Blueberries

blueberries
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

While I don't think we had anywhere near the harvest that Vivian hauled in, we had a good time picking blueberries this morning.

The woods across the street are full of little blueberry plants. Most are tiny and not producing fruit, but we found a few with some ripe berries.

Big brother on the job

couch time
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

This morning, over breakfast.

Dad: Crunch (eating ceral)
Alex: Wah!
Dad: Crunch (still eating ceral)
Alex: Wah! Wah!
Chris: Baby up.
Dad: Should I pick Alex up?
Chris: OK

(The photo is from earlier, but also a good big brother moment)

Bottle Break

snack time
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

I took the boys for a walk through the parklands yesterday. Chris got stung by a bee. Again. The poor guy has been stung three times this summer already. He was a trooper, though. He wanted to keep walking. I had to beg him back into the stroller, so we could rush a head to the benches and feed Alex before he imploded.

Band concert: Nonna and Alex

We spent this evening at the band concert. The Kellys and Nonna and Bop were all there. We spent more time with Abby than with our own boys.

Breakfast on the Porch

breakfast on the porch
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

Last Monday, our new door arrived and Mantoni and Co put it up for us while we were out. When we came home, we were amazed by how much nicer the kitchen felt despite still having half an unfinished wall. The door is mostly on large double pane of glass and makes you feel as if the porch is just an extension of the kitchen.
The next two days, we had breakfast on the porch, just because.

Poop and ABCs

Chris has been busy this week. It seems while we were ignoring him, paying attention to Alex, he's been playing with the letter magnet thing that says the letter when he puts it in. He seems to know somewhere around half of the letters, and has started singing the abc song with us (by filling in a few missing letters). He seems to be enjoying himself and is definitely entertaining us.

He also managed to poop in the potty this morning. While I was at the gym, Chris started saying "poop" to John. When John asked if he pooped, Chris said no, so John put him on the potty. Sure enough, he pooped in the potty. He was rewarded with chocolate and naked time. Now we'll see if he does it again...

puzzle solving

puzzle solving
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

We bought Chris a potty today. It may be a little early, but he's started announcing his poops and watching us intently in the bathroom. We'll give it a try for a week and see what happens. He's got the basic form right, but his timing is still off.

sunday morning reading

sunday morning reading
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

We just wrapped up a nice visit with the Texas grandparents (who drove up form Long Island). It was a pretty relaxed visit by Eppley standards. The only hike was under 3 miles and involved a bakery. Chris loved every minute of it.

Here he is with the grandfolks on Sunday morning showing a few signs of regression. For the most part he's actually done a lot of new things since Alex arrived, but on Sunday he was obsessed with the pacifier and "Black on White", his favorite book when he was two months old.

Beach trip

Today was the first day in over a week that we spent the whole day at home. That is why there was a spate of posts this afternoon. Today we spent mostly in the house and yard with my parents. Our adventure for the day was an evening stroll around downtown. It was a nice break.

To finish our week of trips, we went down to Rhode Island on the Fourth to meet my parents at Aunt Frannie's beach house. It was a packed house with nine adults and two greyhounds. Alex just slept and ate the whole time, but was pretty relaxed about being handed off from relative to relative.





Christoper had a wonderful time. He played with everyone, followed he dogs around, collected rocks at the beach, and ran away from the waves. He spent tee whole ride home talking about his day. It wasn't much of a conversation, but he was going through all the day's words and events. He stayed awake for the entire 1.5 hour drive until we got home at 10pm.

at the farm

at the farm
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

Here we are going to get our CSA veggies last week. This week, just Mandy and I went with Alex while Chris stayed at Nonna's. Halfway through the pick-your-own-peas, Alex got hungry. Mandy sat down in the shade of the sugar snap peas to nurse him while I went to cut flowers.

While they were nursing, a woman paused during her picking to stare at them. She caught herself and apologized. Apparently, she did the very same thing with her child a couple years previously. It seems there are not too many good shady spots on the farm.

feeding Alex

feeding Alex
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

The other day, I got Chris to feed Alex so I could finish making breakfast. He was doing very well, but I wasted most of his patience looking for the camera to take this picture.

Not long after this, he said "Daddy do" a few times before dropping the bottle and looking for his granola.

Kelley in town

Kelley was in town last weekend for the Boston Invitational ultimate tournament. We went to watch. Both boys were great at the fields. Alex didn't seem to mind being hauled around and Chris loved being outside with lots of people.





Kelley hung out the next day and we went to the zoo.

reading

reading
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

Here's a picture of Chris reading to his brother last weekend.