Middle Tennessee, minus me

We are just a few days away from the start of preschool in the Mettee house and I, for one, am ready for a little structure to our days. Before everyone gets back into the routine, John took the boys to Mount Juliet this past week to see Pop and Grammy for a couple of days. Having different days off than John, I stayed back in Memphis and begged for any photos I could get from the trip. John came through.

Much of the family made it to the Wilson County fair on Tuesday night. Jack got to hang out with big cousins Anna and Ryan -- not to mention Pop and Grammy -- so he was a happy boy. He's still telling me how brave he was on some of the rides.  



The crew in jail -- at least that's what Jack told me when I asked.

Soccer. Sort of.

Fall soccer practice started back a couple of weeks ago -- right in the middle of our Memphis heatwave. Practice, for now, is in the church gym, which is always cool but can bring challenges to dribbling. Picture seven 5-year-olds chasing balls up and now the court as they practice dribbling. It brings great entertainment on Sunday afternoons.

Last fall, we spent a good amount of time coaxing Jack back onto the soccer field after he'd wander off. We're hoping for a longer attention span this fall and for a little more endurance. So far, so good. Well, better at least. True to form, though, Jack still makes sure to find time to socialize during practice. Here he is with his friends, Anna, and Grant.

Meanwhile, Ben is still itching to get in the action.

No Sprinkler Park Needed

We headed over to Aunt Ruby and Uncle John's new house last night to meet up with our good friends Tara and Nicky. Jack and Nicky are buds and it gave Jack a chance to get out some of his summer restlessness. After dinner, Ruby turned on the sprinklers outside and let the kids run. It was like having a built-in sprinkler park.

I've been playing some with a new Instragram app I added to my phone last week. It adds an effect that makes the photos look old.

 I'm pretty sure there's a picture just like this in Mom's old photo albums -- reminds me of Ruby at this age.

Growing Up?

The green bottle and Bobby. Our world prettv much revolves around these two things. I confessed that Ben still used a green bottle to a friend this week -- the fact that my 2-year-old still demands a bottle of milk every morning. Well, really all the time.

"You should blog about it," she said. At first, the thought sounded ludicrous, but the more I thought about it, the more I was reminded that these are the things I want to remember. And so, I took a photo of what mornings at the Mettee house sometimes look like. It's a battleground and sometimes, John and I are just proud to come out sane. Just a few things that I thought of when I took this photo: 

1. The green bottle. Ben can use a sippy, he just doesn't want to. And sometimes, we don't want the battle. What's funny to me is that he demands a green bottle -- and knows his colors enough to know when I'm sliding by. My guess is that a kid who can pick out his bottle by color shouldn't be using it. I also think he'll still turn out OK. 

2. The thumb and Bobby. Slowly, Bobby is unraveling to nothing, but for now, he's still around. And JUST like cousin Katie, Jack is always sucking on his thumb when bobby is in his hand.

3. The coffee table. You'll see the couch behind them, but these boys would much rather climb up on the table to watch morning cartoons. Still, no one was screaming, right?

Just as fast as I capture this moment, though, I'm caught by how big they really are getting. I grabbed this photo of Jack about a month ago, when he told me he wanted me to cut the tattered part of bobby, so he could throw it away. Bobby is now down to a small square and my guess is that eventually, it'll fit in his pocket.  

 As they grow up, I'm also trying to keep my need for perfection in check. John and I usually make beds each morning, and I've been trying to encourage Jack to help. A few weeks ago, he came downstairs so proud of his achievement.  So proud of that boy.

 

We'll keep taking it day by day around here. And one day, I know, I'll look up and they'll be completely independent. These are the things I'll remember. 

Pop and Grammy Visit

Pop and Grammy came to visit this past week -- we haven't seen them in a while, so the boys were super excited to see them. Ben asked me this morning, two days after they left, if he could go upstairs and see Pop.

With the temperatures soaring well past 100 this week, we had to find some inside activities. John took them all to Incredible Pizza Company the first day of their visit. We all made it to the children's museum on Wednesday.

Ben waiting on the parachute to fill with hot air and go into the sky.


Summer List No. 1: Make Ice Cream

We knocked another "to do" off our summer list this weekend with my first experiment with homemade ice cream. It was much easier than I thought it would be, and my dear friend Lori was right: It does taste better when you make it yourself.

 Just one hiccup in the cooking: I know how to temper an egg, but got a little impatient. I ended up pulling a few pieces of scrambled egg out of the batter.

 Our cookies and cream creation. I used skim milk but stuck with the heavy whipping cream. Needless to say, it's a little rich.

John told me it was "off the chain." So I'm calling it a success.

Bedtime

We said goodbye to our nursery this weekend, a little earlier than I'd expected. Ben made it clear he was ready, even if I wasn't, after flinging himself out of the crib every couple of hours for two nights straight. On Saturday night, Ben was up from midnight to 5 a.m., and every time John and I put him back in the crib, he'd scream and then climb over.

"Why don't you just set up the bed," my mom asked. Because in my plan, Ben gets several more months in his baby bed. He's a baby for a little while longer. Never mind the plan. Ben's not having it.

Instead, we took the crib apart on Sunday afternoon and found it a good home by the time the sun went down. I was the only one who gave pause for even a moment that this crib -- the one that held both my babies -- was gone. I'm usually not very sentimental around stuff, but this "stuff," yes.

It took the boys relatively no time to take the crib apart. Ben's new bed is actually the top bunk in a set of bunk beds we bought for the boys a couple of years ago. The top bunk has a set of rails that make it a perfect toddler bed.

 Thanks to Aunt Susie for the great bedding (once Cousin Ryan's so both Jack and Ben think it's special) Ben's reaction when he saw the bed: "Mom, I WOOOVE trains." He is so proud of being a big boy.

I still need to hang some photos, but it was a relatively easy job.

Ben has slept soundly for the past three nights, and Jack has even had to go wake him up the past few mornings.  Now, if potty training were so easy, I'd go ahead and knock it out too.