Summer Vacation Begins!!!

Woohoo ... my last day of work was yesterday, and I could not be happier to have eight full weeks of being a stay-at-home mom. I have a long list of things that need to be accomplished, cleaned, and organized, but I'm really excited to take Eli out to some parks and pools that we haven't be able to explore yet.

The weather has made a drastic improvement in recent days. We are finally in the 80's and I am loving every second of it. We bought E a little pool, and I'm hoping he gets to test it out today.

I finished my first session of summer classes, and squeaked by with two A's! The second session starts on Monday - not much of a break, but I would rather get them out of the way.

We are back where we started with Elliott's ear issue. After a ear infection last week the Army doctor suggested we go back to the ENT. The ENT doctor did an exam and saw that E's tubes had fallen out and his ears were in no better shape then when they were placed. It looks like we're going to do another tube placement (this time with gold plated tubes - ohhhh-la-la) and remove his tonsils on July 16th. I hate that he has to go through this procedure again, but hopefully this will do the trick. I feel like this poor kid has been constantly sick, or on some type of antibiotics, since we moved to Grafenwoehr.

Vic's foot is healing nicely, but he is struggling with boredom with having to be cooped up inside. Hopefully this week he will start to feel good enough that we can go out to dinner, or get him out of the house some how!

E has started some daring toddler behavior which has left him with several bumps and bruises. At one point last week he had three different bruises on his face. This one was from chasing after a soldier that he thought was Vic - and he bit it on the sidewalk. Poor guy.

Most of the other bruises are attributed to things like this ... don't worry, I made sure this thing wasn't going to tip over before I snapped a picture. He finds the craziest ways to get to things that he wants. This was in the hotel room while we were waiting for Vic to get out of surgery ...

We have reached uncontrollable levels of  curls. I hate to cut them, but he keeps getting mistaken for a girl and it is getting harder and harder to tame this madness. Decisions, decisions ... I don't even know where to take him - the beauty shop? Barber shop?

Elliott has figured out how to take his diaper off ... which was a proud moment, but also a scary one. In this picture I told him that we were going to take a bath, and when I came back in his room he had taken his diaper off, THROWN IT AWAY (wow), and then, of course, got sidetracked playing toys naked. It is so funny how he knows how to do things that we have never taught him, but he has only observed us doing ...

In case you were ever wondering if Elliott has ditched the burp cloths ... the answer is no.

He loves these stupid things.

Also, you can barely see, yet another, bruise on his cheek ... this one was from running into the corner of a table.

Our new favorite activity is dumping out all the coins in his piggy banks, and then putting it all back ... coin by coin ...

It takes so much concentration ... and allows for me to fold laundry ...

Last weekend my neighbor Kim and I took the kids to the park. Elliott loved it, but refused to play on the baby equipment which caused me to have to chase him all around the park - up and down ramps and slides. It wasn't exactly the relaxing morning I had in mind, but he had a good time ... and then took an awesome nap.

We got him this water table for his birthday, and it has remained unused in the basement until now. We finally were able to bring it up last weekend, and he loves it!

Check out the manicured lawn in the background. With Vic not being mobile I have had to take over mowing duties. I have done quite well for myself - considering I have never really mowed grass in my life. German mowers are electric, so it's kind of like vacuuming the lawn - the most challenging part is to not run over the cord. Who wants to take bets that I shred the cord by the end of summer??

I have not attempted weed-whacking yet - this is on next week's agenda though.

I just like Elliott's face in this picture ... he is looking a Vic like he's crazy ... I often give Vic this same look ...

My very best friend, Molly, is coming in a couple weeks, so I am planning our days and getting ready for her big arrival! So excited!