Haven't posted much on the parenting front lately. I haven't been holding out on you. It's mostly that's because - wait for it - the kids are kind of actually well behaved right now.

I totally just jinxed it. Yep. Henry's in the corner throwing an epic fit. Uuuuuuuuughhhhh.

But really, we are at a nice happy time. Other than the fact that Max has decided that 4:00 AM is the time he needs to do his business...which has lead to that being his first feeding, and waking up for the day at 6 rather than 7:30. So by mid-afternoon, we all feel like this.

This photo is misleading. Henry has only taken 3 naps all summer. It's so rare that it had to be documented.

Henry is generally helpful and can be reasoned with to a degree now. Hooray! He does turn into the spawn of Satan if I let him watch too much TV. That would be easy enough to avoid if that amount didn't vary every single day. Some days 20 minutes is too much. Some he'd be content to rot his brain there all dad gum day if I let him.

We spend as much time in the pool as possible. He is an amazing swimmer. He can hold his breath for about 15 seconds and swim 20 feet. He's learned to take a rescue breath and flip to his back while swimming this summer. Swim school is worth every penny. I'm crazy impressed. In the pool, he looks like such a big kid. I've never seen a 3 year old swim like this. OK...I'll stop bragging now.

I'm tan for the very first time in my entire life. I guess I had one more brag left in me.

H and I have a new favorite past time - frequenting yard sales on Saturday mornings. It's kind of our special thing. He's a great little bargain hunter / trampoline artist. I love that we have this thing that we share. He's always on the lookout for yard sale signs when we drive through the neighborhood. But he can't read, so every house that is for sale to him is a yard sale house. Um, no.

His language and imagination are exploding. He makes up stories about knights and cars and dragons and space aliens and they are hilarious. Almost all of the stories involve the main character doing something nice for their Mommy, which melts my heart. And he can recognize 22 of the 26 letters of the alphabet AND write the letter H, so...I'm pretty much nailing that.

Then there's my sweet baby Max, who as I alluded to, is into EV-UH-REE-THING. He crawls like a champ and can walk along furniture, so that's to be expected. Max is obsessed with touching only the things that he cannot have. Cords. Phones. Small choking sized objects. Crayons. Electrical outlets. Books. Way more than Henry ever was. They are so different.

He has an intimate relationship with his favorite stuffed giraffe, Gustav (not pictured) and officially cannot sleep without him. Methinks I should go to Target and buy a backup giraffe, post haste.

He also seems pretty determined to kill himself. At every opportunity he races his cute squishy butt over to the stairs and starts climbing. And he gets this "I'm oh so proud of myself because I'm doing something I'm not supposed to" look on his smug, chunky face. And I melt.

It can be soooooo frustrating, but it's so temporary. One day I will wish that I had two cute little humans in the house to interrupt me from finishing what I'm doing. I'll have all day to clean and sew and grocery shop uninterrupted, and I'll be sad. So I'm sucking it up and enjoying all the irritating minutes that I can.

Max is my observer. He watches everyone. He takes it all in. He thinks before he acts. Henry was all motion. Always moving. All gross motor, all the time. Couldn't care less about what anyone else was doing or thinking, and that is still fairly accurate. Not Max. I can't wait to see how this unfolds as he grows up.

Oh, and the Hubs is good. I'm basically married to Ron Swanson - a man who appreciates his privacy and likes to keep a low profile on the internet - so I don't mention him much. But yes, I am still married and yes, that part of my life is awesome.