More Hot Days

This week, we have been having some pretty hot days. With temps in the mid 90's and high humidity, our area now has a heat advisory. So we pulled out the pool and let the kids play a little bit in the water to cool down. This was Ursula's very first introduction to the pool.

She decided that it wasn't what she wanted at the moment
so we had to pull her out.

She would much rather just watch the other two play in the water.

This is her first little dip before she got mad (sorry it's out of order).

Rowan and Harvey enjoy scooping up the water and watching
it fall onto the deck.

Rowan also likes to dump the water on Harvey's head.

The kids watch as Andy shoots Maverick with the super soaker.

(Ursula is enjoying being held by mom.)

The next day, Janea and the kids visited a fellow church member's home. She had an in ground pool and invited us to swim with her. Sorry we didn't get any photos, but I'll try to explain the experience the best I can.
Since it was a week day, I had to go alone with the kids. But Carleen (the homeowner with the pool) was there to help me. Carleen is a retired school teacher that used to work with developmentally disabled children in the high school. I have seen her a few times when I take Rowan to speech therapy. Since she retired, Carleen substitutes for another teacher there.
But I digress... Rowan took to Carleen right away. Carleen is a very nice lady and it really just kind of shows on her face too. In the span of 2 hours, Carleen got Rowan to graduate from standing timidly on the pool steps to relaxing in her arms to jumping from the steps and finally jumping off the side of the pool. Rowan is now at the age where she wants to do everything herself and that helped her find the courage to progress.
Harvey wasn't as confident in the water. I put him in a self-floating apparatus, and he freaked out. So I held him on my side and bounced in the water with him. He wasn't too sure about it, but at least stopped crying when in my arms. One funny thing to note was that anytime Harvey wanted a foam noodle, he would let go of me and reach for it with both hands. So when he wanted the noodle, he was comfortable with letting go.
But other than that, he was super clingy.
Little miss Ursula was in her car seat for most of the time. When she woke up, we found that she must have been a little warm. I didn't plan on Ursula swimming with us, but decided to take her into the pool too. She didn't have a swimsuit or a swim diaper, but Carlene said it was fine for her to wear a regular diaper and her one-piece sleeveless outfit. I took Ursula and she still cried when she got into the water. I wasn't sure if she plain didn't like it (since in the photos above she didn't like the pool). Luckily, I brought my solarveil baby sling with me and that can be used in the water. I put that on and put Ursula in it. This way she probably felt more secure. And I could use the tail of the sling to drape over her head and keep the sun's rays from damaging her delicate little head. She started to calm when I bounced up and down and then seemed to enjoy, or at least tolerate, the water.
I think Rowan could have stayed in the pool all day, but when Harvey started to lounge on the grass, we knew it was time to pack up and head home. It was past Harvey's nap time anyhow.
I'm so thankful to Carlene for letting us swim in her awesome back yard pool, I didn't even mind the cottonwood fuzzies that were floating down into the pool. The coolness of the water felt so good. We were invited to use the pool anytime that it gets hot. So if we ever go back, we will try to take some pictures to share.

New Train Table

Rowan and Harvey are thoroughly enjoying their "new" train table and train set that they got from Aunt Julie and her family. Thanks Julie!

Toasty Summer Day

Yesterday was pretty hot in Janesville, WI. My parents got out the sprinklers and the kids had a great time. Rowan, Elijah and Maylie played with them for a while. Harvey was in Watertown with Andy. And Ursula was not quite ready to suit up and run through the sprinklers.
What's funny about this first picture is: Rowan gets so mad if we pour water on her head during bath time, but she will stick her face right into the cold sprinkler water. Go figure!

Ooh that's cold! Still working up the courage to run straight through the water.

She did it!

Yes, that swimsuit is way too small on her. This was not the suit mom pulled out of the drawer. This was the suit that Rowan just absolutely had to have and there was no way anyone could talk her out of it.
Now that she tried it on and knows it's too small, she is willing to pack it away.
Later, during playtime, she had her suit pulled halfway down. Good thing she's still only 3 and can get away with that!

Summer Haircuts

Harvey did NOT want his hair cut today. I think he was just scared because he didn't really know what to expect and he doesn't like the clippers. After a few minutes of screaming and fighting, he settled down.

He even gave us a little smile.

Almost done....

You'll have a better shot of the final product at the end of the blog post. I was surprised at just how much hair he had on the floor.

Next it was Rowan's turn.

Rowan acted extremely well. She knew she was getting a haircut and that it would be shorter than it had been.
Since this was her first official cut, I saved a few locks of hair in a plastic baggie. She had only ever had her bangs trimmed before.

We are still planning on growing out the bangs this time.

And here they are! I love how soft and fuzzy Harvey's head feels against my cheek. Rowan is also happy that it doesn't hurt when I comb her hair.
We are now ready for summer!

Fun Summer Sunday

Yesterday, we decided to do something different...mix things up a bit. It was a very nice day (78 degrees, slightly humid, no wind) so we decided to go to a petting zoo and our local park. I had heard about a free petting zoo that was nearby from one of my friends.

The kids seemed pretty excited, but Andy and I didn't get our hopes too high. After all, this was only a free petting zoo located behind a BP gas station.

One of the first things we saw was a pen with Silky Chickens. They were very cute and Rowan really wanted to pet them. There were many other "regular" chickens roaming about freely. We even saw some unusual geese and a peacock.

There were also many pens with goats. They were pretty friendly.

This chicken was making herself comfortable in a little sink hole in the ground. I didn't see any eggs, but she might still have been nesting there.

There were 3 small donkeys that were extremely nice. I think that they really wanted us to feed them the ground corn from the vending machine. We didn't have any quarters, so we couldn't help them. Sorry donkeys.

More goats. A few Shetland sheep next door.

There were 4 little play houses there in a kids play area. They were cute on the outside, but very bare on the inside. The sand box had not been attended in a long time and was more like a "land" box instead.

The pen next to this green house had some rabbits, most of which were snoozing. Overall, it was a so-so little petting zoo. We thought that the water provided for the animals should have been a little cleaner and the pens could have been cleaner as well. But this zoo was free and only relies on donations.

After the petting zoo, we went to our local park. This is the biggest park in our city. There is a lot of water, an island, ducks, geese, a band shell, many shelters, and a huge playground.
The first thing we did was unload all of our bits of bread on the ducks.
When my kids refuse to eat their bread crusts, I just save them in a bag in the freezer and then we feed it to the ducks at the park.

And finally.....

Rowan would like to show you one of her many "talents"!

Not my life....

I need to post an update as to what has been happening around our house.
Yesterday, the kids both got into some big trouble. I mistakenly left a bottle of Lansinoh lanolin cream out on the side table while I was in the computer room reading an email. Next thing I see is Rowan. She comes to me with a shiny face and hands. I knew that this was the lanolin because the kids have done this before. You would think that I would have learned my lesson the first time and keep the lanolin up and out of their reach. For the most part, I have been doing very good keeping it away. This slip up was somewhat rare. The wasted cream spread onto their faces and hands was really the minor issue.
When I walked into the living room, I found much more lanolin smeared all over the tv and the tv center. I was now very upset. I attempted to put both kids into "time-out" by setting them on opposite ends of the couch. This worked for about 1 minute and then Harvey kept playing around and hopping off the couch. I supposed that is to be expected from a 22 month kid.
So I wiped and wiped and wiped and wiped.....and the tv finally seemed okay. But I was still mad. So I placed the kids on "restriction". This meant there was to be no tv and no computer for the rest of the day. This really had more of an effect on Rowan than Harvey. But I'm quite sure she instigated the cream smearing to begin with.

Fast forward to today. I woke up and went to the bathroom. While I'm in there, Rowan comes to me and says, "Mom, come see our birthday party." When I finish, I follow her to her room (she and Harvey are currently sharing a bedroom). I open the door and what do I see?
Rowan had pulled all the tape out of a cassette. It was a Winnie the Pooh story cassette that accompanies a book. Now it was shiny black tape all over the floor. I couldn't blame Harvey as he was standing in his crib and Rowan fessed up to it. So I grab a pen from my bedroom and spend about 5 minutes trying to wind the tape back into the cassette. I nearly have it finished when I see the tape has been broken. Ugh! All that winding just to find that the tape was broken. So I had Rowan throw it away in the garbage can. I also made her aware that she had broken the tape and essentially broken the story. She apologized. I said, "thank you for apologizing." To which she replied, "your welcome."

And just now, Rowan was outside playing. I was unaware of this as she did not ask permission to go out. I made her come back in. I told her she had to wait 10 minutes before she could go out since she failed to gain authorization the first time. She cried and screamed. I told her that this was how you learn....how you learn to ask permission. More crying. Then I went on to say how life was all about learning and got an interesting response. Here's how it went:

Mom: "Everything is about learning. All your life is learning."

Rowan: "Not my life. I don't have one because I'm sad."

I got a chuckle out of that.
And it's only 9:50 am. Let's see what the rest of the day will bring!