You can’t remember the last time you changed a poopy diaper.

Your mom told me that when you got home today you looked up at her and said, “Momma?” then “Dad”. She said you went looking around the house for me but I was at the store getting lighter fluid so I could grill some salmon for dinner. You weren’t very impressed by it when I put some on your tray but did suck off the baja sauce that I made for the baja salmon tacos. Your mom took the hint and gave you a bowl of plain yogurt. I swear, you’ll eat any flavor of yogurt, even plain. You also had corn, some salmon, and sauce. Your mom put you in the bath afterwards because you also had dirt on your tummy after playing in the sand box before dinner and that had mixed with everything you were eating for dinner.

I put Oskar to bed because he was having a hard time so you went to bed with Mom. After I had finally gotten him to go to sleep (he was complaining about his ear, he might have his first ear infection) I went to go clean up the kitchen and fold laundry. After a while Rose called me in because she was reading her book and you wouldn’t go to sleep with her so I had to come help.

See, you won’t fall asleep with Rose, only me. You curl up next to me and lay your head on my arm or shoulder and after fussing and fidgeting you fall asleep. You’ve also been known to head butt, pinch, kick, hit and poke while you’re supposed to be going to sleep.

I love you little bear.

I know. I live in the Pacific Northwest, I should be used to this weather. I am. However, the reason why I especially hate the weather right now, in June to be specific, is that I was really looking forward to this season for cycling. Last year I was just getting my legs, getting into rides and figuring out how it all worked. This time around I kept up some spin during the winter so I kept my leg strength from completely atrophying (kept my arm tan too, somehow) and I tried to hit the ground running, as they say. I took advantage of the sporadic nice days during winter and early spring and did a 62 mile ride a whole two months earlier in the season than last year.

And yet.

Here we are with snow in Snoqualmie Pass, branches on the ground, rain falling constantly and temperatures in the 50s. Enough.

This is my last week of school and Thursday and Friday are half days. I am moving to 6th grade next year so I may be using student labor to move my classroom tomorrow but there are about 6 of us moving and we are all depending on the other to move at the same time, otherwise it won’t work.

Milo seems to be getting more teeth to fill in the gaps between his molars and canines. He likes to fall asleep on my arm, snuggled up next to me. He knows me as “the guy who gets him to fall asleep”. He won’t do the same thing with Rose but as soon as I come to bed he lays down and goes to sleep.

Right now things are good with Oskar but lately he has been getting stuck several times a day. What I mean is that he will not be able to move forward until a precise series of events transpire, sometimes in a seemingly arbitrary way. If you move forward using a different series of events he will have to reverse them and go back to the beginning and then in the direction he feels is the “right” way.

Rose has a final tonight in one of her Childbirth Education classes and then she takes a break for the summer. Her last day for watching the kids is next Tuesday.

Other events coming up include a BBQ for Jeremy’s 35th and the Flying Wheels Century. STP is a month away and then the Summit to Surf is two weeks after that. I really hope the weather improves. I feel like a slob when I can’t ride for a week or two because of the rain and cold.

Milo went for his first swim lesson this afternoon with me. Whenever we’ve gone to drop Oskar off for his lesson and he watches the kids in the pools he reaches his arms out toward the water and begins to chirp.

Well, it was his turn today and he didn’t quite know what to think. We got our swim shorts on and headed out to the pool and then rinsed off in the shower out there. We looked at the toddler pool to find our group since the big pool was empty, then saw some parents with kids move from there to the big pool so we followed.

As soon as he got in the water he stopped wriggling around as much and grabbed on to me tightly. He never let go of me the entire 30 minutes we were in there. His eyes got big and he quietly looked around while we sang songs at the beginning of class. There wasn’t really any transition to the moving from one of the pool to the other and as we swam back and forth he just kept looking at me with his big eyes while trying to hold on to me. He didn’t look scared, just a little … concerned (if I may quote The Princess Bride). If I held him out to swim his little eyes would just get bigger as he tried to paddle back to me.

He was also getting cold. He was shivering while we were in the pool toward the end and his little lips were turning a shade of blue. We got back to the dressing room and took a warmer shower and then got dressed to go home. It’s funny, he’s always been really excited about water but this time he thought he might need some time to get used to it.

He did finally smile once, while we were singing, “The horns on the bus go beep, beep, beep” and splashed each time we beeped the horns.

Can it be that here it is 8:30 in the morning and I’m up while everyone else is in bed? Notice I didn’t say sleeping …
I heard Oskar get up this morning around 5 and thought that he was coming into our room. I next heard the toilet flush, door close, another door close and then silence. He got up, went potty and went back to bed! I am so proud of my little boy. Of course he did come into our room about 30 minutes later. I told him he could get in my bed only if he closed his eyes and went back to sleep. He did. Then I had to get up with Milo at 7. We played, took pictures, made coffee, he ate breakfast, we played some more then he started to get cranky and yawn so I bounced him around a bit to give him a taste of what was to come (back to sleep) then took him to Rose since that was where he was off to anyways.

Milo can stand on his own now for some time. He pulls himself up and then stands looking at something or playing, or clapping, he loves to do that. You can also pick him up and then instead of plopping him on the floor on his bottom just stand him up and he’ll stay there until he sees something he wants to get. I’ve seen him take a little half of a step toward me or Rose but usually if he’s standing there he’ll wobble a little bit but then drop down to the ground to go crawl since he knows he can do that really well. He can also walk around with his hippo toy and practically runs down the hall. No walking for this boy, how else is he going to keep up with his big brother?

Oskar finished his first swim session without me and we got a little sheet back to let us know what he can do, what he can almost do and what he still needs work on. He only had one thing that he needs work on, it was something I didn’t really understand. Something about floating and then standing up. He can almost swim 5 feet on his back, stomach, or side all by himself. Not that I’m trying to raise an Olympic swimmer here but I am so proud that he can do almost all of the beginning level of swimming just after his first time.

Oskar also had his Holiday night at his school. The kids sang lots of songs and it was very nice. Oh, and apparently we have “that kid”. You know, the one who is dancing and swaying while everyone else is singing and standing still. The one who claps along with the audience when the song is over. Yeah, we have him. I’ll post up pictures once I get some from the multitudes that we brought along.

Milo is still hurting due to his teeth coming in. It appears that his lateral incisors are coming in on top (one just cut through yesterday) and pushing his central incisors together; he has a little gap between his top middle two teeth. We’re hoping that once this round of teeth come in we can go back to that sweet nirvana of him sleeping through the night. He has been doing a little better, sleeping until 1-3 in the morning instead of waking up an hour or so after he goes to bed. I have been trying to put him to bed before he is all the way asleep. It takes a while but I’m trying to convince him that he can fall asleep on his own without someone holding him.

He is such a funny boy. He loves to play and crawl away from us. He stops and looks back to see if we’re following and then giggles and crawls away further. Oskar likes to get into the act and gets on my back and we both go after his little brother. Oskar even says as we chase Milo down the hall, “Dad, he can go into my bedroom!” Milo gets his share of bumps and bruises (owing somewhat to having a big brother) but he’s a tough little guy. I guess he has to be.

Oh, he also loves to dance. He will pull himself up onto a piece of furniture and bounce and bop around while the music plays. We just pulled out a little toy from when Oskar was a baby, a little train that drives about 5 feet, and although Milo wanted to chase after it, he couldn’t help but boogie to the little music it was playing. He would let it go, dance a little, and then chase after it.

I haven’t seen much of Oskar lately as he has been not napping and therefore falling asleep on the way home. I only see him if he gets up in the middle of the night to go potty and then in the morning. He loves making smoothies together in the morning and proclaims that he, “loves protein powder.” We are having a hard time getting him to listen to us and actually do the things in a reasonable amount of time but I suppose what parents of three year-olds aren’t?

A few weeks ago while the weather was nice on a weekend we took Oskar’s bike to the park and he rode around the lake three times and mostly by himself. That’s a couple miles and for a little boy I was quite proud of him. He did take a spill while going down a hill (he’s working on braking, he instinctually puts his feet down instead of on the pedals) and although he cried for a little bit he got right back on his bike and kept going.

Oskar is going to be a dragon for Halloween, we’ll get some pictures up. He is dressing up for school on Wednesday and we’ll go trick-or-treating later that day with him. He also took his costume with his grandparents while he was out on the boat in Wollochet, it’s an outstation of the Tacoma Yacht Club and he was there for a Halloween party that kids and grandkids of members have.

Our boys are so much fun and we’re constantly just playing and hugging them and enjoying the time we spend with them.

For the fourth time in a row, Milo has slept all the way through the night. He’s been going to bed around 7:00 or 7:30 PM and waking up when we get ready in the morning around 6:00 AM. All of a sudden we have the bed to ourselves, and what a very large bed it is. The funny thing is that he just started doing this, the sleeping through the night. There was no gradual sleeping more and more or waking up less and less. I think his teeth stopped hurting, for now, and so there was nothing to wake him up several times during the night.

In other news he pretty much has a command over crawling. He can sit up from a crawl and go anywhere he wants. He also tries to bear walk, which is pretty funny since he sticks his bottom way up in the air and it looks like he’s trying to do push-ups. The other amazing thing is he can pull himself up to standing when he’s sitting. I found this out last night when I sat him down on the floor in front of me so I could take my shoes off. I felt him pulling and grabbing on my pants and I looked down and there he was standing on his own holding on to my jeans. It took me a few moments to realize what was going on since I have never seen him do that and he’s still just a little boy.

It’s funny how you forget to baby proof your house once you have a crawler and stander but with the second kid we’re less freaky scared about everything.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Milo has upgraded his baby babbles and is now saying “bob”, “bobba”, and, sometimes, “mom” and “momma”.

Milo just went in for his 6 month check-up. Some fun numbers:

• 95th percentile for height
• 75th percentile for weight
• 40th percentile for head circumference

He is also getting his third tooth, right above the bottom two in the front middle. It’s making him quite cranky but luckily my trick for getting him to sleep is still working. If he’s tired enough I just cover his head with a blankie while holding him and bouncing him around and he usually puts his head down on my shoulder and after a little tossing back and forth he’s asleep. Genius! Of course, that just gives me more time to make sure Oskar is staying in bed, there’s never a dull moment.

We’re also moving Oskar into a new room, the old office/junk room. Milo will get his old room since Oskar’s new room is bigger which will be helpful for his big boy bed and big boy toys. His old room already has the camera set up in it (it’s hardwired) and we can use that to keep an eye on Milo once he’s in the crib, he’s still in our bed or in the Pack and Play right next to it.

My boys at the lake cabin near Yelm.

We’ve posted videos of the kids online at YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=davstock