The hazy, lazy days of summer......

Our summer has actually been anything but lazy. Daddy took a few days off work after the 4th of July and we spent some fun family time doing things around Cincinnati. The only drawback to that was the fact that it was nearly a million degrees outside. Obviously, I exaggerate, but temps were near 100 degrees every day that we had family fun outings planned. It's been a hot one this year!

We fit in a trip to the zoo, a visit to the Newport Aquarium, an outing to the Cincinnati Children's Museum, and a ride on the Lebanon Mason & Monroe Railroad -- while The Great Train Robbery was in progress!

A few weeks later, we headed to Coney Island for dad's company-sponsored family outing. That was another sizzler and we were all glad to get back into the air-conditioned comfort of home after a really fun day. There have been trips to the park and lazy swims in the backyard pool, too.

See for yourself all the fun the boys have been having:

Fun in the summer sun

Spring and summer are my favorite seasons of the year. I actually think I like spring a little bit more, because it's cooler and it's a new awakening after the dreariness of winter. However, summer brings with it the end of school, sunshine, and lots of fun activities you can't do any other time of year. Last week I took the boys for a picnic in the park. They were absolutely thrilled to do something as simple as putting a blanket on the ground, taking snacks, and reading books in the park. It was so much fun viewing this activity through their eyes and brought back fun memories from my own childhood.






Their dad got a new riding lawn tractor this year and it's a huge hit. I don't know who's a bigger fan, Tom or Justin.




Justin's going to summer camp 3 days a week through his preschool. One of the fun things he gets to do, in addition to field trips, is take swim lessons. Today was the first day for that, and he was terribly excited to sport his new duds.



I hope the rest of the summer is as much fun as the first few weeks have been.

The boys are getting big

Justin will be turning 5 this summer, and Tyler will be 3 in September. It's incredible to watch them grow, but time is moving so fast! Justin graduated from preschool in May, and will be heading to kindergarten this fall.



While his dad and I know he is ready, this will be a completely new experience for all of us. He'll be attending a parochial school, complete with uniforms and bus service. He will go full days Monday through Friday, an experience we would not have gotten had we chosen the local public school system. It was a tough decision for us to make, but once it was made, it really felt like the right thing to do for our family. Justin is a little bit nervous, but that is to be expected.

The even bigger decision was for us to send Tyler to preschool. We've made the choice to have him attend the same school that Justin will be going to for preschool. He'll go 2 mornings a week for 2.5 hours, a total of 5 per week. He's really more than socially ready -- every time we drop Justin off at preschool, Tyler wants to check out all of the centers and is ready to jump in on the playground with the other kids. He's never spent any time away from Mommy, though, unless it's been with family for a few hours. Hopefully this won't be a tough transition for him. Of course he must be potty-trained to attend, and that's probably going to be the biggest challenge for our summer.

Here are some recent pictures of the boys, as taken by my talented friend Becky Thompson.







It's gonna be a great summer.

Watch out for sugar bugs

There's a variety of opinions out there on the appropriate time for your child to first visit the dentist. Some people say to take them as soon as you see teeth, others say anywhere from 1-4 years old. We added our boys to our dental insurance after they were a year old, just in case of emergency, but there is no general consensus on what the best course of action is.

Justin's preschool had a dentist come as a special guest and talk about teeth, going to visit the dentist, etc. What was really nice about this is that the dentist did a quick peek inside each child's mouth and sent home a report on what they found, if anything. Justin's paper said that there was a "suspicious" area on one of his teeth, and recommended a dental checkup. Since I was due for a visit myself, I just made an appointment for Justin to get things checked out.

He wasn't scared at all. The staff was careful not to keep us waiting long at all, and let him bring back one of the toys he was playing with back to the exam room. The hygienist talked to him all the way through, and gave him a step-by-step description of what they were going to do so that he knew what to expect. They gave him some sunglasses to wear while they were cleaning his teeth, to keep the spray out of his face. He did a great job!




The bad part was, he did have a cavity. Without the impetus from the cursory check he got at school, we wouldn't have visited the dentist yet and the cavity could have gotten worse. I made an appointment to take him in 2 weeks later to have the cavity filled. I asked if they would sedate him for the appointment, to which the reply was no. However, I was assured that the dentist was exceptional with children, and that it would go very quickly and not be a traumatic experience for Justin.

Well, they were wrong! Despite the dentist's best efforts to keep Justin calm, there's nothing about having your mouth numbed that is OK with a 3 year old child. That shot of Novocain put him over the edge and he had a lot of trouble sitting still.



Unfortunately, I couldn't even hold him in my lap for the procedure. The dentist did manage -- somehow -- to get the tooth filled. But he wasn't able to do it as efficiently as he would have liked, and warned that we will need to keep an eye on it because it might not stay in as long as it should. He threw up his hands in the middle of the procedure and said, "I can't do this." Not what a parent wants to hear. That was the whole reason I asked about sedation before making the appointment! Apparently, there is a pediatric periodontist across the street who could have done this for us, complete with some nice happy juice ahead of time. Next time, we'll be the wiser. For now, it is over and Justin was not too traumatized. He does brush his teeth religiously, because he doesn't want any more sugar bugs to try to live in his mouth!

Easter 2011, Smith Style

Holidays are always so much fun with little kids around. A little stressful, but fun nonetheless. The excitement in their little faces and their sheer joy is contagious. We attended an Easter egg hunt in our neighborhood this year, and it was Tyler's first time to participate. It was a beautiful day, albeit a little chilly. We set out with the wagon, wearing jackets, and everyone had a good time. The haul itself was a little disappointing -- the treats for kids 3 and under was nothing other than fruit snack pouches. From Sam's Club, nonetheless. There was no variety. If there weren't fruit snacks in the plastic eggs, there were two pennies. Give me a break, I'll give you my own two cents if it will go for better treats.

The boys got their faces painted and got to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap. It was fun despite the lame egg filling.

Some of the highlights:











A couple weekends later was the actual Easter holiday. It dawned gray and rainy and wet this year, so plans for an outside hunt were scrapped. We hid the eggs inside the house, and Justin and Tyler hunted for them with their cousin Leila. The bunny that visited here was a little more creative with treats. :)









Of course, The Bunny left baskets for both boys to find on Easter morning. They had a great time finding them and investigating the loot. I failed to get any really good pictures of them in their so-called Easter finery, so these will have to do.










It was a great Easter this year.