32 months

Simon is a sponge. He soaks up everything he sees, hears, and reads. Most of the time, this is a good thing. But, when he's witness to his "babo's" questionable behavior ... well ... it's not such a good thing. If Harmon doesn't listen, Simon doesn't listen. If Harmon is sassy, Simon is sassy. We try to explain to Harmon that he needs to set a good example and, at times, this works. However, this needs to work ALL THE TIME. We're working on it. When he's not blindly following his brother, he's a pretty awesome 2YO. He's always been pretty good with the whole "please and thank you" thing but, lately, EVERYTHING is "please I can have ...?" Please I can have a cookie? Please I can have you read to me? It's nice to hear, even if it's grammatically incorrect.

His learning of the language is also pretty funny when it comes to Ys or Ls. He's had a hang-up with these letters for a few months now but we know he'll figure it out. In the meantime, it's hilarious to hear "yellow" become "wewwow" or "legs" become "yegs." I had a logo on a t-shirt the other night and he asked me about it. I said it was a "logo" and he repeated "yogo." Another funny thing is how he says accident. If he drops something, for example, he'll say, "oh, it was just an accent."

While I thought he had grown out of the whole "getting rock to sleep" thing, he's given me a few nights here and there where's he's let me hold him until he falls asleep. It's usually because he's just too exhausted to fight me. Most of the time, though, he loves to talk before bed and tell you all about his day. And, when he's doing this, he will grab your face and position it so you're looking directly at him. Don't dare break eye contact! Kevin took them to the Chelsea Tree House recently and some older kids weren't being very nice. They were calling the boys "dummies" and Simon has told me this story no less than 1,493 times.

Since Harmon is about done with naps, Simon has found a way to escape one every now and then. But, this is not a good idea. He usually ends up asleep during his dinner. And then grumpy when you try to get him away from the table and into his bed. You still have like three years of naps left, buddy, so cool it. You're not 5, you're 2!

Art Fair 2011

Every year, we go to the Ann Arbor Art Fairs with the boys and we never really get to see all that we want. It's hard to do art with two crazy boys. So, after every year, Kevin and I say to each other "next year, we need to take an afternoon off and go by ourselves."

Well, this year, we finally did just that but it was hot as balls! Good God, was it HOT! We went on the first day and sweat more than we ever have in our lives BUT we saw the whole thing. We covered from Main Street to Church Street and that effort, with temps in the high 90s, was impressive. Unfortunately, we didn't see a whole lot that we liked so the only purchases made were for our Moms.

It was nice, though, to walk through town and just leisurely gaze at everything without worrying that Simon was going to grab something or Harmon was going to knock something down.

5-year-old and 2-year-old boys and art do not mix!

T-ball is done for the summer

Wednesday, July 20 was Harmon’s last t-ball game of the season and he was a little sad. Here’s our awesome conversation about it:

Harmon: I’m sad that t-ball is over.

Mommy: Well, don’t be sad, you can play again next spring.

Harmon: But I’m also sad that I have to put my t-ball stuff away.

Mommy: No, you can keep playing with it and, each year, we’ll get you more and more stuff. And then, one day, you’ll be as good as those guys that play on TV.

Harmon: Well, I AM going to be playing on TV.

Mommy: Oh, really, what will you be doing?

Harmon: I’ll be HITTING!

I hope so, big guy, I hope so!

Buoyant boys

Although it took us a little while to get there, we took the first of our two family vacations this summer to Minnesota to spend five days on Upper Gull Lake. We left the evening of July 2 and made it as far as Minneapolis, but bad weather back in Detroit had delayed us too much. We made a mad dash — O.J.-style — through the Minneapolis airport, only to see our connecting flight pulled back from the gate. So we spent two hours retrieving our luggage and scrambling to find a hotel at 11:30 at night. We found one of the last few rooms at a Holiday Inn near the airport, and settled in for a quick night.

Harmon and Simon and Aimee were absolute saints during all of this. We kind of expected the boys to be a little cranky, as our second flight would have gotten us into Brainerd at 11:30 p.m. anyway, but they were very well-behaved, considering the circumstances. Even as we sat on the tarmac in Detroit for almost two hours, the boys — albeit distracted by iPads and DVD players — kept their cool.

We were re-booked for the first flight the next day, and arrived in plenty of time to feed the boys and catch up on the Casey Anthony trial — our obsession for the better part of three years, including the final week. The flight from Minneapolis to Brainerd was approximately 20 minutes and my Dad picked us up at the airport. We arrived back at the cabin about 1 p.m. and the boys immediately wanted to get in the water. We knew Harmon would do fine, as he is taking swimming lessons, but we weren’t so sure about Simon on his inaugural trip Up North. Harmon did fine, save for his fear of weeds, but Simon — true to his nature — was the real daredevil. He quickly wanted to venture out into deeper water, and by the end of the week he was jumping off the dock with a life preserver on. In fact, both boys were little fish most of the week and couldn’t wait to get in the water.

We kept very busy during the five days, eating at Bar Harbor, Zorbaz, Ernie’s on Gull, etc., and taking lots of boat rides. The boys loved taking turns “driving” the pontoon with Grandpa, although Simon was very upset when Grandpa put his hands on the wheel, as he wants to do everything “by his own self.

On July 5, while the boys went to the park with Grandma and Aunt Angela, Aimee and I cleaned off the paddleboat and headed down to the north end of the lake to catch two turtles for the boys for the Nisswa Turtle Races. The races have been a summer tradition for my 40 years, including the time we served as turtle “brokers” for about 10 summers, netting (no pun intended), like $1,000 (I know, CSB!). I was a little rusty in seeing and catching turtles, but Aimee spotted a few and we eventually netted two mid-size painters. Harmon and Simon named them, appropriately, “Mario” and “Luigi,” after their favorite video game, Super Mario Kart.

On July 6, we drove the boys into Nisswa and I waited in line for about 30 minutes to get two numbers for the turtles. We secured two spots in the 500-range and settled in to watch the races. When our numbers were called, I took Simon and Aimee took Harmon to the center of the track. I was watching Luigi when I noticed that Harmon’s Mario was booking for the finish line. Lo and behold, Mario crossed the finish line and Harmon had officially settled into his Daddy’s footsteps in Turtle Race lore. Harmon was so proud! Mario let up in the semifinals, so his racing days were over after just two heats (on our final day at the cabin, we let the turtles go off the front of the pontoon and let them swim back to their homes). The boys were tired, so my Dad took them back to the cabin while Aimee and I looked around town a little. When we came back home, of course, Harmon had been swimming.

We left mid-day on July 8, exhausted, but well-tanned and glad the boys had so much fun. They got to spend some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Angela, and my Uncle Bill finally got to meet Simon. I also got to spend some time with Tommy Fournier. We used to be inseparable during our summers growing up, and it was great to catch up. Harmon had fun swimming with his two little girls.

After a quick flight to Minneapolis, the boys both feel asleep on the second leg back to Detroit. We grabbed our luggage, took a shuttle to our car and were back home by 7 p.m. It was our first trip without Isabel in our lives, and it was a little sad to come home and not see her cage in the living room. We took the weekend to recuperate and get ready to go back to work. All in all, it was a great trip and a fun time for the boys.

Last year, we added a second, mini-vacation to our plans by going to Traverse City in mid-August. Hoping to make it a family tradition, we will go again this year and hopefully many years to come. We want to get away and enjoy some time with the boys before Harmon starts Kindergarten after Labor Day (sniff, sniff).

I must be in the front row!

Each year, we hit up Comerica Park several times with the boys and while I would love to watch every pitch of every inning, I know our time at the ballpark with the boys isn't about me. It's about them having a great experience and learning to love everything about Tigers' baseball. Because of this, though, Kevin will usually take me to a game - by ourselves - in July for my birthday. Well, that once-a-summer game was this past weekend and it was freakin' awesome!

Kevin outdid himself getting front-row seats behind home plate for the White Sox- Tigers game on Saturday. It was a 4:10 p.m. start, which meant the ballpark opened just after 2 p.m. and we were there! I felt like a little kid just watching batting practice with my mouth wide open! In all my years, I've NEVER sat that close so I tried to take in every second. It was awesome that it was the White Sox because I have a unexplainable love for Ozzie Guillen. And, to make it even better, it was a Scherzer start and I love me some Max Scherzer!

Aside from moving my arm to get a drink of beer, I did not move for nine innings. While the outcome could have been better (they lost 5-0, score some damn runs) and it could have been a little cooler (it was 88 most of the game), I had an unbelievable time! It was a day that won't soon be forgotten and it was one of the BEST birthday presents ever!

No longer napping 'Nators!

Many kids at school and many of my friends' kids gave up napping LONG AGO but Harmon has remained a good napper ... until now. I think once we hit June, he decided he would phase HIMSELF out of naps. The will still nap if he's up before 7 a.m. - like on school days - of if we're just riding in the car for a while, like on the weekends. He never could resist a car nap!

I suppose it's just as well because he won't get a nap in kindergarten. I think, though, that we'll have to put him to bed a bit earlier each night, at least in the beginning, just to make sure he's getting enough sleep. He's always really welcomed his naps and I hope Simon keeps on napping as long as Harmon has. It helps to have the house quiet, if only for an hour or so!

Brown eyes, blue eyes

On Monday mornings, Kevin drops me off at work first and then drops the boys at school. Before I head into my building, I give and receive all those awesome hugs and kisses but their favorite part is when I saw "bye, brown eyes" to Harmon and "bye, blue eyes" to Simon. I don't know WHY they start looking at each other and getting all giggly but I love those giggles! They are the perfect start to a Monday workday!