fiske dot com: June 2012

June 30, 2012

A Day at the Lake

it's been hot here. like, really hot and really humid.

so it really should come to no surprise that when some friends invited us to join them for an afternoon at the lake, we jumped on the opportunity. we've been cooped up inside because i've been avoiding the heat, and we have a little boy who lives and dies for the outdoors (and it seems his sister is quickly following in his footsteps).

we were all quite a sight to see at the lake. there were ten kids there, and eight of them were under the age of three. five were under the age of one. it was a lot of babies. maggie is in good company in our ward.

mike and tennyson had a good time down at the lake. tennyson tried throwing the beach back into the lake. mike tried throwing the lake onto the beach. they were a good team.

i didn't venture to the water (i'm still trying to get over the emotional trauma from the last time i donned a bathing suit). maggie and i sat with the other moms and babies and soaked up the shade and the breeze.

once the lake playing was over, we all had a picnic lunch and played with bubbles.

then it got too hot. so we left to get mcflurries, and take naps.

June 26, 2012

giraffe

meet giraffe.

he's one of the animals tennyson goes to bed with every night.

he's been a part of the nighttime crew since tennyson first started sleeping alone in his crib.

he's a pretty cool thing.

you wind him up and he plays music and his head dances around in a circle.

only, tennyson's giraffe doesn't do that anymore.

he broke his neck.

this was a devastating injury to our family.

as you all know, a broken neck will paralyze a person.

turns out, it paralyzes giraffes, too, and he would no longer play music.

luckily, mike and i are pretty good at surgery on stuffed animals.

but giraffe was left with a few battle scars.

and now, a few months have passed since surgery.

our sutures aren't holding as well as we'd have hoped.

his stuffing is starting to come out.

but he is still loved.

i tried to replace giraffe the other day with a newer model.

tennyson wouldn't have it.

he sat there hugging giraffe for a while after.

looks like giraffe will be with us for a long time.

injured or not, he is loved.

June 19, 2012

Red Sox v. Cubs

Mike made a deal with my parents a while back: if they'd get him tickets to the Cubs game when they were playing the Red Sox, he'd wear a Cubs shirt. They agreed.

He only promised the shirt, though. So we all donned our Red Sox socks, and Mike threw on his Red Sox cap. Then we headed to the game.

(my mom is a particular fan of this picture because of the score. yes, the cubs won. but the red sox won the other two games, so mike still came out on top in the end.)

First thing we had to do was buy Tennyson a hat. We forgot his at home... And it was 95 degrees and sunny outside and he's a ginger. Plus, he's found this new love for caps lately, and they look adorable on him.

(the backwards cap is tennyson's doing. he always flips them around. i think it is because the visor gets in the way of seeing things.)

Turned out, we didn't even really need the hat for Tennyson. Our seats were perfectly in the shade and there was a breeze coming across the field right at us. It was like sitting in air conditioning. It was also a fight getting Tennyson to look at the camera for any of our pictures. He was too into what was going on down on the field. He takes after his dad.

(nothing to get over your fears and insecurities about nursing in public like nursing at wrigley field. i think if i can do it there, i can do it just about anywhere.)

I think we may have a true fan on our hands...

(cheering for a cubs run. he made the fans around us proud. he made his dad less than proud.)

(you're out! his favorite thing we got to do at the game.)

(and like any true fan, he had to argue with grandma about how many strikes they had.)

It turned out to be the perfect afternoon. I love going to baseball games.

Of course, that isn't all we did while we were in Chicago.

We were able to spend an afternoon at the pool.

(by the way, i am now sure that there is nothing more damaging you can do to your ego than put on a bathing suit at 6 weeks postpartum.)

(just lounging poolside. she's a natural.)

We also built a fire one night to make s'mores. Tennyson ran around in the smoke like it was a sprinkler.

So the next day we pulled out the real sprinkler for him to play in.

(he wasn't brave enough to go in himself, so mike had to run around with him.)

(mike threw a lot of water on tennyson's face. tennyson found it hilarious.)

(my bossy boy telling dad "down!")

(not happy to have leaves sticking to his feet.)

I love having family nearby.

June 12, 2012

A Week in Pictures {Jun 3-9}

sunday. mom and her little girl.

monday. big yawns.

tuesday. a perfect view.

wednesday. as close to a group nap as it gets.

thursday. boys will be boys.

friday. one month old beauty.

saturday. hole in one.

Kids Day at the Park

We have great friends.

This past weekend, one of them informed us it was kid's day at the park.

And I had been dying to get Tennyson out to a park anyway.

We got to dig for some prizes.

Then we spent a lot of time mini golfing. Tennyson was a great help. Mike would hit the ball towards the hole and then Tennyson would pick it up and put it in. Hole in one! (That is how it works, right?)

video evidence of golf expertise:

Tennyson also got to peek into a firetruck. We mostly went there to get the cool hat to add to our dress up collection. He honestly could have cared less about the truck.

But Tennyson did love the elephant. He's been super into jungle animals lately. Lions are his favorite, but I don't know of many places that let little kids ride on lions. So the park had an elephant. Second best, I guess. We were pretty mean parents and didn't wait in the long line in the hot sun to let Tennyson ride. We weren't sure it'd go over great anyway, and I didn't feel like waiting for 30 minutes for something that had a 50 percent chance of being enjoyed.

By the time we had done all that, we were pretty hot. So we sat in the shade and enjoyed a nice sippy. And mom and dad enjoyed some hot dogs and lemonade.

Tennyson had a blast. It was real nice getting out. We saw a lot of our friends from church while we were there, and Tennyson got to get out all that excess energy he has.

Like I said, we have great friends. They keep us in the know. I would have hated to miss out on such a nice afternoon.

(proof that maggie and i attended)

June 8, 2012

One Month

Maggie is a month old today. Time is flying by. I think it goes faster when you have two kids taking up your time. Every day is the same. I wake up in the morning, and then it is suddenly 10 at night. I don't know where the time in between that goes (okay, so I do... it goes to nursing and pumping and feeding bottles and cleaning bottles and making macaroni and cheese and restarting Mickey Mouse and building block towers and nursing and pumping and...).

Maggie is a wiggle worm. We can't get her to stop moving. The only way we can get her to sleep is to swaddle her, or pin down her arms in some other way. She's also very dainty. I've never seen a baby spit up in such a ladylike manner.

Right now, we are learning to like binkys. We are getting okay stretches of sleep. She typically goes about 3 hours at night, and about 1.5 during the day. We are waiting to see what color her eyes turn into, and if her hair is going to lighten up like Mike's did. '

Most of all, we are just enjoying our time with our little newborn. She'll be a toddler before we know it.