Mundo Shreds Single Track

Photo taken from Uncle Jared's IPhone

Edmond has become quite the athlete on his bike. He takes hills and curbs so fast that it makes my heart race. He cruises as fast as his little legs will push him. After a long day of bike riding, he takes a great nap. Today after his nap I opened his door and grandly entered his room.

"Edmond! You're awake! Did you have a good nap?"

"Es."

"What did you dream about?"

"I dream po-wice car, and ambuwance, and fider fighters."

"Oh, that sounds nice."

I picked him up and gave him a big hug. His long skinny body rested against mine as he drooped his head on my shoulder. My boy is never so snuggly as he is when he first wakes up. I turned to kiss his cheek, then nuzzled my nose and cheek against his face.

"So soft," I thought to myself, "His little cheeks are so soft and so perfect." I put his face between my hands and took turns pressing one of my cheeks agains his, then switching to the other side. As I held him I pondered over his white hair and blue eyes that he got from his father. I know there will come a day when, like his father, his cheeks will be scratchy and rough with facial hair. Those manly cheeks will be for his wife to kiss and his kids to be tickled with. But these cheeks, I nestled even closer and stroked his little face, these scrumptious baby cheeks are for me. For me to cherish. For me to love.

Hooked Up

B, Charlie, Edmond and Taitum

My son has been watching his parents very closely. He has learned that it pays to make friends with people who have a pool.


And so it happened that we were invited to Robby and Amanda's party. And it just so happened that they had a pool and wanted us to swim in it. I think Edmond was planning this all along.

Anyway, he's been being really nice to Tyler in nursery lately. Coincidentally, his parents just bought a boat.

Laundry Day

Charlie liked it in the laundry basket at first...


but then he wanted out.

And Edmond wanted in.

Charlie is now 7 months old. He can sit up, roll every which way, go from laying down to sitting up all by himself, and he is days away from crawling. He loves to get up on all fours and rock back and forth.

At Church with Daddy

Edmond fell on his face and now he has a scab that makes him look like Hitler.

His nursery leader took this picture of him and his Daddy. He really likes nursery these days. He used to cry after the closing prayer in Sacrament because he knew that now it was time to go to nursery. Now he whines during sacrament that he wants to "Go nursery play toys."

After church as I'm taking him out of his church clothes, we have conversations like this:

"Edmond! Did you have fun in church?"

"Es."

"What did you do?"

"Go nursery, see friends."

"What friends did you see?"

"Play Michael, and Avery, and Taylor...."

"What else did you do in nursery?"

"Play fire truck."

"Did you have a snack?"

"Es."

"What did you have for snack?"

"Ummmm...cwackers...and....gwapes...."

At this point he got distracted by his feet which had just been stripped of their socks. He grabbed one foot and stuck it up to his nose and said, "Stinky!!!"

Biking Family Style

We met up with Jenn, Jay, and the kids to do a little biking.

We put Charlie in the bike seat and Edmond in the bike trailer and we were on our way.

Five minutes later we took Charlie out of the bike seat due to the sun being in his eyes and put him in the baby bjorn.

We stopped at the half-way marker for some crackers and fruit snacks

Charlie was sleeping peacefully, until some of my cracker fell out of my mouth and into his ear.

So I hopped back on my back and began pedaling in an effort to soothe the baby back to sleep. He didn't sleep, but blinked around at everybody and everything we passed. We beat everyone else back to the cars.

It felt good to get out.

Bath Toy Holder

I saw this mesh bathtub toy holder on make it and love it and wanted to make one of my own.

I really like it.

It keeps all Edmond's bathtub toys nice and dry, it was fun and easy to make, and it looks pretty too.

In the Kitchen

When I'm working in the kitchen Edmond likes to put grapes in a bowl with water. He tells me he's "making a cake".

When we play outside in the dirt he rips leaves off of the bushes and puts them in a bucket and says he's "making a salad." He's a little chef, just like his Daddy.

Twinners

"Ok boys, let's take a picture of your matching vest ensembles!"

"Edmond! Look at Mama! What is Mama doing? Edmond!"

"Over here buddy! Look! Smile! Hi!"

"Edmond! Isn't that silly! So funny! Smile!"

"Edmond! Sit by Char-Char! Come back!"

"Yeah...hold Charlie...he loves you!"

I guess that will have to do.

Unsupervised

I could hear the boys playing in Edmond's room as I did my hair in the bathroom. I listened to both of them squeal and giggle at each other. "Night-Night, Char-Char. Night-Night," Edmond kept saying. I realized that Edmond telling Charlie it was time for bed could mean danger for Charlie, so I went to investigate.

I found the baby safe and sound, and buried under a heap of pillows and blankets.




He was still happy, of course, and oblivious to any peril befalling him.

Last night after Charlie's midnight feeding, I went into Edmond's room to see how he was sleeping in his big boy bed. I cracked the door open and sneaked inside. My little Edmond was sleeping hard and did not stir. He had books all over his bed and had fallen asleep on them. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I realized that what I thought were pillows at Edmond's feet, was actually more of...Edmond. Since when does Edmond take up 1/3 of the length of his bed? He's such a kid now.

"Not a baby," I told myself. "Not a baby, but still my baby."

Tent

We bought this tent at Ikea for $10. We were so excited as we set it up in the living room for Edmond. We knew he was going to love it. As soon as it was erected he gleefully ran inside, looked around the structure, then turned to look at us and said, "Shut da door!"

There was no door.

The boy wanted privacy. He wanted a place to hide from us when we were hunting for him.

Well. The tent was worthless without a door! So I fashioned a door for him.

I just took a piece of fabric, hemmed around the edges, then hand-stitched it to the tent. Nothing fancy. But it makes all the difference in the world to Edmond.

He runs in there to hide from us whenever we are chasing him. We put blankets and pillows inside and read books in there together. I knock on the curtain when he is inside and say, "Is anybody home?" and we re-enact the Winnie the Pooh scene where Pooh knocks on Rabbit's door and Rabbit claims that "Nobody" is home.

Love our indoor tent and all the air-conditioned summer fun it provides.

Patriots

These two patriots are wishing you a happy 4th.



For the first time since B and I met, we didn't go out of town for the holiday. I was sad to miss out on our yearly campout, but as you can see we certainly have our hands full.

Life with these boys is very busy, exhausting, funny, and rewarding. We're spending the holiday at home this year, but hopefully next year I'll be cleaning dirt off my two little campers and yelling at them to be safe around the campfire.

Rag Quilt

Recently I took my sewing machine out of storage and have been working on a few projects. I thought it would be fun to make a rag quilt, but wasn't in the mood to invest money in fabric since I don't need a blanket, I just wanted to make one. One day I was folding up the baby blankets that Edmond likes to throw around his room. I have oodles of them, probably about 20. I never use the furry ones, my babies try to eat the fur and they end up with fur all over their mouth. But aren't they soft? And if the blanket was bigger, wouldn't I love to cuddle up under there and watch a movie? And so I decided that I would put these baby blankets to better use and make one BIG blanket for bigger people.

I read a few tutorials like this one, then I started out by cutting each blanket into 9x9 squares. Every blanket was different, some had batting between two pieces of fabric, some just had one layer of furry fabric. I decided to just leave every blanket as-is, one or two layers, whatever was there, I just left it. Then I layed out my squares and took a picture so that I could reference it as a pattern once I began to sew.


Then I sewed each row. I had seven. Then I sewed my seven rows together. Then I snipped all my edges. So easy. The best part was that with this kind of project, it's ok if your seams are crooked. I am a beginner sewer, and the concept of perfection stresses me out and takes the fun out of sewing. This project, however, can handle flaws.

Here's the pretty side:



Here's the raggedy side:



And here she is all folded up next to Edmond's tent and ready to be thrown around the house:



And here's my assistant:

He kept me company throughout the entire project.

I love my little helper...or hinderer...whatever he is, I love 'im.

Swimming