Water play

Apparently, today was the day to not nap / take a really short nap. I did not get the memo until 2:30 when Bryce was up very early and Cason was still talking to himself in his room. What to do with all the extra time? It was really nice out so I decided to fill up the water table and kiddie pool for the first time this year, Bryce's first experience with them both.



Cason makes hilarious faces when he plays with water (in the bath or wherever). Like this one:



And this one:



Who doesn't sweep the water?



Why yes, those are frog swim trunks. I got them brand new on ebay for $1.50 thankyouverymuch.







What a goon. I love this boy.

Patio makeover

A few months ago, Kelly and I decided that we wanted to give our back patio a makeover. For the past 4 years, it has been devoid of any furniture. It has mainly just held the grill and water table and some random brooms and outdoor toys for the kids. The past two summers if Cason was playing in the water table, we either had to stand and watch, sit on the concrete, or drag a bar stool from the kitchen out. The patio was not functional and not at all aesthetically pleasing.



The concrete also had lots of grease and other mystery stains on it.



So last month we got started and the first project we tackled was an acid stain for the concrete. We got all of the supplies at Sherwin Williams and it was a pretty straight forward, easy project. Kelly had to prepare the concrete by scrubbing with an acid wash. Then he rinsed it and let it dry. The acid stain itself was sprayed on and then swirled around with a mop. The last step was to do a sealant coat, which we added "shark bite" to so that it would have texture and the kids wouldn't slip and fall on slick concrete.



Grandma G. surprised us this week with these adorable kid sized adirondack chairs. Bryce loves his, can't you tell??? They fit in perfectly on the patio and add a fun kid size seating element that we wouldn't have had otherwise. Thanks Grandma!







We also got a very reasonably priced glider bench off amazon, which we added a sealant on. You've seen the bench already in previous posts since we've had it over a month now.





And the final element -- the one delaying this post for so long -- is this side table and bar stools.
We wanted a tall and skinny table, one that wouldn't take up much room but would give Kelly a place to set plates and spatulas while he is grilling. I scoured the internet but couldn't find anything meeting our criteria for a reasonable price. I finally found this table and it was unfinished. Perfect, we could pick out a stain close to the bench and weatherproof it and we'd be good to go. The same website had these great bar stools that were also unfinished.

The bar stools were on backorder for a few weeks so that delayed the completion of our project. The other major setback is the stain we picked out for the table did not turn out at all like we thought it would. It was a yellowish color instead of a reddish-brown. The smart thing would have been to test the stain on a small patch on the underside of the table. We did not do the smart thing. We stained the entire table, thinking maybe it would darken up as it dried. Lesson #1 learned. So we had to sand the entire table (with two different grades of sandpaper, thanks Dad) and re-stain it.

We also had the idea to tuck the bar stools under the table to get them out of the way when we're not using them. When they arrived, they were about an inch too tall. I convinced Kelly to "just cut an inch off all the legs". Lesson #2 learned: chair legs have all sorts of angles that you wouldn't think about and it's not that easy to just chop off an inch. We were left with wobbly bar stools. I did an internet search and found Larry, a retired engineer who made custom cabinetry. We gave him a call and he stopped by to pick up the bar stools. One day and $20 later, he brought them back, cut to the size we needed and non-wobbly. They tuck under the table just so:



Or we can pull them out for added seating.

Noah and the ark

When a baby is dedicated at our church, our pastor gives them a goody bag with a My First Bible in it, among other things. Cason was dedicated when he was 9 months old. The Bible sat on his shelf with his other 2 Bibles and I never really read it to him because I would read one of the other Bibles. He got it out the other day and I opened it and actually really liked it. It has a picture on one page and on the opposite page is a short paragraph and then a question about the paragraph to help with comprehension. I have been reading a few pages here and there to Cason the past few days. Here is one page I read recently:

Me: "God told Noah to build a huge boat. It is called an ark. Noah's sons are helping him. The ark is not in the water. But soon it will begin to rain and rain until there is water everywhere. Noah and all his family will be safe in the boat. Where will Noah and his family be when it rains?"

Cason: "In Iowa."

Playing outside

The weather has been great here lately so we've been outside a lot. At different parks multiple mornings a week and we usually take a walk around our neighborhood every afternoon or evening. We don't have stairs at home but Bryce has figured out how to navigate them at playgrounds. He can scamper up playground steps quite quickly.

On the other side of our neighborhood is a tiny, quite pathetic, playground. But it works for Cason and he wants to go there every time we go for a walk. Bryce loves it too and starts kicking his legs like crazy once it's in sight. One evening last week we went for a walk to kill time after dinner. I push the double stroller but Cason often walks most of the way. This particular evening he was being unusually social. He is usually shy around people he doesn't know but he was talking to everyone he saw. "We're just going for a walk." "I just played at the playground!" "I'm going to my house to play with my bug stuff."

When we got to the playground, there was another mom with her two girls, ages 6 years and 14 months. The 6 year old, Abby, pretended to be different animals the whole time she was there. She started out as a Komodo dragon, then moved on to Emperor penguin, tiger, and I can't remember what else. Cason thought she was just hilarious and they played together the whole time we were there. It was so cute to watch. He doesn't really play with his friends that are his age but whenever I see him around older kids, he really interacts with them a lot. He is still talking about Abby.

Last week we met Lacy, Josiah, and Baby Luke at the park. We don't normally dress them alike but this day we had them all in green to support a sick friend. It was incredibly hard to get the 4 of them anywhere near each other for 2 seconds so we had to accept the fact that only Luke is looking at the camera and they're not all smiling.



Bryce loves to eat sand and will pop wood chips in his mouth as fast as I can dig them out.



Just thought this picture was cute. He insisted on bringing the stick home and I think it's still sitting on our counter.

Notice a theme?

Easter

Okay I seriously thought about back dating this post so it wasn't so obvious that it took me more than a week to post about Easter. I recently jumped on the P90X bandwagon and that takes up a huge chunk of my free time when the boys are napping so I have been slacking on the blog. That, combined with the worst allergy season I have ever experienced. But here are the few pictures I have from Easter.

The Wednesday before Easter, my MOPS group had an Easter egg hunt at the park for the kids. I invited my friend Lacy, who brought her two boys. Josiah and Cason's birthdays are exactly one week apart.



Checking out their loot. All the moms brought 12 filled eggs and each kid got to pick up 12 eggs so everything stayed pretty even. I liked that we didn't come home with massive amounts of candy.



Our church was expecting big crowds on Sunday and were encouraging regular attenders to come to the Saturday night service so we did just that. The boys looked cute so I tried to take their picture before we headed to church but that didn't work out at all.



Bryce's Easter basket: several board books, some touch and feel cards, new silverware, some duck cups for the bath/water table, and some teething biscuits.



Cason's Easter basket: An I Spy book (big hit), Color Wonder stuff, new markers, a Curious George coloring book, new silverware, no-spill bubbles (total lies, they do spill), one book, and a few Easter eggs I "recycled" from the egg hunt.



And the highlight of our Sunday: carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, both of which I made from scratch. Kelly ate SEVENTEEN of these in about a 24 hour span. They were that good.

Mighty to save

Cason singing his favorite song, complete with guitar. I think Grandpa B. needs to come teach Cason some guitar motions because I'm not sure where he got these moves.

Sounds like a plan

Yesterday, Cason got his bug net taken away for the rest of the day because he was being ridiculous about not sharing it. Not only would he not allow Bryce to touch it, but he would freak out and start yelling if Bryce so much as looked in the general direction of the bug net. A few hours later, after nap, Cason and I had this conversation:

C: Can I have my bug net back?

Me: Not right now.

C: Maybe later?

Me: You can probably have it back tomorrow.

C: Okay, that sounds like a plan!

Another thing he's been saying lately is "that sounds like a good idear" (idea). He is totally cracking me up these days!

Since I'm uploading videos anyway

Just a few videos of Bryce I had on the camera from this week. Who says that the second kid gets less pictures and videos than the first??!

Bryce loves to push anything and everything. He pushed this all the way from our bedroom. Please ignore my cheesy commenting and feel free to mute the sound.



Bryce also loves to play ball with Kielers. Two things to note:

1. When he slaps the ground with his hand, he is copying what we do when we want her to give us the ball.

2. Note how he drags himself around on his left arm. He had a big red spot there on his arm for a few weeks. I thought it was sunburn from a walk we took and got all psycho about sunblock. I finally realized that it's just rugburn from him dragging himself around.

Thank you Grandma B!

Thank you Grandma B. for the awesome Easter presents!
Love, Cason and Bryce

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa G!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa G. for the awesome Easter presents!
Love Cason and Bryce

Loving two

I walk along holding your toddler hand, basking in the glow or our magical relationship. Suddenly, I feel a kick from within, as if to remind me that our time alone is limited. And I wonder: how could I ever love another child as I love you?

Then he is born, and I watch you. I watch the pain you feel at having to share me as you've never shared me before.

I hear you telling me in your own way, "Please love only me". And I hear myself telling you in mine, "I can't", knowing, in fact, that I never can again.

You cry. I cry with you. I almost see our new baby as an intruder on the precious relationship we once shared. A relationship we can never quite have again.

But then, barely noticing, I find myself attached to that new being, and feeling almost guilty. I'm afraid to let you see me enjoying him, as though I am betraying you.

But then I notice your resentment change, first to curiosity, then to protectiveness, finally to genuine affection.

More days pass, and we are settling into a new routine. The memory of days with just the two of us is fading fast.

But something else is replacing those wonderful times we shared, just we two. There are new times -- only now, we are three. I watch the love between you grow, the way you look at each other, touch each other.

I watch how he adores you -- as I have for so long. I see how excited you are by each of his new accomplishments. And I begin to realized that I haven't taken something from you, I've given something to you. I notice that I am no longer afraid to share my love openly with both of you.

I find that my love for each of you is as different as you are, but equally strong. And my question is finally answered, to my amazement. Yes, I can love another child as much as I love you -- only differently.

And although I realize that you may have to share my time, I now know you'll never share my love. There's enough of that for both of you -- you each have your own supply.

I love you -- both. And I thank you both for blessing my life.

--Author Unknown