Summer 2016

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The weather in New York was so refreshing moving from Florida. We were out and about all the time just going for walks and going to the park. This is what were used to doing, but had a hard time doing it in the Florida heat.

 

Maya learned how to roll around July 13. I put her down on her back and 30 seconds later she was on her belly without me seeing her roll. It's happened several times.

 

In July Stacia and Jed came to visit for the day. We went out to dinner with them and come up with their life. It was good to see them. Stacia's work send her to New York City for a conference and she hopped over to see us since we were so close.

 

 

 

 

Here's the boys catching fireflies. Levi really enjoy doing that. I think he actually even caught a few. It seems like they were only out for a month or two at dusk though. 

 

I love this picture of these kids 😊 Maya has quite a liking for Levi. She loves his loudness and roughness. And Levi loves her back just as much. He always plays with her and makes sure she's happy.

 

Leavittown has free pools around town for residents. One of them is just at the top of our street. It's open all summer. They have a shallow kiddie pool and a deeper pool. We went there a couple times a week with Heather and her boys. It was a lot of fun.

 

Every now and then Maya and I would get in the pool.

 

The pool always tuckered the boys out. Here's Malachi collapsed after three steps of walking in the door from the pool.

I did take the kids to the beach several times with friends. The beaches here really don't compare to the Florida beaches. The water is cold with big waves and is brown. The boys never really got in the water, just played in the waves as they splashed up the beach. Lifejackets are not loud so I didn't want the boys in the water anyway. And the beach is so so so crowded. Like hard to find a spot for your towel crowded. I never experienced that in Florida.

 

Maya naps at 10 o'clock every morning which is always during the middle of church. So she naps on Adrian every single week. She never sleeps with me, just Adrian.

 
 Laundry is so never ending. I have no problem keeping up with the washing. It's the folding it and putting it away that piles up. 

 

Maya had solids for the first time at 4.5 months. I think this picture speaks for itself. 

 

 

Maya sat up by herself at 4.5 months. 

 

 Levi likes to wash the dishes, which is nice considering my hands are usually our dishwasher. 

 

Morning snuggles in bed with dad. 

 

Saturday morning pile up in mom and dad's bed. 

 

I love this jumper we borrowed from a friend. It entertained Maya so well. I don't know how I raised my boys without one. 

 

One surprise I had after moving here was all the parks around. There's a lot of state parks which are foresty with trails. I expected nothing but a concrete city. But, it's quite wooded here with tall trees, it's pretty. Definitely a win over Florida. 

 

Everyone loves to play in sand. 

 

 

First time in the swing and she loved it. She's got a mosquito bite on her head. There are mosquitoes here too. But, they totally disappeared come fall. 

 

Pretty girl all dressed up for church. 

Overall I'd say we had an enjoyable summer. The kids played a lot.  We went for walks, rode bikes, played at the park, had pool parties at friends' houses, hit the city pool, had movie nights and played with friends a lot. 

Adrian figured out his schedule and got into a routine of things. He's gone long hours. He commutes about 3 hours each day driving to the clinics where he works. That takes a toll because it's busy traffic he's commuting in. He's not completely satisfied with the experience he's getting. He wishes he could do more hands on things and have a more diverse population to treat. He feels like all the complicated diagnoses get referred to someone more specialized when he'd like to learn how to treat the more complicated cases. But, we're optimistic that in the three years here he'll be trained to a competent dermatologist.