The Rhoadarmer Babies!: Hot, wet, and wild

Don't forget to check out the Great Robin Artwork Auction if you haven't already. Time to take a keepsake from Robin's youth into your own home!

Dean has been leading a great purge of old things from his parents old house, and bringing home lots of items from his own childhood. His mother made this apron (or tool belt) when Dean was little. Now it fits Robin, and someday soon Robin will have to share with Liam too.

We read a book from the library called Two Old Potatoes and Me, which involved a little girl and her dad planting old potatoes that had overgrown.

We decided to emulate the book.

We had some pears that just weren't getting ripe, so we decided to bake them into a pie. Robin loved helping, but didn't want to eat the pie itself (even though he sampled everything, from pear to crust to filling, whilst helping)--silly boy. He was having a pajama day (notice the apron again.)

This is Robin's "Dada" outfit. On Father's Day, he announced that he was going to dress up as a Dada, and brought all this stuff out as part of the costume. He forgot to put it on while all the people were over on Father's Day, so I had him put it on and pose for the camera, so we could share.

Kiddie picnic at our playgroup. Robin's eating everybody else's snacks (even though he'd finished breakfast within the hour.)

Robin and friends at storytime (one of his friends had her arm around him just a moment before, but I didn't capture it. Dang automatic flash obliterating the view through the window.)

Robin's usually very hesitant about this storytime--he doesn't like going in without us. However, when one of his best friends from the playgroup showed up for the first time, he was front and center, ready to participate in everything. The power of peers.

A sweaty boy preparing for vacation by decorating his suitcase
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Robin insisted on putting the entire alphabet on the side. I peeled off the stickers (they're pretty durable and were tough to pull off) but he put them on in order, and in the correct orientation most of the time.

Robin "read" me one of his bedtime stories one night--Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? The next day he wanted to read it to me again, and I suggested he read it to Liam. Which he did.

And Liam loved it. I don't think Liam has ever been this attentive when I've read to him.

At long last, as June came to a close we got the boys' handprints on Dean's Father's Day shirt.

Liam was a lot more cooperative than I had anticipated. I had worried that his prints would be smudges, but they turned out pretty good

(Photos courtesy of Robin)

The shirt

Liam started drinking whole milk just a few days after he turned 1. He hasn't taken a bottle since he was 6 weeks old and sippy cups are still iffy, so the only way we got him drinking at first was to hold an open-topped cup for him. It took him a day or two, but soon he was sucking down large quantities at each meal. Week 1 I bought a quart of the stuff and ran out about halfway through, so I went out again and got a half gallon. Knowing I still had some of that half gallon left at the start of week 2 (grocery night is Monday) I bought another half gallon, expecting to have extra at the end of the week. Well, he went through it all and had to have some of our 1% milk for the last day and a half. So week 3 I bought a gallon, and he finished it up and got about half a cup of 1% on the final day. This is crazy! It took Robin months before he used up an entire gallon of milk by himself in a week.

The good news, though, is that midway through week 3 Liam got his hands on Robin's straw cup (it had water in it, which we had taken to a park) and drank half of the contents. Apparently he likes straws. We only had one straw cup, so I stopped at a grocery store on the way home from that park and purchased two more. We started putting his milk into it for meals, and he has taken to it quite well. We no longer have to hold a cup for him each time he acts thirsty. Part of me would like to see him just transition to a real cup, but considering how often he knocks this thing to the floor........ And I'm much happier not holding the cup each time right now. It means I still get to eat, too.

As for nursing, Liam is still doing twice a day: after breakfast and at bedtime. He only does a few minutes at each (his nursing sessions were very short even before he started whole milk and we started weaning) and I'm expecting full weaning to be not very far away. I'll miss it, especially as it fits into our bedtime routine, but it also takes up a lot of time (even when it's short) so life will get a little easier when it end. And it will get a little harder...