The start of my summer vacation

We have made it across two provinces, an international border, and now three states and are almost to the coast. The kids have all been great on this journey. We were fortunate to take an extra day in he Spokane area where we got to take in a beach and just general relaxing fun. A nice break from driving.

Sage is continuing to prove herself an easy baby, for which we are thankful! I am now 100% convinced she is showing a reaction to corn, so I am watching ingredients for any lurking corn. I do not have allergies and never had to scrutinize ingredients before, so I will admit I find this a bit tricky. If I do forget and eat something with corn, Sage sure lets me know! Then I feel bad because the poor girl is gassy and not comfortable. All I can say is there are A LOT of things made with corn in it!

We had the opportunity to stay at a friends house the first night into our journey. Their grandson was there that night; he is Ethan's age. It was a lot of fun watching the boys play together. They have met before a different times in their lives - it is neat to see them reconnecting that relationship. The little boy's parents are going through a tough time right now, they have decided to end their marriage. The impact of this is evident with the child. Fortunately he has our friends who love him and are helping him through this time. When we left both Isaac and I reflected on the visit and are grateful for our relationship and our family life together. It has to be a tough road to end a marriage, even harder when kids are involved.

Lately we have been working on the boys sorting out their own disputes (within reason). Our strategy has been to sit the boys down together in a spot, like a couch, then tell them that neither of them can leave until the other gives permission to. This means the boys have to cooperate in order for them to carry on playing. I am loving the results. Ethan right away gives Nolan permission to leave, Nolan on the other hand takes his time - I mean really take his time, one time it was a good 45mins! At the end the result has always been them playing together, compromising or creating a game they both can play. The other day at the beach the boys were struggling with both wanting to play with a specific water toy - instead the decided to play a game of tag using the water toy. For a good hour we sat and listened to giggles and friendly teasing and watched the boys expend some pent up energy.

Speaking of boys... What is it with their need to talk about poop, farting and bums?! It works great if the boys are cranky and I want to turn around their mood, I just have to make a fart sound and they are rolling with laughter. I just fail to understand the obsession with bodily functions. At our last rest stop while I was nursing Sage, Isaac was playing soccer/catch with the boys. Ethan had the ball and Isaac was taunting him to throw it at him, so Isaac turns his back to Ethan sticking his butt in the air. Ethan was laughing so hard he could not throw the ball! I can not nor should I fight it, just join in the "fun" and fart away!