7/23 - Unpacking: what a LONG process

So we are getting there. Just 1 box in the boys' rooms and about 4 in mine. The office - well that's a different story. I took the boys on a bike ride the week we got here to give Brad some time to mow the yard. The boys did great. Eli has graduated to Aiden's bike and Aiden is now riding a bike that our former neighbor gave him. He wouldn't ride it for the longest time because the training wheels were a little shorter than the real wheel and Aiden freaked out if the bike would rock a tiny bit. We gave up on trying to convince Aiden he was still safe so Brad adjusted the training wheels and now it's rock solid and Aiden is back in his comfy place and will let his brother ride the other 'big boy' bike. After 2 years of Eli pitching a fit if I even tried to put the helmet on his head and not even click it together, he has decided to freely and voluntarily wear one now. What gives? Even though we are supposed to be living in a really nice area, I like our old development better. It had huge sidewalks and they were on both sides of the street throughout the major parts. Here, we can go on the sidewalk for 2-3 houses and then have to go in the street for 1-2 lots because houses are not built yet and that means there is no sidewalk. It makes it very challenging to go for a bike ride. I think we will start putting the bikes in the van and then driving over to Oakleaf and riding on their huge sidewalks.

The local Wal-mart here is like a small chuckie-e-cheese. Here are the boys playing on the rides for a bit. They are getting smarter though and now they know if you have money, cooler things can happen to those machines! :)

It's been pretty rainy here lately so we even tried hitting up the Orange Park Mall. The boys used to love this play area. They were really excited to go back but unfortunately, they have taken about half of the fun things to climb on out of the play area. 

We went up and down the escalators in a department store which always makes them happy. We tried to wear them out. Another thing: they are used to relatively short drives from one place to another. Those days are LONG gone here in Jax. Everything is about 30-45 minutes here and that is taking some adjusting for all of us. They are bored, I mis-plan and am late everywhere, and I spend $70 a week on gas. 

I have taken the boys down to the pool. It was ... not Oakleaf (which has huge water features for kids to play with) but there is a baby pool which has a little slide and a bigger pool with a 100-ft slide that is crazy fast and something my kids will not go on probably while we live here. If they do, I better put a swim diaper on them because they might actually poo in their pants with how fast it is. I love it! There is also a 1m and 3m diving board but you have to know how to swim in order to use those.

Eli tried this speedo vest on and water wings for the first time the other and LOVED them. I was shocked. He was swimming around everywhere and wouldn't let Aiden have the wings back. He didn't want us near him and said he could "do it by himself." I informed him that unless he knew how to swim and float with the vest and floaties, a grown up would always be by him while swimming.















The one thing that saved us at the pool was that there are a few water spout things and the boys love to play in those.

Aiden is all registered for Kindergarten. I'm still looking for a daycare for Eli but think I have it figured out. The boys both went to their former daycare last week for 2 days so Brad and I could get some work done and they could socialize and play with friends. Both had their physicals done and we already have an appt set for Eli for an ENT and it's the same doctor who did both sets of tubes and his adenoids which I'm super happy about. These super hero boys have been troopers lately with so much going on.










The boys have really been wanting to go in a canoe in the lake where we live at. We finally did that last week. It was going great until it suddenly started pouring. I mean absolutely went from no rain drops to POURING. Aiden freaked out a little. He was in Brad's canoe and they came racing over to the dock and Aiden got out and ran for shelter. Eli was in my canoe and we got to the dock first. Eli thought the rain was pretty fun.

Our friends that we met in Maryland 5 years ago just moved from CA to FL. We are so excited that they are in the same city as us now even though we live on opposite sides. We got to meet up with Mike and Arin (and Grace, their 4 yr old daughter) last week. It was great and I can't wait for more visits and hang outs to come. 

The boys have been asking to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for a while now so we finally went. This one is right down the street from us which is nice. The boys had a blast.  

And I do mean ALL the boys (Brad is so cute).

I have another post to do. We went to St. Pete on Friday and moved my mom in with us on Saturday. Things have been overwhelming lately and I still have unpacking to do but I never seem to have any time to do it. We are about to enjoy a 4 day vacation in Orlando before Brad leaves for a few months. We just found out today Brad's next orders are longer than he thought. In addition to that, he will have a 9 month cruise. Our lease is for 2 yrs which means it is likely that I will have to move our entire household during his deployment to another location for a few months which totally would stink. Our landlords are military as well and they have 2 yrs orders and are planning to move back in here (and retire) so I'm not sure there is any wiggle room. I have to trust that this is God's plan and He will provide and guide us and worrying about things is not going to help me at all.

6/19 - Chuck E Cheese & swimming lessons

We had our garage sale on Saturday and we did pretty well. Aiden woke up not feel in too well which was kinda good for us because he was very content to just sit and watch tv in his new pirate hate that he got for his birthday. He woke up with a bloody nose for the 3rd day in a row.

Eli was feeling just fine and didn't feel like sitting in the house for the morning while Brad and I did the garage sale so he came out to help us. Here he is showing everyone how much he loves this car track. Eli was a bit hard to constrain because he had lots of energy. He came outside quite a bit and tried to help us. Overall, we had a successful garage sale and got rid of some stuff that is too big to move with us again.

On Sunday, I took Aiden to the ER while Brad and Eli went to church to celebrate Father's Day. It turns out that Aiden has bronchitis and an ear infection. Go figure.

On Monday, the boys were home with me and we went to exercise in the morning. They've been doing such a good job of going to the gym with me and not complaining that I wanted to reward them by letting them have some fun at Chuck E Cheese for a bit. I gave them each 10 tokens and lots of playtime in the tunnels. Here they are riding the carousel:

Aiden was starting to feel better because he had 3 doses of the antibiotics and they gave him a dose of steroids in the hospital after they saw the chest x-rays. He was still pretty tired but breathing better. Eli and Aiden decided to use a token on the basketball hoops and they did a pretty good job. Aiden actually made quite a few baskets and Eli made it over the glass partition quite a few times too. :)

Here are the boys enjoying "driving" a police car. Eli was having so much fun on this. We left for home at about 11:40pm to have some lunch and take a nap.

On Monday afternoon, Aiden had therapy. Here he is before feeding therapy and he was making frog paint prints before Terri convinced him to make a print with his own finger. That took a while to get to but he did eventually use his own finger and then even went a little crazy and we got a few toes for a partial footprint which is really nuts for Aiden.

After therapy we went straight to our first swim lesson. The boys were excited. Aiden is in a class where it is just the kids and 2 instructors while Eli is in the mommy and me class. Aiden thankfully bonded to the male teacher there on the first day and swam a few laps with him. Here is Aiden getting lifted over the bar for the platform.

He held on to the instructor and went down the length of the pool with his help while kicking his legs.

Poor Eli was freezing and didn't really fit well in this class. Many of the other kids were tiny babies and Eli was clearly already comfortable in the water and many of these babies were not!

He got a little bored and wanted to get out of the pool eventually. The instructor said he should be in the next class up which is Aiden's class but they are supposed to be at least 4 years old to be in that class.

We had swimming again today and the instructor did move him up to Aiden's class and Eli did great today. Both boys did great and used the kick board for a lap today. We were so proud of both of them. Eli is a little fish and is definitely in the upper half (talent-wise) of his class even though he's the smallest. We have swimming lessons Mon through Thur for the next 2 weeks for 40 minutes each day.