Same Old Same Old

Some days I get really tired of the monotony of our current life.  Every day feels like every other and I go a little crazy.  This weekend we've tried to break out of that a bit.  Kelly took Bella and Christian on a bike ride along the DTE energy trail.  Benjamin still hasn't been out of bed so he couldn't go and I had to stay home with Peter, but I was glad that they could go.  They had a great time and said it was a really fun trail.  I love that we have several fun outdoor things we can do with the kids - motorcycling, mountain biking, running, hiking, and kayaking.  I really would love to find somewhere we could go in July to break up the monotony a bit before our trip in August, but things are harder with Peter.  I don't want to disrupt his schedule too much.  He's finally doing a little better with his sleeping at night and I don't want to mess with it.  I'm glad we have a lot of places that are close that we can do as day trips.

Today Christian and I went on a hike in the forest at Rotary Park.  Bella didn't come.  She wanted to stay home and read.  Bella is reading a series called "Keeper of the Lost Cities" which has turned my formerly "There's too many words in that book" girl into a voracious reader.  These books are long but she reads for hours a day and is speeding through the series.  I put Peter in the front carrier and we explored trails we'd never been on before.  Whenever we got to a fork in the trail, we "chose the one less traveled by."  It made for a fun adventure.  Of course, before we could begin our adventure in the woods, we had to make a stop at the river for a cooling dip.  Christian plunged into that nasty, murky water fully clothed in long pants and long sleeved shirt.  (He'd worn those things in case of mosquitoes and poison ivy.)  I would never have done such a thing but my kids have never minded murky water and I've tried very hard never to be the "Ewww, don't touch that!" mom.  I love that they explore and discover.  He loved that he got to wear cold clothes for the rest of our hike. Christian happily sloshed around in his boots the whole rest of the time.  Peter enjoyed it too.  He was quiet and attentive to everything around him.  Only when he got tired did he start to babble to himself.  He does that whenever he's getting sleepy.

 Other things he loves/does:  If you say "corona,"  he'll cough.  It'd be a great trick to show everyone if only we could meet with other people! :)  He has started to make real word sounds when he babbles.  Most noticeably, "mama" and "dada" although he doesn't seem to have attached any meaning to those sounds yet.  He is really cruising around now.  He can walk all along the couch, over to the piano bench and the bean bag, all without getting on his knees.  He also walks around the table legs and around a ladder and then climbs the ladder and gets back down independently.  He LOVES the stairs, but I try to keep him off them as much as possible because they're always full of cat fur.  Mumbo's favorite spot to sleep is on the top step.  I hate it.  Peter really is getting so cute.