6 Long Months of Silence

Well, it's been 6 long months since I last posted and so much has happened! I even have a few half written posts sitting in the que long forgotten. Anywho, back on the horse.

The boys are doing amazing. They are getting so big and learning so much! Simon & Dexter are often mistaken for 3 or 4 year olds. If you haven't been following Linus's page, let me tell you right now. He is a freaking rockstar. In the year since his last surgery he has learned to stand, walk, run and jump. He's begun eating by mouth at a rate that makes us very very close to weaning his g-tube. His heart muscle is remodeling and he's down to only 2 medications! I can not say enough about the progress 14 short months has brought him. 

Since I last wrote, we've moved. We're in a much better neighborhood with all sorts of perks and activities very close by. This house also has a backyard for the boys to safely play in. I swear it's our most favorite feature even though it's so covered in weeds and clover that there isn't a single blade of grass. In a few years it will be beautiful. The only downside is the house is a major fixer upper. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we're up for the job. In the last 4 months we've already tackled numerous DIY projects and had to pay the experts to come in a few times. Slowly, but surely, this place will see a transformation over the next several years.

This week we decided to find and take part in some of the free kids activities around town. The boys LOVE reading books at home so Tues we went to a book store that hosts a story time followed by crafts and a cookie. The boys had a great time playing with the puzzles and could not have cared less about the story if they tried. They were a little too loud for our comfort, but I took solace in the fact that several other toddlers were giving their mommies grey hair, too. Dexter and Linus really enjoyed craft time. Simon threw himself face down on the floor and stayed there a solid 10 minutes. At least he was quiet... When he finally got up, he went and found a book about animals and "read" to himself for the remainder of craft time. After cookie time the boys were insane. INSANE.

We decided that it was high time to run off some of their pent up energy and went searching for a park we'd heard about. Oh my goodness, did it ever live up to our expectations. They had so much fun! In no time at all they were climbing and running and sliding to their hearts content. It was little difficult to keep track of the 3 of them in such a large structure, but we did pretty good. They had such a blast that we went back today and stayed a few hours. We also explored some of the outlying areas of this huge park including one of the duck ponds and the soccer fields. Being able to let the boys run for yards and yards without being afraid they'd reach a street or some other danger was invigorating. We're going to try to go back at least once a week. I think we need to give story time a few more tries, but Trina remains unconvinced. We'll see...

 Puzzles are awesome. Stories...not so much.

I had a minor freak out when they gave scissors to the toddlers. Eek! Linus was a pro at stabbing this sponge and not slicing his fingers to bits. I did breathing exercises and prepared to hold pressure on the impending wounds. 

 Dexter used almost an entire bottle of glue while sticking a never ending stack of papers to this plate. Trina told him he'd used enough, but I decided if they handed him a bottle of glue, not a tiny paper bucket, they must have meant for it to be used in excess. They DID put 3 bottles on each table. 

 I'd be lying if I said this book did not come home with us turning our free outing into a $7 outing. Look at the joy on Simon's face, though! That kid loves everything about animals to the point of obsession.

 Post cookie craziness. Can you spot 3 kid shaped blurs?

Off to the park for climbing and sliding and running around!

 Much to Linus's dismay, you still get a time out at the park if you don't listen to Mama.

 Park outing, take two!

 The boys loved watching this lovely pair of Mallards. They pointed and yelled "Duck!" and quacked at them quite a bit, too. Mommy made them all sit down for fear one of them would fall in in their duck fueled excitement.

Next we ran through the fields and picked grass to throw into the wind.

Then I spun the boys round and round and watched them try to walk a straight line only to fall onto their face when their sense of balance betrayed them.