Father's Day

This year Morgan deserved the ultimate Father's Day treat. He was so sweet to let me leave for that weekend so I could go to the beach with my girlfriends from church. We got home super late on Saturday night. Thankfully, I had arranged his gift and planned the meal before hand.

 

(Otter Pops, Push Pop, Pop Rocks, Soda Pop, Firecracker Poppers, Tootsie Pops)

Morgan loved his gift - everything in the bucket had the word "Pop" in the title (except the Coke, but use your imagination). The Coke was actually Mexican Coke, which he LOVES. Andrew also gave him a sweet Father's Day gift... walking right into nursery, no questions asked. He usually takes a little time to warm up. Andrew is such a daddy's boy and does not like being separated. Andrew also had a little tie from nursery. In true Andrew fashion - it was void of any coloring. The boy is not a color-er.

When we got home from church we all indulged ourselves with afternoon naps and later enjoyed Hamburgers on the grill (which Morgan also prepared! What a sweetie!)

 I'm so grateful for Morgan and the amazing dad that he is. He's a keeper, for sure. :-)

The Wonder of a Child

The other night we had a ferocious thunderstorm come through. Strong winds, lightening, thunder, hail. It was great. I love summer thunderstorms in the south. Andrew usually doesn't pay too much attention to them - but this particular evening was different. He (literally) pulled up a seat and watched it through the window. My mind instantly went back to sitting in the garage with my dad watching the rain fall when I was young.

Morgan and I just sat on our bed watching him. We LOVE having a two year old. Now that he's talking a little bit more we're totally seeing a whole lot more of what is going through his mind, and we love it. So, knowing me... I grabbed my camera and took a few shots. I love how it came out! I'm glad I captured that moment. 

Mr. Sun....

Dear Mr. Sun,
I appreciate all that you do for the earth like warming it, giving it the proper means to grow, and to give our bodies vitamin D. Putting all of this aside, I'd appreciate if you would stop waking my son up at the stroke of 6am every.single.morning. Did you know that it's summer time? That usually means that people tend to sleep past 6. You see, we've just taken Andrew's paci away and he's trying to find other means to soothe himself when people things wake him up at some awful early hour. We've tried means to get around it (like room darkening shades) but you know how to get around those.

So please, consider this letter as a cease and desist notice. 6am is a little too early for little boys to be waking up.

Oh, and be aware that we'll be in Maine in a month... remember last summer? 5am wake up calls? Really? No one needs the sun up that early.

Sincerely,
Emily

Paci free is the way to be.

... in the Stinson home atleast.

Andrew has had a very long love affair with his beloved paci, or as he's started calling it "peetee." Morgan and I tried about 6 months ago to snip it down... and after a week of no sleep, we threw in the towel. It was hard to explain to a child who understands some, but not everything what we were doing to him. THANKFULLY since starting speech therapy Andrew's made leaps and bounds with his speech. It's good for us to get that feedback from him that he's aware of what's going on.

This time around we took it away cold turkey and just told him it was "all gone" (a phrase he knows all too well). A day into it when he asked for it again - I told him again that it was all gone. He replied with a lot of "uh-oh's" (another term he knows too well). He's been a champ with out it. I won't say that it has been a walk in the park, but definitely a lot better than our first attempt. But - we're done with it now. Relief!


(P.S. We used Playtex's Ortho-Pro Paci... and obviously loved it!)

Fun!

Andrew is picking up more words left and right (hooray!) One of the words that he loves to say is "Fun!" He says this whenever he's playing and well.... having fun! My sister Laura and her husband just got back from China and brought Andrew a toy home.

I'm not sure if it's a pony or a lamb but it's some sort of animal... and Andrew thinks it's pretty fun! It's been the toy of choice since I inflated it. He'll sway side to side saying 'whoa!' louder and louder until he intentionally falls off. Then he exclaims "Fun! Again!" What a goofball.