Love & Sunshine

Sawyer:

Sawyer is such a little helper. He loves to help me switch over laundry and to unload the dishwasher. He especially likes to take care of the plates. He gets them out one at a time and stacks them on the floor. Then he picks up the whole pile and says, "Heeevy!" while he hands them up to me.

He'll follow me and Dillon around the house when he thinks we're going to do something that he can assist with and parrot, "hepping, hepping." He's also figured out that if he says he's helping, he's less likely to get in trouble, even if it's not the most helpful thing (like squeezing out the majority of my face moisturizer on the floor.)

This past week he's decided that his little brother is pretty cool and actually interacts with him. I took a million pictures because it was just so cute. He'll play on the floor with Dawson, talk to him while he's in his bouncer, give him toys, and constantly ask to hold him (and then actually hold him for a surprisingly long time.)

He's loved being able to go outside more this week, as have we all. He's gotten to go to the school playground a couple of times and it's crazy to me how much more he can do by himself than he could before winter. He climbs like crazy and goes down the big slides by himself. He even got to go on the big kid swings after I explained to him that he couldn't let go while I pushed. 

Dawson:

Dawson turned five months old this week and has a whole post all to himself that will be up soon. He likes to watch Sawyer do things and loves when his big brother interacts with him. He's getting all sorts of chubby with particular emphasis in his cheeks and forearms.

He's got crazy dry skin. It's not even really eczema like, though he'll occasionally get patches. It's just so, so dry. His poor little cheeks are so.. "crackily" is the best term I can think of. I've tried regular lotion, eucerin, vasoline, even lanolin. I need some suggestions. So seriously, if you read this, please comment and tell me any tips you have for dry skin.

Dillon:

Besides for his everyday work, Dillon also had to work at home fixing our heater that was freaking out. There has been some blasting (at some kind of mine?..I'm not real informed obviously) that makes our windows rattle and gives our house a good shake. It's made our house settle and the metal blades of the fan in our heater shifted so that when the heat kicked on they would hit the metal frame. It basically sounded like a rocket was trying to blast off in our house and obviously made it so that we couldn't run the heater. Which meant, cold. So Dillon, being the handy man he is, took off the panel and had to bend/file some places on the blades. It took some trial and error but we're good to go now.

Since the beginning of the year, Dillon and I have chosen some kind of health related goal to complete each month. This month Dillon proposed no sugar and no pop and he's rocking it. Me, not so much. I've done fine without pop but on about day four I was an angry sugar craving monster (clearly a sign that I really should be cutting back, maybe next month). I need my chocolate, dangit.


DaNae:

I gave up on one half of our month's health goal but I've finally improved to a decent speed on the treadmill. It's still a walking speed, not running, but it's finally what I would consider an actual "exercise" speed. My poor bones took a long time to recuperate this postpartum round so it was slow going getting back into a good groove.

I finally got to get outside and use the double stroller with the boys. It's a decent stroller for a cheapy but I think I'd like to invest in a more sturdy one that Sawyer could ride in for a longer amount of time. I'm definitely taking advantage of getting outside during this window of pleasant warmth before it gets to the level of face-melting hot.

Sawyer talking to Dawson during tummy time.

Sawyer patting Dawson on the back and pointing to the TV, "Show."

I left the room to go to the bathroom and came back to Dawson fussing and Sawyer doing this while saying, "Peek-boo!". "Yes buddy, peek-a-boo, Now take it off his face."

One of the many rounds of me holding Sawyer while he holds Dawson.

From Instagram: Oh hey sunshine 🌞 Finally warm enough for time outside! #thatchbros

Loving the playground by our house.

Patient baby while brother plays.

One of the 8 million selfies that end up on my phone if I leave it unattended.

Round two of the playground, this time Dad and Dawson got in on the action.

There are few things that bring more joy to Sawyer's life than the Jeep. He was in heaven helping Dillon give it a wash and playing in the water.

Me and Dawson soaked up some Vitamin D and watched the other boys do the hard work.

From instagram: Those cheekies ❤👶💋 #DawsonD

The conversation that goes with this picture:

Me: Look Sawyer, you've got a tiny freckle on your finger. Look at the cute freckle!

Sawyer: (tries to rub it off) Stuuuuck!!

Me: It doesn't come off buddy. It's part of your skin. Look at all of mom's freckles.

Sawyer: (checks out my arm freckles and rubs them ponderingly) Dirr-ee.

Yes dude. Perpetually dirty.

Hungry, Hungry Hippos! Sawyer gets more delight in shoving the marbles in the hippos' mouths and saying, "Eat!" as he does actually playing the game.

Dawson watching the marble chaos.