From Alyssa:
This was my first full week at the lake, and it was a lot of fun for me. I continuously win the prize of “calmest baby.” I’m the first of my siblings to not freak out about the life jacket, and because of that I was not only allowed to go but INVITED to go on boat rides. When you cry about your life jacket you are usually uninvited from boat rides. As such I got to take a few trips on the speed boat, I went for a family paddle in the canoe, and I even went on the kayak with Mom for a bit! I went swimming almost every day, and I sat in Lukey’s booster seat to eat my oatmeal. I tipped over a bit, but it served its purpose. I also got to go on some hikes in the front pack, and I snoozed on Lukey’s bed when it was nap time. Mom is pretty good at being resourceful when she needs to be. I had a fun week, and I turned 5 months while we were there! I still don’t roll from my back to my belly, but if I’m on my belly I can really scoot around to get toys and brothers and kitties and stuff. Mom thinks I could roll from my back to my belly, but that I just don’t want to. I LOVE to kick my legs and I’m happy to just sick back and watch everything going on around me.
From Luke:
I’m 2. Not even 2 and a half. But guess what. I climbed into the loft. I don’t know what it’s called yet, so I just like to say “Mommy! Look at me, I’m up here!” and then when I see pictures of me in the loft I always say “Look at dat, Mommy, I’m UP there.” I was able to climb up and DOWN nearly unassisted (although constantly supervised). The one tricky part is finding the very top rung with my feet when I first try to climb down. Daddy puts my feet on the step for me. But after that I have no problem getting brave daddy who lets me believe that I’m 5.
I also liked going on the row boat with Daddy and Preston, I LOVED swimming in the beach and playing outside on the lawn, and I had a super fun time playing in the sand once the GIANT dump truck came down our tiny road to deliver it. I’m a pretty brave swimmer, but I have to keep up with my big brother. I could swim out pretty far with the life jacket or the floaty on. Daddy and Grandpa took me on the big JY sailboat for a good sail, too, maybe my first sail.
I got to sleep in Grandma and Grandpa’s room all week, because they were in the main house and Mom needed a convenient place for me to take naps. It worked out to be super fun for me to have a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa every night. I think I wore them out, though, because I get up REALLY early. Grandma started to figure me out by the end of the week though. If I got up to early she would let me pick a toy and play quietly in my bed for a while. That was cool by me, I just sang softly with my toys while I waited for a few more people to wake up. Mom? She got to sleep in. She loves that. We would even rescue her from Alyssa sometimes and let her sleep ALL BY HERSELF for like an hour.
I wore underpants for the first time! I was SO excited. And then I had an accident. And then zero interest in the potty or the bushes. So that was it for the underpants for now. We’ll try again in a month or 2 to see what happens.
From Preston:
I always love the lake. I caught a bunch of fish. Daddy bought FIVE HUNDRED worms from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm. We left a bunch of them at home in the compost, but we had a LOT of them with us so that we didn’t have to spend all of our time looking for worms (and MOMMY didn’t have to spend all of her time looking for worms, because as you might remember, Mommy is the master worm finder).
My other awesome new accomplishment for the week was building a super awesome Bill Ding Tower – Check out the photo below. I bet YOU can’t build a tower that big!!
I got a little fever while we were at Dyken Pond, so I as out of commission for about a day and a half, but I recovered pretty quickly, surprisingly, and was back to normal in no time. We still don’t know why I got sick, but I’m glad it didn’t last long.
5 is a pretty cool age for Dyken Pond. I can do so many things all by myself now. I know my way around, I can go on longer hikes, and I can sleep up in the loft by myself. Of course I prefer it when Debbie is there, but I’m ok by myself now.
One day last week in the morning I packed lunches for the boys and put some chicken nuggets in a ziplock for Luke and put it in his lunchbox. He insisted on carrying around his lunch box until it was time to leave, so in order to avoid a meltdown I gave it to him. 3 minutes later, when I was ready to leave, I checked his lunch box and the chicken nuggets were not in there. “Luke where are you chicken nuggets” I asked.
“In my yunchbox!”
“No they aren’t, where did you put them?”
“Uhhhhh. I don’t know!” With a little squeal at the end
“Ok, whoever finds Luke’s chicken nuggets gets a secret surprise.” Cue Preston who perks up from playing with his legos, “Ok, Mommy, I’m going to find them!”
“Luke, look for your chicken nuggets with Preston.”
….
“PAUSE THE GAME, MOMMY, I have to go poop,” Preston had to go poop.
Not pausing the game, because Mommy has things to do, I asked one more time “Luke, what did you do with your chicken nuggets.”
“Frow it away in garbage!” Now we are getting somewhere.
“Mommy, pause the game!! Pause it!” Frantic calls from the bathroom.
“I FOUND THEM! Right next to the garbage can.” Mommy is victorious.
“But you were supposed to pause, that’s not fair, I was going to find them.” Cue Preston meltdown.
They both got two Swedish fish as a secret surprise for doing NOTHING because I didn’t want to deal with a meltdown when I was trying to get everyone out the door. Parenting is weird.