May seemed to mark the beginning of summer in my mind. We have 8 garden beds that hadn't been tended to in a loooooooong time and I attacked those with a vengeance this month. Then Kyle got me a ton of succulents for Mother's Day this year explaining that I've proven I can keep the kids alive so I'm probably ready for plants haha. Between the two, I inadvertently discovered a hobby of mine; gardening. It's really therapeutic being outside just
working. It's hard for me to sit still and not do something productive for long periods of time. Gardening helps me stay active and feel like I'm accomplishing something. Also, I get tan ;)
My mom has quite the succulent garden herself and she's given me lots of tips on how to care for these things. I love the variety! I'm not a huge fan of color, but I am a fan of shapes and succulents come in SO MANY SHAPES.
For Jillian and Natalie's bachelorette party we decided to try our hand at Aerial Yoga. I was SEVERELY underprepared for this!! It was a total blast but I couldn't lift my arms over my head for a good 24 hours afterwards. I'm so stoked for them to get married!
With the weather warming up significantly, the kids and I have been making it a goal to get out in the morning. I am NOT a homebody and get a little stir crazy if I don't leave the house once a day! The mornings are our best time to go do something. We've been to about 15 of the 53 parks in the Provo/Orem area already, but there's still so many more to visit! The splash pads have opened up too and we've been going to them at least twice a week. I joined a group of moms via my friend
Danica, who have a goal to get out and explore Utah this summer. We've got an
Instagram,
Facebook page, and
blog where we post our reviews of hikes, parks, and splash pads. It's been an awesome resource! Also, I have to send out a ton of interwebz love to my sister, Nicole. She's been a
lifesaver this summer in helping me with the kids. She's made exploring with them an actual joy instead of a hassle!
We got a double stroller this week after Milo legit nearly killed himself. We were at the library and while I was checking out our books, he ran out through the automatic doors into the parking lot, where a car skidded to a stop 3 feet away from him. I've never been more scared in my entire life and I'm about 96% sure I have a huge chunk of hair that turned gray from the experience. And I know this is payback for all the times I did that to my parents and that "it's the first of many" and yada-yada-yada.
Anyway, yes. Double stroller. GAME CHANGER. Though some of us are more excited about it than others ;)
For our date night in May we went to the new X-Men which is pretty good but I like Days of Future Past better. For Father's Day/June's date night I found a great deal to go river rafting down the Provo River. It was the worst day to go, weather-wise, but it was still a total blast. Mostly cuz Kyle made it so.
The kids are doing just great! Livvy has started getting mobile, and by mobile I mean we have a butt-scooter. For some reason I never thought we'd have one of those, but she proved me wrong! I think there's just a lot of her to try and move so she found the easiest solution. Livvy is eating nearly everything in sight. The baby-led weaning we tried with her was a fantastic success. 10/10 would recommend. Her favorite foods include mangoes, yogurt, and avocados. We moved her into Milo's room after transitioning her to a crib (she was in a rock n' play for a while since it helped with her acid reflux). She's saying "mama" and "dada" and is MUCH more attached to people than Milo was! She adores her brother and thinks he's hysterical.
Milo is finally,
finally (!!) speaking! Kyle had to go on a long distance move and as we watched him leave, Milo turned to me and said "wheredadgo" - just like that; no distinction between the words at all! Now he's proficient in "wow what's that!", "broken!", "she's sad", and "wash hands". His imagination has exploded and it's been fascinating watching him start to use his toys in all different ways. He loves to line up his cars, read books, and throw the trains down the stairs. We're working on sharing things with Livvy. If she's fussy I'll ask him to pick out a toy to give her and that seems to have been fairly successful. He goes a million miles an hour, whether it's running around, thinking, or sleeping.
As a mom, I've had a few firsts with him this month; some kid started bullying him on the playground and pushed him down. It was awful to watch and I know that was harder for me than him (Milo didn't even react). Man though, if it's hard at this age I can only imagine what the teenage years are gonna be like!
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| very concentrated |
Livvy is old enough now that Milo can interact with her and it's probably the cutest thing I've seen in my life. I try very hard to keep in mind how close they'll be in their later years when things get chaotic during the witching hour!
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| Shoutout to my SIL Megan for MAKING this for the kids' room. It's perfect! |
May was a great month for us. I have never truly appreciated the sunshine until this time in my life. It does all our souls good!
