down on their level

brian took these pictures last night when i was reading to bastian. although i try to read to him every night, it’s getting harder and harder for him to pay attention. but last night he was laying on the ground (who knows why?) so i quickly laid next to him and started reading him a book. the book has pictures of the different animals you would find at the zoo. he points to all the different pictures and says “dat!?” and i say the name of the animal. this goes on and on until he decides throwing a toy is more fun. i figured the older he got, the more he would be interested in books, but it seems to be the opposite. i think he likes books, he just has 1 million things he would rather get into. i usually end up reading the book to myself laying on his floor haha. his favorites as of now are this zoo book, snuggle puppy and pat the bunny.

i really can’t get enough of this guy as of lately. i mean sure, he has his moments, but he is getting more and more independent and developing a personality. we have fun together. i have a feeling that he is going to be an independent child and not be attached to my hip. he has really taken most of life’s transitions in stride. bottles gone, no problem! no day time nursing, yup totally ok! sleeping through the night, all on his own. he has kind of initiated these transitions himself too. his molars are coming in and i can see one of them, but you wouldn’t know it…because he’s such a good sport (i will knock on wood).

sometimes i miss that sweet sleepy baby phase, but this little person hanging around and causing a ruckus in our house is pretty fun. i look at him and feel pretty lucky to be his mom. i have no doubt that he will grow up to be way cooler than me haha. being a proud parent feels pretty good. because my little guy can point and say “dat!” to about everything he sees…and that’s impressive. this toddler of ours is keeping us busy and oh are we having fun!

 

splash park

 

this weekend we went to a splash park to cool off. i had never been and didn’t really know what to expect. bastian was a little nervous at first, but after watching the other kids running through the jets he warmed up to it. it was so cute to watch him laugh and “run through” the fountains. he thought he was a big kid. afterwards i noticed he had a cut on his toe, but you would have never known because he’s just so tough and didn’t even make a fuss.

 

it has been a ton of fun this summer being able to do big kid activities with bastian. we love to go to the pool, park, zoo and just play outside in our yard. he plays so hard and naps harder. even though i slather on the sunscreen, he has still developed a little farmers tan. his hair keeps getting blonder and blonder too. he’s my little beach babe. i think we will have to check out the other splash parks in town, because this summer is hot and humid! but we love every minute of it. bring on the heat.

photo dump

i hope everyone had a great father’s day weekend! we sure kept busy. bastian is such a busy body lately and doesn’t stop moving every second he is awake. i am worn out by the end of the day. of course i didn’t snap any photos of brian and bastian together on father’s day…because that would be too obvious…but here are some fun photos from over the past weeks.

bastian tends to be either naked, shirtless or pant-less these days…my neighbors probably think we are hillbillies. he gets everything dirty and he prefers to be naked, so it’s a win-win.

bastian has entered the climbing phase…yikes! he climbed up this little stool we have in our kitchen and was pretty proud of himself. you can’t tell by these photos because his face says ‘no big deal’. he isn’t quite tall enough to climb up on the couch or out of his crib, thank god.

we went to a restaurant in our neighborhood for lunch and sat in their new beer garden. the weather was great and bastian enjoyed running around ‘smelling’ the flowers and trying to play in the community dog dish.

again, he is naked most of the time…but i really don’t like him to be diaper-less inside the house because of the obvious, but he has been slipping away from me in the middle of diaper changes. i thought this phase would have ended by now…nope.

 grandma picked up a baby pool for our house and bastian really likes it, especially when he gets to go in naked. with all the activities we are doing this summer, he gets so worn out and sleeps like a log. no one can complain about that.

on father’s day we went and swam with brian’s dad and step-mom. bastian got to swim in his own floaty which he thought was pretty special. he slept pretty hard on the way home. we had a good day.

guest post: kids summer style

 

i did a quest post over at parentsavvy.com today! it’s pretty adorable so i suggest you should go check it out!

cabin life

last weekend brian and i took a couples trip with a bunch of our friends to a cabin on lake panorama. the cabin was awesome! we were surrounded by nature and right on the water. there was a fire-pit and lots of stairs to get down to the water.

the weather couldn’t have been more perfect while we were there. we played bags (corn-hole or baggo…whatever people call it) listened to music, talked on our private beach. none of us wanted to get in the water by our cabin though because we kept seeing a little water snake swimming by. i assured everyone that the snake would be afraid of us…but no one wanted to take their changes haha.

we rented a pontoon boat a couple of the days and just cruised around the lake all day. the boat was rather testy though, and we had to cross our fingers that it would start. one night we stopped at the marina and had dinner. we got to sit outside and the weather was beautiful. the boat ride home was high anxiety for me because it was so dark and hard to see…luckily we made it home safe to our trusty boat driver 🙂

the trip was so much fun and we decided as friends, to try to do a couples trip every year. i loved this trip especially because it was low key and we didn’t even have to get on a plane! you really can’t go wrong when you put friends, water, bbq’s and booze together. thanks friends for taking time away from your family’s to come spend the weekend with us!

while we were away

 

this past weekend brian and i took a couples trip to lake panorama in iowa. we stayed with 5 other couples in a cabin on the lake and had a total blast. i am getting pictures ready to share soon. while we were gone…someone didn’t seem to miss us too much. bastian got to stay with both sets of grandparents. just like brian and i, bastian got to take boats rides, eat great food and have fun in the sun. we really missed him a lot, but luckily most of the couples we were with are parents too…so everyone was blabbing on and on about their adorable children. all the grandparents did a great job of sending pics and updates on how our little ones were doing. we are so thankful for bastian to have such loving people in our family that will watch him. when we got home he had a great big smile on his face, letting us know he still wants us around 🙂