ATL to SYR!

 We were honored to visit with the Lewis clan from Atlanta, including their newest member, Naomi! Beth and Jeremy and Isaiah made the trek up to Syracuse Tuesday and we played in the backyard pool and at the park. Why we didn't get a picture with new mama Beth (Timmons), I do not know. Gosh, I wish they lived closer!

 The Lewis visit coincided with the delivery of our new double jogger stroller. The box was a pretty huge hit with all mobile children.

Potty training inspiration

A fellow multiple mom posted this on our Multiple Moms Mingle Facebook page today and I find each of these suggestions practical and timely. I plan to implement starting tomorrow! A potential challenge is that I have never noticed Theo pooping--it almost always comes as a surprise to me when I smell him or open his diaper and find a mess. I will have to start paying better attention, for sure!

Weekend at the lake

 View from the bed at the new Lovebo Suite.

Saturday morning we went next door to Julie's cove so the boys could walk into the water, but the water was so rough they got slammed with waves again and again and ended up just playing with rocks in their buckets. In the afternoon we went swimming in front of the cottage, with more success. Theo, ever the lounger, loved the floatie star and putting his legs out in front. Beckett likes to stick his face in the water and blow bubbles and kick his legs. Both liked jumping off the dock into my arms, but neither can really let go with his legs--I kind of pulled them both by their arms as they giggled.

Fun in the sprinkler.



Cuddle time on Bear.



Chilling in the playroom.

Summer fun around the house

 We put our sprinkler to good use on one of the hot days this week when we didn't get rain.

 For the sixth week straight, the Dekatherm guys are back to rip up and remake our road. If I didn't have children who were mesmerized by the "vrooms" I think I would be calling someone to complain. They start the giant road cutters and cement mixers around 7am and go all day, through naps and everything else.

 We all enjoyed a super-fun visit with friends Emily, Alexa and their daughter Eleanor, who is 18 months old. Theo and Eleanor took turns feeding each other blueberries.

 After the crew from Ithaca left to drive home, Beckett decided to explore the pantry shelves. Which we discovered he can fit inside.

Parenting scoreboard

The boys are 14 months old. I think it's time for a look at our handle on parenthood, by the numbers: 

Distinct vaccination shots administered: 28
Sick visits to pediatrician: 1
Pediatric ER visits: 1
Poison Control Center calls: 2
Minor electric shocks: 1 (known)
Child Protective Services hotline reports taken: 0
Instances of bleeding from the mouth: 3 (approximately)
Falls down stairs: 2
Cloth diapers in rotation (washed every other night): 30
Words in Beckett's spoken vocabulary: 5 (cat, dog, dada, mama, baboon)
Sounds in Beckett's spoken vocabulary: 3 (quack, ruff, sssss, vroom)
Words in Theo's spoken vocabulary: 3 (dada, mama, dah--meaning everything else)
Age at first steps: 11 months (Theo); 11.9 months (Beckett)
Teeth: 20 (10 each)
Prescriptions filled for babies: 2 (nystatin for Beckett, antibiotics for Theo)
Nursings per day: 6 (3 each)
Hours slept per night: 12 (babies) 7+ (Mama and Daddy Lovebo)
Hours slept per nap: 1.5-3.5 (babies) 1 (Mama)
Pounds gained/lost since birth: +34 (babies) -60 (Mama)
Hospitalizations of Mama Lovebo prior to or after 2011: 0
Hospitalizations of Mama Lovebo in 2011: 5
Scars obtained by Mama Lovebo since April 2011: 4 (blood blister; c-section; thyroidectomy; cat scratch/contact dermatitis)

 Beach time at Jamesville Beach, just about 15 minutes from home. Much less crowded than Green Lakes, and very beautiful.

 Cousin Debbie with Theo yesterday.

One of my projects this week was to organize our main downstairs closet and "junk cabinet" in the kitchen. There's something about having an organized closet that puts my mind at ease. Already several times since Tuesday (when I did this during nap time) I have wondered where something was, realized I had a bin for it, and found it! Hooray! Also about two weeks ago I was gifted a big tub of 18 month-2T boys clothes from a colleague at Hiscock Legal Aid who was unloading from her son's closet. I loved nearly all the clothes but didn't have anyplace to put them. So I had to throw away (give to Goodwill) some of Jeff's clothes while he was gone in Philadelphia, so that I could use his plastic drawers for the boys' clothes. I got rid of a bunch of boxes which had been holding other clothes in the process as well. Ahhhh, organization....

Last night we left the babies for the evening to attend the wedding of friends Kristina and Dave (Kristina was Jeff's former paralegal) at Turning Stone. The babies had terrible naps yesterday afternoon, at least partly because Theo's still fevery on and off from the Coxsackie and Beck's just been a little bit of a grumpasaurus. Anyway, we put them down for a brief late afternoon nap as we left around 4:45 which made them more manageable for dinnertime with Grandma Joanie, Grandpa Stu, and cousins Debbie and Kelly. They reportedly didn't each much for dinner but went down at bedtime without a problem. Unfortunately the rest of the night, after we got home, was a hot mess. Beck woke up screaming just after we got home around 11:30, and even after nursing them both (Beck woke Theo up) Beck was still unsettled and crying and squirmy. I checked his diaper after trying unsuccessfully trying to rock him back to sleep and realized he had a poopy diaper, which hasn't happened overnight in probably a year. It had been sitting on his skin for a while so he had a pretty awful, swollen diaper rash which made cleaning him up even more painful. But when I got a new diaper on him he settled down and went back to sleep pretty quickly. Beck woke up again around 3:30, when I nursed them both again before changing Beck's diaper again, and then at 5 when Jeff got up and rocked him for a while (or maybe I have those events mixed up-it's hard to keep everything straight when you're getting sleep in three, two or one hour segments!). Jeff was good enough to get up with Theo when he woke up at the normal time, 7am, allowing Beck and I to sleep in til close to 9am. Things seemed to even out at naps, when they slept for about 2 hours, and they went down tonight as easily as ever. I HOPE last night was a one-time (awful) event! We all need some sleep to recover....