Hot Hot Heat (and How We're Coping)

When we're not hopping around to appointments, this low-key loving momma is hiding with her chicks indoors.  It's my way of: 1) dealing with the heat; and 2) restoring a sense of calm to our home.  Sometimes going out can be so disrupting! 

But when we're out, we're out.  The other day, I took R to her pediatrician appointment, and while we were out, we also went and got groceries and went and visited her Dada at work, while the boys played their hearts out at their grandparents' house.  But before all that, during the rush of getting out of the house, there was this:

first major blowout - just as we were ready to leave the house!

And when we're not out, we're in.  Sometimes, it gets a little hairy and cabin fever definitely strikes.  But other times, it's not so bad.  Like when the boys build "mountains" out of the furniture cushions in the front room, climb them, and sit on them to watch a movie...

pretty high up and yes, despite my warnings, at least one boy has tumbled off and hit his head on the ground...

And then sometimes I'm writing grocery shopping lists left-handed because I'm holding a baby...

But she's so stinking cute, I can't even help myself!

she's smiling and starting to "coo" at us.  so cute!

She's getting more stable so that putting her in different positions for a few minutes at a timeworks well:

propped up with pillows...

Meanwhile, when they're not sticking their parents' toothbrushes in fully operating fans or clogging bathroom sinks and toilets or screaming/fighting over some toy or other, the boys use their best imaginations (especially the eldest) and employ kitchen chairs as rocket ships:

yup.  it's summer and we're not going anywhere, so why put pants on at all?

blasting off!

And on the weekends, when the Dad is home, we go to summer movie fun (popcorn and candy for breakfast?  hooray!) and then sometimes end up at Chick-fil-A for lunch before feeding the fishes at Bass Pro Shops.  And then sometimes when their parents are too distracted to notice, those adorable boys pilfer small items that their parents discover later in the back of the minivan... And the Dad laughs and says it's in their blood.

Dad (looking admiringly over the pilfered items as we try to figure out who stole what): "We stole stuff all the time when I was growing up!" 
Mom: "Not me!  I got in trouble for stealing a sucker and was made to return it and fess up to what I did.  I never stole again!"

I think it's gonna be a LONG summer!

~Nichole