First Sunburn :(

So here is what happens when little boys think they know more than their Mommies, so they rub the sun screen off under their eyes and then continue taking off their sun hats, promising that they will not whine, even if they get a sunburn.

True to his word, he hasn't whined a bit, and even swears that it doesn't hurt at all. It's actually not as bad as it looks in the picture. Much of Caleb's skin has pink undertones whether he's been in the sun or not. He's only burnt under his eyes, and mainly his right eye. It's been three days now, and the pink is almost completely gone, but it looked pretty bad the first day. As fair-skinned as he is, I guess I should be glad we made it more than four years before he got his first sunburn.

Aunt Wendi

About nine months ago, Marcus's sister, Wendi, called us from Florida to see if she could come up for a visit the following weekend. The boys and I excitedly prepared the guest bedroom for her, and it has been dubbed "Wendi's room" ever since. Her trip out here was originally a job-hunting venture, and, since it was successful, she ended up staying on with us until early last week.

The boys have been so used to knocking on Wendi's door and asking her to play music for them, or show them cool little videos on her computer, or let them bounce on her bed. Ethan, especially, loved his one-on-one time with Aunt Wendi. Wendi joked that she and Ethan bonded because they were both second-borns and knew what it felt like to get less attention than their older siblings. Caleb's favorite thing to do with Aunt Wendi is go on pretend adventures. Wendi is an avid traveler, and she loved filling Caleb's imaginative head with foreign places.

Although it is weird to have her out of the house, at least Aunt Wendi is still living nearby, and hopefully we will all enjoy many years in Birmingham together.

Here is Wendi playing the part of Dora the Explorer during the boys' birthday party.

Toy Store

Borrowing an idea from Mimi, I decided to set up a little store in our play room. I bought a few new toys (BOGO) at Toys R Us, and taped price tags to each toy. (There are also a few belated birthday gifts which we received last week that also went into the store :)

To keep things simple, we are using Chuck E. Cheese coins for money. The number on each price tag is about twice the dollar value of the toy, making each Chuck E. Cheese coin worth about $0.50. I think it will be a great way to teach them (esp. Caleb) delayed gratification, basic math, saving vs. spending, and (my personal favorite) get some daily chores done sans whining. So far, I'm only letting them earn 1-2 coins each day. Caleb gets a coin in his jar for cleaning up the whole play room before bed time, and for completing all of his "school" work each day. If Ethan is interested when Caleb is working for a coin, I give him a different job to do so he can earn a coin, too. I don't really expect him to understand much about the store, but life would be unbearable if he wasn't allowed to do exactly what Caleb is doing :)

My one fear is that Caleb will start asking for coins every time he does something I ask him to do, which is why I'm capping it at 1-2 coins a day, and only for specific jobs. I'm actually not a big fan of paying kids for household chores. In general, I think kids should do their assigned chores because they live in the house and are part of the family, not for money. But I think there are enough good things to be learned from this little store thing that I'll suspend my ideals for the time being :)

One final note about the store's name: Ethan wanted to call it "Caleb & Ethan's Store" and Caleb wanted to call it "The Star Wars Store", hence the extra-long combination name.

A Timeless Fog

About a month ago, my watch stopped. It stopped and started for a few days, until I finally took it off, thinking it needed a new battery. I bought a new battery just before we left for Florida, but unfortunately, the watch still stopped and restarted with the new battery. Always reluctant to spend money, I remained watchless through our vacation.

It has been very weird to not know what time it is. I'm used to waking up at night and checking my watch, getting out of the shower and checking my watch, etc. And I am always checking my watch when we are out, mentally planning and adjusting our days. Besides my own desire to know the time whenever it occurs to me, the people I spend time with are used to me knowing what time it is, so I keep getting asked about the time. Anyway, I've limped along using car clocks and oven clocks and my cell phone, but that little time piece on my wrist has been greatly missed.

A few days after we got home, I had had enough of the timeless fog, so I bit the bullet and bought a new watch (consoling myself that 3 years was an acceptable return on my original $35 investment).

Home, Sweet Home

Despite our hectic, on-the-go lives, I really am a homebody. I love being at home. In fact, if given a choice between going somewhere or staying home, I would usually choose to stay home. (The reason we are on-the-go so much is that Marcus and the boys usually prefer to go somewhere.) Anyway, I've been on a "we're-home-again!" high since we got home from Florida on Sunday night. Without further ado, here are the top five reasons I am happy to be home:

(1) Veggies! After eating fast food and take-out for over a week, I couldn't wait to get home and cook some fresh vegetables. The first night we were back, we had baked chicken with okra and corn on the cob. It was delicious! And I've got more okra, green beans, squash, more corn, potatoes, and lots of fresh fruit stocked up for the rest of the week. (The boys ate so much fresh fruit the first three days we were home that I was a little worried there would be repercussions.) It is definitely good to eat home-cooking again :)

(2) Computer! I missed my time online. I managed to check my email every day, and even write a couple of blog posts while we were gone, but I did miss my regular down time at my computer desk each night.

(3) My house! As much as I can, I leave the house spic and span before we go on a trip. I love coming home to clean floors, clean bathrooms, clean sheets, empty clothes hampers, and a very tidy house. I was able to pull that off this time, and it has been SO NICE to come home to a house that looks beautiful and needs no (immediate) attention from me.

(4) The weather! It was HOT in Florida. I don't remember being outside at any time of day the whole week where the heat wasn't stifling to me. I loved waking up at home on Monday morning to temperatures in the upper 70's. It gets very hot during the afternoon here in June, July & August, but the mornings and evenings are still nice most days. The boys and I played outside for a couple of hours Monday morning without breaking a sweat, and I once again felt so thankful for the milder climate we enjoy here.

(5) My bed! I'm not one of those people who can't sleep if I'm not in my own bed, but that doesn't mean I don't miss it when I'm out of town. Marcus and I splurged and bought a king-sized mattress from Sam's a couple of years ago, and now we have a hard time sleeping well on a queen bed (or smaller). Part of that is because we always share our bed with Ethan for at least part of the night, but the other part is that we've gotten used to spreading out.

We had a great time with family, but it is also very good to be home :)