Month: September 2009

Live at my house.

It all began when one day this tiny little thing was found by two children, who were enjoying their sandbox and grape popsicles..

The big brothers ran to me, and luckily their father arrived home from work, and after a little research, discovered a way, we could try to rescue this little birdie…

1. Nail a container (filled with paper towels) in the tree, as close to the nest as possible. (Not an easy task, when you look how big our trees are!)

Thank heavens our father is a good tree climber.

2. Carefully place baby bird into a container to take to his/her new home,

Our, onlookers waited holding their breath…

3. Then back up into the tree Toph goes, careful with his cargo, we all watch and hope that and hope that the momma will see and hear her sweet baby, and care for it.

The boys watch their father, my little heroes on the ground, and my big hero in the tree.

A beautiful day to be part of this family.

Seem so long ago*.

Good bye nights on the swing…

Dinner on the back porch…

Green grass beneath our feet…

Staying up late and NO HOMEWORK!

Before we know it you’ll be back again, but until then, we’ll be dreaming of you!

*pictures taken early August.

The last thing on the boys Summer to do list was go to a water park.

The week before school started, we finally made it… and invited our families along. A few made it including, Aunt Amy, Aunt JoAnna, Uncle Chad, Aunt Emily, Owen and Ava.

We had a great time together, and enjoyed staying cool in this hot weather. A few of my favorite pics from the day:

When Tucker was a little wee one, his dad would sometimes come home from work, grab the Boston Herald, and read up a storm with him. But being the restless baby that he was, he didn’t enjoy just sitting and being read for hours on en So to entertain him, Toph would sometimes give him the paper to play with, and he loved it. And he enjoyed it so much that as he got a little older, he would crawl to the newspaper basket and pull it out and play with it some more.

Tucker enjoyed hearing this story, and since Elliot has been born, has been asking to do this:

Tear up the newspaper into pieces and let Elliot roll around in it. Why the little pieces and why the rolling? I am unsure, that’s never been part of his story, but it was really important to him, and he asked every week to do this when our Sunday Paper arrived.

I kept saying someday, someday, but their father is a much better at making this someday happen.

And Elliot loved it, but I must say his big brothers loved watching him just as much.

They giggled and clapped and praised Elliot while dumping the newspaper on his head. And did I mention that Elliot loved it? He did.

It was a great reminder that I should try harder to make those someday into todays.

Growing up, we always treasured the weeks during the summer that we got to spend together with our cousins (Our parents always told us they were our cousins, but then we grew up and learned they aren’t really our cousins? They’re are distantly our cousins, I think?) the Donvitos.

It seemed as a child, that summer was not complete with out them coming to see us, or us meeting up with them at a beach somewhere. As we’ve gotten older, and all of us have spread out more, we don’t get together very often anymore, but we were fortunate to get together with Debbie and Craig, while they were out visiting us.

We went to a fun park for a picnic (Where I left my camera in the car) and then to an ice-cream parlor to eat and play games.

I told Craig that it blows my mind to watch him. He reminds me so much of his brother Chad, when he was the same age. He talks with the same emphasis on words, and even walks the same! It was seriously mind blowing!

As for the rest of the Donvito clan, we missed you and hope you are well!

And now that we’ve had a visit from the Donvitos, I truthfully can say that the little girl in me feels that our summer is now complete.

Before school started, the boys were happily downstairs giggling, and Eliott and I were loading the dishwasher.

I was finishing up, when Tucker came up holding this:

a Little Critter Joke Book.
And then he proceeded to actually read (not sounding out, but actually just reading) the ENTIRE book to me, (he did stop and laugh at the jokes after he read them to me).

Honestly, it literally felt like overnight he just figured out how to really read (From sounding out, to just knowing what the words were). And now he’s a reading machine.

I’m so proud of him, and the smart boy that he is!

My sweetie cakes, has begun to explore the world, and manipulate it. Which for the most part is darling, but sometimes he’s becoming a little bit of a troublemaker. Don’t believe me?

Here’s the proof:

EVERYTHING GOES TO HIS MOUTH
which I know is normal, and a great way for him to learn, but I am constantly pulling things out of his mouth.
I was out working in the yard, weeding flowerbeds, when I saw this:

His brothers apple in his mouth. Now that is pretty cute.

And then a few minutes later, it was this:

Grass.

And More Grass.

And Even more grass.
Now I know that grass and apples don’t hurt him….it’s the small rocks or Legos (accidentally left behind from the big brothers), or a cheerio he finds beneath the couch that worry me!

HE LOVES TO ROLL and ROLL and ROLL AROUND.
Especially in the front room, where there is a great space for rolling…

That is until he gets under the coffee table, leans up on his arms, and therefore get stuck.

Then he’ll holler until you get him out from under there. Once he’s up on those arms, he’s there until he’s out from under there.

HE ALSO LEARNING HOW TO PUSH and PULL THINGS…

Like my pencil basket or my other basket full of important papers.

Those are going to have to be moved!
So around our house all eyes are on the Eli, I’m hoping that he’ll grow out of this trouble maker phase quicky…but unfortunately experience has shown me that it might not be for awhile!

is here, next to the spigot.

Seriously. HE LOVES IT THERE.

I hope he always thinks this. That would make family vacations easy-peas-y to plan. Just find a place with a tub (or maybe a big swimming pool with a waterfall)..

Uncle’s Brian Birthday

Happiest Birthday Brian, the world is a better place because of you!
We Love you!

The boys sure discovered the joy of adding a hose and water to the sandbox this summer. When they were in it, a majority of the time it changed from a sandbox to a mud pit.

Usually their building consisted of creating a river and a bridge than ran through it…

And usually their mother sprayed them off with the hose before they entered the house, because they were COVERED from head to toe with mud and sand.
Summer is a delightful time, uh?