Around the house

We've continued to enjoy our neighborhood and the remainder of summer!

Some water table fun with the neighborhood girls

Jeremy and Bob replaced the fence between our yards

Lucy has loved helping me wash the dishes, though maybe she doesn't love having pictures taken to document this fact.

Kate even got to have a playdate with Lena while Jaydon had his friend Miles (Lena's older brother) over for awhile.

Life is good, we are healthy and busy and having fun.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me!  What a fabulous day (not to mention it was the day before all the crap came to be with my health, so my body granted me one extra good day).  Jeremy asked what I wanted and I have really been on a service kick, I don't need anything and really just wanted some chores done - he did a fabulous job making the yard beautiful and cleaning out my entire car and washing it.  AWESOME!! It was great weather so we enjoyed a picnic outside and then that evening went to Red Robin for dinner, all in all a pretty wonderful way to ring in 32.

My yard and car :)

Granny, Lucy and Jaydon enjoying our picnic.

Lucy's first restaurant experience, she slept until the very end!

Granny and Grandma and the birthday girl

Jaydon even got spoiled and got a smoothie, think he was happy!?!

Yeah for gooey chocolate cake.

My little family, I even blew out the candles by myself - which if you know me is sort of impressive.

Thank you for a wonderful day to all my friends and family!

Mr. Helpful

I have tried getting Jaydon involved in a few more household jobs - he has always loved to sweep and vacuum so we decided to move onto dishwashing. He has a great time with me and while I feel slightly guilty over the extra water we are now using it is nice to have such a willing helper.

In fact, after lunch I was at the computer looking up some baby stuff and I heard him get up to the sink and start re-washing one of his cups, I really didn't think that much of it. It was a clean cup and he was just playing with the water and having some fun. When I finally went over there to check how it was going (yes maybe another bad mom moment), this is what I found...

Thank goodness we have an undermount sink and the edge of the granite comes above it so that the sink that he manged to get the stopper in just poured over into the other side to drain rather than get all over my floor. It was still quite a mess but boy was Jaydon one happy dishwasher!

Cleaning Obsession!

Jaydon loves to clean! He has gotten to the point where he has thrown a couple good sized temper-tantrums when it was time to put away the broom or vacuum and ever since he learned to sign vacuum he does it regularly trying to get us to vacuum again.

Here he is sweeping the floor - he now has a mini broom (thanks to Sarah A.) and he loves to get it out when I get out the regular boom and sweep along with me. He of course still thinks that the large size one is a bit more fun but at least now I don't have to take so long to sweep giving him turns.

His technique is improving, for the most part he has given up trying to sweep anything other than the floor!

Now I was wondering if he would be afraid of the vacuum at any point and so when I would vacuum I made sure to tell him when I was turning it on and tried to make it kind of fun for him too, well evidently it worked. This kid is obsessed. He would vacuum all day every day if we would let him. I think at this point I can't really blame him, he is a little boy who likes machines and noises and moving and this fits all those. I can only hope I am so lucky in 10 years and that he will vacuum for me then...

It is pretty awesome that our vacuum has the two attachments because once I am done using the smooth floor one he gets it and will drag that one around the house so I can keep vacuuming with the carpet attachment. It is pretty awesome!

"Helping" with laundry

There have been times Jaydon is a real helper with the laundry, pushing it down the hallway for me, throwing it in the dryer or getting it from the dryer to the basket and into the living room. Then there are times like this....

He wanted his lambie that was in the laundry! Everything must come out!