4th of July

We celebrated the 4th of July by saying bye-bye to Alfredo!

George did the dirty work...

While the boys and I watched... We were hesitant to include the boys on the whole process, but after we explained it to Sawyer he said he wanted to watch.

Sawyer paid close attention to everything while Jack phased in and out. 

It was so bloody hot outside this is where they ended up. 

And this is where Alfredo the Chicken ended up...stuffed with lemon, garlic, and parsley; then roasted over a bed of rock salt. Turned out juicy and delicious. Admittedly I had some trepidation about the whole process, but it was a good experience overall. This is about as 'real food' as you can get and we're ready for our farm :) Sawyer and Jack were very matter-of-fact about it. "Alfredo's dead. Let's eat!" Alfredo (4 months old) weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 9 oz! This was after he was all plucked and gutted. 

The rest of the 4th of July we enjoyed our freedom by cooling off in the pool!

Jack and Papa!

Smiley Sawyer! We love getting to spend time with papa.

And then we stayed up late to watch the fireworks.

The boys lasted all of 15 minutes. Then Sawyer decided it was time to go home and go to sleep. I hope his good sleeping habits rub off on his little brother soon! We're so thankful for our country and the freedom we enjoy. I hope we never take our freedom for granted and can teach our boys all about it. God bless America!

Speedster Sawyer

Here is some pre-bed Sunday evening entertainment. Sometimes I feel like this is real-time speed with how much energy these two cute boys have!

The boys were in hysterics watching this over and over.

Potty Party!

Chugga chugga POO POO - Jack officially hopped on the potty train this week! He's done great and we're so proud of him. We used the same technique as we did with Sawyer and it's going great. Being pregnant while potty training is tough though. My patience threshold isn't high and it's hard on my 'relaxed' joints to sit in one spot for so long! But we made it through and had some fun while at it. It is now the end of day 3, with only one accident all day. He always made the important ones in the pot, for which I'm thankful. By Day 2 at noon I was thinking I may have started him too early because he was only getting in about 25% of the pees and I was getting frustrated, but we pushed through and he (mostly) gets it now. Yay!! He hasn't had any problems waking up dry from naps/nights so that's been a blessing as well. Now we'll be a diaper-free home at least for a couple months ;) I'm hoping this is enough in advance before the next baby comes so that Jack won't revert since I've heard that's a common problem with new babies around. Time will tell. I'm sure he'll do great :)

He is SO adorable. Even on the potty :)

The morning of Day 1 - salty snacks and a variety of drinks to get the process started!

This photo is hilarious...he's not grunting, this is his smile for the camera. Hahaha! Oh yes, and sometimes he prefers the turkish squat (that's what it's called in Albania).

First stop in the morning - potty. Such a good papa.

Nap time - I was semi worried about getting peed on...I had nothing to worry about!

We went through a LOT of books - very entertaining!

Big time reward - watching a show!

M&M reward!

Sawyer the sidekick always cheering him on. Every time he went in the potty Sawyer asked if we were going to celebrate...OF COURSE!!

Jack - the potty hero! Getting to be such a big boy!

Best Saturday

We had a perfect Saturday (April 12th). The weather was great for playing outside.

It started early, like every other day. Sawyer wanted to learn to ride his pedal bike. That took 5 minutes, and he was so proud of himself. It was awesome. He is awesome. I blogged about it here.

Then we decided to go buy chicks! There is a strange Florida law that you have to buy at least 6, so now we own 6 cute little chickees! It was kind of on a whim, so for now during the day they are living in a turtle sandbox in our backyard and in a cardboard box with heat lamp on our porch at night.

We then worked on projects. I sanded and painted a cute little table for the boys. And George worked on a chair we've been upcycling. When I'm brave enough to try upholstering, it might get finished :)  I loved spending time with my family. They are the best.

Here are some photos of the chickens. They are HUGE now. We got two each of the following: Silver Campine, Cornish Rocks, Pullets.

There they are!!

Sawyer holding Alfredo

Meet Nugget

And the rest of their names are Little, Giblet, and Pedro (we almost stuck to a theme, but Pedro slipped in there somehow). And you'll notice there are only 5 names. We think a hawk may have gotten one of the little yellow ones, after only having them for a day :(

Dido came to Florida for a couple weeks - he helped George build a coop. They built it out of pallets. Handy and thrifty!

The boys testing out the coop.

Every morning the boys help me let the chicks out and feed and water them. It's fun and helping them learn. Win-win.

Jack's Golden Birthday!

"Happy Birthday to MY birthday!!" He sang this to himself all day. When I asked him how old he was he kept saying either 1 or 3 laughing and teasing me, not willing to ever say 2...he still won't. Little stinker. He's been such a sweet boy these last two years and has been my little snuggle bug. The past couple weeks I've seen a little more naughty come through. Purposely teasing Sawyer and being defiant to directions from mom or papa. It's funny he used to call us "mapa" when both of us were around, and now he's resorted to using that only for papa.

Jack 2-year-old Stats

Height: 35 1/4"

Weight: 29 lbs.

Head Circ: 49 cm

I tried to do a little birthday interview with him and was semi-successful. I think the 'real' interviews will have to start when they turn 3 and up. Here's what I got from him this year though:

How old are you? '1' (I said no, you're 2!) Then he replied '3!'

What is your name? ME! (I said, Jack?) and he nodded yes.

Where do you live? Florida

When is your birthday? Today

What do you want to be when you grow up? 'My water, my grow up.'

Who is in your family? 'Jesus, me, you'

What do you like to eat? Cereal

Favorite

Color: Green

Toy: Train

Song: Twinkle Star

Animal: Bear

Book: Train

What does papa do for work? 'Work helicopter!'

What does mom do for work? 'Helicopters!'

Lots of other questions asked, but turns out interviews bore 2-year-olds.  

Jack has never really liked cake, so this year I made him an ice cream cake. It went over well, obviously the train candles did too :)

Family!

Birthday activities included leaping onto the lovesac. There goes Jack! He's a daredevil like his older brother.

We had a pleasant day and I think Jack enjoyed himself. It just so happened that our friends from Cedar were driving through on Jack's birthday so we got to celebrate with Jake and Dax too!

I also wanted to record a few things that my handsome 2-year-old is up to these days...

He LOVES dogs. He has the cutest little giggle/laugh thing he does when he gets a food/treat he especially loves, like ice cream. I need to catch it on camera. He's a sly child. He's patient and persistent. He's content for the most part. This kid LOVES to get read to and to look through books on his own. No adult will be left alone if they are sitting down. Jack will be there with a book saying 'Read it please?'

Look who unloaded the bookshelf...again. We've (kind of) convinced him to get one at a time now.

Probably one of his favorite presents - a shovel!

He still loves my hair. It's semi-torturous for me because he's always grabbing it and pulling on it. He also is sucking on that bottom lip still. He's a light sleeper like me (unfortunately). If you turn on a light or make a peep it will usually wake him up. Plus he doesn't transfer well from his car seat. And he's been able to climb out of his crib and playpen since he was 17 months so it's been a test of patience (still is) to get him to stay in bed. He'll come in to our bedroom at least a couple times throughout the night and want to get in bed with us. Since that means him pulling my hair and kicking George in the face, just this week we decided we wouldn't let him in our bed until 7 a.m. So when he comes in our room in the middle of the night we tell him he needs to go back to his bed. He actually does. It's so nice.

A family shot, obviously Jack was cooperating.

This is what happens when you take too long to start reading a book. Somehow he got both legs and a book into one of my hair ties. Impressive, haha!

Testing out the giant sand feet at the zoo.

I started this post the beginning of April. I'm happy to report he now transfers well when sleeping! It's so nice because it seems like he frequently falls asleep in his car seat. He just graduated swimming again this year. He took a refresher course and is confident in the water doing the swim-float-swim sequence. It's so fun to watch him!

He does the cutest copycat. Whenever I say 'That's what I'm talking about!' He repeats it, perfect accent and all. 

He decided he wants to use the potty this week too! I wasn't really ready, but unofficially started up and his first day he got the important one in the pot!

He loves his older brother and for the most part they get along well. If Sawyer is sleeping, Jack has a hard time leaving him alone for too long because he wants to play with him.

Passed out, barely hanging on to the couch.

Hanging out in the tree. He's a climber.

I hadn't even put them in their swim gear because it was a cool day and I didn't think they'd get in the water...wrong! They had so much fun playing with each other.

A fun day at the beach before it got too hot.

This was during a phase where he refused to nap - fell asleep on our 6 p.m. walk.

Jack loves to wear hats and glasses. He put on the goggles all by himself before he got busy sawing the cardboard box.

Jack's version of smiling for the camera. They like to play and picnic up in their tree fort.

Whenever Jack hears a motorcycle, he runs outside yelling PAPA. So happy papa is home from work :)

Yes we did. We ALL hopped on the motorcycle for a ride around the block. Haha!

We love this little guy SO much and are thankful he's part of our family!