My Boys!

Grandpa Denny's Visit

We made another trip to the EdVenture Museum except this time was more special - Grandpa Roemer came too! Chase was able to walk this time and his reaction to the enormous size child in the front of the museum was hysterical. Landon thought it was cool to see himself playing the drums on t.v. while only a green screen was behind him. They also had this pretty cool climbing wall that Landon attempted with no fear!

On a brighter note...

We discovered a cool little place over the weekend called Glencairn Gardens - although it was under construction, it was still very pretty. The boys found two turtles in the pond and lots of fish.

Our days...

I wake up every morning around 5 a.m. - not because I want to wake up at that time, but that is the time that Chase wants me to be up and he whines on and off until I stagger into his bedroom and find his cute little self all ready to go with his blankie and paci (only at 5 a.m. I am not thinking it is that cute). I have tried giving him a bottle at this time in hopes that he will go back to sleep, but that has not worked and since we are trying to get him off of the bottle... it's not even worth the attempt.

We go downstairs, I muster up some sort of breakfast for him and while I am still half asleep am fumbling to get my coffee made. Landon gets up about an hour later and that is when the WWF begins at my house. The moment Landon walks down the stairs, the boys are fighting - Chase won't get off Landon's beanbag... Chase is taking Landon's milk cup... Chase is kicking Landon... Landon pushes Chase, Chase is now crying, Landon is explaining himself... I am yelling... and we resolve that situation just to turn into another one as Chase antagonizes Landon ALL day long! And Landon teases Chase ALL day long! I have been trying to keep the boys VERY busy - getting out in the morning and again after their naps in the afternoon to avoid these situations.

Today we ventured out to the Schiele Museum/Planetarium - had never been but thought it could be interesting. Forty-five minutes later we are there and we walk up to the door only to find out the museum is closed... the AC unit is being replaced. "Could you have posted that on your website?" I asked. "That is my fault... I should have done that." she replied. Four free passes later we are back in the car and off to a park around the corner that they recommended since I had already driven the distance. We pull up and see a Greenway Trail sign along with a playground - seems like a nice enough place to have our picnic lunch.

We get out and as we walk up, I am noticing that it is not such a desirable place after all - it could have been the three adults sitting on a nearby bench reeking of alcohol, discussing how alcohol is a depressant... or the two people sucking face on another nearby bench - and really not coming up for a breath for a LONG while... or maybe it was the cigarette butts all embedded in the playground sand under the swings, and around the slide... or the random people walking on this one sidewalk circle that was no more than 10 yards all the way around... or the 40 oz. can of Natural Light left at the top of a climbing wall. And as we were walking back to our car, we noticed a man picking through a gigantic dumpster and Landon asking in his non-whisper voice, "What's that man doing, Mommy?", as the man kept pulling out cans, crushing them with his feet, and placing them in lines across the parking lot. I had no answer for him.

Nothing surprises me anymore...

Last night as I was about to brush my teeth I discovered the bristles on my toothbrush were a bit wet. I couldn't figure out if I had recently brushed, or if it was my child who has an obsession with the toilet, had been playing with it...

Weekend fun!

We had a busy weekend - Grandma Sandy came into town for Zach's second birthday and our town was also having their monthly concert in the park. The pics above: Chase cuddling with Grandma... Sasha and Landon - best buds... Landon and Sasha helping Zach decide the next gift to open... and Chase and Zach - sizing each other up!

River Hills 10k

Today was my first race since I have had Landon and Chase - the last race I did was when I was pregnant with Landon and had to drop out of the Virginia Beach half marathon with only 3 miles left. I was nervous about competing - not that I was competing to win... but just to prove that I could do it again with a reasonable time for myself.

It was hot and humid and I was grateful for the gigantic trees that provided shade for most of the course. It was also VERY hilly - it made the rolling hills of Tega Cay seem flat. I started off letting everyone pass me - everyone always starts off way to fast (it's the adrenaline thing) and then finally caught up with and passed the one female that was in front of me. That put me in first place (for the females) which pushed me to run even harder to maintain my position. After several steep hills and fighting back a few moments where I didn't think my banana would stay down... I totally redeemed myself - I was the first female to finish the 10k race and finished in 44 minutes, 14 seconds. My mile splits were 7:08 - beating the other female by only one second. Andy placed first in his age group and Mike (my neighbor) came in third in his age group. It felt great to get back out there again!

Too much... too soon.

I was reading books to Landon before his afternoon nap (he is taking naps once again, hurray!) and one of the books was about the life cycle of a frog (thanks to grandma!). He loves looking at all of the critters around the pond and we spend time (what sometimes feels like hours) on the correct name and pronunciation of each bird and reptile in the book. (He is no longer satisfied with my answer of "That's a bird." or "That's a bug." He needs specifics.)
There was a picture of the frog's long, sticky tongue attached to a cricket, and I was explaining that was how they got their food and he would soon be eating the cricket. "It's part of the food chain."
Landon looked at me for a long moment (trying to read my face to see if I was serious.) He soon realized I was serious and started shaking his head saying "No eat cricket, mommy. Oh.... poor buddy.... cricket..." I quickly retracted my statement and instead said that the frog was just tickling the cricket with his tongue. He seemed to like that explanation much better.

Fun in the sun!

It has been VERY hot down here (which is expected for the south), however, not 100 degree temps in June! So we have been trying to keep cool by hanging out at Heather's pool and boated out to a sandbar which Landon thought was great - he could actually touch the bottom in the middle of the lake - he thought that was amazing!

Landon's dancing video

Dancing Machine

Chase loves music and starts to wiggle as soon as he hears an upbeat song... I was able to catch a bit of it tonight.

H-O-T

Today is supposed to get up to 95 degrees! We have been altering our "schedule" to get outside first thing (which sometimes can be 6:30 a.m.) before we get suffocated by the air itself! I know this comes every year, but it takes a bit of time to get used to before I start to think that 85 degrees is not so bad.

We have been spending a ton of time at the pool in which has become so overcrowded with all of the new communities going in around here and no new pool to be built (at least in the plan right now). We were there over the weekend and at one point there were 20-30 kids in the kiddie pool. (As soon as the adult swim only whistle blows, "they" all sprint over to the baby pool) one of which launched a diving stick which hit Landon square in the eye - I was not a happy camper. Hopefully the crowd will wane as the novelty wears off... wishful thinking anyway.