Why I Can't Cook

I don't enjoy doing it, but I do occasionally cook. However, since Milo has been home, I've had trouble even attempting to cook:

 (I'm well aware that my leg is beyond pale. I desperately need to get out in the sun!)

He loves being near us all the time (which I love!!). Before I go into our 4th of July weekend (which I did not document in pictures), I just have to tell what happened tonight at bedtime. Matt & I tend to "divide & conquer" at bedtime- I handle Xandra & Matt gets Milo. We meet back downstairs afterward & I flip on the baby monitor. We are used to Milo fussing, and occasionally crying, for a bit when we lay him down. Tonight for the first time, we listened to him "talk" & chatter. He played in his bed!!! I was so ecstatic!! He's feeling so much more comfortable with us!!

Ok, so we had a jam-packed-full-weekend. And I did not catch any of it in pictures! :(  Friday night, I went out with the girls to celebrate my friend's birthday. That was a blast! A little drinking... a lot of talking... & a little match-making. (I managed to set up one of my brothers with one of the girls in our group)

Saturday was our FCC play-group. This was Milo's 3rd visit (we have play-group every 1st & 3rd Saturday of the month) & he has become so much more outgoing! The first time we went, Milo wouldn't leave Matt's side. In fact, he spent most of the time in Matt's arms scared to death of being set down. The second time, Matt couldn't go with us, so one of the older boys hung out with Milo, while the moms chatted. He never went too far from me, always coming back every couple of minutes to make sure I hadn't left. Saturday though, he watched Xandra run off to play & he happily followed! He is such an ornery little bugger!! He even felt comfortable enough to try to run out of the play area (testing his boundaries!). He would run just past the exit and wait for us to notice- he'd look for us & watch our reaction. Once he caught our eye, he'd laugh his little head off & run right back in! He's going to be a handful as he gets older - he already is!!!

Sunday was by far the best day of the weekend. Matt made one of his famous brunches- which I LOVE! Then the kids took an early nap time which I'd thought would be a battle (especially for Xandra), but it worked out perfectly. They were both little crank-buckets, and easily went to sleep. Around 1:00, we packed them up & headed to our friends' house for a swim party. Our friends have an above ground pool, and I'd warned Xandra that there was not a shallow-end for her.**

**Xandra & I have an on-going battle around swimming. I've taken her to swim lessons since she was 3. We have yet to ever finish a lesson. Xandra is full of fear (about a lot of things) and we always left the sessions with her screaming at the top of her lungs. It was embarrassing & frustrating to say the least. So I gave up.

I put Xandra's floaty on her & Milo's life vest on him. After about 5 minutes, Xandra felt comfortable enough to "swim" off on her own. She played by herself the entire afternoon. After the same 5 minutes, Milo decided he wanted nothing to do with that life vest, so Matt took it off. My little dare-devil threw himself under the water more times than I can count. He desperately wanted to be free of someone holding onto him & swim independently! We ended up swimming for a little over 5 hours!

If we keep going back to swim, I do believe both Xandra & Milo (but a little bit more for Milo) could very well know how to swim by the end of summer!

Finally, the 4th of July was also busy. Matt walked in our local parade because he's decided to run for city council (exciting!!). I had planned to go with the kids to cheer him on, but my co-baby-wrangler's son got sick & she wasn't able to go :(  I felt a little ill-equipped to handle both kids on my own in that type of situation (standing in one place for at least 2 hours), so I opted to stay home. I attempted to make some chocolate-chip pancakes (see pictures above). And in the afternoon, we hosted a cook-out for both sides of the family & some friends- I think we had almost 20 people here at one point. It was a little hectic, but nice. We didn't make it to see any fireworks this year... maybe next year....