Summer is Here

Towards the end of May, I started to get antsy. I was tired of the rainy weather and was ready to just spend our days outside already. So I started brainstorming and researching all the things I wanted to do over summer. Last summer, a few of my friends shared their Summer Fun lists and I thought it was a great idea so this year I made my own. I asked LB what he wanted to do and he said "go to the pool." This surprised me a bit because he is not an adventurous swimmer but either D or I must have said something to him about being able to play at a pool once it got warmer and that must have stuck. In fact, when I picked him up from the last day of school the first thing he said to me was, "let's go to the pool." Never mind he was wearing a long sleeve shirt that day and the pools weren't open yet. LB also asks to "go to the airport" every gosh darn morning so clearly that had to go on the list. The rest of the ideas were mine but were things I knew he would be excited about it (except maybe the summer reading club). 

Even thought I don't count Memorial weekend as summer, that's June 1st, we did check off several things from our list that weekend and it was summer-ish in many ways, despite some occasional rain. (Can you tell I am sick of tired of the rain? It's raining today too by the way.) The weekend started off with a much needed summer haircut for LB. His hair was getting thick and unruly. We headed out to the front porch armed with the clippers and a sucker. LB wasn't into it at first and shed some tears but then he got immersed in his sucker and toughed it out. D also won points by letting LB cut some of his hair so he could see that it's not scary and doesn't hurt. D was planning on shaving his own hair a little later so it worked out. LB's hair was so thick that D couldn't get the clippers through it with a guard so bald was the only option! He looks cute no matter what in my opinion. And since he's not a fan of getting his hair cut this buys us some time until the next one. It's already growing at record speed.

We also had a nice trip the conservatory that day and LB showed D the butterflies and his favorite spots to explore. He loves these fish and likes to decide what fish is the dad, mom and kid.

Sunday we got lucky and the weather was awesome. A little chilly in the morning but otherwise pretty great. LB "rode" his tricycle all the way to the park down the street and back that morning. That was a first! One of his trikes has a handle extended out the back for a grown-up to push and help steer. He did all the pedaling but definitely needed help in the steering department. Sadly, our street doesn't have a sidewalk so it makes it harder for him to understand that he has to stay towards the curb and not go out in the middle of the street. But I was proud of him for pedaling!

After an early lunch we loaded up the car and headed to Yellow Springs for the afternoon to spend some time with D's side of the family, which includes LB's cousins. We got there about 1pm and the kids stayed outside playing until we left around 6:30pm. They maybe came inside for about 20 minutes to eat and then were back out again. They had a great time together. It was nice because all the grown-ups took informal shifts keeping an eye on them so we all had time to sit and chat and drink a beer or two. During one of my shifts, I was determined to get a good shot of all three kids because D's mom tried to get them all to sit on the couch but it was nearly impossible to get smiles from all three of them at the same time. I had better luck taking shots while they were in the midst of their play. Since the odds of LB being an only child are incredibly high, I'm grateful that he has his cousins who are close in age. They sometimes fight and wrestle like siblings and it's good for him.

Monday morning was a banner day for LB. In the morning, we went to our local Memorial Day Parade for the third year in a row. We met our friends there, who also have a little one from Ethiopia, and had a ton of fun. LB has been talking about it non-stop. He is still obsessed with all instruments and he loves marching bands. It rained most of the morning but he didn't care. At one point he was shivering and I asked him if he wanted to go and he replied with a forceful "No!" So we stayed.

We spent most of the afternoon at the OSU airport. D has discovered an iphone app that shows flight schedules for the OSU airport so he checked it that morning and thanks to the Memorial Golf Tournament several private jets were scheduled to land. We picked up some lunch after the parade and went straight there. LB got his wish and we saw several "noisy jets" take off and land, including the plane for Bubba Watson and his family. Pretty cool.

That's Bubba getting out of the plane. I learned that day that he and his wife weren't able to conceive and their son is adopted. I think we spent close to 3 hours there. LB could spend all day every day there. That night he was asleep by 7:30pm and D and I collapsed on the couch. Yay for the start of summer!