Summer Update

Whew! Summer is flying by! This has probably been the best one we've had. We finally got to use our pool more than a couple times. You would think it'd be hard to watch all three of them and it was at first but now that I've got the hang of it, it's a blast for the kids. We go and hang out for a couple hours and it kills the whole afternoon. Lucky for me too I found a loophole in my promise to not submit Ben to swim lessons. I found him a different teacher, Sarah, who he loves, and after just two lessons he was willing to take on the big pool all by himself. Before he would only stay in the baby pool and barely get wet. Now he takes plunges underwater and can play with the other kids. It's been awesome. So I get to check that off my list!! Unfortunately, the beginning of the summer was SO busy that we didn't get a chance to be practicing on the two-wheel bike. Now I've sort of missed that golden window of opportunity where he was willing to try. How can one be THAT busy right? Well, believe me, we were. The boys did t-ball/whiffle ball and that alone took up 4 mornings a week! Then there were swimming lessons, tennis, piano, and a weekly pow-wow with Cal's kindergarten teacher to do some fun games. The good thing was Seth didn't mind being carted around half the summer and loved going to the ball games!


The great news is we found two things the boys LOVE: Cal found out that tennis is the sport for him and that he really excels at the piano and piano is the ONLY thing Ben doesn't complain about these days either!! The boys both did a Seacoast Science Center camp and I think they'd both agree it was one of the highlights of their summer. The pirate camp that Ben went to is one of the cutest ones there is. They dress up and search for treasure while learning about science/nature things. Cal is doing a theater camp this week and is super excited for the little play they are going to put on at the end of the week, apparently he's a kitten.

He took our annual NH long weekend with Grammy and Grampie Gotlieb this year. We decided to make the trek even further up north to Santa's Village and a few other attractions. While we had fun and kept busy, I don't think it's something we'd ever do again considering the fact that you PASS Storyland and that place is much better! Below are some pics of our trip

Cal and Ben racing boats

Grampie and seth checking out the reindeer

An enormous bunny

This was at Lost River Gorge. You walked through a nature trail and got to crawl through dark caves - one called the Lemon Squeezer. The boys really liked this!! Hard to see the big waterfall in the background of this picture but it's there.

Cal and Ben inside a cave

Seth in the cave

Water bumper boats and bumper cars were a big hit with this crew

Naturally made hole in the rock - perfect size for Seth!

Cal trying out rock climbing at Clark's.

This was at Clark's were they train bears and bear cubs. The highlight here was not the bear show as one might think but the train ride where a crazy guy drives after the train "shooting" at you.

Update on Cal, Ben, and Seth:

Cal has lost his FOUR front teeth this summer. It was pretty crazy. He's still a little weary of the tooth fairy but they've come to a mutual agreement that notes are acceptable.

Cal and Ben are addicted to the Nickelodeon shows Big Time Rush and Victorious. BTR is also a real boy band with actual CDs and concerts. In addition to shuttling the boys to activities it's also become a full-time job to manage their ipod. I swear no one else spends this much time on the music their children listen to! Usher has now been replaced by BTR...

We're out of the woods on Seth's growth. He seems to have made some strides in that area over the summer. His sleeping HAS improved but the ENT agreed to take his tonsils and adenoids out in one fell swoop so we're going with that. Surgery is scheduled on September 6th unless I can get a date sooner! Potty training is pretty much non-existent and although I still have plenty of time I'm getting a little worried that this is going to be harder than with the other two. Just hoping for a break :)

Warrior Dash covered in mud!

Eric and I have made a lot of time for ourselves this summer. We've done a fair amount of golfing not that it's helped our golf game any! We did a race called the Warrior Dash at the beginning of June. The obstacles were pretty lame and due to heavy rain earlier in the day it was a gigantic mud pit the whole way through which was kind of annoying. We also recently spent the day in Boston and got to see the Chihuly glass exhibit (which I highly recommend if it's ever near you) and then went to a Rhianna concert that night. Our other fun event of the summer was a murder mystery dinner that we hosted! The food, drinks, acting, and friends were great that night and we had a lot of fun. Thanks for all that came and went out afterwards even though there was a Bruins game on!!!

I will report that I have NOT lost a single ounce of the 5 pounds I wanted to despite changing my routine so that I get up at 6am EVERY SINGLE EVER-LOVING DAY to go to the gym. It should be noted that when I wrote it takes 3500 extra calories burned that that's just to lose ONE pound, not five. I'll be the first to admit that my diet could use a little tweaking and that's probably most of my problem :) I did cut out a lot of alcohol. But let's review one 24-hour period I had not so long ago. I ate a huge mexican dinner out including chips, salsa, guacamole, refried beans, rice, pork tamales AND a huge margarita to wash it down. Then I ate blueberry bars for breakfast...they should really be called "cake" because the oats and blueberries aren't fooling anyone. Proceeded to have an Indian buffet for lunch and then ceaser salad, fish tacos, and miso salmon (which we split but still) for dinner. I'd like to say this isn't a normal 24 hours but more often than not, IT IS. So really it's no wonder I haven't been able to kick the unwanted five.

I'm going to take the liberty of bragging about my ridiculously good cholesterol though!! The doc said it was the lowest bad cholesterol she's ever seen coming in at 26! Yay me. Screw you, says my cholesterol to my unwanted weight :) Seth may finally be back on track with his sleeping but I have been terribly off track lately. I haven't slept an entire night without waking up since before I was pregnant with Cal. But that was ok because there were pregnancy and then nursing times THREE. So I get that it's virtually impossible to sustain any type of normal sleeping and then when you CAN sleep through the night, your body isn't used to it so it's nearly impossible. But the reality is it's been two years now since I've been on any sort of night duty and it just can't be normal to be waking five...six...seven times a night. After some consideration and ultimately desperation for some good sleep I agreed to take Ambien (recommended AND prescribed by my doctor) just to see if I could get my body back on track. Unfortunatly, it's not really working. I do wake up a little less, 2 or 3 times now, but not the total night sleep I was hoping for. Oh well, at least we know I won't be addicted to it!

I've kept up my reading pace and have read 33 books to date! I figure if I keep going then I might be able to make a noteworthy goal of 52 books this year!! I think I might have said 40 before but I'm going for the one book a week...anyone hear about the woman who read one book per day for a whole year??! Now that's a little crazy!