We are super busy but it’s all self-imposed business, the kind where we don’t have time to go grocery because we were at the zoo all morning and the playground all afternoon. Then I’m up too late at night putting away laundry blogging and watching The Walking Dead but I’m so exhausted when I do fall asleep I sleep like a log and wake up to a 3 year old begging to go to the zoo and the playground again. It’s not so bad, is what I’m saying.

Sunday:

I was trying to take a picture of my cute dress and Caroline decided to crawl back up the way she came out. NO.

Hot and sweaty walk to church

She’s wondering what kind of terrible mother doesn’t provide air conditioning

Monday:

Naughty? Who’s being naughty?

The nice aquarium volunteer helped Evan touch a starfish…and Evan ripped it’s leg off.

Really excited to be at BJ’s.

Tuesday:

<3 <3 <3

He REALLY likes peanut butter and honey sandwiches

I LOVE having a track I can walk to for C25K

Wednesday:

Er’ybody relax! I found the sequins!

REALLY EXCITED about the tiny plums

Back-to-back reading

Thursday:

I think Ken has something to tell his parents.

Sleeeeeeeepy face

POOR CHOICES

Hard core running in the dark.

Friday:

My kids get SO EXCITED over other people’s toys

Howdy!

Crazy old house wallpaper

Saturday:

Boxcar Children

BLT & onion rings = Vacation Food

It was a train-tastic day.

Tomorrow is Evan’s (forced) best friend Reid’s birthday. It’s robot themed, so we’re staying up tonight making robots out of boxes and melting crayons into little silicone molds. It’s going to be pretty low key but still SUPER cute. Then we head back to Connecticut for another super awesome week of summer fun. I LOVE YOU JULY.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

This might be one of the braggiest braggy monthday updates ever. Just warning you. I don’t feel bad or anything.

Caroline is 19 months and she can name pictures in books (kitty, mommy, milk, cow) which is listed as an Advanced Skill for 21 month olds. She already sleeps in a big girl bed, which is an Advanced Skill for 22 month olds. She can walk down stairs – an Emerging Skill at 24 months – by herself if it’s only 3 or 4 stairs or with a handrail, if she’s tall enough to reach it (mostly, she’s not, so she holds my hand). She can jump with both feet off the ground, which isn’t even ON this chart – it’s listed on the 25-30 months chart. And if yelling “JUMP!” as she throws herself off the couch and “WALK!” when I’m carrying her and she wants to get down (“DOWN!”) counts, she can “Name two actions (e.g., skipping, jumping)”, a skill not listed until 36 months.

She’s really freaking smart, is what I’m saying. And it’s not all good. Her new favorite word is “no”, which she says even when she means yes. I started counting with her (“Caroline! Stop running away from me. I’m going to count to three!”) and instead of listening she yells “THREE!” and runs faster. I’m just lucky she’s still too short to reach the doorknobs so I can trap contain keep her in her room for naps. Toddlers are like velociraptors – they’re only REALLY dangerous once they can open doors.

I forgot to bring her record book to her 18 month appointment so I don’t remember the exact numbers, but she was about 21 pounds which still puts her in the 25th percentile. She fell to the 15th percentile in height, but instead of freaking out the way the doctor did when Evan dropped to a lower curve, the doc just said “Meh, put peanut butter on her apples.” Which is good, since “AP-PULL!” is her new favorite food (again). She also loves every other kind of fruit, carrots, peas picked from our garden, anything she can dip in hummus and Wheat Thins. She pretty much loves food in general, which makes me a happy mama – no fighting to get calories into her and worrying the doctor is going to order more weight checks.

Her favorite place is the aquarium (although the zoo is a close second) where she presses her entire body up against the glass and screams “FIIIIIIIIIIIIISH! FISH! FISH!” She will sit through the entire sea lion show and is happy to touch the sharks and stingrays and crabs in the touch tanks. I cannot even tell you how much I love that she loves the aquarium. It feels like I somehow passes a piece of my heart and brain to her as well as my genetic code.

Other likes include dogs, kitties, books, turtles, climbing, slides, water of all kinds, nudity, juice, cheese, apples, talking, shouting, screeching, running, stairs, the potty, beds, fruit snacks, fist bumps, boats, fire trucks, her dolly, dancing, music, babies and hugs.

Dislikes include falling down, being hungry, letting me look in her mouth, missing out on fun things, when her brother puts a pillow over her face and sits on it.

Baby pool? I don’t need no stinkin’ baby pool.

Oh hai, is this a problem?

NOW is it a problem?

Man I love testing limits! So fun!

I’m too cute for you to stay mad.

LACE. ROMPER.

She’s thinking about jumping

Accessorizing!

Heartbreaker

Posing for her Senior Portrait

The many faces of Caroline

19 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Uses a spoon and fork – Prefers forks, but can use both.
Runs – SO FAST.
Throws a ball underhand – She got E RIGHT in the face with a ball the other day. I laughed because I’m a bad person, but I should probably be signing her up for softball.
Enjoys helping around the house – You guys, I think she does more chores than I do. She loves helping and I am not adverse to letting her.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Understands as many as 200 words – Understands ALL THE WORDS. She even understands sarcasm. Obviously she’s my daughter. She also SAYS at least 75 words – her newest skill is words with more than one syllable.
Recognizes when something is wrong (e.g., calling a dog a cat) – I’m sure she WOULD but that seems like kind of a mean game.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Washes and dries own hands with help – Washes hands all freaking day if I’d let her,
Points to picture or object when you call it by name – We just played a game of this in while hanging out in front of the open fridge. She got: yogurt, milk, juice, cheese, grapes and beer.
May know when she needs to pee – Can pee and poop in the potty but also just thinks using the bathroom is REALLY COOL so she wants to do it all the time. I’m not going to work on actual potty training for a couple more months, unless she does it entirely on her own.

Our newest obsession, Roger Williams Park Zoo/ Hasbro’s Big Back Yard in Providence. I’ve got a membership that includes a guest, let me know if you want to come with us! (At 9 am, we had the place to ourselves!)

Dear Summer,

Never end.

xoxo, Suzanne

Lazy boy, lazy dog nap

I made a fascinator out of leftover tutu tulle and a flea market pin. E thinks I’m ridiculous.

Don Draper, marry me. No wait, you’re an asshole.

Monday:

Look Mom! I found a hypodermic needle! (Not really, just the most dangerous/poorly maintained playground I’ve ever seen.)

Checking to see if his ears are broken

C25K – I’m smiling out the outside but crying on the inside.

Tuesday:

A few morning minutes of sleep thanks to PBS Kids

Snacks with their penguin friends

Who says knitting is a winter hobby?

Wednesday:

Zoo animals looking at aoudads

Water painting at Hasbro’s Big Back Yard. AMAZING place.

Such a busy day…this looks like a good place for a nap.

Thursday:

Very classy breakfast

This is the first time Caroline ever noticed sand.

I heart gingers buttons, headed your way

Friday:

He didn’t understand why I kept calling his football a soccer ball (cc: Elliot & Sara)

And lead me not into latte and cinnamon bun temptation…

…but deliver me into Week 3 Day 3 of running.

Saturday:

Family reading time

This is where E works aka his second family.

On the water is the best way to end a week

And now I have to go finish cleaning my kitchen because I have people coming over today to talk about blogging. We’re trying to get a super-local group going and I volunteered to host. I hope they bring wine and not too many questions, since I have no idea what I’m doing. I’ll have tons of haunted lighthouse pictures and a new recipe to post this week, plus one embarrassingly late set of fishing photos from our vacation in Virginia.

Did you take any camera phone photos this week? Link up with one or lots using the linky below and grab the code (so it shows on your blog too!) over at Amy’s . It’s really fun!

That is the face of someone who feels guilty for cheating on her “I’ve gotta lose 15 pounds in 3 weeks” diet but who REALLY enjoyed her Five Guys burger for lunch. And also enjoys playing with her new iPhone photo app.

I fell off the Weight Watchers bandwagon during the cruise back in March. Despite my plans to get back to counting as soon as I got home…or as soon as the weekend was over…or right after this ice cream cone…I never really did. It was a great plan and absolutely works as long as you ACTUALLY DO IT. But I stopped. So I stopped losing weight. And then I gained back almost 20 pounds of the 30 I had lost because no matter HOW many times I tell myself “Oh yes, I’m making healthy choices!” I constantly underestimate what I’m eating. It’s just SO EASY to eat 500 calories worth of cookies while telling myself I’m only eating 200 calories worth of cookies while also telling myself I didn’t eat ANY cookies what are you talking about I’ve had nothing but carrot sticks all day oh right.

So I officially stopped throwing my money into Weight Watchers and downloaded the LoseIt app. I like it a lot but – AGAIN, shockingly – you only lose weight if you’re actually following the calorie guidelines and tracking what you eat. I’m good at it for about 4 days in a row and then I fall HARD off the plan and stuff my face. Someone recently told me a cheat day actually helps you lose MORE weight so I’m pretending hoping that’s true. I’ve also restarted the Couch To 5K program – I’m already on week 3 – and doing pretty well. On the days I can’t run because it’s dark when E gets home and/or my shinsplints are killing me I do a Jillian DVD or go to Stroller Strides.

I’m down 4 pounds in a week and a half, but I suspect a lot of that was just water weight (I ran out of Diet Coke). I think as long as I keep my cheat days down to once or twice a week I can keep up at least the exercise part of this New! Improved! Suzanne! plan – I don’t actually HATE working out and that seems to be the key to eating more than just lettuce and boiled chicken all the time. And nothing beats seeing the results on the scale.

But in the mean time, I need to remind myself that the body I have now is pretty good too. I can pick up the kids and climb on the playground and splash in the lake and run through a field and hold them both in my lap for story time and walk through the zoo for three hours without collapsing (although I make no promises when it comes to getting out of bed the next day). I won’t be winning (or entering) any bikini contests, but there’s no contest for who can beat themselves up the most over not fitting in their wedding dress after 2 kids either. And the LAST thing I want is for my kids to start picking up on why I’m always sighing and sucking in my stomach when I put on my bathing suit.

TL:DR version – I’m on a diet again but still love cheeseburgers. Amen.

p.s. I might not be as thin as I was when I got married but I am just as tan and just as blond for the first time since 2004 and it feels goooooooood. MOAR SUNLIGHT FOR EVERYONE.