Summer Days

 

All that I live For

This is an average night at our house. Frankie and Jeremy are playing what Frankie calls "the owie game." It's basically dodgeball in our living room. (And you say "ow!" when you get hit by the ball, you get the idea.) Frankie giggles constantly as they play. Frankie begs Jeremy to play owie game as soon as he walks through the door. Basically Frankie adores Jerm, so wholeheartedly that I try not to be jealous. But I adore Jerm too, so I kind of get it.

I am in serious catch up mode - today I finally went through and did some journaling on the family calender, for the first time this year. It's not much but it's my excuse for a record of what we do to accompany the blog. (I write things like "went to the park" or "Frankie said this".) I was referencing my planner. There are six BLANK weeks in the weekly section of my planner.  No notes about work, no to-do lists, nothing. It turned my stomach to see it. Please oh please, never again.

And although I'm sleeping and usually not shaking - I still feel a bit caffeinated. It manifests itself in over-ambitiousness. I've been working on getting my art website going again, and getting some stuff up for sell on Etsy. It's been much more time consuming then I would have expected. (More on that soon. Like next week. With links!) But I did this in the midst or a few busy work weeks, trying to finish that portrait, and then just getting back to normal life. Like the little things that usually stay organized in my house that were in total disarray.

But we're getting there. Holy cow we're getting there. And in the mean time, I really do want to get caught up on the blog as well, because things are good. And I don't want to forget this time with my little family.

And so: a few more things about Frankie, and a few more pics.

-Frankie has some great signature phrases. Such as "what the heck in the world" or "I'm too old for that." He also has quite the vocabulary - one day he told me the shape of his sandwich was peculiar. I laughed out loud.

-He really digs the fact that a newspaper is on our porch every morning, and four on Sunday! Every morning he opens the blinds to the sliding glass door, and heads out to get the paper for us. Often he hangs out on the patio for a while in his jammies, and plays in his sandbox.

-I bought otter pops and we shared them with the neighborhood kids. Frankie scolded Jeremy for eating one, declaring "those are for my friends!"

-Frankie loves having people over at our house. He considers the adults just as much his friends as the kids. When he goes to bed while company is over, he is sad they are gone when he wakes up in the morning.

-Frankie will finally let me run him through the shower sometimes instead of taking a bath! This is a new development as of last week. The kid HATES getting water in his eyes, and always has.

                             

-One of the days that I was working on my painting, I set Frankie up in my studio with his own easel of sorts and some acrylic paint. It made for some cute pictures, but he only stayed interested in creating for about 10 minutes. Set up and clean up of his station and him: about an hour. I think I'll stick to his watercolors on a flat surface next time. I've spoiled him with painting I think, because when he colors with crayons he complains that it takes too long and makes him tired.

-Which brings us to whining. My goodness we're in a whiny stage right now. It makes me crazy. Any tips?

-Is it Halloween time yet? Frankie sure wants it to be. After being nagged to get the Halloween decorations out of the attic every day for a few weeks, I finally gave in and we made some out of construction paper so our house could be properly spooky for a while. Cutesy spooky though, I don't think he'd like it near as much if he knew it could actually be scary.

-Frankie has been saving his money for months now to buy "Manny's tools." (Money from gifts, the Easter Bunny, and from when he earns a quarter helping me here or there.) We probably should have gotten him Manny's tools for Christmas, but I was hoping it would pass because I really don't love Handy Manny. Last week when we were on a frantic search for a shirt for Frankie to wear for family pictures, he spotted a wooden tool box set at OshKosh, and was heartbroken that I wouldn't let him have it. As it happens, this tool set was much cheaper then Manny's tools, and he already had enough money. So we talked about it and he decided he wanted to buy that one instead. Everyone wins! We went back and bought it today, the lady even let us count out all the change. He was so excited.

              

-Frankie is showing much more interest in letters and reading. He pretends to sound out words - I say pretends because it's when he already knows what the word is but it's cool nonetheless. This day he wanted to put his animals in alphabetical order. I only had to help him a bit.

-Frankie has an opinion about the music in the car. He really likes it to have some rhythm.

-A few Sundays ago I looked up at Frankie's primary class to see him standing and hugging the cute little girl he was sitting next to. Then he sat down and put his arm around her, was smiling at her, etc. I literally blushed and asked someone next to me if I should go stop him. Later on he had his arm around her and she was holding his hand. Jeremy came in to say hello in between his classes, and I pointed out Frankie. With one hand still on the little girl, Frankie turned to Jeremy and gave him a big thumbs up and a smile. I still can't help but laugh when I picture it.

                           

-Frankie is pretty sure everything is better with sprinkles. He calls them sprinklers. These are the Mother's Day Rice Krispie Treat Gardens we made for his Grandmas.

-He loves playing at the McDonald's play place with his cousins. We don't go that often and I sometimes use the excuse "we need to wait until your cousins can go with you." I have been informed that once he is four he will be old enough to go by himself. He calls it Old McDonald's and every time we drive by he wants to know if it's open.

-He notices beautiful things. From flowers to sunsets to just saying "it's a nice day, Mom!" It makes my heart happy. Frankie is my buddy - I love my kid.