Summer Evening

Despite the hot weather (108 F is the high these days--and July will get hotter--yuck!), my three children still love to go outside. At least the longer summer days mean a chance to get out after dinner, when I don't have to worry about sunburn (and when Daddy is around to help watch them)!

Josiah spends some time with the hose and sandbox every morning while the girls nap, and we try to pack all three outside in the evening before bath and bedtime. They get soaked, sandy, and grassy--and the girls eat sand and all drink hose water--but they have fun running around unconfined. I do plenty of laundry these days!

Lydia in blue, Abby in pink

Abby loving the hose!

Wet and disheveled Lydia on the little bike

Josiah tries to fill containers at the hose

hose-tinkering and lawn-mowing

Abby with big plans for a baseball game

We always hope the children will wear themselves out enough outside to fall asleep without fuss at bedtime. Unfortunately this is not usually the case, and we parents still visit their room many times after 8 p.m. to keep the peace. (Lately Josiah has been pinching Lydia's nose and stealing her blankets after lights-out.) I keep reminding myself that this is a stage--we will weather it, work on patience and perseverance, be consistent with the rules, and pray for it to pass.

Learning to Share?

Friends dropped off some yard toys last weekend, and the kids especially love this little car--and hate sharing it with the other two siblings.

 

It comfortably seats one. Lydia and Abby can fit inside it and just about close the door. Josiah and one girl can fit if the girl keeps her leg out (and thus the door doesn't close and she usually gets pushed out at some point).

Oh Lydia

If one child opts for the car when everyone's outside, the other two drop what they're doing and make a beeline for it. A fight ensues, usually requiring Mama's intervention. We try to take turns, often in combination of twos (which means one less screaming child, until those in the car crash or start another fight). 

Do they look like twins here?

 

All have trouble propelling the car on the grass with their feet. So they want me to push them. Lydia and Abby haven't figured out how to keep their feet from dragging yet. Refereeing and giving rides in 100+ F weather is exhausting work! When I call it quits, they sometimes push each other. This is much cuter than the tantrums. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it.

I did get plenty of other pictures, though. Here's what happens on a regular basis (characters interchangeable):

Abby is thrilled for her moment in the driver's seat!

Oh the injustice

Shoved . . .

Squashed . . .

 

. . . and Josiah was ousted by a higher authority (see him crying on the sidelines?)

Peace and love?

A way for both to ride!

All three on/in the car with no squishing or screaming!

Summer Harvest

We're enjoying a pretty good June in the garden. Lots of produce awaited us upon our arrival home from California--amazing what just five days will do!

Our yellow pear tomatoes are especially prolific, but we've been harvesting a good batch of champion and early girl regularly, too. Last year I made several pots of sauce to ladle into bags and freeze. So far this year we've just blanched, peeled, chopped, and frozen the fresh tomatoes. We stayed up too late the night before we left for CA partly because tomatoes were on our to-do list--and we processed more when we arrived home . . .

The mix of champion and early girl that ripened while we were away

The two larger ones are yellow boy (which has not produced well at all, but probably partly because it's crowded out by the yellow pear)

 

This year we planted cucumber seedlings and finally had success. Previously--when we planted from seed--some nefarious bug ate up most of our poor shoots before they had a chance at life. Now we have three thriving plants producing lovely, sweet, thin-skinned Persian cucumbers. The kids gobble up spears of them at lunchtime, I cut them in rounds for salad, we dip them in hummus, and I chop them up for yogurt-mint-cucumber sauce with kofta.

Persian beauties!

Most exciting was our crop of peaches. They were delicate and bruised easily, but we saved almost all of them from the birds (the paper bags worked overall) and they were certainly delicious! I love them fresh, but they're also wonderful chopped up on sourdough pancakes. We didn't have enough to try pie, shortcake, galette, jam, or anything else I'm scheming for the future of our peach trees. Maybe next year.

If my mom were here, she'd say they were "luscious"!

In more mundane news, our bell peppers have again done pretty well, but these days we have to harvest them when they're still small because they get scorched by the sun. Almost every one has a dry, papery, sunburn spot now.

Our onions and leeks flowered, and they've been in the ground a looong time (we planted them in the fall for our winter garden, but they really took off growing in February/March). So we followed The Internet's advice and bent the stalks so the flowers and greens would start to dry out. We have dug up some small onions, and they taste great--especially when brushed with olive oil and grilled with the green peppers! But I think we left the leeks too long, because they're pretty woody inside.

And just about as exciting as the peaches: just look at this succulent cluster of GRAPES!

You can't really tell from the picture, but they're tiny. I didn't realize that each grape of a given cluster didn't mature at the same rate as his brothers (maybe this should be obvious?), so while some are plump (tiny-plump) and rounded and sweet, others are still thinner and harder and sour. We plucked this cluster and ate up the fruit, but we left some other clusters (mostly under paper bags) to see if the sour ones would plump up. Unfortunately the birds discovered them during our wait. They tore into the bags and devoured most of our lovelies. We saved some, but this just further solidifies my hatred for those awful pests.

Babies' First Irrigation

By the time Josiah was the girls' age (16 months), I think he'd experienced flood irrigation with Daddy a few times. Oh, the privileges of being the oldest! 

This past Monday we were scheduled to get irrigation at around 5:30 p.m. After a long day inside, the kids were cranky and so was Mama. So I let them play outdoors in the heat and then let them stay and enjoy the raptures of irrigation flooding. The girls--like their brother--loved it! 

 Josiah at the channel where the water enters our yard from the ditch

 Abby in the flow

 Lydia stranded in her new car!

 Lydia takes off

 Abby rescues the swamped vehicle (with her trusty spatula)

 "I like to swim in it!"

 I'm not sure what caused this reaction--maybe one of the girls got ahold of something he wanted?

 Abby stirring water in a bucket

 Lydia in the flooded clover . . . with a stick

 Josiah commandeered the infant tub for his boat "for fishing"

 Abby + stick + bucket + hat

 Another bucket!

 Rides from Daddy

 Lydia and the bucket! It kept changing hands.

 Whoops!

Oh silly girl

16-Month-Old Twins

You know what's just about the cutest ever? My curly-headed girls giving each other high-fives while tandem nursing . . . and then holding hands. 

They are such fun and such stinkers these days. They regularly scratch faces and pull each other's hair, snatch toys, steal books, pull the other off the rocking horse, fight over Josiah's chair, screech at each other, snitch each other's snack, and swipe the other's cup. 

But they also give each other kisses and hugs, trade toys and books pleasantly (once in a while), chase each other and play peek-a-boo under couch cushions, follow each other to each new activity, scheme together, dance together, crawl on the table together, perch on Josiah's bed to watch the other get her diaper changed, squeal and talk together during naptime . . . 

 Lydia is into stealing noses since Josiah started in on that game

They both--but especially Lydia--like to imitate Josiah and be with him. Of the three, Abby is the most content to play on her own. Lately Josiah has cried when I put the girls down for their morning nap. "I want Li-ya!" he wails (even though they were often just fighting fiercely).

They wouldn't pose properly for a picture . . .

 . . . and Abby wanted to hide under the cushion, so started getting upset

A couple days ago all three were playing with Duplo. Josiah built a helicopter, a bird, and then (of course) a gun, which he started to point at his sisters and then quickly turned on lions, tigers, and bears. He did try to argue that Abby was a bad penguin that he needed to shoot.

Lydia surprised me by coming 'round the corner with an L-shaped Duplo creation--she held it correctly and clearly made "pow pow" shooting noises. This she would not know but for an older brother!

 Lydia

 Abby hiding

Lately Abby has tried her tongue at many new words. She mangles "Lydia" but happily says it when I ask. Along with other words I've reported previously, she says "dis" (this) and came out with "guck" (duck) on her own yesterday. When Abby wants to nurse, she pulls at my shirt and nods emphatically as if to preempt any objection to her request on my part. I guess it's more of a command. She employs the nod-and-ask technique with other things, too, usually pointing and using words and tone of voice to convey her desire.

 Abby's little bum

When I ask Lydia to say something, she usually refuses (shakes her head or ignores me) or nods if it's something she wants. For instance, if I say, "Lydia, can you say peas?" she just nods because she wants to eat them.

Both girls persist in using the "all done" sign, but Lydia typically uses more sign language than Abby--especially "more" and "eat/food." They often use appropriate intonations and tone of voice when I ask them to say "please" or if I tell them to be kind to each other.

They both nod their heads when I ask them to say, "Yes, Mama" in response to a request or command. Jeremy said Lydia shook her head "no" when he asked her to say, "Yes, Daddy" to something she didn't want to do, though.

Both girls are under here--can you see which is which?

I think the girls enjoy being in a room with Josiah these days. I hear lots of growling and laughing from Josiah and Lydia after we leave the room--but we usually have to revisit them several times before everyone settles down and goes to sleep. We still catch Josiah flipping over the rail into Lydia's bed on occasion.

One night last week I went to check the cause of crying. "What happened?" I asked Josiah. He claimed that Lydia tackled him--only possible if he was out of his bed and on or in hers! (Though she and Abby can climb out of their cribs, they haven't done so since the first few instances.) His stock response lately to our inquiries about Lydia crying is that she's "crying 'cause 'Siah's leavin' her."

At bedtime, Lydia likes us to drape blankets around her shoulders like a cape rather than covering her up while she's lying down. Abby decided for a while that she did not want to be covered and would shake her head decidedly when we approached. Now she stands up, holds out the blanket, and asks to be covered with an "eh-eh-eh?" noise whenever Mom or Dad comes back into the room to check on misbehaving siblings.

All three like to give rounds of goodnight kisses to everyone. Josiah wails if we forget to let one of the girls kiss him goodnight. Last night we all got plenty of slobbery smooches--often on the lips!

California, Ho! (Part 4)

After Saturday's meltdowns, lack of naps, stomach issues, diaper rashes, and one child's catastrophic poop accident in Grandma's kitchen (thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for being so gracious!), I wondered whether our plan to hit the beach with Emily and James on Sunday was a good idea. But we decided to go for it . . .

Lydia with Aunt Em

Windblown Josiah

We had beautiful weather, easily found a free parking spot at a nearby park, and staked a spot on the surprisingly empty Hermosa Beach. Jeremy brought an umbrella he snagged from a neighbor's bulk trash pile, and it proved helpful against the sun. Though we did lather up in sunscreen, squirmy kids are hard to fully protect . . . so the girls ended up with a splotchy sunburn. The wind kept blowing their hats off, too, so they didn't have that extra shade. Jeremy forgot to put any sunscreen on his back--ouch!

Abby and Daddy

Upon our arrival, I took Josiah down to the waves. Lydia came running up behind us and face-planted into an oncoming breaker before I could catch her--so then she was scared of the water. She did love slithering around on her stomach in the sand, though! By the end of our time at the beach, she tentatively tried the water again--but protested loudly when Daddy tried to wash off all the sand.

Lydia in the warm sand

Aunt Em and Abby

Elias and his daddy

Elias hung out under the umbrella and enjoyed/endured visits from his cousins as they came in from the sand and waves and sun for snacks.

Lydia trying on Aunt Emily's sandal

Squirming in the sand!

Abby admiring Aunt Em's sunglasses

Jeremy and James helped the kids dig tunnels and make sandcastles, and this activity was by far the biggest hit of the day! Abby stayed in the sand-ditch long after everyone else, just scooping and building and occasionally eating sand.

Digging in the sand was lots of fun!

Lydia the Destroyer delighted in knocking down towers--much to Josiah's consternation

Sandy Abby

After the beach, we walked back to the park for a picnic. Emily and James brought a gourmet lunch of mini biscuit sandwiches with all sorts of fixings. Thanks for hosting such a great Father's Day celebration, Em and James!

We're glad to be related to these three

After another unfortunate poop accident at the park, we packed up and headed back to the Singletons' for our final night in Los Angeles.

The next morning we woke up those tired kids, went to Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa's house for an early and brief goodbye visit, ate breakfast back at the Singletons' and packed up the car (which took about three hours), and drove home to Arizona. Our drive home was not as smooth or happy as our drive there--and unfortunately the overtired kids did not sleep during the trip back--but we made it safely and are glad we had such a good time with everyone in CA!