Turtle Eggs

I found this documentary on Netflix about turtles. I wasn't really sure what it was, but the boys love animals so I figured we could try it. James fell in love with the turtles. Though I was surprised at how educational it was- the first five minutes or so is all about the baby turtles making it to the ocean to safety or they will get eaten by the crabs. Interesting conversation to tell a three-year old how the crabs are going to eat the baby turtles. Anyways... it follows a logger-head turtles journey through the Gulf, into the Atlantic, across the Atlantic, back again, to the Caribbean, laying eggs, going back to the ocean. It shows her laying her eggs on the beach and everything. 

Today while we were outside playing, James was fascinated with pulling out rocks from the crack in our driveway. He was collecting rocks and picking out the dirt- it was great. Totally kept him entertained for quite some time (which is saying something in regards to James). He starts talking and as he is putting little rocks in he is saying, "The turtle is putting her eggs here. Here you go, turtle eggs". Then he takes them back out, comes up to me, looks at me, gets ready to throw, and throws them across the driveway. "Bye turtle eggs!". Oh how I love imagination :)

Shoes

Gavin loves shoes. Loves. He gets rather excited when he knows we are running errands/shopping or going outside because he gets to wear his shoes (he also gets rather obstinate to go outside immediately once shoes are on).  He wants to put his own shoes on SO BAD but they aren't really toddler friendly. Till I remembered the Crocs we inherited from cousin Adam. I thought maybe someday he would be able to slip them on.


While I was in the kitchen making dinner, Gav had been entertaining himself in the shoe 'area' (aka the huge mess by our door). I peek around the corner and he is walking towards me with one of his great self-satisfactory smiles- he has his shoes on!! He was thrilled he had accomplished this task! I love his smile and the pride he has for his accomplishments- his age is one of my favorites :)

Oldest and Youngest

James and Jack were playing on the couch together today. It was adorable. So I took a picture, naturally.

Just seeing these boys playing together and loving each other answers why Jack came when he did. These guys were meant to grow up close together. No doubt about it.

Icky Icky Ants

I have a new hate of ants since moving to Oregon. Last winter in our other apartment and this winter in this apartment, we have had a major ant problem. Killing at least 10 a day is an issue, right? It would go up and down, but mostly was up. Thankfully, they generally kept to the downstairs but it wasn't uncommon to catch a few stragglers upstairs. 

One night, when we were getting the boys ready for bed, I went into my bedroom to grab one of Gavin's pacifiers. We generally keep them in a jar downstairs for easy access, keeps them safe, and we don't lose them. I had snuck that one away during our morning bed snuggles and put it on my dresser and saved a trip for the downstairs. I grabbed it and went into the hallway and put it in Gavin's mouth. I looked at his mouth and there were ANTS crawling out of his mouth. For reals, it was one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen. I yanked the pacifier out of his  mouth and it was covered in ants. Whaaaat???? Poor Gavin!!!! We ran him into the bathroom while wiping away the ants and rinsed his mouth out and brushed his mouth out several times. The poor guy was so distraught. Probably didn't help that I was freaking out and yelling at Brad to react quicker, but you know... we'll blame it mostly on the ants on his pacifier. I have no idea why that happened and it ticked me off. Why would a pacifier (a rather clean one, too), left on an upstairs nightstand attract ants?? Lots of ants, at that. Brad couldn't even talk about it for at least another week it bothered him so much. 

Poor, poor Gavin.

"Wet Bark"

Last Friday I had to go look at a craigslist ad (which we totally got and it's awesome). RIGHT when we HAD to be going, Jack decided to stick a random piece of bark dragged in by his brothers in his mouth and gag on it. I had no idea that he had until I was getting him into the car seat. Awesome. Got it out, late to the appointment, but he didn't die. Mommy win.

Then Sunday, he was on his normal 'everywhere' craze-crawl while I got pancake batter ready for Father's Day breakfast. He was over by the back window/door. I saw him do the tell-tell hand-to-mouth move to know something that was a no-no would be entering his mouth. I did not really want to see him gag again and intervened, grabbing another piece of bark out of his hand and throwing it to the side so I could make sure nothing else was in there. I thought to myself, "He must of had it in there a while because it was soggy." Upon looking down at said bark, it moved. Yeah... the bark moved. Turns out IT WAS A SLUG!!! A SLUG!!!!! I was appropriately grossed out and proud of my unknown heroic act of saving my baby from eating a slug. I promptly called Daddy to come take care of the slug- either kill it or put it in the garbage can outside. No way he was entering our house again (he opted to kill, fyi. i was very happy). 

Funny thing is... the night before I had noticed snail/slug trails on our back screen door and commented to Rach a snail must have been on there. Assuming it had been there on the outside. Ick. I'm sure I won't always catch the bugs in the mouth but man... gross. And quite honestly, hilarious.

Disney Station

We have been listening to Disney music this week, on Rachel's Pandora station. Love it. James is VERY excited to see some friends on the TV, singing. Hercules just showed up with this picture of him

 and James says, "That's Nephi!!" And he is still insisting it is him. Oh, too cute.

Father's Day

Today we celebrated Father's Day. I couldn't decide what James could handle better- gift for Daddy before or after church. Brad said to wait till after... but I thought it might be better before. When he isn't in his "I'm-so-tired" mood. Why was this so important? Because we got Brad this:

James was so excited for the "Star Wars book" (it has illustrations in it). When Brad put it out of arms reach, we had a melt-down. I sat with him, letting him cry, trying to find something to calm him down. I suggested a movie... that was a no. Being Sunday, I suggested the movie about Jesus aka The Testaments. He has really come to love this movie. His response

"I want Star Wars! I don't want Jesus!" but in his cute, squeaky voice. 

Love this kid.