Summer lovin'

Its been ages since I updated the blog... If you haven't been able to tell from the silence on our end, we've been quite busy.  In May, we packed up our house, moved south to Columbia, finished up the school year, and are finally on relaxation mode (well, as much as possible with two, very active, little ones). 

About a year ago, we put our tiny row home in the city on the market and crossed our fingers that we would be able to sell it and move somewhere with more space, better schools, safer and did I mention more space??? 

It took awhile, but we finally sold it and we spent out last few days in the house.  Grayson turned 8 months in that house... 

Grayson has developed quite the personality.  He laughs often (and shrieks often) and wants to do anything his brother is doing...which Jackson does not appreciate.

Grayson celebrated his 9th month in the new house.  We found a place that is closer for both of our commutes and has TONS of space compared to our previous home (which isn't saying much).  It is so much quieter...I can open the windows and instead of foul-language I hear birds.  And instead of rats we have bunnies...We are enjoying it very much. 

At 9 months Grayson is a crawling machine, up the stairs, all over the house, in the grass, and places where he shouldn't be (i.e. the chimney bricks).  He is very close to walking but still needs reassurance and a bit more confidence before that begins.  He's begun to have little "tantrums where he flings himself on the ground and rubs his head on the floor.  Its quite a site to see.

 Grayson loves being outside...does not mind getting dirty...

Then there's his brother...

He prefers the indoors but hopefully once he's walking he'll be much happier outside.  Adam says it's because he's a "city kid".

Now that the weather is finally transferring over to summer...we pulled out the kiddie pool and let Grayson have some fun. 

Jackson wanted no part of it, preferring the blanket or the grass.  In his defense, the water was pretty cold.

We've started the process of transferring our Infants & Toddlers services over to Howard County.  It certainly was sad to no longer have his previous therapists.  Jackson had developed a strong bond with most of them and we are at least lucky to continue working privately with his PT from I&Ts. 

He is making small progress in walking...still cruises about and pulls up to stand.  The biggest change is that he's interested in us holding his hands and walking somewhere within the house.  Before he would simply pull up his legs and refuse, but now he'll actually guide us where he wants to go.  This is still very much on Jackson's terms.  If he doesn't want to walk, there is no making him do so. 

He's imitating much more frequently these days...whether its new signs or old signs, or watching me fold laundry and trying to do it like mommy (which is beyond cute...its not like he's actually folding it, but if I shake something out and then fold it, he mimics me...its adorable).  He has even started imitating certain sounds.  If we ask him to say "dada" or "bubu", he more often will repeat it back.  If he's watching "Baby Signing Times" he will even sign along to the video...as mentioned earlier...so stinkin' cute and he gets really excited about it.

He's regressed a bit with his feeding habits...sometimes requiring us to physically hold his sippy cup/straw cup to make sure that he gets fluids in.  And he is not tolerating much hand-over-hand feeding these days...which is our fault as we've gotten a bit lazy on our end and need to make it part of our daily routine. 

We're still hopeful that walking is in Jackson's near future, but it looks like Grayson will pass him in this area.  It's a little bittersweet but he will do it in his time which we all know.

This past weekend we had my family over to celebrate a belated father's day and my mom's birthday.  We had to postpone it since hand, foot, and mouth disease hit our house and knocked Grayson and Jackson on their butts for a few days. 

It was great to see their cousins, since we've been quite busy these days and hadn't seen them in far too long.

 I think Grayson and John are going to be buddies.  They had a game of "peekaboo" where one was on one side of the wall and they would peak around at each other and laugh like it was the best thing in the whole world. 

 Poor Evan had hurt his arm when he fell down at school...hence the droopy arm and band-aids on the knees. 

I managed to make it to the pool today with two kids in tow (my first attempt was unsuccessful as Jackson was falling asleep at the kitchen table so I scrapped the idea for the day).  It didn't start off well, when neither kid wanted anything to do with the pool.

 So we spent a bit of time hanging out by the pool and ate our lunch. 

 And Jackson decided to go exploring...

 And while his brother still wanted nothing to do with the pool...

 Jackson finally wanted to get in the water.  So Jackson and I played catch while I stood next to Grayson and he threw the ball out to me. 

It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be...certainly not relaxing by any means...but I'm glad we got out of the house and at least they enjoyed themselves for the most part.

Tomorrow I take the boys to daycare for their "one day a week" summer schedule.  I cannot tell you how excited I am to have a day to myself where I'm not cleaning or trying to run errands with two crying boys.  I have a laundry list of things I want to get accomplished, one of which is going to the pool by myself for a couple of hours (included on the list: working out, grocery shopping, returning bathing suits to J.Crew, hitting up Michaels for some crafts I have in mind, cooking/baking, etc).  I'm crossing my fingers that I'll squeeze the pool in there. 

Ahhh summer...how I've missed you.