the acts of grace: from our air conditioned second story...

it seems the "terrible twos" have hit, and they have hit hard. we have been fielding quite a few tantrums at our house the past few days and there have been several doozies. today was the worst of it so far. jeremy and i often find ourselves at a loss as to how to discipline and how best to approach the variety of behaviors we approach in a day. parenting takes so much intentionality, energy, and creativity. it doesn't help that it is hot, hot, hot. the excessive heat advisory (that is supposed to last until saturday!) has left us with little to do but retreat to our upstairs where we have a window air conditioner in our bedroom. our girl's bedroom is right across the hall from ours, so i rigged up an elaborate system with sheets hanging from floor to ceiling in the hallway and several fans so that the air goes from our room to hers, so we have a cool area to hang out in. the problem is that the area is small, our girl gets restless, and there's just not much to do up here. we brought up several toys and there was the special treat of watching several episodes of thomas the tank engine on the laptop. we have only ventured out to get things we need from downstairs, go to the bathroom, eat a meal, or leave the house to head somewhere where there is air conditioning. neither of the kids handle the heat very well (and neither do we, really), and nursing is especially not fun in the heat...so we stay upstairs as much as possible. (i have been thankful that i am not pregnant right now! that would be much worse!) it hit 101 degrees today and even now (9:07 pm) it is still 98 degrees outside. apparently it hasn't been this hot in our area since 1936.

we have been having a very busy summer with jeremy's internship and with adjusting to being a family of four. we have been making some memories and taking some photos...here is some of what we've been up to...

blueberry picking with some church friends. below is how our girl looked most of the time we were picking - stuffing her face with blueberries. she loves them! i would throw some in her bucket and they would immediately disappear into her mouth. it was fun to see her reaction to bushes covered with blueberries that she could pick and eat!

this little man hit the one month mark. he has grown out of almost all of his 0 - 3 month clothes. last week he weighed 12 lbs 4 oz. a growing boy indeed!

cloth diapering the stuffed animals...

and time outside in the kiddie pool. the other day we headed outside and i brought out the baby bathtub for our little guy. we filled it with lukewarm water, stripped him down and popped him in and he had a blast. (he didn't really enjoy the couple of times when big sister sneaked over with a cup full of cold water from her kiddie pool and dumped it on his stomach. poor, vulnerable little guy. the cup disappeared after a couple of those incidents).

we got out the popsicles. apparently, our girl thought baby needed a taste. she stuck it in his mouth before we could stop her (and i just happened to have the camera handy, so i snapped a photo!)

he didn't really care for his first taste of something that is not milk.

he is getting to be so fun and interacting so much! and he loves being in water.

playing with daddy. (yes, i propped baby up in his little seat. he has such great head control that i thought i would try it. he loved being able to look around!)

cooing and smiling...

jeremy was gone to a long meeting the other evening and i was home with the kids. our girl needed a bath, and little guy loves water so much that i decided to prop him up in the bath seat and let him sit in the tub for a bit. our girl was so excited to have baby brother in the tub with her, and he really enjoyed it (...until big sister dumped a cup full of water over his head...then he was done. seriously, those big sisters...they are so quick.)