The Boulton Blog: Let Freedom Ring

We've had quite a good time celebrating Independence Day this weekend, but maybe I'll remember something that happened before Thursday. Read on and we shall see. :)

David: He's trying to stand up on his now. He can pull himself up on furniture and cruises along the front of the TV cabinet. Wednesday he pulled himself up on my knee and then he pushed off and stood on his own for a second before falling back onto my knee. He was so proud of himself and the grin that split his face was so darn cute. He did it again and again until I pulled out my camera, then he decided playing with it was more fun than anything else. He also has a new found love for the piano and will do everything in his power to get his tiny fingers onto the keys.

Caleb: He loves introducing himself to people. He'll tell anyone who will listen, "My name Caleb, and that's Baby David". If he isn't close enough to tell them who he is, he'll point and say "What that name?" It took me a few days to realize he was asking "What's their name?" and I often tell him I don't know. He gets smiles out of everyone though, so I don't know that the trend will stop any time soon.

A Story: Wednesday night I took him with me to the grocery to pick up some milk and popscicles (a summer staple in the Boulton household) and he picked up a Dusty Crophopper and Skipper figurine. He carried them all the way through the store since he figured out that when he drops things in the cart they often get put back before we reach the check-out, so they made it onto the belt and came home with us. We walked through the door and he was so excited to show them to his Daddy, but it was bedtime, so he was told to put them on the table. He pulled them to his chest, got his stern scowl on, and told his Daddy no, so we tried to talk to him and reason, but he wasn't having it, so we took one away, when he still failed to put the other one down and get ready for bed, he lost both of them and they were put up. He threw quite a fit, but eventually went to bed and in the morning he seemed to have completely forgotten about them, until we were getting ready to walk out the door. Caleb kept telling Byron "We leave you here" over and over when I asked him what he was saying (I had a hard time believing my ears" He told me he wanted to leave Daddy at home. I told him no, that we were going to be taking Daddy to work, and Caleb decided he was going to stay home instead. We finally got him in the car and we kept asking him why he was mad at his Daddy. At first all he would say was "No", but he finally looked at us with as much attitude as a 2 and a half year old could possibly muster and while pointing at Byron said "My planes". Apparently, since Byron was the one who took the planes out of his hands, he was the one to blame. Crazy kid.

Byron: He's been working hard. Doing a lot of documentation and stuff I guess he can't really talk about haha. He had to turn in his end of month report this week, which is his least favorite part of work, but loved the 3 day weekend.

Arielle: I don't think I have much to talk about. David and Caleb are the center of everything right now, and I love watching them grow.

In General: We had a wonderful week. Wednesday we went to the National Museum of the USAF. Caleb was in hog heaven looking at all the planes and it was the first time in years I've made it through all 3 hangars. We enjoyed a fun picnic lunch halfway through the exploration, and I realized how hard it is to get a 2 year old to eat when there are more fun things to be done. Thursday evening we dropped David off with my parents and picked up my cousin Mara, who is in town visiting from Texas, and went to the Dayton fireworks display. We met up with a couple we are friends with from church and played phase 10 while waiting for the fireworks to start. We ended up running into another family from our ward, and we all sat together. Mara was wonderful and managed to help keep Caleb and the little girl from our ward occupied with pop its. When the sun went down I helped them with sparklers. It's so exciting to have a little one old enough to enjoy those things. When the fireworks started Caleb was initially afraid of the big booms coming from the fireworks, but he quickly became accustomed to the noise and his eyes lit up with each one. Friday morning I ran out and did last minute shopping for dinner, and when I got back we got the boys ready quickly and took them to the Americana Festival in Centerville. We didn't really get to stay very long, but Caleb loved running around in the splash pad and we got speedy freezes for the hot walk back to the car. When we got back to the house we filled some more water balloons and got the food ready. We had a family from the Centerville ward over, as well as a family who just moved into our ward, and my parents and siblings. The kids had a great time playing outside with water guns, and water balloons while splashing in our kiddie pool, and they got to play with some bubbles and sidewalk chalk. After everyone left, we went over to our friends house and played games again while waiting for the fireworks. They live close enough to Centerville High school, that we could watch the display from their driveway, and then we used the pop-its and sparklers we brought with us while watching them light all kinds of fun little fireworks they had picked up. Caleb had a great time, and David fell asleep in my friends arms, so overall, we considered it pretty successful.

Saturday morning, we went to a baptism for a girl I used to babysit, before taking Alyssa to work. We went home for lunch, then went down for mandatory nap times. After 2 late nights Byron and I were pooped, but David decided, for the first time ever, that nap time was not on his agenda, so I didn't get to sleep as well as I had hoped, but things worked out. We had our monthly pre-fast Sunday dinner and games evening, before going to bed early. We were quite happy to get the boys to bed on time, and were excited that church wasn't going to start until 11 the next morning.

I guess that's all the news we have for the week.

Hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day!!!