Summer ROCKS!

Gavin, Aidan, Brady


We had a fantastic summer vacation this year! My mom was kind enough to accompany us to and from the US and we had a niiiice loooong 15+ hour flight to Houston with the boys. They each slept about 4 hours of that flight and considering we trapped them in between the seats and the bulkhead the rest of the time they were pretty darn good.


They had LOTS of fun swimming in Aunt Pam's pool with Grandma and Grandpa and following their kitty Chloe and puppy Sadie. They did NOT adjust to jet lag as easily as they have done in the past. The first night, they woke up at 3AM and were UP for the rest of the morning. Aunt Pam was kind enough to hang out with us a for a bit - we took the boys out for a walk in the cul-de-sac at 3 AM so they wouldn't wake up the rest of the house. Curt and I then let Pam go back to sleep while we trapped them in our room trying to get them to watch cartoons and fall asleep between 4 AM and 6 AM when we finally felt like it was "reasonable" to be up. RIDICULOUS.
Brady, Aidan, Gavin had no idea how much FUN hoses can be!

They proceeded to wake up crying for a few hours a night for the next 4 nights in a row, with one child dropping off and learning to sleep again each night. Gavin was our favorite son this particular week. :) We even tried to drug Aidan and Brady with Benadryl in the middle of the night to help them sleep. it got uglier . . . bleh. The good news was that they were in great moods during the day even if they tortured us all at night.

Cousin Collin reads to Brady

Curt and I flew on our own from Houston to Iowa with the boys and they were pretty nice to us. Gavin snacked and read the Sky Mall the majority of the flight. We were welcomed to Iowa with rain pretty much every morning which usually cleared for a sunny afternoon. The boys are outside FANATICS and asked to go out at every point of the day. Between pointing out birds, the neighbors dogs (Hobo is now on the list of people/animals Brady asks about), squirrels, mail trucks, etc they barely had time to push the lawn mowers that we had to get THREE of in order to not break Aidan and Brady's little hearts. Basically there was one. And after Aidan got to push it, curt and I thought we could teach sharing. We then told him he would be giving it to Brady for his turn. Aidan, after practically ripping it out of his little hands, proceeded to follow Brady aroudn as he pushed the lawnmower screaming and crying and pointing at him. The minute he would stop, Aidan would try to grab it again. We then tried to give Gavin a turn. He preferred to lay on it or push it so her could lay on the ground and watch the wheels. This must have made Aidan and Brady angry because he wasn't playing with it "correctly", so they would try to push it with him either laying on it or with his head two inches from the wheels. We had to put it in the top of the garage because we COULDN'T get them to stop crying (at one point Brady actually threw himself in the grass and just CRIED). Aidan was still upset on the 15 minute car ride to the Carroll's for having it taken from him.

The next day, Brady saw it in the top of the garage and asked for the "mwer" about 80 times, so we got it down. The environment proceeded to disintegrate almost immediately, so grandpa said "They are $13, i'll be back in 20 minutes" even though Curt and I were CONVINCED we could teach them to share. In retrospect it was fun seeing all three of them mow the yard for as long as their little legs could carry them . . . :)

Aidan helping himself to some homemade salsa

We had a chance to go to some area parks, the Des Moines zoo (feeding the farm animals is FUN!, unless you are Brady), and of course the pool with the "bucket". The first time we went to the pool Brady asked me if Aunt Pam, grandma and grandpa and Sadie would be there. That was obviously his most exciting memory of a pool, and he was a little crushed they wouldn't be there to play with him. He did enjoy the bucket (and still asks for it) that fills with water and then dumps out a deluge of water on unsuspecting swimmer below. He didn't like getting hit with it, but he loved watching and hearing kdis scream when it would happen.

Mom, Gavin, Brady, Aidan and Jadyn enjoyed some pork chops and have moved on to popsicles! YUMMY

We also had some fun playing in sprinklers in Iowa. The first time we ran the sprinkler at the Kenoyer's, the boys had their lawnmowers and Aidan would drive the lawnmower over the top of the sprinkler so that the water would stop going up and then he would take it off when anotehr brother would walk over to see why the water had stopped, spraying his brother full on. It made for GREAT entertainment for the adults! I don't know if you remember, but hose water is COLD. And of course, our skinniest child (Aidan) was the only one who LOVED it. he would purposely put his head in it, or would be the one to go and rescue balls that had been kicked in the spray zone. LOVED it.

Gavin popped out the lens - fun way to see the world!

Gavin began saying some real words on our vacation. he now has mastered "help please, all gone, blue, green, ball, car, grandpa" and "ouchie". He still LOVES reading and will basically bring you as many books as you are willing to read before bed. he also likes figuring out how things work. Drawers, wheels, straws, you name it.

Brady likes his new sunglasses!

Brady is a parrot. He has been stringing words together in sentences for a few weeks now and will say things like "grandpa truck byebye" (grandpa went to work in his truck), "ride ina car" (i want to go for a ride in the car), "hidenseek" (the squirrels are playing hide and seek). the other day he wanted me to wave a fan at him after he had hit himself in the head with it a few times and says "mommy do it" as he hands me the fan. It is so COOL seeing the boys put these pieces together. he also goes through a near daily list of all of the people he knows so that we tell him where they are and what they are doing. The nice thing is it is usually in the morning so we can just say "they are sleeping". :) He also has developed quite a little temper and screeches when things don't go his way. His sadness is almost palpable when he has taken your discipline very seriously (which is rare, he STILL giggles when you say no, or the first time or two he goes on the naughty mat - INFURIATING).

Aidan covered in grass and apple. YUM!

Aidan still seems to need mom the most. He is definitely talking and using lots of words, though not quite as clear as Brady. He also speaks in sentences and loves to play on the phone and wear mom and dad's shoes. Aidan also seems to hold his frsutration longer than the other two, so he may have stopped crying, but he will have such a serious ANGRY look on his face like he is BROODING over the injustice. you can't help but giggle a little bit. He is also by far the squirrely-est. When he would see a brother set a toy down he had tried to steal earlier, he would race over, yoink it from wherever/whoever and then run away clutching it to his chest and he looks back to see if anyone was in pursuit. Gavin rarely would go after him and Brady nearly always did. Because the brother HAD set it down, it was often hard to tell if it was truly a theft or if he had rightfully claimed it. I'm sure this is only the beginning.

Brady, Gavin, Aidan play in the cool mist in Houston

In more recent news, the three boys have become lemmings. We have 2 lady bug chairs (see pic on earlier post) that are up against the couch. They LOVE climbing up the ladybug chairs and climbing/launching themselves onto the couch. over and over and over again. it is adorable and we got tons of giggles, but it also winds them up like nobody's business. and of course they prefer to do this before nap/bedtime and hopefully with something hard in their hands so they can accidentalyl hit themselves/a brother over the head. Yesterday at lunch, Brady and Gavin were tryign to go over at the same time and fall in the same direction. CONKED HEADS!! The funny part was both of them just lay on the couch for about 10 seconds rubbing their heads. they had some nice red marks, but no one cried (until we tried to ice them). we have gotten to see all kinds of acrobatics as they get more and more daring in this game. keep your fingers crossed they will remain (relatively) injury free.

Plain tuckered out - Brady, Aidan, Gavin