I spent today's nap time getting caught up on editing personal photos from the past month or so.  It always feels really good to have a down work week to take care of things that get stuck in my proverbial when I have time folder.  Like taping pages of Henry's latest book obsession back together.  

Or scrubbing the kitchen cabinets to clean off the gunk that I stare at every day while I move dishes from the counter, to the sink, to the dish washer, 

to the cabinets, and around and around around again. 

I usually make just enough of a dent that I don't feel like all control is slipping away between my fingers.  

Losing control?  

Not quite.  

(Although some days I'd answer otherwise.) 

But time slipping away?   

Yes, yes, yes.

 Thus, the reason for using almost month-old photos.  But that was sneaky, no? 

It's been almost two weeks since Nelle's surgery, and she is doing wonderfully.  The day of, she handled it in stride, sleeping most of the day, snuggling and smiling.  What a trooper.  We never saw blood-stained tears.  Thank goodness.  The inside corner of her eyes have blistered as expected and will probably remain reddish for several more weeks.  We go back mid-August to get the official word on whether her surgeon feels the correction was adequate, but per surgery day, everything looks good and healthy internally so fingers crossed.  Again, this may not be an indefinite correction.  

But I think Andrew and I would both admit to being pleasantly surprised at how well things went and have gone since. 

--

Another pleasant surprise (worst transition ever to talk about diapers)...did you know you can throw swim diapers in your washer, lay them out to dry and reuse them?  Ummmmm, we are at the pool almost every day, and two of the three of us wear diapers.  Why am I just learning about this?  

I washed a few by themselves last night and was blown away.  Good as new.  

Summer on before it's gone, friends!

P.S. Also checked off my to-do list lately?  Finally bit the bullet (also known as quit being lazy)
and made myself an actual business page for my photography. 
Do me a favor and go "like" it?  

Henryisms lately...

He is super into adult men and women being mommies and daddies.  He is constantly asking if someone is a mommy or daddy.  Usually it's when we're flipping through a magazine or book and he will ask if the people in the picture are mommies and daddies.  I think it's very endearing he's starting to associate this connection that grown-ups are likely to be mommies and daddies.  It's not quite so cute when he points to the male high school lifeguard when we are leaving the pool and asks, "daddy?" which ends up looking like he's asking if this teenager is his daddy.

He loves to announce "we're heeeerrree!" every time we pull into a parking lot, our drive way, etc.

If the first word out of his mouth each morning isn't "play?" it's going to be "Nelle?"

He's starting to repeat everyyyything we say, even songs, and hearing his little sing song voice is music to my ears.  

This morning when we were pulling weeds in the backyard while Nelle took her morning nap he hopped on my back as I sat on the ground and we rocked back and forth, back and forth.  He loves that part from I'll Love You Forever.  So I sang him the song...I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my Henry baby you'll be.  I stopped and he leaned over and whispered in my ear, "more Henry baby song?"  

Oh my goodness, any time for you, love. 

His favorite thing to do at meal time is steal food from Nelle's high chair tray.

He's starting to answer my questions with "yes, please" which sounds more like "yis, peeese".  Swoon.

He loves to name off family and friends' names at bedtime when we ask who we should pray for.  Puppy always gets included.  

And the boy could not be more obsessed with Andrew.  I need to count how many times a day he asks "dada?", and I say, "daddy's at work".  

As soon as he hears the clank of the garage opening it's a race between he and Frank to see who can get to the back door first.  

Right now, Daddy is the most fun, the best playmate, the best story reader, the best fort builder, has the best tools, the best clothes 

(as long as he's wearing something with a Powercat on it), and can do no wrong.  

And it's pretty great.

I hope this post gets me back to regularly blogging again.  I miss it.  

Summer has been good to us, and it's important to me to share here so I remember when these days are in the rear view mirror.

We had several two- to three-day out of town trips within two weeks (some all together and some me flying solo with either one or both babes), and all the laundry, cleaning and photo editing catch up really did me in!  I haven't napped for quite some time and one day I slept so hard during the kids' afternoon naptime that I could barely wake myself up to get off the couch to get Henry as he kept saying "knah-knah" (knock-knock) from inside his door after he woke up after a two-hour nap.  All this to say, sadly blogging really fell on my priority list for a while there when I was trying to dig out of clothes to be folded, crumbs to be swept, etc.  

Just yesterday we took a trip north to Beck's Farm to pick peaches.  We've made this an annual trip for our family for at least three years.  

It makes me smile thinking how it's evolved from just Andrew and I, to taking Henry for the first time last year, and now getting to include Nelle too.  

I don't know what it is, but something about picking fresh produce makes me so happy.  

 

It's probably the most family-friendly activity ever being as Henry always takes the owners' seriously when they say to eat as you pick.  Sometimes we do things with the babes that get us a few questionable looks so to be somewhere that Ham can literally run and run and run his swirling tornado way to his little heart's content feels good and easy as it's going to get.

The prettiest peach I saw all day.

And did boy did Henry run.

And eat.

And climb. And slide. And horse-swing ride.

And capped it off with the most important task of our entire day...pretend tractor driving.

 Handsomest.

 

 

We picnicked.  And listened to a folksy band play.  

And contemplated staying and trying to get the kids to nap there so we could enjoy the gorgeous Kansas day.  

For about half a second until we admitted it would never work.

 

Maybe someday.

 

Henry has requested a peach from our fruit bowl at home no less than 10 times since our trip yesterday.  

I can't blame him...you really haven't tasted a peach until you've had them fresh.

And lucky for him we picked plenty to eat and to bake with.  

It's going to be a good week.