I can't believe that this month is already more than halfway over. It has seemed so incredibly busy, I feel like I've barely had time to catch my breath. Soccer, swim classes, birthday parties, and just our regular everyday errands and outings, has all added up to a whirlwind of a month.
It's been a good one, though, as a lot of the stuff that's keeping us busy is fun stuff!
I'm glad it's almost summer vacation, though. Looking forward to not having to rush everyone out the door in the morning, and not having to rush home to pick Gabe up from school in the afternoon. It'll just be nice to have some unstructured time for a change.
This week was a particularly busy one. We went strawberry picking Monday morning and had swim class Monday afternoon (both Gabe and Dante did really well again - hooray!), Tuesday afternoon we all went to a friends' birthday party, Wednesday, thankfully, we had nothing to do, Thursday afternoon was Dante's soccer practice, today Dante and Carmine and I went to the beach, and tonight was Gabe's kindergarten graduation.
Our beach trip today went great. Carmine did fine, and Dante had a great time playing in the sand, and tried out his boogie board for the first time. He was a little too nervous to go out very far with it, so just floated a tiny bit right at the water's edge, but I know once we've been to the beach a couple of times, he'll get braver and braver with it.
It was a bit more work getting everything together, and getting all our stuff down onto the sand, but not that much more, since all I need to bring for Carmine is diapers and a change of clothes. And it was so worth it - it was such a gorgeous beach day, and so much cooler at the ocean. We went to the gym beforehand, and after leaving the gym went right to Gabe's school to pick him up, so it made for a hectic day, but I'm glad we did it. I'm looking forward to spending a lot more time at the beach very soon!
I ran this morning, and I think I'm finally getting acclimated to the heat. I ran 3 miles at about an 8:35 pace, and felt pretty good the whole time. I was tiring at the end, but didn't feel completely rundown like I have lately in the warmer weather, so I think my body is adjusting to the warmer temperatures, which is good, because the race next Thursday is likely to be in warm weather, as is the Blessing in July, and the triathlon in August.
Anyway, after the beach we stopped home to clean up and then went right back out again for Gabe's graduation. I didn't think I was going to get all emotional about it, but sure enough, found myself tearing up as they performed a song for everyone. The joy on Gabe's face was just amazing, and it made me so happy and so proud to see him so happy and so proud.
It was a really nice event, too. Everything was outside - the kids marched out and the teachers said a few things, the kids got their diplomas, then there was a potluck picnic, and then the kids ran around the playground for a while. It's still sort of shocking to me to think that my 'baby' is going to be a big first-grader next year. Where on EARTH does the time go??????
Speaking of how fast the time is passing, Carmine is going to be 5 months old next week!!! He's still an absolutely joy : ) He's been doing some pretty serious teething lately, so hasn't been sleeping as well as he had been, which has been a shock to my system - he's been waking 2 and 3 times a night, instead of just 1 - but we're still cosleeping, so at least I'm able to just roll over and nurse him and fall back asleep, so it's not too bad.One night this week the boys were playing with one of their Imaginext playsets - a big castle - and they had it up on the coffee table, and I stood Carmine up there so that he could get in on the action a little bit, and wow, did he love that! He was grabbing at the castle, and staring at Gabe and Dante, and watching every move they made. And occasionally he'd turn around and look at me with a huge grin. I think he really loved feeling like he was playing with his big brothers. He adores them both so much, and they adore him - it's just as awesome as I thought it would be.
Before I go and get too sappy, though, the boys have come out with some funny stuff lately. They're always coming out with funny stuff, but these are just the ones I remember -
Dante told Scott the other day "Daddy, I'll take care of the cats and Carmine when you die." Apparently Gabe and I will just have to fend for ourselves?
He also told me that "God wears fancy pants and even a striped shirt, and wears his shoes when he goes to sleep."
Another time, he was playing his toy guitar, and told me that I could have a turn, so I strummed a few notes and asked him "How did I do?" He gave me a very somber look and said "Hmmmm....not very good."
Gabe has a Star Wars book that's all about light saber battles from all the different Star Wars movies, and at the top of each page is the title of the battle - e.g., 'Darth Vader versus Yoda.' So Gabe and Dante were playing Star Wars the other night, and Gabe was pretending to hold a light saber and hollered to Dante "Ok, now I'm Darth Vader, and I'm versin' you!"
And today when Gabe was telling me about what he did at school, he was describing how they painted their hands and made handprints on a big sheet of paper to make the "banger" for tonight's graduation.
Gabe has also started calling Carmine "Carmee." I'm not crazy about this, but I'm also not going to make a big deal out of it, because I know Gabe, and I know that the more of a fuss I make over it, the more likely he is to keep doing it.
And in addition to calling Carmine "Carmee," today he was saying something to Dante, and he said "Dude, it was like......" I knew dude would become a regular part of his vocabulary sooner or later, but I really didn't think it would be this soon. It was actually kind of cute, but I suspect that when he starts saying it CONSTANTLY it's going to become less cute.
My favorite funny came from Dante today, though. We were at the beach with some friends, and Dante and his friend were playing with some other kids that we didn't know, and Dante was apparently being a bit of a pest to the girls, and one of them came over to tell me that Dante had hit her foot with his shovel. I called him over and asked him if he had really hit her foot with the shovel, he said yes, he had, but "I didn't make her bleed."
It was very difficult to not laugh as I explained to him that even though she wasn't bleeding, he still needed to be more careful with his shovel, and apologize for hitting her foot with it.
Comments