Hello Summer. I was hoping for you, and now you’re too hot. This entire week is supposed to be 100+ degrees. It IS a dry heat as they say, but my tolerance really only goes up to about 95. We will make it, but now I’m missing fall once again.
Life is crazy this summer. I was looking back at my last blog and realized I feel like I lost an entire month (June). I am back working 5 days per week for now, which is about two more days than I’d prefer. I’m on the fence about pursuing other job options, staying where I am currently, scrapping the whole work idea and staying home, and trying for another baby in order to postpone all decision making for another 9 months. Jason has given me his blessing to quit my job if I were so inclined, but I’m pretty sure I’d go crazy being home full time. That being said, it would be nice to spend more time with the boys than just post-daycare evenings and weekends.
As I think about the last month, we did manage to get out and about a few times before it got TOO hot. A few 
weeks ago, we took a Sunday morning trip to the Tracy 
Aviary. I had never been there before and Jason’s last visit was probably 10-15 years ago before its most recent renovation. The boys really liked looking at the birds. William got to get up close and personal with a parrot who is trained to take donation money and stuff it into a collection box. He thought it was pretty neat! A second place I had not been in my 10 years in Utah was to Bridal Veil Falls. This was a quick stop on our way to dinner with Jason’s family, but beautiful nonetheless. Last weekend for Father’s day, we went to the Salt Lake City Chalk Art Festival at the Gateway Mall which has become a tradition of sorts for us. Due to the heat, we went earlier than usual so most of the art was still being completed, however Jason had to go in to work later that evening and snuck back out just after the festival ended to get a few pictures. I think this one was William’s favorite–go figure.
We’re about to start a major renovation of our main floor bathroom and the guys will start gutting it next week if all goes according to plan. We’re going to end up taking out another small loan to finish the project, but after almost 3 years it is time. The cracked tiles in the floor aren’t fixing themselves, the plaster shower walls are slowly deteriorating, and the only window is still painted shut. Our biggest splurge will be a slightly deeper bathtub for soaking and new quartz counter-top. Since it is the only main floor bathroom and will be very high traffic we will be adding a sink, making the short vanity a more traditional height, putting in a new window (that opens!!!), installing a vent fan, and moving the light switch from the hallway into the actual room. Crazy right?!? This is the first time we’ve used a contractor and I’m just hoping everything goes as smoothly as possible. I’ve had a pile of fixtures waiting in the basement for about 2 months, so getting this thing started is very exciting.
William has [finally] had a great week in the potty training department, although sometimes getting him to go (especially in public restrooms) takes the skills of a crisis negotiator in a hostage situation.
He got pretty spooked by automatic flush toilets a couple months back, so that’s an issue we’ve been working on. I never thought I would come to dislike automatic flush toilets until I was the mother of a potty-training 3-year-old. Last week was the ultimate power struggle. He would wake up dry and stay dry all day at daycare, only to wet his pants all evening at home. He had a miserable day at home with Jason on Thursday where he was wet all day. Friday he did a little better, although he wet his pants while standing next to me in the living room in the afternoon and just exclaimed “aww, not again!” in toddler exasperation (I could only giggle). We finally decided the diapers were ending, and Saturday we took another trip to the store for additional supplies, namely more shorts and underwear–I only have time to do so many loads of pee-laundry during the workweek. For the hundredth time we talked about how these were “big boy underpants that needed to be dry” and how we “can give your baby diapers to Christopher to use”. 
Something may have finally clicked because Monday at daycare he explained he was in new big boy underwear and was going to give his old diapers to Christopher. He’s had a great week all week. Public restrooms are still a struggle, but I managed to get him to go in them on two separate occasions yesterday in three attempts. Win! In other news, he is currently eating little of nothing. He survives on chocolate milk, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, fruit snacks and air. We put meals in front of him and he always says “he’s not hungry”. Toddlers can be such a waste of food. If I had his reported hunger level I would be losing baby weight like crazy! He is also pure, BUSY, LOUD, boy. We are constantly fighting imaginary bad guys, and there is no such thing as still or quiet unless he is asleep. He likes to play on the kindle as a reward for good potty training days, and lately has been wearing a pair of kid headphones while doing so, which only makes our interactions more comical: “mom” “yes, William” *pause* “MOM!” “YES WILLIAM I HEAR YOU”…then usually some tidbit about the game he’s playing.
Since I last wrote Christopher became 13, and then 14 months old. He has started to test his walking 
legs, but is just such a mellow cat and he doesn’t care much about walking or talking. Crawling, smiling, and emphatically pointing seem to get him what he needs. He is walking more all the time so at least we’re seeing some progress. He loves blueberries, raspberries, and bath-time. He is finally consistently sleeping through the night (8pm-6am then a bottle and asleep until around 8). He and William continue to be polar opposites. Yesterday he got his first haircut and just grinned and squirmed when the stylist used the clippers. She got so many smiles out of him! William on the other hand still screams through most of his buzz-cuts and ends up being a hair covered snot-ball by the end. Christopher has also been enjoying water-days at daycare where they swim/splash in the back yard in the afternoons. They come home so tuckered out, but have so much fun! The following pictures of Christopher are 13 months, 14 months, 14 month outtakes, and post-first-haircut.
Yesterday we assembled a late birthday present from Uncle Jim and Aunt Jen. The boys now have a red wagon to ride around in. I’m a bit afraid I’ll never get them into the stroller again. I pulled the box out of the garage thinking it would be a quick assembly, but with multiple parts and two boys underfoot it took the better part of a couple hours. Jason was a trooper and didn’t complain, and the boys got their first ride in before bedtime.
A few weeks ago our lawn was looking amazing. May had been unusually rainy, so everything was green and lush (at least by Utah standards). We had mowed and edged the front lawn followed by fertilizer and turning on the sprinklers. I was noting that the front lawn and flowerbeds looked as nice as they have looked since we moved in almost 3 years ago. Later that morning Jason inadvertently used “weed AND grass” killer on half of the front lawn, mistaking it to be the same thing as the bottle 
of weed killer we had purchased the previous day. Needless to say, half of the front lawn ended up looking less than spectacular. Since then I’ve been battling to get some grass seed restarted in the 90+ degree temperatures. I didn’t need another thing to babysit, but now lawn sprinklers have been added to my list. It is greening up a bit, and I’m hopeful with that additional fertilizer and plentiful water we will have a better looking lawn by fall. A bit of a setback for sure! In better lawn news, the mums I saved from the dumpster after Memorial Day seem to be liking their new home. Hopefully they will re-bloom this fall. In the process I may have inadvertently taught William that the cemetery down the street is a place where we stop to get flowers…a few days later he asked Jason if they could drive back that way to get more. Oops! The roses have been blooming their hearts out and I need to get out and deadhead a bunch of them soon. Lately it’s been too hot to do much of anything in the yard until nearly dark.
In other family news, My grandma (Koenig) in WI had successful triple bypass surgery a few weeks ago. The boys enjoyed talking to her on Skype and sending get-well artwork. William’s pictures are pretty much scribbles, but I caption them with his descriptions. He is quite the story-teller! My parents are on their first international trip (Germany!) with my brother and his wife. It will be very quiet online without grandma or uncle Jim to consistently talk to for a couple weeks. I hope they have an amazing time! It’s about time they take a fun vacation like this, but I’m also looking forward to the next time they get to visit Utah…perhaps in the fall. Our wedding quilt arrived (finally) shortly after our 6 year anniversary in May. We have been enjoying it thoroughly and as you can see from the picture, Kiki approves.
PS: We keep a monthly blog for Jason’s Grandma. The following is Jason’s entry for the month, which I found amusing:
“We are about to take apart the bathroom in our fully functional house. I’m sure we won’t miss the cracked blue and pink tiles. We probably will miss some of the pictures of dead presidents that will be traded for this effort.
I tried to kill part of our lawn. It turns out that if you don’t stop and think about what you are doing while holding both “weed killer for lawns” and “weed and grass killer” on your way to the pump sprayer, sometimes you get to buy some grass seed. I only killed a portion of where I sprayed, Steph wondered if we could get a free bottle of spray from the company by sending them a picture of their inconsistent results. Steph’s re-seeding efforts appear to be successful so far. And it looks better than a bunch of the school fields and city parks in our area. So I could still start a career as a professional groundskeeper. Steph thinks I should keep my desk job for now.
William has been successfully keeping his underwear dry for a while now. Christopher fails at keeping his diaper dry pretty much ever. William’s being doing simple addition, Christopher might eventually turn his babbling into words. Christopher eats his vegetables, William will consider it once we learn how to turn vegetables into peanut butter sandwiches. It might be a little too early be comparing them directly like this.”
Here are a few more pictures of the boys to finish up!
