Summer days

Just playing a little catch up, so I can remember the summer of 2011. Where does the time go?! This summer is flying by and before you know it, Alexa will be in middle school next year! I am so not ready to have a middle schooler. Especially one as pretty as this:

She is 11 going on 16. I can remember like it was yesterday, just watching her sleep when she was Ethan's age and thinking how gorgeous she was (still is).  This summer we have baked a bunch of sweets together, gone to the library, to the mall, swam a bunch and just spent some good time together. I am cherishing it now as much as I can because there will come a day (too soon at that) when she won't want to hang with her mama any more. She has already started the whole sleep in until 10:30 bit, which I am sure will only get later as the teens roll around. She also likes to lock herself up in her room a lot lately. My little girl is growing up :(  We have four definites that we do together every week though: Go to the pool at least once (usually with friends), library day (which she groans about, only because she is forced to read at least one book a week), Go to the mall after the library (it's a way to make her excited about library day, even though we don't buy anything, it's fun to look around), and we usually bake up something special once a week too. It's the simple stuff that makes me smile. I love our weekly routine, but I am also going to love school days. I am a sucker for schedule and routine.

I can't believe Ethan is 28 months! He is one special little guy. He can already count to 6, he speaks in pretty good sentences, he knows about 5 different colors, and he is just super observant of everything we say and do. He still even uses some sign language, which I find amusing because he can say the word he is signing. Maybe it's just habit?! He only does it to about three different words; more, please, and no. It's crazy how they stop using the sign language slowly. He use to sign 30 different things, maybe more.I really loved doing signs with him. I will definitely be signing with my next baby too. I think it has been incredible for his language development. He is turning into such a daddy's boy lately (although still very much a mama's boy). Every morning he wakes up he says "daddy work?" "daddy work in truck?". So sweet! He loves his daddy.

Our new task is potty training. I mean I haven't really started it yet, but Ethan is showing signs of wanting to do it. The past two weeks he has been walking around the house like this:

 He has also been doing a lot of this:

 But still refuses to wear big boy underwear. He HATES them! One thing he does love is popsicles. I can't buy them anymore because he won't eat anything but popsicles if I have them. His grandma brought him this one.

 Yep I totally did a corny photo in the mirror, but hey this is about me too right?
This is my last month being 28. So it is almost officially my last year in my twenties. How do I feel about that? Awesome! Seriously, I am so blessed, how could I even care what my number is. Life is perfect :)