A Very Snugly Lewis

As I mentioned, Lewis has been sleeping better in his twin bed. Overnight is great. Naps are struggling again since I said how great they're going (go figure), but he's getting better at just laying quietly or playing quietly in his room with his books. He actually really likes to lay down and snuggle lately, which is nice. We will snuggle on his bed or on the couch, and he likes to lay out pillows for us 'just so' and gets 4-5 blankets for us to cover up with. I'm not sure when/where he picked up the whole 'sleeping under the covers' thing because we've always just put him in his pajamas and laid him on top of a sheet. Now he has sheets and a Thomas blanket on his bed, so I guess he figured out that's how Mama and Dada sleep. He gets very insistent now--'under covers!'

Some of his other sleep-related demands lately are:

• Lay down.
• Mama (or Dada) lay down.
• Under covers.
• Pillows!
• Mama and Lewis Pete lay down under covers. (Followed up with a YAY! when we are successfully under the covers.)
• Mama, Lightning McQueen pillow or Mama, car pillow (telling me which one to lay my head on).

This morning we were laying in his bed, switching pillows around and he said:

• Peter lay down!?
• Hattie lay down!?

Like it was the greatest idea he'd ever had. :) He ran out of his room with both pillows and found the dogs in our room.

Peter was a good sport, of course:

What are you doing up here in my safe space, child?

 Oh, now that you mention it, I am a little tired. 

 Aww, Peter Dink.

 Best buddies. :)

Aaaaaand this is what happened when he tried to snuggle Hattie. She grumbled, pillows fell to the floor, and she very quickly got out of his way. :)

Hair Like Wolverine

Kevin made a few comments towards the end of vacation last week about how long Lew's hair was getting, how he had a mullet, how he was a hippy, etc. I like it a little longer, but then one day Lewis woke up with this crazy hair and I knew it was time for a trim:

 

 

 

 

Stop taking my picture--can't you see I have pancakes to eat!?!

It was a bit more impressive in real life and totally reminded me of Wolverine:

:)

Last Zoo Splash Park of the Year (maybe...)

Today we headed out to the zoo with Tonya and Carlton to enjoy our last trip to the splash park (it closes after Labor Day). [Lewis talked about it all afternoon and said he wanted to go back, so he and I might try to squeeze one last visit in this week.] If we don't make it, there is another one that will be open through September, so we still have an option if this heat continues.

But first, Carlton hadn't ridden the train yet, so off we went:

 Waiting for the train to arrive

 Sitting very prim and proper (for a change, haha)

In the tunnel with Tonya and Carlton

Lewis yelled out 'Tunnel!' or 'Another tunnel!' each time we were about to enter one. :)

 One of the giraffes was having a mid-morning snack as we passed by

Both boys seemed to like the train ride. Lewis wanted to go again and started to cry when we had to leave it. :) He really, really loves riding on trains. Then it was time for the splash park! The other times we've been this summer, the slides have been shut down for maintenance, so Lewis had some catching-up to do:

 

Whee!

The slides were really fast and totally understaffed, so kids started bumping into each other left and right. They finally got more staff over to regulate the kids at the top and make sure there weren't any kids in the way at the bottom. It was kind of toddler anarchy there for a few minutes, which is always a bit scary. :)

  

Splashing with Carlton and his bus :)

Lewis is FINALLY starting to nap consistently in his big boy bed, and today was his longest nap to date (in that bed). Over 2 hours!! I put him down for nap under the covers and he stayed (which never happens), and I didn't hear a peep for about 2 hours and 15 minutes. He must have been totally exhausted from sliding, climbing the stairs, running around, etc. for a solid hour. And he didn't nap yesterday (though I blame a poopy diaper on that), so he had some catching up to do, too.

Touch-a-Truck 2013

Yesterday morning we headed out to a very hot Touch-a-Truck event! I was a little apprehensive because the information I was seeing online said that it was 'tentatively' scheduled for this weekend, and we found two or three different times listed. Despite the confusion, it was, in fact, going on. :) There weren't as many people as last year, so we barely had to wait to sit in the trucks. It was a fun morning!

Ooooh, so many trucks to see!

 

Excavator!

 The Party Bus

It had the only bit of air conditioning to be found, so we took a few trips inside. :)

 Fire Truck

 

Big Rig

In that second picture, Lewis discovered how to honk the LOUD horn. He made some unsuspecting people jump. :) 

 Tractor!

 

The UPS truck was a favorite.

  

 The fire boat was another favorite--he didn't want to get down from it.

 Bouncing around inside the UPS truck with Carlton (the hottest place of the entire event)

Tonya, Bo, and Carlton weren't sure if they could come, but they ended up making it after all!

What a hot and fun morning!

That wasn't all sweat on Lew--I'd poured water over his head to try to help cool him down.

The Lost Vacation Photos (aka The Ones from Kevin's Phone)

I'm just now getting around to looking at the folder of Kevin's phone pictures (and videos!), so here they are:

 Sleeping on the way up with his 'new' cuddly bear

Mom sent this back with him after his stay at their house.

 The view from our living room

 A typical day in my life :)

Never a moment's rest with Lewis Pete. Ha.

 

 Riding the train with Dada at Bay Beach Amusement Park

Here are a few videos Kevin took at the amusement park:

Ding, Ding!
You can certainly hear Lewis coming through. He had the hang of ringing the bell (after riding it 3-4 times). :)

(Blogger is misbehaving right now, so I can't fix that misalignment at the moment.)

Back to the house:

 The Man Cave

The lake house had a separate building with a bar, TV, dart board, etc. I think Kevin would like to have one at our house. :)

 Riding in the wheelbarrow

One day I looked out to see Kevin pushing Lewis around the yard in circles. :)

 Listening to The Boy in the Bubble

The house came with a stereo, which I don't think Lewis has ever seen before. He seemed amazed that music came out of it, and he quickly figured out how to turn the music on/off. He'd also never seen CDs or tapes before, really, so we had to explain to him that that's where music USED to come from, before the iPod and Pandora. :) He'd go in the room, turn on Paul Simon, and just sit there in the recliner for a few minutes.

 Oooh, Mama had a flight in Milwaukee
Not my favorite batch of beers I've tasted, but ok.

The fam at the Brewers' game

Mama, Lewis, and KevCheeseMuch :)

Now we're back home and getting into our normal routine. Next week is a normal week, and then Lewis starts preschool the week of Labor Day! He'll go half-days on Mondays and Tuesdays, so we're looking forward to seeing how all of that goes.

Last Day - Goodbye, Lake and Hello, Milwaukee

We got up Saturday and had to finish cleaning the house and packing. Here's one last picture at the house before heading out:

Bye-bye, house!

Lake Butte des Morts, 2013

We stopped for lunch in Milwaukee and hoped to do a brewery tour, but our first choice had over an hour wait for a tour. We tried to book tickets online for our second choice, but they were booked until August 23 (yikes). We might have been able to get a walk-in ticket there, but it was also Irish Fest this weekend (d'oh) which must only add to the interest in the already brew-loving city. 

So, instead, we went to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum! It was pretty crowded at first, but we found some room to spread out eventually. It was just a small space, in general, and pretty expensive for what there was, but Lewis had a good time:

 

You wanna hop on my Harley? (founded in Milwaukee)

I wish I had video of him here--he was yelling out 'vroom vroom.' He loves motorcycles. :)

Driving the bus, of course

Climbing the tower over and over

He's up there in the red shirt and green shorts. He chased that bigger boy (in the orange) up the tower and down the slide probably 10 times. The older boy was lapping him because it took Lewis a lot more effort to climb all the way up. By the end, he was exhausted and using all he had to fling his knee up to the next level. He had a blast.

We checked into our hotel and made our way to Miller Park for a Brewers game:

It's a pretty park (the two humps are the retractable roof)--Kevin can now mark another off of his list. The fans seem to take tailgating to a new level, I guess since the weather is way nicer than football season. It seemed like a fun atmosphere.

Great seats!

Kevin was looking to buy the cheapest seats he could get on StubHub, and they ended up being in the 1st row of bleachers behind the bullpen! It was great to not have anyone in front of us for Lewis to kick (like he did at Wrigley...), but also a bit of a nuisance danger because he kept trying to climb up on the railing.

We'd seen something on Nightly News a few weeks ago about the Brewers handing out $10 vouchers to fans for coming to the games in August (because they're terrible this year). Score! So our $14 tickets were only $4...or our snacks and beer were free. 

Latos, the Reds pitcher, warming up

We did our best to keep Lew happy--we walked around some and hit up a play area with a big slide. In the seats, we resorted to watching Mighty Machines on Kevin's phone (thanks for introducing us to them, Colin) and eating ice cream and popcorn. :) We made it five innings, same as at Wrigley.

Hiiiiii!

Waving to somebody from the Reds.

:)

He got excited when there was actually action in the game and would yell 'yay' and clap, but otherwise he's kind of disinterested in baseball (who could blame him). :) We'll try football again this year--hopefully it goes as well as it did last year (he made it through almost the whole game, I think).

It was a great trip. Kevin said that it's supposed to be 88 in Oshkosh today (vs. 84-86 in Louisville), so I'm glad we were there last week for the cooler weather since that was one of our goals in going northward. (Though I know it was cooler down here last week, too.) 

The stinky dogs have been bathed, the garden has been harvested (tons of green beans and tomatoes and only two monster zucchini, thankfully), the yard has been mowed, and today Kevin is off work and we're just taking it easy. It's good to be home. :)