Out the Window and Other Stories

Chapter 1: Geese!

In the last month or so, Juan Pablo and Ana Luisa have reached a new level in their relationship. Ana Luisa is a little older, better able to keep up, and has acquired more language that helps her be able to play with her big brother. Juan Pablo appreciates this, and is doing better with using words to ask if he can have a turn, or tell her that she can have a turn with something in two minutes...all of these things that make it easier for the two of them to play together (somewhat) harmoniously. Juan Pablo comes up with fun, crazy games, and Ana Luisa is more than happy to join in. One of their favorites is to wrap blankets around themselves and run around the house flapping their arms and yelling "GEESE! GEESE!" over and over. The geese also like to hug occasionally.

At any point in the game, the geese may turn into skunks, using the blankets to create a "skunk garden." Hmm. They definitely did not pick up that idea from me. Jeff?

Chapter 2: Berry Picking

Early-mid June means strawberry picking time around here! We went to a local farm and picked about 18 pounds of strawberries. And by "we", of course I mean "I". To be fair, Juan Pablo probably picked about a pound of berries in addition to the pound that he ate. And Ana Luisa ate a few pounds of berries, then decided she would rather be on my back or in my lap while I picked. Not the easiest way to pick, but now we have a lot of jam and frozen strawberries to enjoy throughout the year.

Chapter 3: The Beach Bum

Tio Sebas came for a visit from Boston, and the first weekend he was here we drove across the state for a beach day at Lake Michigan with extended family. According to the park sign, the water temperature was only 63 degrees, but that did not stop Ana Luisa from going in for a swim. Thankfully, Tia Padu was willing to loose circulation to her feet and legs for a while so Ana Luisa could have some fun.

She loved every minute we spent there, playing in the freezing water and sand. Juan Pablo had a great time too.
After about four hours of playing, we managed to drag a very tearful Ana Luisa back to the car (with promises of more beach days to come this summer, of course). We went out to dinner all together, where she was more than happy to sit in Abuelo's lap and look at the boats, and to eat the orange slice out of his Oberon.
We spent the night at a hotel near Grand Rapids. Ana Luisa woke up at 7am, ready to go swim in the hotel pool. Since the pool wouldn't open until 8am, we convinced her to have breakfast first, then go for a swim. Breakfast was still going on after our swim, so we brought some bagels and cream cheese back to our room so the kids could have some nice naked snack time while Jeff and I were packing up and getting ready for Mass.
After Mass we met up with the rest of the family for a trip to the John Ball Zoo. The highlight for Juan Pablo was definitely the camel ride he went on with his aunts.
And Ana Luisa's favorite part was playing in the mist sprayers they have all over the zoo to help people cool down. It wasn't the beach, or even a hotel pool, but it was water so she was happy.


Chapter 4: The Big Kid Bed

Several months ago, Juan Pablo requested to move out of our bed into his own big boy bed. This was fine for a while, but then he went through a phase where he was waking up almost every hour and calling out for me. When I would come into his room, he would lay back down in his bed and fall asleep. Eventually, after getting up to go in his room several times, I would just end up falling asleep in there with him. Clearly this boy did not want to sleep alone. However, he was adamantly opposed to the idea of sleeping in our bed again, because he is a big boy and his big boy bed and big boy room were just too cool. Jeff and I went back and forth for a couple weeks, trying to think of possible solutions to our dilemma. Each time one of us would throw out the idea of moving Ana Luisa into Juan Pablo's room with him. We would reason that she sleeps through the night, for the most part, and is used to sleeping with someone, and maybe having her there would be enough comfort for Juan Pablo. I don't think either of us were really ready to move her out of our bed though, so we kept putting it off. Finally, after too many nights squishing into Juan Pablo's bed with him and his giant stuffed elephant and too many mornings waking up with a sore neck as a result, we decided it might be best to try it, even if our bed would suddenly seem way too big and lonely with just the two of us. First we asked Juan Pablo if he would like Ana Luisa to sleep in his room with him. He was thrilled. Then we asked Ana Luisa if she wanted a big girl bed in Juan Pablo's room. She was thrilled too. That evening we moved some things around, and put the crib mattress on the floor next to Juan Pablo's twin mattress. The kids could not have been more excited. It took forever to get them to sleep those first few nights, just because they were too excited to sleep. We've gotten into a rhythm now though, and for the most part, it's working out very well. It has been two weeks, and we've had several nights in there were both kids have slept through the night. Most of the time, if one or the other of them wakes up during the night it's because they've fallen the three or so inches off the mattress on to the floor. They go to sleep like this:
And somehow, a couple hours later when we check on them before we go to bed, they look like this:
We move them back to their original positions, and yet at some point during the night we'll hear a thump, and then a cry for help. Some mornings Juan Pablo has woken up on the floor on Ana Luisa's side of the bed, while Ana Luisa is sleeping in his bed meaning they either rolled over each other during the night, or else rolled around each other somehow. How they manage it, I have no idea. Crazy little sleepers. We do miss the them at night, but I do think this was the best way for all of us to get the best sleep around here right now. They just grow up too fast.

Chapter 5: Car Wash

Browsing through some blogs that I follow, I came across another mom's idea to have a "kiddie car wash." Basically this lady filled up some buckets with soapy water, brought out some rags and let her kids go to town "washing" all their little cars and riding toys. I thought it sounded like fun for our kids. They like water. They like bubbles. And lately whenever they play in our little backyard pool they try to throw towels in there because one of their little friends did that once while she was at our house and it was hilarious (to them, anyway). It seemed like the perfect fit. So I got the buckets of soapy water and the rags, and I pulled out all their riding toys out on to the driveway. However, I did not take into account that our kids have never been through a car wash. We take the car to the dealership every three months or so for an oil change, and whatever else is on the maintenance schedule. This always includes a car wash at the end. We drop off the car, and go across the street to the local indoor playground. When the mechanics are done working on our car, they give us a call and we come back and pick up our nice clean car. And because our car never stays nice and clean for long, we don't bother washing it in between oil changes, which is why our kids have no idea what a car wash is.

They do however, know all about bubble baths.


So our car wash sort of turned into a kid wash. But they had fun, which is the important part. And maybe we'll wash our car sometime this summer, just so our kids know what that is.

Chapter Six: Out the Window

Earlier today, the kids were playing in the living room. The big window was open, and I was trying to clean the floors while the kids played. Ana Luisa bumped her head and started crying, so I left my cleaning and went in the living room to comfort her. I sat on the couch holding her while she cried. In the meantime, Juan Pablo climbed up on the window sill, which he does all the time. He loves to stand there to wait for Jeff to come home, or just to watch the squirrels run around the front yard. I was focusing on Ana Luisa, when suddenly I realized that Juan Pablo had disappeared. Then I heard him cry out, and took me a second to realize it was coming from outside. He had just fallen out the window into the front yard!

I ran to the window, and sure enough, there he was laying in the wood chips right under the window trying to figure out what in the world had just happened to him. He wasn't hurt, just a few scratches on his shoulder, but he was pretty surprised...definitely did not see that one coming. And I was trying very hard not to laugh. This is a very Juan Pablo kind of thing to do. Apparently while he was on the window sill he leaned into the screen, which popped out at the bottom left hand corner, creating just enough space for him to fall through.

I'm just glad no one was walking by at that moment...hearing a child crying inside the house just as another one falls out the window...definitely wouldn't earn me any "mom of the year" awards from the neighbors. Oh my Juan Pablo...