Poor Neglected Blog

I have been pondering a lot, and pretending to create blog posts in my mind. But I have been really lazy, pregnant*, tired*, and haven't taken lots of pictures. I try to take pictures frequently but it hasn't happened recently.

Friendly Hero is growing by leaps and bounds. He loves going to Joy School. He delights in the lessons and I am really grateful for an obedience chart that they made. He loves to listen for a sticker, but otherwise he refuses to do what I say and will do the opposite. (Which is scary when he just runs out of the house or tries to let go of my hand in the parking lot.) He is excited for General Conference, and we are teaching him the 12 apostles. He has about 6 of them and loves to say Elder Scott. If he doesn't know who it is, he says Elder Scott.

Peaceful Hero loves to talk. If you ask him how he is, what his name is, or how old he is, he says "TOOO!" We then laugh and tell him he has 18 more days, he's one, and then he yells out "TOO! FREE!" He also loves saying colors. He can say Blue, Purple, Red, Yellow, and Green. But anything you ask him is either green or yellow. Which right now are the colors he favors. He prefers the yellow bowl and the yellow sippy cup.

Bug Hero is learning a lot and he is finding joy in school. He also got a new game. X-Wing: Miniture Game from Fantasy Flight Games. He's been waiting for this game for almost a year. He has been in heaven the past two weeks that it has been out. Every night I have to go tutoring he has a neighbor over to play it with him. He plays an online mod of the game with his twin brother. It makes me smile to see him be another little boy in our house. It's not fun to be grown up all the time, and I love that he has a new way to be a little kid again. He is still in the 11 year old scouts, and they idolize him. His best friends at church are the eleven year olds who come up to him and share something with him before Sacrament Meeting. I love him so much!

I am doing a lot of tutoring**. I have filled up all my extra time with tutoring, and I'm done accepting new students. I am looking for balance--if you have suggestions for balancing being a mom, a housekeeper, and a human being let me know. I don't think I'll ever get it perfectly in balance. But life is fun and crazy, and exhausting*** and totally worth it. Seeing my boys laugh over games, or with each other is the best thing in my day.

I'm going to try to take more pictures so that I blog with a greater frequency. I do like sharing things here. I just have to get over my mental block of writing. I recognize that I was blessed with talents other than communicating through writing. But my own voice doesn't have to be stifled if it is not the most eloquent, because I love to read others thoughts and feelings when they are brave enough to share them on line.

* I don't get sick when I'm pregnant, (Don't hate me cousins!) but I spend most of the time in an anemic exhaustion state. For the first trimester I slowly decrease from wanting 20 hours of sleep a day to function to wanting about 14 hours of sleep. It's pretty brutal, because I don't usually get that.

**Okay, I have like 7 students. It's about 7 hours a week, which shouldn't be that much, but on top of being a mom, it is a huge amount. I love it. I'm even helping two kids with Calculus this year. I have so arrived now that I'm helping with Calculus.

***No, seriously, I'm ALWAYS tired as a pregnant woman. It's a disease.

Favorite Part of the Day

Every night at dinner, we share our favorite parts of the day. I thought I would share ours today.

Friendly Hero: Playing at my friend's house. I like their food.

Peaceful Hero: "Jos-ja, Ee-ma" followed by banging. (Translation: Playing with my friends and their piano.)

Bug Hero: Creating and setting pheromone lures.

Math Hero: Listening to the Baby's Heartbeat. Knowing that there is a heart beat!

One would think that they are related.....

As our children get older--it's becoming evident who's children they are.

Here is my 3rd birthday, and the Friendly Hero's 3rd birthday.

It's startling isn't it?

And just so the other two don't feel left out: They have the same smile. 

See?

Friendly Hero, you rock!

So, today I'm not sure what happened. A whole lot of nothing. I did some stuff, but only about 50% of what I wanted to do....and one of them was that I forgot to Change Peaceful Hero's diaper. I got so complacent with him telling me that it needs to be changed, that I forgot that he doesn't tell me sometimes.

I feel horrible. Dad came home and changed his diaper, because I forgot to. It was bad. I said aloud, "I feel so bad. I am a horrible mom."
Friendly Hero pipes up immediately: "You are not horrible. You are great, you are helping me pick up the trains."

I am very grateful for my boys! They make life so much better.

Swimming Lessons

 Friendly Hero got to take some Swimming Lessons, the first two weeks in June. We had a blast biking there every morning and then watching him swim.

This is from life jacket day. His teacher, Miss Emily is helping him float. He still talks about her.

Here is his class, all listening right before they get in the little pool.

Showing how well they can kick with pointed toes! The little boy in the yellow rash guard shirt is a friend we made here at swimming lessons. He was visiting his grandparents who live here in Indiana, and he lives in Ukraine. The boy didn't always do everything because he doesn't speak English very well, but he loved Friendly Hero.

 Doing the Alligator.

 This is how the Peaceful Hero spent each half hour lesson. Jealous and on the other side of the fence. Maybe next year.

Bounce House

A long time ago, back in May, we had a friend who graduated from High School. Out here, in the Midwest, there are graduation parties. Her idea was to have a Bounce House. The only problem was that it was 93 degrees and extreme humidity. The Boys were the only ones in the Bounce House. But they LOVED it!

As you can see.

Friendly Hero is a great Jumper and Peaceful Hero, now in July, is starting to get clearance instead of just bouncing on his knees.

New Toy

I got a new toy a few weeks ago! I am enjoying my Sun Oven. I got this so that I can cook all summer long! I have made a pie crust, granola, brownies and rolls so far, with out getting the apartment hotter than it already is!

There has been a learning curve...like using two oven mitts--so the food doesn't fall out of the pie tin. And that I can tilt the solar oven up to catch the later in the day rays--so that the brownies get baked--the would have eventually gotten done, but they weren't finished in time for our company.

I'm having fun experimenting and enjoying my power to bake in the summer!