Having a ball in Holland!

Well, it was an amazing (and amazingly tiring) weekend up (down? over?) in Michigan with the fam and friends. We left Friday morning early since, much to our chagrin, James still had class scheduled for Thursday night. Friday was spent with Mom and Dad L., Brian and Keri (in visiting from Grand Cayman), and Rach - had a little cookout, then watched the fireworks at Kollen Park. Last year Jeran refused to either watch or listen to those sparkling bursts of wonder we "ooh and aah" over. This year, thankfully, after a few moments of doubt, he was all about them and quickly picked up the requisite oohing and aahing. Ben was a peach, as usual, and fell asleep moments before the festivities began. Which was just fine. It's always risky when you keep a kid up about 3 - plus hours past his bedtime.
Saturday was beach day!! I was so stoked to be back on a beach with CLEAN sand and without risk of shut-down due to high bacterial levels (Chicago is good for many things - a decent beach is not one of them). James left EARLY (5:45 a.m. early) to go fishing with some of his bros, nephew, and dad so I boldly pulled together all the beach gear I could possibly want and need, along with the two boys and trekked to the beach to meet up with Mom and the rest of the fam. We got a rock-star parking spot, and I am proud to say I lugged us all down to the beach without incident. Of course, the second we hit the sand I realize several errors I had made in my haste to begin our day of beachly fun.
Error #1: Upon awakening from a great 2 hour nap, I mistakenly take Ben's constant good nature as a sign that he can hold off on eating for now. Therefore I neglect to feed him at that time.
Error #2: I neglect to wrestle Jeran into swim diaper and suit and slather on the sunscreen BEFORE leaving the house.
Error #3: I do not read the directions for Ben's borrowed beach tent nor do I set it up (or lay out any towels for that matter) before taking the boys out of the stroller at the end of the "boardwalk".
These 3 errors resulted in a hairy first few moments at the Holland State Park. Thankfully, Mom and Keri showed up not five minutes after I had gotten there, to find me a stressed-out wreck with a hot, hungry, screaming baby and anxious-to-hit-the-water three-year-old running around half-naked. Following those first few moments of tension, however, it was a FAB-U-LOUS day. Perfect weather, unbeatable company...it was great. Jeran, the water rat, could not get enough, so I'm betting we'll be back as soon as possible. Ben was not as enchanted but remained a trooper (as did his daddy).
Saturday evening we were finally able to chill out with Mom and Dad G. following their motorcyle trip up to my aunt's cabin.
Today we pretty much were wiped out from the previous two days filled with fun. We were able to spend a short amount of time with some friends (from Chicago, no less!) at their condo on Lake Mac, but we were probably pretty deadbeat company at that point.
Tomorrow it's back home. James took the day off (hooray!) so we can mosey back. It's always a little bit hard to leave, but I'm grateful this time around that we've had such a long weekend here. When we visit, it's usually a whirlwind day and a half, so it was great to have 4 days to spend with our loved ones.

Hooray! Thanks for the tip. The blog is now much more pleasing to the eye. Background courtesy of the website Cutest Blog on the Block.
I am clearly into copying from other people's blogs and stumbled upon this counter. You'll notice it to the right. It will either uplift or destroy my ego - a risky little game. If all else fails I'll just keep logging into my own site to up the numbers. :) Just wanted to put it there for the sake of my curiosity.

I am addicted to variety. As you can tell if you have been following this blog and have seen the template change about 4 times. So if anyone out there actually stops by to read this and has ANY idea how I can access some more creative headings or backgrounds (other than what Blogger offers - sorry, Blogger) I would GREATLY appreciate your insight!

Ouch

Ben has teeth 2, 3, and 4 about ready to make their debut. This seemingly fun fact landed us in the urgent care center today because he was MISERABLE and based on my experience with child #1 I assumed it was his ears. Whoops, no. According to the doctor (who, I'm sorry, was really looking at me through the whole process as if to say, "You have no clue, lady"....or maybe that's just my paranoia and pride about being the "good mom" talking) his ears looked "fabulous". Well, what's a girl to do? The kid was in pain. We got him juiced up on Motrin and he's been doin' pretty fine ever since. Sometimes it seems just plain not fair that kids can be so different from each other. It seems to me once you plow through the issues of your first child it should be dues paid toward the coming of the future offspring. Which I guess in some regards it can be. And I suppose I wouldn't just want little carbon copies running around anyway. And I'm certainly not complaining that Ben's ears are clear. Looks like we'll just be riding out the teething wave for the time being with a few tears and some ibuprofen (perhaps a little for Mom too.....never hurts).

Breakthrough

Literally. Benj's first tooth made its appearance today. Discovery is attributed to Nana.....er, Nana's finger. Poor guy has definitely been chewing more voraciously and exhibiting more crabbiness in the past week or so, so this would explain things. We won't be breaking out the peanut brittle and steak quite yet, but it's pretty exciting to watch our little guy getting bigger. Exciting and sad at the same time. More evidence of time marching onward.

Favorite sound of the day: Jeran making Ben laugh hysterically.

Summer - Week 1

School is, somewhat sadly but mostly not, a distant memory already. I think that's just evidence that I was really ready to be done and shift into mommy mode. Our first week of summer has been fabulous! We kicked it off with a long-weekend trip to Michigan so James could fish and the boys and I could visit with the fam and friends. Upon our return to the Land of Lincoln we've made it to the park, Pump It Up w/ some buds (it's a place with big inflatable slides and things you jump in - very fun and very tiring! Jeran slept good that day- see a few pics below), and we've also had time to accomplish the necessary parts of life: laundry, grocery shopping, Ben's 6 month dr. appt., etc. It's such a relief to be able to only focus my brain on the things my family and home needs and not school on top of it. Next week I do start work at a tutoring center 2 days a week, but it's a VERY different atmosphere. Much more laid-back, small group work (with none of the grading either! :) - I know, why do teachers complain about grading when we're the ones that assign it? We're gluttons for punishment that way). Anyway, it is a blessing right now to have this reprieve from busyness and to be able to really spend time with my boys. It blows my mind that Ben is already 6 MONTHS and it hit me that Jeran COULD be heading to "three-school" next fall (although he's not :) ). Before I know it he WILL be in school and life is just a wild, hang-onto-your-hat ride from there on out as I understand it. Pretty soon it'll be drivers' training, high school graduation, college.....aah! Ok, let's get this potty training thing down first, how about? Which, let's now even go there in this particular blog.

Random question of the day: What's with UPS guys? They ring the doorbell and SPRINT back to their trucks as if they'll get docked in pay should you open the door to actually find them there with your delivery in hand. Maybe the fellows have some sort of delivery guy dare to see how many times they can "ding-dong ditch" the goods. It creates this somewhat creepy aura of mystery around this particular line of work. Maybe THAT'S what they're going for. The appearance of a glamorous and all-important job where wearing shorts is acceptable and there's a deep underworld centered around black market knee socks and contraband packing tape.