life with the lieutenant

• Sunday evening the boys went out on a fishing trip. Caught this depressing-looking fellow. Steve took him (or one of his unfortunately hungry friends) to Miss Kim down at the 7-11. Steve makes friends everywhere he goes. And not just because he's passing out free ugly fish. Steve absolutely LOVES taking Sam fishing with him. And Sam loves it just as much, if not more than Steve does. Steve makes a big deal about packing special snacks and drinks (even going so far as to buying organic fruit punch juice boxes- I won't lie, I snorted when I saw them sitting in the fridge) and Sam eats up the one-on-one attention he gets when they go out for the day.

• On Monday we went to a little pool party at a friend's house. Sam and Molly are notoriously scared of water and getting wet and it's completely because they haven't been exposed to water outside of baths and showers. But once they got in and warmed up, they did NOT want to get out. Perfect pool intro! I wish the pool clubs here did not require me to sign over my firstborn to be an indentured slave in order to afford it. I told Steve recently that all I ever did in the summer when I was little was swim. Swim at the neighbors, swim at the Y, swim at the country club. Always swimming. And more often than not, being able to swim has been more of a special occasion for Sam and Molly than the norm. Sad, but true. Of course, they have gotten to do plenty of things that I never got to do growing up (travel the world, vacation in Hawaii, act like the NYC skyline is just "meh", so please don't go feeling TOO sorry for them. They will survive.)

• Worth mentioning (again, if you follow on instagram)- Sam changed out a roll of toilet paper all on his own, without being asked. He has also been extra appreciative of everything lately, even going so far as to thanking me at the end of the day for all of his meals. "Thank you for making me breakfast and lunch and dinner and letting me have that popsicle after dinner. I really appreciate that." Melt my heart and make me feel like a million bucks! While there are plenty of days that I stare at the calendar and count how many days are left until school starts, there are just as many that I shudder at the thought of him being gone from me all day long. And I can't write anymore about that or I will cry.

• Gorgeous rainbow the other evening. I wonder if there is a pot of gold in the living room of that penthouse. I guess it wouldn't surprise me much.

• Another day, another park. Every park here seems to have sprinklers of some sort. They run all day and waste a terrific amount of water. Molly and Sam have absolutely zero interest in these features of course. Sam will occasionally skirt the edge of the spray and proudly show me how wet he got (three faint drops). I applaud his bravery and he gets back to it. A grandmother with a foreign accent and two fair skinned children (she said they were redheads but I just did not see anything other than dirty blond..) came up to me and said, "Oh it looks like a redhead competition!" (?)  asked me where we were from, trying to figure out where we immigrated from obviously. I told her I hailed from Alabama. That almost seemed to offend her and her European heritage. She asked where my husband was from. I told her Philadelphia. She looked a little disturbed (like, how can Americans pull off red hair??? We are Irish! That's OUR thing! UGH) and I explained that his mother's side of the family is Irish and she looked relieved. It is so funny the things that come out of people's mouths. A lady in Target approached me yesterday and told me I had my hands full (ironically, my hands were empty at the time) and said she didn't know how I did it. She stared at me, awaiting some sort of response as to "how to do it" and so I said, "well, you just... you just do it! No other choice really." She then went on to explain that you couldn't take a stroller on the trains back in her day (the horror!) and it wasn't until she started driving that things got easier (a-MEN!) and then asked why I would live here with children. Ha! I told her we just moved here, won't be here forever, etc. She seemed relieved to hear that. I feel like a few people on my facebook would have taken that encounter as a chance to whine about how anti-children people nowadays are, that lady needs to mind her own damn business, remind us all what a #martyr they are for having multiple children, etc. I need to get off of facebook. Because it won't be long before I comment on one of these pearl-clutching posts about how they need 1. a sense of humor and 2. to ignore comments from people that don't even know them. I like hearing what these older women have to say. Nine times out of ten they compliment my children on their behavior (if only they heard the threat I just hissed under my breath) and one woman even said, "I bet they keep you going nonstop- no wonder you're so slim!" Grab your Ensure, Barbara, because I'm taking you home with me! I can use this sort of positive reinforcement about my children and my appearance on a regular basis.

• Molly breastfeeding her baby while eating her lunch. And talking, of course. She never stops talking.

• Her baby then required a nap. When I went in to put Will down for his nap, I found her like this. SUCH a little mama!

• Will is now 7 months old. I find this completely shocking, despite never being more than 5 feet away from this child for the past 7 months. He is just so SWEET and happy and I can't get enough of him. I really thought I'd be crawling the walls trying to escape for a date night or something by now, but whatever happy hormones breastfeeding produces seems to be doing the trick. I'm hesitant to type anywhere that he is sleeping through the night because he still isn't doing it consistently. But since the introduction of Oragel two nights ago, he has slept from about 7p-430a and this morning slept until 5a. I'm not banking on this being his new "thing" because that usually just ends in disappointment. But it sure is nice for now. He still hasn't cracked 20lbs yet. Hovering at 19 and 1/4. He is right on track for height and weight and head circumference. Wears mostly 12mo clothes. Chews on everything. Thinks Sam and Molly are HILARIOUS. Happily accompanies us on any adventure, no matter how much sweat we end up sharing in the Ergo. I'm happy-sad about him growing; so happy that he's healthy and growing and hitting every milestone like he's supposed to; sad that it's all going by so fast. And it just really shines a light on how fast Sam and Molly have grown. Their babyhoods were such a blur to me and it's really making me pause and notice every little thing with Will. I'm trying to savor him like he's my last. Who knows if he is or not (that typically depends on sleep and wine consumption and God) but either way, I still want to savor him.

• Casey invited us to her aunt's pool the other day and boy oh BOY did we have fun.

photo credit: Casey

• Took some convincing to get Molly in the water. She would rather hang out with the puppy or have snacks.

photo credit: Casey

• Clinging to me like their lives depend on it.

photo credit: Casey

• Sam realized he could float with this puddle jumper on and once he realized that, he took off on his own.

photo credit: Casey

Here, try mine- just a hint of chlorine

• Will and "Wowee" (as Molly calls Riley) got to hang out. Riley cooed and Will stared at her and smiled. I love watching them together.

• It is my hope and dream that one day they will marry each other and then Casey and I will be related and have every excuse to get together all the time, no matter what.

• Finally Molly got on board with the swimming idea and once she got comfortable, there was no stopping her. She has the strongest legs!! Without even using her arms, she was kicking and pulling Sam around the pool.

• We really want to live here.

• Poor Casey got suckered into pulling these two around while Riley napped and Will ate.

• Super happy to be in the shade and close to the water.

• After spending the day with Casey, the kids had really high (unrealistically high) expectations for the following day. Sadly, all I had planned was laundry and a trip to Target where I did pop for some Goldfish crackers, so overall, I feel like it was a success, but I was told in no uncertain terms that Goldfish do not compare to swimming. We'll try again another day.