I (I'm) not 2, I 4!

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Henry spent a month riding his tricycle, and then decided he belongs on a bigger bike - out comes the bike w/ training wheels. I'm sure it won't take long before he ditches the training wheels, and heads to a big bike. He absolutely makes me laugh. Probably over the course of one day, I say to him 5 times (no exaggeration) - "Henry! You can't do that - you are 2". And, he says right back to me, "I (I'm) not 2. I 4" Kid, you're not 4!

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Getting some help from big bro.

The Bucket List

In honor of school starting in 10 short days - I'm sharing some pics of our summer - and activities that we had on our summer bucket list that got crossed off:

Hiking Beaver Lake
Slumber Party (Owen)
The Great NY State Fair (done but no photographs up yet)
Abbott's Farm
Thunder Island
Spend time w/ grandma and nieces
Went on a long bike ride
Saw a movie (did that - we saw: Karate Kid, Toy Story, and Despicable Me)
Owen and Megan - 5K



Still yet to do:

Campfire
Go fishing

I'm hoping we can get those things done, but if not - we'll put it on our list for next year!

Hiking Beaver Lake

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At the beginning of the summer, Emmett went to (all day!) camp at Beaver Lake Nature Center. This marked the first time my almost 7 year old has ever been gone from me all day - since he went to half day kindergarten. Anyway, he loved it (and didn't miss me). Owen and Henry and I often hiked the trails while Emmett was at camp. It was beautiful...

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Emmett played lacrosse (#4 on the right side)

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Henry catching a lift from his big brother...

Slumber party for Owen

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Owen's best buddies are on his traveling soccer team, and I've spent a good portion of the summer driving him back and forth from their houses. Because it's a traveling, select soccer team - none of them live nearby! They are spread out around Syracuse - usually a half hour away each way. UGH! Anyway, we had 5 of them spend the night one night (only 3 are pictured). I took them from a soccer game to the grocery to get treats (crazy, I know!). They are good boys, but LOUD!

Watersliding it..

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Eddie and I took the boys to Thunder Island water park one afternoon. It's a great (little) water park, that is big enough that Owen and Emmett still think it's cool, but small enough that we can let them go off on their own. Henry, my fearless swimmer, did the little waterslides by himself, and the big ones w/ Eddie.

Sleeping...sitting up (kind of)

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Henry has stopped napping. Have I mentioned this in a previous post? It's painful. He really still needs one, but he absolutely fights it - and we are often out and about in the afternoon anyway, because of the big boy's activities, that it is really not worth the fight. But, this means that he falls asleep wherever we may be about 3 days out of the week. So, here we are at the waterpark - taking a snack break - and sitting at the picnic table. Eddie and I watched Henry's eyes slowly get heavier and heavier...until he fell asleep sitting up. Poor baby.

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Then, I transfered him to a towel where he slept for another hour.

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Emmett and Henry going down the waterslide...

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Interloper - lost him again!!!

It's soccer time again. We had a whole month without regular soccer practices and games, but it's starting up again. And now (and this part is super exciting!), Emmett is playing on the Empire United Soccer Team, too. I almost didn't let him, because he's so young and it's so expensive, but he begged. And, his age group often practices the same day and time as Owen's age group, so I figured if he has to be dragged to Owen's practice he might as well be playing. Somehow I got roped into being the manager of Emmett's U7 league along w/ Owen's U10 league (who am I kidding?? I LOVE it!). And, anyway, we had our first parent meeting a few nights ago. I had all the boys by myself and Owen and Emmett went off to play on an indoor soccer field. Pretty soon, I noticed Henry was no longer by myself. And since I, along w/ the coaches, was running the meeting, I couldn't really leave.

Side note: Henry is super comfortable at the sports center. In fact, it was the very first place he ever went to. Do you remember this story? Eddie picked me up from the hospital 6 days after he was born (he had to stay extra to be under the bili lights) - by c/s!, and Owen was playing in a soccer tournament at the sports center at the time. Eddie picked Henry and I up from the hospital and before we went home, we went to the sports center to watch the soccer tournament. Ahhh...definitely a 3rd child.

Anyway, after the meeting I went to look for him, and turns out he had gone into the office (I told you he was comfortable at the place), grabbed a ball, and ran onto the field to join a group of 3-4-5 year olds who were playing microsoccer. I don't know how long he had been participating before I found him, but the coaches at the center know him, and apparently said, "Come on, Henry. You can play". I'm going to go ahead and sign him up (they said they would make an exception and let him participate even though he's not 3). Next week he should look "official" in his matching green shirt :)!

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Because I pick my battles....

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Emmett has been begging to have his hair shaved (UGH!), and (I don't know why this surprises me - Owen and Emmett are polar opposites in every way it only makes sense that Owen wants long hair and Emmett wants short hair). Anyway, because I pick my battles and I have many more worth fighting - see the photo below -

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AFTER -

He actually looks much cuter than I expected w/ his hair :). Emmett has a fairly large mole in his hair above his right ear that the dermatologist has been watching for 3 years now. This is the year that the dermatologist says that it needs to be removed. I can see that mole with this haircut without having to pull his hair out. I kind of like that mole...

He rocks my world....

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(even with a dirty face).

I am so stinking excited! Guess what this little man does?? Not only is he completely - I mean COMPLETELY potty trained - as in not having to carry extra clothes with me - and I can't remember the last time he had an accident. THAT kind of potty trained. But, he also no longer uses the little potty - and he is completely - I mean COMPLETELY independent with his toileting skills. I mean I don't even pay attention to when he goes. He gets on the potty himself. Gets off himself. Wipes himself. Pulls his pants up and down himself. Flushes himself (you know what I mean). Uses Purell himself. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

Now, he took a little longer to stop having accidents then my other boys. Owen had no more accidents by 2 years and 6 months. Emmett by 2 years and 5 months. Henry by 2 years and 6.5 months. BUT - my other boys used the little potty longer - and needed wiping assistance for much longer. Ahhhh...so happy to be sailing through these not so fun milestones.

Oh - and he has taken a liking to calling me Megan. And, when he doesn't call me Megan - he calls me Mama Bauer. My big boys think it's hilarious. Glad someone does....alright .....it does make me smile. A little.

Swim Lessons

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Swim lessons at the class my boys all go to starts at age 3. They made an exception for Henry this year, because he's such a water baby. I was nervous about his ability to stay on the steps and listen to the instructors (parents don't get in for this class). They are expected to sit on the stairs patiently until it's their turn. I wasn't sure he could do it - he's 2, after all. But, he did awesome! He swallowed so much water though, because he had a continuous smile on his face. He'd go underwater - and come up with a huge smile on his face. We spend a lot of summer at our neighbor's pools, and Henry keeps his life jacket on, but swims independently. It's so nice that I don't have to put a swim suit on and get in every time. He jumps off the diving board at our neighbor's pool - goes underwater - and swims to the edge of the pool. Yipee!!!

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Jumping In

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Underwater swimming.....

Chaos, CHAOS!

We had some very special visitors at our house 2 weeks ago: my mom, SIL (Nicki), and nieces, Evelyn and Josephine, came for a visit. It was fun. Chaos. But the good kind of chaos. UNTIL - the bad kind of chaos happened. I was home alone one evening w/ 4 of the 5 kiddos when I went to do a load of laundry (on our first floor) and noticed water dripping from our ceiling. I ran upstairs and squished through the already wet carpets to find the boy's bathroom filled w/ water. I called my wonderful neighbors over who turned the water off and quickly tried to sop up the water.

To make a long story short, we have a super big mess. 3 stories worth of damage. The carpeting upstairs in the hallway, down the stairs, and in Owen and Emmett's bedroom is being replaced. All the walls are being repainted. The baseboards are being replaced and repainted - and that's just the first floor. The main floor is an even bigger mess. New flooring in the laundry room, garage entryway, closets, and kitchen. All of these ares and our family room is being repainted. Baseboards replaced. Ceiling on the whole first floor is being repainted. New ceiling in the entry way and laundry room. New closet doors x 2. New light fixture. Sheet rock and dry wall replacement. The basement is getting all new carpeting, new ceiling, new baseboards, and it's being painted. OH - and we are getting a new furnace. Insurance is covering all of this. Thank goodness. But, we're hoping to do some upgrades since their replacing the flooring anyway - like w/ hardwoods and not vinyl. It's going to be a major project. It happened 3 weeks ago, and we still haven't chosen a contractor. We're going to look at flooring tomorrow. I'm hoping it's all done by October....

So, we had a 2 year old, 3 year old, 5 year old, 6 year old, 9 year old, and 4 adults in my house w/ 20+ humidifiers set up by a water removal company to dry up our house for 4 days! 2 of the bedrooms were unusable. People were in and out of our house all day long (the water removal company came out on the day of the flood at 11 PM!). I was on the phone constantly w/ contractors, insurance, etc. It truly was chaos. There are photos posted of the disaster below.

My dear friend Amy took some great photo of the kids will they were here. Check them out :)

The culprit

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This is what our dining room and family room look like now - the result of completely unloading our pantry, laundry room, hall closet, and shoe closet. A mess. A complete and total mess.

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Our entryway (from the garage) ceiling.

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Ceiling of our laundry room.

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The water came out of the bathroom floor and soaked the hallway carpet, and the carpet in the 2 bedrooms that surround the bathroom: Henry's bedroom and Owen's bedroom.

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Basement floor

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Basement Ceiling

Best cousins

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Emmett and Evelyn are only 18 months apart. They're best buddies.

Scenes from Southwick Beach

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We spent one gorgeous afternoon at Southwick Beach on Lake Ontario. The weather was beautiful. The water was warm. It was a great afternoon.

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Just to make you smile?

Wanna hear a funny story?

We lost Henry. (that's not the funny part). Anyway, we lost Henry. Lost him. As in, the was no less than 20 people looking for him. Tears are streaming down my face, and down the face of all the mothers looking for him. Lost him. A good 5-6 minutes worth.

We were at a soccer tournament in Rochester, NY. It was a really good game. All of a sudden, I'm all "Eddie! Where's Henry?" WHERE. IS. HENRY?????. Chaos ensued. Everyone is looking. COULD. NOT. FIND. HIM!

Finally, screaming! WE'VE GOT HIM. WE'VE GOT HIM.

And now, for the funny part. You'll never guess where he was?

While everyone was searching for him...Henry was sitting comfortably on the porta potty - 2 fields over. Pooping.

How perfectly independent is my potty trained 2 year old???? I'm guessing he tugged on my or Eddie's shirt a few times (who are we kidding?? Eddie's shirt), and said he had to go potty. When we (he) shushed him - as I said it was a good game - he must have decided to take matters into his own hands. My baby boy - who hasn't had an accident in FOREVER - found a place to poop on his own.

I'm grateful that he didn't fall in (he has a super skinny bottom) and drown in the blue gunk at the bottom of the porta potty. Love this kid.