Beach days

I've been trying to hit the beach once a week this summer. Because the beach is awesome. It yields lots of vitamin D, fun times, and usually a nap. 

We usually go to one particular area up by Cardiff called San Elijo lagoon because the water is calm, there's a small beach area and lots of rocks to throw. However, it's kind of a bummer to access. So today we went to Fanuel Park which is by Mission Bay and my brother, Scott, and his girlfriend, Crystal, came with us. It was a blast! The boys had so much fun running in the water with Uncle Scott and Aunt Crystal, splashing them both endlessly, and digging in the sand with their earth movers. Amy and I hung out on the sand. She ate a little of it. I did not. By the end, Hank was practically falling asleep sitting up, so we called it a day. 

Amy's sand mustache:

Johnny cannot keep his pants up. Therefore I need to remember to put sunscreen on his butt. 

Thanks for the fun time, Uncle Scott and Aunt Crystal!

But first, lemme take a selfie

I never really post photos of myself. Probably because I never take them. And when I do I don't want to show them to anyone because I look like... well, a mom. A haggard one. Dark circles under the eyes, wrinkles making themselves known, hair in disarray, and a Target T-shirt covered in food, spit up, or dirt do not add up to a glamorous picture. However, I realized that I look infinitely better when I take a picture of myself and one or all of my kids, so I think I'll be doing that more often. Especially with Amy because she loves seeing herself in the camera. :) Little ham. 

This is my favorite smile of hers, the closed mouth, fluffy cheeks smile:

 

Amy is 8 months old!

I wrote this post a few days ago, only to have it disappear when I put Amy down in her crib. So this was actually done on today she turned 8 months, but technology hates me.

Anyway! Look at this baby girl. 

This is what she looks like in the morning when she first wakes up. I KNOW. She's so happy to be awake and to find that I'm there next to her. She's just the happiest baby ever. Seriously. The poor thing hardly ever gets to nap and when she does, it's in the car seat or in the wrap on me and only for about 45 minutes. And then at night I have to juggle her and her brothers' bed time (though I do have John around to help) so she often doesn't get to go to bed when she's really tired. Regardless of her lack of sleep, she's pretty happy all the time. 

She is also quite the grown up when it comes to food. Amy is not the biggest fan of purées and chooses finger foods all the time. Thus, she gets them. I also feed her stuff off of my plate and she's liked just about all of it. Enchiladas, back beans, spinach, corn, watermelon, eggplant parmigiana, etc. The only thing she doesn't seem to like is bananas. Still. So strange. She's also drinks water like a champ. I give her a cup occasionally because I would LOVE to skip the whole sippy cup thing, and she can drink from it with my help, which I find impressive... But maybe it isn't? Perhaps all 8-month-olds are capable of this? No idea. I didn't do that with the boys. 

Amy is also moving all over the place. I was commenting to my brother the other day about how different her mobility is from the boys'. I mean, once the boys could move they were scrambling. It may have been a little uncoordinated, but it was fast. Amy, on the other hand, is very deliberate. Right hand, left knee. Left hand, right knee. You can almost see her saying that to herself in her head. It's adorable. 

She's doesn't have any teeth yet, but since she still nurses, I'm more than okay with that. In fact, I'm kind of hoping that she'll go at least a year without getting a tooth. That would be fantastic. 

Anyway. This girl is just amazing. Amazing Amy. 

Fancy waggy baby!

For whatever reason, none of us call Amy just "Amy". John and I call her "Amy Baby" which is from an amended song John started singing to her when she was born. With the tune of "Santa Baby". It's quite adorable. Johnny and Hank were calling her "Amy Baby Bucket" for awhile, though I guess Johnny does actually call her "Amy" most of the time. Hmmm. 

Anyway. Hank has taken to calling her a "fancy waggy baby" and that's the first thing he says when he sees her in the morning. He wakes up (usually in bed with me and Amy, holding a fistful of my hair), looks at Amy and says, "What a fancy waggy baby!" 

I don't know. But it's cute so I'll blog about it. 

And now, naked baby pictures! 

For the love of Legos

We are now a real LEGO household. 

Up until recently, Duplos ruled our home and I was okay with that. Because they don't hurt nearly as much when you step on them. However, Hank bought himself a tow truck lego set in February and asked to assemble it a couple of months ago and actually did it. With my guidance, obviously, but I tried really hard not to do it for him. I asked questions like "Which ones do we need for this step? Where does this one go?" And then Hank would say, "This one goes there!" and he'd rather adeptly place it where it should go. There was very little correcting on my part. I was impressed. Really impressed considering the kid wasn't quite 3, and he had the fine motor skills to put together a tow truck made of teeny tiny LEGOs. 

Then, as you all know, he had a LEGO birthday party. So guess what he got as gifts? LEGOS! 

He LOVES these things. He's not usually one to hang out alone, but there are many times I have checked on him to see where he went and have found him putting his LEGOs together in his room by himself. He's made planes, trains, a Bat Garage, wrecking ball cranes, trucks, cranes, etc, etc. Sometimes he uses the instructions with my help, but more often he just sits on his floor and builds. 

It's awesome. 

Even though they somehow travel around the entire house and cause gigantic fights between the boys over which block belongs to whom, they do more good than harm.

Except to my feet. My poor feet will never be the same. 

Hank's 3 year check up

Hank has his three year check up a couple of weeks ago and he passed with flying colors. He stood on an actual scale to get his weight (and stayed still!) and followed directions to get his height against the wall. And then he followed MORE directions when he had his vision test. Covered the correct eye, kept his feet on the line, told the nurse the names of the shapes he saw... I was a proud mama. He had a little trouble with the hearing exam, though. He had on headphones and was supposed to touch his nose when he heard a sound, but he just touched his nose the the whole time. Not bad for three! 

Height: 41 inches - 98th percentile

Weight: 41 pounds - 99th percentile 

He's basically enormous, as I expected. 

He even enjoyed his check up this time around. Dr. Zaguli commented on the game we were playing (Go Fish) and Hank told the doctor all about it. It was really fun to watch him interact with the doctor as he was getting checked out. He answered the doctor's questions, asked his own questions, and was just charming. When asked why he was still in diapers, and not using the potty, Hank replied, "I don't want to." Well. Okay then. Luckily, I've been here before and know that I can't push the toilet use thing. And the doc didn't press me to, either, as he also knows you can't force it. Plus, diapers are waaaaaaaay easier than having a somewhat-potty-using child. Cleaning diapers is way easier than cleaning underwear after an accident. And I'm not looking forward to having two children that can stop me in my tracks with a "Mommy, I have to poop!" I tell ya, it's stressful dealing with ONE boy who waits until the last possible second... I imagine two will be a challenge. Hopefully at least one of them wil be fully toilet-able by the time Amy gets around to it. ::crosses fingers::