A New Building in the Storm

Yesterday Lky and his grandpa built this Lego building. The twins are at an age now (gonna be 2 next month!) where they love to stack things and build high towers, then knock it all down. I captured this picture before they had a chance to tear it down.

Saturday was a hard day. It was super hot and humid. I could not get our new pool up and running; I did not realize how large it was until I got it out of the box. I'd meant to just buy a kiddie pool, and this one is larger with a filter and everything. Toys R Us will not take it back, even though it's unused, because I opened the box. Then, Lm especially was super clingy all day to me. He wouldn't even let me go to the bathroom and be away from him for 10 seconds. Nothing would make him happy until after his afternoon nap, and when Lm is not happy, neither is his mother.

I spent their nap time shoveling dozens of dead, rotting birds over the fence and working outside with my dad to heft large tree limbs onto a trailer bed so they could be hauled out. No one offered to help, and my dad and I would rather die than ask for it. But he should definitely not be doing this kind of work at his age, and he won't listen to reason. I was seriously worried about him out there. So I hired a tree service behind his back--I was crying and just had to do something to get us out of this vortex of fatigue and despair--and they came out Sunday to estimate a bid. $200/hr which I thought was very reasonable for a crew and the machinery, but when my dad came out and saw us talking, he was apoplectic. Slowly, though, he came around to reason and agreed it is necessary.

Yesterday was better, I spent the whole day playing with the kids. They are so much fun! I love to get down on the floor with them and we tickle each other and I spin them around; sometimes they like to just dive on me. We play a lot of hide and seek. I have separate little games with each of them. Lm loves it when I crawl toward him and use a funny voice to say, "I'm coming for Lm! And I'm a'comin'!" Then he runs and I grab him and he's shrieking with delight while I flip him upside down. With Lke, I'll pretend to come in the room and not know where he is. "Where is Lk?" I'll say. "I don't see him. Where IS that little boy?" Then he ducks behind something and I look everywhere else for him, then finally, "THERE he is!" and he shrieks and throws his arms around me.

Last night after they went to sleep, as usual I went to check on them. Here is how Lm often looks, with his blanket wrapped around his head and no blanket on the rest of him.

I gently rearranged his blanket to that below. My nickname for Lm since he was born is "Bird." Because to me he looks like a bird in a nest when he is asleep, doesn't he?

Then I went to Lk's room. He was sacked out from a day of running around.

I love their new striped sleepers from Grandma!