The Blur of May and Early Summer Happenings

May was interesting. As I planned my blog posts, I was going to write one on Mother's Day, one on Memorial Day, etc. but then today I can barely even remember what we did on those specific days. So here is the May post in one big jumble.

Here is what I do remember. For Mother's Day Ben and the kids made me breakfast in bed. Ben always does crepes and they are delicious. As I was eating, we were all sitting on the bed together and Nayeli said, "Mama, someone is missing." I looked at her. "No one is missing Yeli. We're all here". But she insisted, "No mama, someone is missing". I nearly had a panic attack because I just started sleeping through the night and I do not feel ready to have another baby yet, but it was good because it got Ben and I thinking about when, whereas before having another child was completely on the back burner. We've always planned on having more, and this moment only reconfirmed to me that our family is not finished. But a little more time... a little more time.

Back to Mother's Day. During Relief Society my friend Charlotte Wilson and I sang a special musical number. I haven't sang in public since I took voice lessons in high school, so it was a big leap for me to perform. The number went well though and it invited the spirit into the room, which is the most important. In fact, it went so well I may do more singing in public in the future. We'll see.

For Memorial Day we picked some flowers in the morning and went to a local cemetery to put them on a soldier's grave. By Ben's and my grandfathers served in WWII and since we aren't near their graves to honor them we felt we should at least honor someone else who served. It was a really beautiful experience in the cemetery and we plan to make it a yearly tradition.

In the afternoon my old college roommate and friend Brooke Barker and her boyfriend Boaz stopped by for a visit. When we moved to Portland, Brooke was the only person either Ben or I knew that lived here. We get together about every six months and catch up, and I always find that we easily connect. Brooke is extremely happy, funny and creative. It's always a pleasure to be around her.

In other news, these two kiddos have definitely discovered one another and they go from hot to cold and in between all day long.

 This is how we grocery shop (Nayeli is kissing Teddy's head here). They can sit together until Teddy starts to pull Nayeli's hair or hit- then I have to move her to the basket. Never a dull moment, really.

They've also started to wrestle and Nayeli loves to tickle Teddy, as she's doing here.

In the morning they love to play together in their pajamas. This time they climbed into the tub and danced while Nayeli sang, "Dancin' in the tub, dancin' in the tub".

 When you fall asleep while playing with a three year old, you run the risk of ending up at the bottom of a doggy pile (pun intended of course).

Nayeli adores Ben and vice versa. Here he is teaching her to whittle. Those are the kind of things you learn as a three year old when your dad works at a knife company.

Our apartment complex pool has opened and we have tried to go a lot before school gets out and it is packed all the time. Sometimes we go and we have the whole pool and hot tub to ourselves. It's great.

 Like father, like son

Teddy is so cute and so curious. He is into everything, but I don't call it mischievous because he's just trying to discover the world around him. This time he discovered the strawberries just after we'd returned from the grocery store (one was in his hand, and you can see another sitting on the bag).

His energizer-bunny spirit has always made Teddy a difficult child to nurse to sleep. In fact, he almost NEVER falls asleep while nursing. This was one of those rare moments that he did and I had to get a picture. Nursing has never been easy for me, especially with Teddy, but I sure have loved it.

By the way, have I ever posted a picture of where Teddy sleeps? This is it. A pack and play that just barely fits into our closet. It has worked out great, but I do look forward to a day when I don't have to plan picking out my clothes around naptime or bedtime.

Nayeli is also discovering the world around her, but in a different way. She has been very into snails lately and loves to pick them up on our walks. This snail she named Yayaya and asked if she could keep him as a pet. She then offered it some water. It's safe to say our child is pet-starved.

She's also helps me water my pots and flowers. 

Somewhere in May, Grandma Jane sent Nayeli three sunflower seeds, so we planted them in this little pot and left them to grow. One day, however, Teddy got a hold of the pot and ate one of the seeds while greatly disrupting the dirt. I knew those seeds were never going to grow so I had planned to surprise Nayeli by planting some marigolds or something else in the pot. To my surprise, however, we have two sunflowers growing and thriving from that pot. Although, this is Oregon. EVERYTHING grows here.

We went to a town work day and got free mini-golfing passes. We took the kids and played, "run and grab the ball before dad can get it into the hole". It was really fun :)

The mini-gold castle we pass by every time we drive on the freeway. Nayeli was SO excited to see it up close and SO disappointed that she could not go in.

Of course, she did try.

Since we don't have a backyard and the weather is nice, we have been using our porch space a lot more. It's been a major blessing to have it- I think it gives the kids and myself just enough enclosed outdoors to stay sane in our little apartment.

Our wonderful neighbor Pops loves to bake and brings us cookies every Monday. On this day he brought fudge ones while we enjoyed lemonade. This is what childhood dreams are made of.

I can hardly stand it. He's so stinking cute.

A summer storm blew in and the kids ran around in it. Somehow Nayeli lost her pants during the jaunt. Are my kids the only ones who progressively undress during the day?

In other news, I read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up and a blog about being a minimalist. It got Ben and I started on decluttering in a major way. In fact, I went through my whole apartment and sorted. I have given five large boxes or garbage bags to Goodwill and it feels great. I miss nothing. It's been a huge blessing too because I was starting to feel so cramped in here and now it is much more manageable.

My springtime mantel

Our front porch, complete with birthday pennant banners for Teddy's first birthday.

We've discovered our new favorite park in the area. It's called George Rogers Park and it is in Lake Oswego. It has a sandy beach area right on the Willamette River, complete with ducks. We went with our friends Dennine, Evans, Audra and Mousy and it was so great. We have plans to go back again soon.

The Willamette

Audra and Nayeli are two peas in a pod. They are best buddies. It's so cute.

Teddy had the time of his life getting dirty so I let him do his own thing while watching from a distance. He only fell into the water once, which really was an achievement. I did have a mom come up to me though and say, "Excuse me ma'am but your son is drinking the water," to which I replied with a smile, "I know. I already tried to stop him and I offered him my water bottle. What else can I do about it?" I'm pretty sure she wasn't pleased with my response, but if she saw how little I have to take my germ-eating kids to the doctor, she'd see that there's method to my madness.

Audra calls Nayeli "My-leli". It's adorable.

Last, but not least, we took our raft out for the second time on the last day of the month. We decided on a quiet, easy river nearby called the Tualatin River. The trip was actually great- Teddy warmed up to his life jacket and the kids played with sticks over the edge of the boat while Ben and I paddled and relaxed. I anticipate many more adventures with the raft this summer.

So there was May! Bring on June! In a week we head to the Virgin Islands with Ben's family. It is going to be a wild adventure but we are so excited. Here's to seizing the day!