Kiera at 2 Months and Other Summer Madness

Holy cats, the last four or five weeks have been out of control.  All good stuff but incredibly busy.  Well...I make sure to take advantage of my maternity leave every now and then...

le sigh

The month started with a little July 4 fun at the EG park.  The Elm Grove Junior Guild puts on lots of different community events and this party is no exception.  The bigs hung out on the big rigs, jumped in the bouncy castle, and general merriment ensued.  It was back to the park for fireworks (Luke was NOT loving the noise and Kieks ate her way through it), then we headed to the cottage for a night – Kiera’s first trip there.

blaze battlers

in the 'am-ble-ance'

uhhhhhhh, hopefully this is not a glimpse into the future.  although i did give the cop permission to drag their a$$es in if they ever get naughty.  he laughed as though he's heard that before...

getting nutters before the big bang

The next weekend we headed downtown for Bastille Days.  Vive la France!  The weekend after that was another voyage to the lakefront for Festa Italiana.  No trips to Children’s ER this year! Buono!  (Don't you love how we wait until we have three kids before doing all these summertime activities?  I'm basically nursing my way through Milwaukee this maternity leave.)

one word: beignets

too weighed down by cannoli to move

Then it was our annual weekend with grandparents at the cottage.  There are finally enough kids to keep all the grandparents properly occupied for two or three days.  And as it turns out, when the five year old requests a raft, the five year old gets a raft.

notice the new addition in the background

bathing beauties

this is as close as she got to jumping off. ethan harms: we're ready for a show

goofus

the maio men - all 3 - patrol the point

pushing daddy in

daddy's a good sport - it was not exactly warm

chillaxin'

babers longs to hang out on the raft too

luke's plan of swimming back to shore translates to clutching onto daddy-o

little maios 1...2....

and 3!

taking kieks to the gun show

cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute

assisting the captain

how 'bout now?

how 'bout now?

baby whisperer

So it's all all well and good for the weekends.  But what of those fleeting summer days?

these kids love to paint.  i love to hose down both the patio and the artists

lots of baby time for everyone

they are both always asking to hold kiera

that's one long string of maio girls

work on the house is never ending

a fun moment with the lad who oftentimes these days wants very little to do with me

everyone came out for gg's last t-ball game of the summer.  the level of play was riveting

sure i'll put the babe in a sleeper and blanket.  it's only the middle of JULY.

lime green machine!

god when they are good they are so good.  i die.

put me in coach!

end of season trophy for her; popsicle for him; and a little extra pre-treating for mom

kiera's first bottle.  turns out she doesn't give two hoots where it comes from

a rare display of strength sans screaming

dyyyyyyyyyyyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnngggggggg

finally a day warm enough to bust out the new rhino pool (although don't get me wrong, i'll take 75 and sunny over 90 and humid all day long!)

luke gets a taste of the, ahem, chilly water

love, love, LOVE the 'hey i know you' grins when i get her out of her crib

GG 2008 & Kieks 2014. 'Cause we need footed jammies in Wisco this summer.

Luke continues to be full of two.  Luckily he is still so dang cute I just can’t bring myself to kick him out of the house.  Although I will say there seems to be slightly less naughtiness when out and about. It only takes about 20 minutes of eye-to-eye prepping about the do's and don'ts of being in public.  We are still nowhere near being potty trained but once babers arrived I hoisted the ‘meh, who cares’ flag.  Easier to put him in a diaper anyway instead of trying to rush to every public toilet in southeastern Wisconsin when out with all three.  

when i asked him to put on pants he ran to kiek's room and hid under her playmat.  dressing this one is like putting an alligator in tights. this is my life.

Kieks was two months on August 1.  She had her appointment quite early and still came in at 23.5” and 11.5 lbs (95/70%).  She is just a fabulous baby and I tell her so every day.  She has treated me to a few more full nights of sleep (although naturally every time she sleeps one of the bigs has a nightmare.  Lukas once woke up hysterical because he didn’t want to “eat the noooooooooooooooooooooodles”.) and she's still a major eater.  There was a lone 36-hour period when she basically went on a hunger strike…and I quickly ramped up to freak out mode.  But it happened to be the same day as her two month appointment so after four shots and a long nap the girl hit reset and was back at it. It surprised me that even with three under my belt that mama panic can still go into overdrive, even when I know it'll pass.

We’ve also been treated to those first few precious smiles and giggles, although she makes me work for them.  One glance at big sis though and it's that gummy grin all day long.  Kiera has also started to get a lot more animated, flapping her fat arms & kicking those chunky legs when she’s excited.  Just want to eat her up. 

man she looks big now!

loves big sis

leaning...and smiling...and leaning...

caught it!

oh, you again

a little leg kick-o-excitement

foot in motion. she's like lord of the dance.

ahh yes, the big eyed stare.  classic KAM

turned around to find my helpers had climbed up here.  one guess for who the ringleader was (hint: he's the one sporting the sh*t eating grin)

working on telling me something very important

oh yes, the baby ahhh's

and oohhh's!

outstanding view of the chins.  there's a neck in there somewhere.

teeny tiny toes and itty bitty feet

oh yes, we've also started to find our hands.  num num num

And lest I forget GG has had a few big milestones this summer, Namely losing a whole mouth full of teeth (6 before 6…she’s pretty taken with herself), and even more exciting learning to ride her bike sans training wheels.  Typical GG, she just woke up one day and decided that that was the day.  The. End.

only normal things happening here folks

getting in a little driveway practice before taking it to the street

growing up so fast