.
Vaile loves to eat. She’s at that age where anything in large amounts is fabulous. We tease that she’d eat a boot if we cut it up. Those eyes! Not sure where she gets big eyes from… not Brian or me.
My dad. He had a motorcycle, and he kept dropping it at stops. Not the smartest idea riding a motorcycle when you have a super weak leg. Not one to stop doing things he loved, he bought a trailer for his motorcycle so it kept him balanced when stopped. I walked out to the driveway when he was doing something with his bike, with the trailer attached. He asked me what I thought of his customized plate. I laughed! Especially since what you think USA did was a word that was never used nor allowed in our house growing up (and by default, my kiddos don’t use it). Confused, I asked what my dad meant and said it was an interesting commentary on the country. Never one to admit he was wrong, he said it stood for United States Air Force Retired. The plate mysteriously disappeared and was never mentioned again. My mom found it after he died.
Samples. Vaile has discovered Costco samples. Kid is obsessed. The odd look is her attempting to grab a sample from my hand. First, a picture, haha.
Mom, I’m hungry. Fifty times a day. Five minutes after breakfast. Two minutes after lunch. Every 10 minutes in the afternoon. I never want to hear I’m hungry again. Unless we have no food, then sure. My solution: make snacks for the day each morning. The deal is they get all their daily snacks first thing, and they can choose to eat them all at once, stagger them, save them for the afternoon… their call. The only deal, I never want to hear they’re hungry. They get breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and four snacks for the day. They also have a 24-ounce water bottle that they have to drain before they get anything else to drink. Hardcore, maybe. But I haven’t heard I’m hungry since I started. And, they look forward to seeing what their snacks are each morning. Mom life is good these days.
LEGO camp. Blaise had his first solo summer camp at Play-Well TEKnologies in August. It was an Angry Birds LEGO camp and he had a blast. They made bird nests and eggs, pigs, Bird Island… all sorts of Angry Bird creations. He loved everything about the camp. He had to miss the last day, Friday, thanks to everyone getting sick starting late Thursday night and into Friday morning. Blaise included. That was fun.
iKids. When mom and dad are both sick and the kiddos feel better.
Horse Laine. She was back at it after missing the prior two weeks since we were in California. She’s then missed the last two weeks thanks to Camp Orkila and my now broken foot. Next Sunday, she’s back at it fo’ realz.
We had all been sick and needed to get out. We all went to Laine’s riding lesson. There were some other kiddos hanging there too, and they played Simon Says outside while Laine rode. It’s a beautiful property and we were able to enjoy it while Laine rode.
Puppet show. The kiddos had an idea (all on their own) to make a puppet show. They went to the garage and found a box, grabbed scissors and art supplies, and went to town. The made some puppets and put on a show for me. It was super cute. I love watching their creativity and where it leads them. And I especially love it when they think of something and make it happen.
We ended August with a low-key week. The entire summer was either busy by choice, like daily swimming lessons for six weeks, or busy because things happened out of our control, like our California trips. It was nice to be home without having to do anything. Saige also decided to start potty training herself. Good times.
Jumping Raccoons 