The Pickle

Cullen's idea of funny these days is to close his eyes when I am going to take his picture. This isn't really a new idea, he was doing this when Nicole came to our house to take pictures of our family too. Don't let the pictures fool you people, he isn't blinking- his eyes are just shut. When he first started doing this is made me mad because frankly, there isn't much I can do to get him to open his eyes. But now that I have a lot of pictures of him with is eyes closed I'm starting to think it's down right funny (I'm not going to tell him this). But someday when he looks back there is going to be this month or so period in his life where he is smiling in all of his pictures but his eyes are shut.

Here is Cullen posing with a pickle he just "caught".

Now here Cullen is determined to keep his eyes closed despite the fact that he is now choking on the pickle. (I can assure you he is alive and well.)

On a completely different note, Geremu LOVES to be pegged off with the hose. He runs screaming and laughing to hide every time he is hit but he always comes back for more. Here he is "thinking" he is safe in the garage:)

Water Table

Yesterday marked 4-weeks since Geremu's arrival home and the time has just flown by. It is so fun watching him learn so much, so quickly (it's also amazing how much he has grown). Our days have mostly been filled with playing outside. Today was our weekly trip to the farmers market- yummy (this was the first week I saw raspberries and blueberries).

Today Nick spent a little time out back trying to teach the boys how to cast their fishing poles. It was actually more fun to watch Nick cast and reel the fake fish in while the boys ran after the fish trying to catch it.

We have a sand and water table that the boys LOVE to play in. The problem is that Geremu really likes to put the sand in his hair on purpose to be funny. Since he has such curly hair it doesn't come out very easily, so I have been finding the sand in random places throughout the house. I decided to get rid of the sand and just make it just a water table. They spent the afternoon playing in the mud and water table. Yep, they went around the yard (while I was obviously not playing close attention to them) and brought buckets full of dirt and weeds to the table to add to the water. I really didn't realize what they were doing until Cullen told me that Geremu and him were "giving the worms a bath". Did I mention they had a few worms and night crawlers in the water too?

I'm pretty sure I won't be finding sand in the house any more.
The boys soaking in the tub after a hard days work.

We had family pictures taken last week, if you would like to preview some of the pictures here is a link to check them out: http://www.nuphoto.blogspot.com/. We LOVED the photographer and highly recommend her if you live in the area. She was excellent and patient with young children.

This has sort of been a busy week for us. I'm teaching a 1-week summer school class with my good friend Billy (you might remember him from his short shorts picture) but today Nick taught for me and he is going to again tomorrow morning. The boys and I enjoyed our morning at the library then played outside for a bit. Amy stopped in to see how the boys were doing and brought a picture book for Geremu to look at (he loves it). Tonight we went to the YMCA to play in the play area, splash pad and pool with our friends Billy, Katie and their kids. The boys had a great time and crashed as soon as we got home.

I haven't been good about taking pictures the past few days, this is all I've got.

Here is me with the boys at our backyard campfire

Cullen practicing his future profession.

Pictures

Here are a few pictures from the past few days for your viewing pleasure.

Cullen enjoying his 4th of July with his cousins up north. They watched the fireworks and spent some time out on the lake.
Where is Geremu's? Oh, eating.
I smell trouble...
"Mom, I'm amazing!" Where does he get his confidence?

Scoot over bacon there is something leaner.

Rub-a-dub-dub two boys in a bucket.

Just the Two of Us

Nick and Cullen have been out of town for the 4th and are returning tomorrow. Geremu and me have kept ourselves pretty busy. We had a low key 4th of July- celebrated with cool whip, strawberries and blueberries- yummo! Today we went to the farmers market and hung out around the house. It has been 3 weeks since Geremu arrived home forever. He is picking up so many new words- yesterday I taught him how to say "cha-cha-cha". So when I called people singing, "Happy 4th of July to you" he could add the "cha-cha-cha's". I also taught him to say, "mama's hot". As you can see we are mostly focusing on the important words right now. He also just learned to sip liquid through a straw- something we have been working on. The look on his face was priceless when the water first came up the straw. So now when we are out and about we can bring juice boxes or something of the sort and leave the cups at home!

Videos

All is well, here are some videos of my boys in action these days.

The first video is what I caught the boys doing the other day when I was talking with my Dad on the phone. There is a warning on the bucket not to leave kids unattened by it, I'd better keep a closer eye on those little buggers.

Can you guess what Cullen wants to be?

I have to restrain myself from doing this to Geremu all the time.

Who needs cable when I can watch this all day long?

Geremu is a toilet singer (if you think this is good you should see his dance moves!)

The Lazy Days of Summer

Here are more pictures then you probably wanted to see of what we have been up to this summer. We spend most of our days hanging around and playing.

Today we visited a zoo down in Oshkosh (very similar to the zoo in La Crosse). The zoo even had a train (that Cullen LOVED) and a nice park!

The boys need a drink after playing so hard.