The Boulton Blog: It's Independence Day!

This past week has been fun, and we've gotten to enjoy a lot of time together as a family.

David: He's a little spit fire. He loves jumping from the arm of the couch onto the cushions, much to our dismay (Caleb didn't think of doing things like that until taught by his friends). He recently acquired his brother's old trike and a new bike helmet and loves pushing himself around the driveway and sidewalk. He can't quite reach the pedals yet, but I'm sure he'll be able to before we know it.

Caleb: He was so excited to get his first "Biggest" bike this week! He think it's awesome and asks to ride it morning, noon, and night. Seriously, he came into our room at 10:30 last night asking if he could go ride it. When I told him it was too dark, he said he could just use a flashlight.

I'm a little irritated with the PBS Daniel Tiger show right now. He has a hard time keeping it going because he's afraid of going too fast, which would cause him to fall off and hit his head according to Daniel Tiger. It's also teaching him to be afraid of the changes that will happen when Mommy and Daddy bring a new baby home from the hospital, and a host of other behaviors that I have never seen before in my confident little 3 year old and am not a fan of. I'm pretty sure that show will be banned from his allowed repertoire before too long.

He's awesome at sharing and taking turns, and trusts that David will do the same, and becomes very distraught when he doesn't. It's caused a lot of strife in their play time, and more than a few tears have been shed and hugs have been exchanged. I'm seriously looking forward to when David is a couple years older and these little tiffs will no longer need parental involvement every single time.

Byron: He's been working hard, trying to keep up with all the things life is throwing our way this summer. Friday he had the day off and enjoyed getting to spend the day with us. We went to the zoo again and that evening went to a barbecue at our friends house. We got to play games, eat delicious food, and Byron was quite envious of their fenced in yard. This morning he woke up at 3:45 am to go to scout camp. It's just for one night, and his relief is coming fairly early tomorrow morning. I know he'll enjoy spending the day there, but I hope he gets enough sleep tonight.

Arielle: Things are moving so quickly! I have a mere 2 weeks left to get my house cleaned and organized before my in-laws get here, then we have a 5 day reunion with the Boulton's 4 days to unpack, wash laundry, and repack, and a 9 day trip during which we'll drive to and from Florida for a reunion with the Lane side of the family.

Since Byron is at scout camp today and tomorrow with the car, I spent the morning disassembling Caleb's and David's carseats and scrubbing them down. I don't think they've been washed for...ugh I don't even want to think about how long. I was able to get most of the stains out of Caleb's, and all of the stains out of David's. I also managed to purge the toy room again this morning, and finally packed up the Christmas decorations that have been down and tucked into corners all over the basement since January. There's plenty left to do, and you can't tell I've cleaned the basement since I have to make a bigger mess to get things organized again, but it's getting there.

My hair is finally getting "long" again, but is at a length that I detest, not long enough to do my favorite hair styles, but too long too neatly tuck into the braids and twists I've become used to putting it in. I keep telling myself this is just a phase and that I shouldn't chop it all off to make it manageable.

Pregnancy Update: I'm 28 weeks today and finally in my 3rd trimester.

I'm nesting, but don't have any sewing projects, so I'm throwing myself into cleaning and organization.
I'm not sleeping well anymore, and am constantly cursing that restless leg syndrome is even a thing.
I've still got PUPPs, but am no longer allowed to treat it with steroids, so we're keeping walmart in business stocking up on hydrocortisone and benadryl. I will be so glad when Ezekiel is born so that it will go away for good.
I've forfeited my heels in favor of flats since I feel off balance a lot of the time now. I broke my favorite sandals falling in the creek at playgroup last week, and am wishing that styles were carried in stores for more than 1 (too short) season since I haven't found good replacements for them. In the mean time Byron helps me whenever I want to buckle my nice sandals, and I spend the rest of my days in flip flops.

Other than that things are going well. Ezekiel is active and healthy, I've only gained 4 lbs since getting pregnant, and I'm staying active with my busy boys.

In General: Since we had such a fun time on the 3rd, we had a pretty quiet Independence Day and spent time cleaning out the spare bedroom that will be Ezekiel's. It had turned into a storage space since we moved David out of it and it took the better part of the day to get everything out and sorted through so we could find new homes for it all. I wish I had a before picture, but at the same time am glad I don't. Then there's no evidence of how bad I let things get around here. Haha

Byron took the boys out in the trailer on his bike and Caleb was so excited about it. He thinks Byron's bike is the bees knees and loves it when he gets to see it in action.

We love you all and look forward to seeing so many of you so soon!

Caleb has recently graduated from nap time to quiet time (he wets the bed less frequently this way)
One afternoon I woke up from my nap to find that he had helped himself to the amazing banana cake that my Mom had given us. There was half a pan when I went to lay down, and he cut those pieces himself...

There were a bunch of butterflies around one of our apple trees when we were outside Wednesday evening.

David riding his motorcycle

Caleb, one of the last days of using his Trike. The helmet was one he had picked out at Goodwill.
There collection had recently been cleaned out (I won't mention any names *cough* Mom *cough*)
so it was an adult helmet, but we figured it was better than nothing...Until I got home. It was constantly sliding off his head.