Enjoying the last of 2260

We have 6 more days to live it up at 2260 (our current house). I have become a bit more sentimental this week and am realizing how much I love where we live. It's a great house in a great area.

Our house is half empty, but my good friend from grad school, Amy, came by for a visit with her little one, Finn.  He's one of the happiest babies I've ever met! Look at Justin's hand - he loves babies.

 I am going to miss being 1 block from Cedar/Lee. We love our local ice cream spot, Sweetie Fry (serving the best ice cream and fries.) Justin's favorite ice cream is chocolate with sprinkles and Colin's is mint choc chip. We took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked up to Lee Rd to get ice cream and spend the afternoon at our library. Oh, how we are going to miss the convenience of having everything within walking distance.

Part of this transition is a huge purge...including the boys' bed frames. They'll be sleeping on their mattresses (on the ground) during the transition. As soon as we put the mattresses down, the boys had a jumping party. I love how the boys remind us to have fun in the midst of moving!

 

 

2260 memories: I'm going to miss sitting on the front porch and hearing the boys say "hello" to all of the walkers. Asking if they can go pet the dogs as they walk by. How comfortable we have all gotten with walks around the block and the boys riding their bikes out in front of the house. Our neighbors. Deedee and Christy live next door and they are always so warm and welcoming to the boys. And we will miss being so close to the Eskestrands just 4 houses down! How lucky we are to have amazing neighbors. Jack will seriously miss the people watching. I'm sad to leave and am not completely sure if we're going to fit in our new neighborhood. We'll definitely make the most of it - but we'll surely miss this house.

We've had a crazy couple of years, but we're hoping that this is our last move in Ohio. We're moving to a house with a great school district, and an amazing backyard. We have a ton of renovation to do in the coming months, but we plan to make an adventure out of the experience and try to remember to have fun every step of the way.

Dentist Report

I actually got a pic of us at the dentist this time. Colin got another gold star for clean teeth and he's officially declared the dentist the "best place ever."

 Justin is a bit young to have regular appts, but the dentist took a peek in his mouth and gave Justin some confidence by telling him he had great teeth. He was so proud and came home to show them off to Jack.

I suppose "those who can't do, teach" because I have 1 cavity. Boo.

Mid-Week Stories

Emily & Colin are friends in Colin's class. At school pickup time:
Karen (Emily's mom): Jamie, I have to tell you something.
Me: Yes
Karen: Emily told me that she really likes Colin. She told me it's because Colin is so nice to her.
Me: Oh, that's so good to hear. Colin likes to play with Emily too.
Karen: It's more than playing. Apparently he tells her that he likes her dresses and swim suits almost every day.

In the car, I ask Colin about Emily
Me: Do you like playing with Emily?
Colin: Yes. She's really nice. I like her a lot.
Me: What do you play?
Colin: Whatever she wants. And if she wants something I'm playing with, I just give it to her.

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Justin loves his binkies. Just this weekend, Jack & I finally instituted the "binkies only in bed" policy.

On Monday, as soon as we got home from school, Justin took off his shoes:
Justin: Mommy, I want to take a nap.
Me: Ok. I will tell you when dinner is ready.
20 minutes later, I find Justin in his bed sucking on his binkies. Told him dinner was ready, he smiled and put the binkies down. Joined us for dinner.

On Tuesday, as soon as we got home.
Justin: I'm going to rest.
Colin: Mom, can Justin please come downstairs with his binkie?
Me: No. Binkies only in bed.
Colin: Sorry Justin. I tried asking.
Justin: (doesn't come down until dinner's ready)

On Wednesday, as soon as we got home Justin walked straight to his room. No talking. Stayed in bed until dinner was ready.  That boy loves his binkie.

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We are all sitting out on the front porch. Jack & I are having a serious conversation about something.
Justin rolls by on his bike: Momma, you so pretty.
me: (all smiles) thank you, justin
Justin: Momma, you so pretty.
Me: thank you, justin (and we repeat this about 5 times)
Justin: See, you're happy now. (bikes away)

Box it up & we lost Justin

We're in major moving mode. We have been busy packing lately - getting ready for a move in 2 weeks! The boys love helping tape boxes together and then they make towns, firetrucks, and boats with them. And when I'm actually packing things, Justin tries to put his cuddlies in every box just to make sure we don't leave them behind. It takes a bit to convince him that he can sleep with them til the end. =)

Jack & I were busy packing and let the electro-sitter do it's work. The boys love online videos and their netflix.

We love our house, and the thing we will miss most is our porch. We sit out here on most nice days and will truly miss the people watching and lounging out here.

 Bath-time for a 4 and 2 year old. "Mommy, I need to go swimming, where are my goggles?" - Justin

I also snuck in some girl time this weekend. I went to our dear friend, Megan's, bridal shower and won the centerpiece! Reminds me how much I love Fall. They had such a wonderful shower - the wedding is sure to be fabulous!

No pictures, but we did spend a good chunk of our weekend at Home Depot - ordering hardwood floors and checking out the cabinetry. Bringing the kids with us wasn't the smartest idea because Jack & I were preoccupied with shopping. Well, long story short - Justin got lost. As we were looking for him, I hear over the loud speaker, "Jamie, please come to the Service desk." I go up there, and Justin is with the workers and says, "mommy, look. A tractor." Wasn't crying or anything. A worker found him, thankfully. And when they asked him about his mommy and daddy, Justin said, "Mommy and Daddy are Jamie and Jack." 

Lori requested videos - so here you go. 

Recent C & J Stories

C & J: (getting louder and louder in the car trying to get my attention)
Colin: MOM! I think there are geese over there.
Justin: MOM! I see ducks.
Colin: MOM!
Justin: (quiet)
Colin: (starts talking)
Justin: Mommy, you're so pretty.
Me: Thank you, Justin. Yes, what would you like to say? (hahahah!)

At home, we've been rewarding Justin with jelly beans to get him excited about the potty. (we're not training him - just trying to get him to warm up to it.) At school, Justin told his teacher:
Justin: I went pee-pee in the potty at home
Teacher: That's good. Can you go potty at school?
Justin: No. I get jelly beans at home.

The boys playing hide & seek with Jack while I'm in the kitchen. It's quiet...
Colin: DADDY!
Jack: huh?
Colin: Come find us!
Jack fell asleep during his turn to count. haha.

Another Justin/potty story. At school.
Justin: (tries to go potty at school, but nothing comes out)
Teacher: Good trying. You can try later.
Justin: Pee pee will come out of my penis later.

Kids are singing and dancing to music. Colin suddenly stops:
Colin: Where's Auntie Lori?
me: In Hawaii.
Colin: She needs to come over. She's a good dancer and she can dance with us.

Oh, just a 100 ft ladder.

By far the highlight this weekend was a fire station visit. Except this time, Fireman Andy was transferred, so we got to visit him in his new fire station. And this one had one of these...

 What's that, you ask? Oh, it's just a 100 foot ladder that we were on!!!

 "Wow, that's high! Did the boys like it?" Well, yes. Colin loved in and went up twice. Justin didn't and stayed on the ground twice! It was beautiful up there - you could almost see the Lake.

 Justin was a bit hesitant when we were walking into the station and started veering towards Colin. And then they were holding hands. Cutest, unprompted, hand holding ever.

 Justin had much more fun on the ground and playing with lights in the fire truck.

 Then Justin warmed up a bit and worked with Colin to spray the fire hose.

 

 After lots of spraying, Colin learned how to fill up a water can with Fireman Andy. Gotta earn your keep if you want to keep playing with the fire stuff!

The boys think that ice cream and firehouses go hand in hand. They treat us to ice cream every time. (And yes mom, we bring them ice cream and desserts as a thank you too.)

 And every other minute of our weekend, we were decluttering and staging our house to get rented out. The boys especially loved their new bunkbeds.

 Can you find Colin in this pic?

Yep, you guessed it, we're moving! More details to come later....

An Ann Arbor Birthday

Jack wanted to celebrate his birthday in Ann Arbor with Matt & family this weekend - so off we went! We were there for less than 24 hours, but they spoiled us silly with good food, family time and air conditioning. =) Holy smokes, it was over 100 degrees on Saturday.

Every time we see each other, the kids play more and more together. This trip was the best. Lots of cousin time in the sprinklers...

 

Colin and Alex played tricks on Justin. They kept bending the hose to stop the water and releasing it as soon as Justin got close. Oh, they had fun.

 They have a piano and the kids loved practicing on it.

 Matt was a trooper and did bath time for all of the cousins!

 Happy Birthday, Jack! (He mocks my picture taking by doing his "Lori smiles.")

My little hand held camera caught this picture. Pretty cool, eh? I wish I knew what I did so I could replicate that focus.

 It cooled down quite a bit on Sunday, so we went to the park a couple of times.

 And this is my favorite picture. The big brothers pushing the little ones. I took all 4 kids to the park by myself on one trip, and it was so easy. Alex & Colin took care of the little ones and I just sat around and took pictures.

And that's how cousins spend 24 hours partying together. =) Thank you Matt & Elena for hosting us and a very Happy Birthday to Jack. 

Some Updates

What a great week. Our first, "slow" week in awhile and we just didn't want to go anywhere too far. Sprinklers with cousins at grandma's... That's cousin Ana (about 8 months younger than Justin), but the boys affectionately call her Baby Ana and follow her around. =)

On Sunday we took the boys to see Brave. Colin will tell you that this is his 3rd movie and Justin was excited to figure out what this whole "movie theater" talk was all about. About 2/3 of the way through, Colin declared, "it's too scary," and he & I left. Justin, the 2 yr old, was enjoying it so he and Jack stayed. We met back at the car and Justin said to Colin, "you scared?" haha.

Other updates:
Justin:

• Often tells me, "i like your dress mommy."
• Still gives me hugs, kisses and high fives before every "good-bye" and "good-night"
• Is daring and will try most things if Colin does it first
• Pretends to be "Baby Lucas" at least once a day
• Still is not open to trying new foods - but we're working on it. His biggest source of veggies are our spinach smoothies.
•  Potty. He was highly disinterested in the potty so we introduced snacks. Pee gets 1 and poo gets 2. Worked like a charm and he lovingly and willingly uses the potty now! We're not potty trained, we just wanted to get him to initiate using it more.
• He is conversing and talking with everyone. I told him, "I think you have a rash on your leg." And he responded. "No I don't. No rash. I'm happy. Justin's happy" Smiled and walked away from me. 
• If anyone (namely Colin) calls Justin a name or says he is something, Justin responds, "No, I'm Justin Elwell!"
• A common answer to "who loves you" is "mommy, daddy, colin." But after a week of Jichan living with us, it's "mommy, daddy, colin, jichan." The cutest little things make my day.

Colin:

• Always has new ideas on parenting. "I have an idea. How about the kids can get snacks when we go potty and when we behave?"
• Gives Justin horsey back rides.
• Eats and tries any food we give him. At least once.
• After a week of family spoiling, Colin is having trouble with the word "no." (who does?) So we are working on non-tantrum like responses in those situations.
• Thinks that he gets to sleep at Grandma's house every week. And would live with her if we gave him the choice.
• Is taking swim lessons 4x/week through his school. He claims that he can put his "whole head in the water and sees stinky feet in the water." I can't wait to see him swimming for myself!
• When watching the US Olympic swimming trials, "Do you think these swimmers are faster than Jichan?" hahahaha.

We were into machine drawings a bit ago. A few of our favorites: "Mom, this is a machine where you can put money in it. It will save it, then it will give you more money when you need to buy something."

 "And this machine is for you to run fast and you won't get blisters. You just practice in here and you can run super fast."

 "You put money in this machine. If you want a toy, then you pay $1 in the black box. If you want a train, you pay $2 in the yellow box, and $4 in the orange box for other toys. $5 in the green box for more toys."

Have a great, short week!