keeping busy

We are enjoying summer, but it does seem to be going by somewhat quickly.  Mike has been having a pretty good harvest season so far.  The usual ups and downs, breakdowns, employees coming and going, and lots of after-hours phone calls in Spanish.  :)  Yesterday he got home an hour earlier than normal and it was so unexpected it had me flustered!  Getting through the long days with four little boys is a huge mental battle for me, and I've got myself pretty well conditioned for his normal arrival time.

Last week Caleb was able to attend soccer camp at Unity Christian and he loved it!  The first day was cancelled due to storms, and the next few days were quite warm and humid, but that didn't seem to slow him down.  I have no idea if he's any good or not, but he sure plays hard and I love to see that.  He seems to always have a great attitude (not getting upset when his team loses, or when he can't do something), and that is going to serve him well.

Logan had another craft time at Michael's this morning.  This time we took my niece Alyssa along (and left Caleb and Levi with Harold), and I think he really enjoyed having that special time.  Logan has lost EIGHT teeth now!  (Caleb has lost four.)  A few of his adult teeth are coming in pretty good already, otherwise his mouth would be quite empty.  The other night both Logan and Caleb pulled out a tooth within minutes of each other.  Logan is our thinker and always has questions about something.  Love that he's so observant and inquisitive, but I have a really hard time dealing with all the questions!  SO. MANY. QUESTIONS.  How things work, why things are the way they are, how things were made, etc., etc., etc...

Levi.  My sweetheart.  Did you know it's entirely possible for a child to skip over Terrible Two's and Thunderous Three's, and have Ferocious Four's come in without any warning??  I was so lulled into complacency with his easygoing spirit that this shift has been rather shocking.  I KNOW the sweetheart is still in there, he sneaks out from time to time, it's just hard to find in the midst of the craziness of big brothers being home for the summer, and baby brother requiring lots of my attention.  I gave the boys haircuts last night, and I'm pretty sure Mike wanted Levi's shorter, but I just couldn't bear to cut that beautiful hair off.  He gets the perfect blonde highlights in summer.  I'm pretty jealous of Caleb's hair, too.

Jackson is scooting around a fair bit.  I really need to work on gates for the stairs soon...  He's still very vocal, especially during meal time - we're working on not talking/spitting while he's eating.  He has been sleeping well at night, and mostly doing decent for naptimes.  Last week we had to work on him being okay with Mike putting him to bed, and thankfully it only took one night of lots of crying, and the next night he did much better.  I went to a friend's softball game and Mike said Jackson cried for about an hour at bedtime.  It was Mike's suggestion that he put Jackson to bed again the next night to see if he'd do better.  I couldn't be home and listen to him cry for me, so I went out again, but he went to bed much better!  Love it that he needs me, especially as I know it won't last for long, but I've gotta be free to be separated from him sometimes!