The Harvey Family: June {2017}

This month Brett:

likes to make up lots of rhyming words. He'll pick a word and just make up as many words as he can that have the same ending, some are real words, most are not. When he does this he's usually trying to be louder than Blake (which is quite a feat) so he will sing his words as loudly as possible.
has had a really stuffy nose. We're thinking he either has seasonal allergies or his dairy allergy is causing nasal congestion. It does seem that if the sheets are freshly washed or if he has had a bath with his hair washed, that he sleeps better and makes it longer in without waking up. Most nights he has been waking up a couple times and tossing and turning for an hour or more as he tries to find a spot where he can rest and breathe at the same time. We've tried Vicks Vapo Rub and that helps get us through to the morning most of the time.
loves eating popsicles. At first the only popsicles he had tried were the molds that we have and you can fill them up with fruit juice and keep them in the freezer. We did those for a while, but recently found some other flavors at the store without food dyes and he's hooked. His favorite flavor is strawberry which can be quite a mess since it melts so quickly in the summer heat. We also got some freezer pops in the plastic sleeves but those aren't as big of a hit. He rarely finishes them before getting bored of them.
loves playing board games. He always wants to get them out and set up and then begs for people to come play with him. Sadly, he doesn't really have the patience to sit all the way through a full game and most of the time they end when he gets frustrated because he's losing and he just swings his arm at the board and sends pieces flying. The Paw Patrol adventure game seems to be the best one for him since it is relatively quick and even in the rules it says the first player sits at the finish line and cheers on the other players as they come to meet you at the finish line. It takes the focus off winning/losing which is pretty cool.
doesn't like the pool at all. Every time we go he just does what he can from the side of the pool and rarely even gets his feet wet unless something super exciting is going on in the water that he can't miss out on. He hasn't worn his puddle jumper since before we tried him in swim lessons this winter. Either the water is too cold for him or he just doesn't want to risk getting water in his face.
has been doing great with his new scooter. He picks up physical activities pretty quickly and this is no exception. He rides backward from how I would do it but after Chris showed him how to steer, he really got the hang of it quickly. We've gone to the park quite a few times now and he'll ride his scooter while Blake rides his bike.
delivers good news and bad news together. I think he got this from a tv show, but he'll look at me with a very serious face and say "I have good news and bad news..." and then he'll appropriately tell me which is which. A lot of the time he really only has bad news but he'll say something benign for the good news just to even it out. For example: "The good news is I went potty, and the bad news is I made a mess."
says "oh my gosh" a lot. Sometimes it takes children for you to realize what you say and this is a perfect example. He has been saying this a ton when he makes a mistake or if something doesn't go the way he wants, I'll hear "OHmygosh" and I always cringe. Then one day we were at the store and I totally said it, but had no clue that I had ever said it before!
eats spoon fulls of butter. He always asks for butter to go on his noodles or rice or on toast. He'll say I need 3 scoops, 2 for my mouth and 1 for my food. He'll go ape on me if he doesn't get to stick his spoon in the tub of butter and dig out two bites of butter before I take it away from him. So gross.

This month Blake:

went to his first summer camp. His preschool offered 2 summer camps and he decided he wanted to go to the Rain Forest one, but not the Superhero one. We figured since his school already had all the peanut free rules in place that it would be a safer bet for him to go there, in addition to it being a familiar place. He came home with lots of crafts and said he loved it! He even brought home a little book where he had drawn some rain forest animals and they were really good drawings.
loves almonds as a snack. He's been asking about trying new foods and almonds seemed like it would be a safe bet and he ended up loving them. It's a good snack for him since his appetite has really been growing lately and the protein seems to fill him up more than other snacks he tends to like (pop chips mainly).
wants to be a scientist/builder/engineer when he grows up. This changes quite often but these seem to be the things he talks about the most. He has a lot of really big ideas of things he wants to create so he has decided that these job descriptions will be the best fit for him to be successful at making them (or, lets me honest, at delegating other people to make for him).
is always making up challenges. Sometimes I explain to him different ways to approach people so that they will be more likely to do things for you. Like with Brett, you have to make things into a game or somehow trick him into thinking things are fun if you want to get him to do something for you. Well Blake has decided that he gets the best response if he says he has a challenge for you and he comes up with them all the time. Most of them are just basic things that he wants you to do for him, but its funny how he presents them as a "challenge" to get you to play along.
is always coming up with very elaborate inventions. A lot of the time he'll come with things in the car that he wants to invent to help with all kinds of things. Some of them are things that already exist, but I try and let him feel good about coming up with the ideas so I don't crush too many by telling him that. They've been building a Panera Bread right outside our apartment complex so he thinks about construction during our car rides a lot and that is the basis for a few of the inventions.
started sleeping in his own bed once we converted Brett's crib to a toddler bed finally. Brett's crib has basically just been used for time-out since we moved here (he sleeps in the big bed - which isn't so bad since he's up all the time still and it's easier to not have to get out of bed to help him) so I decided to convert it to the toddler bed with hopes that he would want to sleep in it like a big boy and maybe sleep through the night, but the excitement wasn't near what I was hoping. Instead, Blake decided that he was ready to start sleeping in his bed (he's been having trouble sleeping by himself because of scary thoughts and has to have someone within arms reach at all times) and has done pretty well if it is light enough in his room. He still doesn't make it all night very often though.
has had a super hard time finding a new pair of shoes. He's at the shoe size that is inbetween kids and boys (~12/13) and between that and Stride Rite closing all their stores, we've had a ridiculous amount of trouble finding shoes for him. He is about to outgrow his size 12s and needs a new pair for school, but he has a wide foot and isn't ready for shoelaces and apparently that is an impossible combination. He's been wearing the same shoe model (just going up in size) for the past couple years but now we've gotten to a size that doesn't exist so we're taking advantage of Zappos free return policy and trying a bunch and hoping to find something to get us across the size 13 gap.

Pics:

My favorite plant, the zucchini plant has the biggest, most beautiful flowers. The bumble bees have finally started visiting so I don't have to pollinate them myself anymore.