The Last Week of Summer

With September starting tomorrow, I realized that this was our last week of summer! On Monday morning as I watched all the kids in my neighborhood leaving for their first day of school I was so glad that my kids are still little and I don't have to send them off just yet! Instead of lamenting the end of summer, we are just looking forward to all the fun fall has in store!

I think one of my favorite memories of this summer will be from the pool. It was so exciting to watch Chase learn to swim! This kid has absolutely no fear of the water and loves having his whole head under! I tried to teach him to float on his back, but he really resisted it telling me the whole time, "I just need my face in the water!" By the end of the summer he could jump off the side and then swim over to the steps all by himself! It really was incredible! The past few weeks Chase has fought me really hard about even getting in the pool, and then once I coaxed him in he had a blast! Crazy kid. 

This last Saturday my dad called to see if Chase could "come play." Meaning he wanted to take Chase with him on all his Saturday morning errands, which included Sams Club and Home Depot which are two of Chase's favorite errands ever. Chase was thrilled and I loved having a whole morning of just me and Hudson! Huds has been such a sweet baby, and it makes me sad that we don't get the same amount of one-on-one time I got with Chase as a baby. I had a blast just reading to him, cuddling him and focusing all my attention on him for the morning. My favorite memories of Hudson from this summer will be of all the things he's learned- sitting, crawling, sucking his thumb and sleeping through the night! He just turned 7 months old and now has a serious mommy-preference, meaning he usually cries when I leave the room. If anyone else tries to hold him he looks at me all concerned and leans towards me, kind of subtly. I think he's saying, "So I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I'd really rather be held by my mom, so I'll just lean that way and hope you get that idea on your own."

Also this summer Chase has really developed a love for technology- while not my favorite thing in the world, it is super convenient at times. His favorite things are the ipad and Ben's phone. Both have games that put together puzzles on them and Chase has really blown us away with how well he can do them. Here he is Sunday morning, all curled up in our bed with Ben's phone.

Here are some pictures I snapped of the boys on Monday morning and I kind of love the way they turned out. My boys will rarely just sit and smile (genuinely) and sweetly for me, but the photos we get in the process are so telling of their little personalities and lives!

Good-bye Summer 2013- you've been good to us!