uno.

how is it this little stinker face is one? levi and i keep asking ourselves this every day when we look at him. it's like you keep track less with the second one so it goes by faster. 

greysen is a bundle of joy. at a time when his brother is hitting the terrifyingly terrible threes, it's nice to have a baby who doesn't talk back to you, loves to snuggle and can handle getting squished and kisses from mom. he's so happy and calm and we absolutely love him to pieces. 

some quirks about the babe: 

he can hold his own against zak now. that boy does something he doesn't like and greysen will squeal and screech [we call it his velociraptor sounds, very deafening} until he gives it back/lets go/is nice. it's hilarious. and zak hates it. way to work your magic, baby.

he is very fast at crawling. and could care less to walk. it's amazing how genetics work. 

despite how hard i tried, he refuses to eat any food on any given day based on how it feels, even if he's already had it and liked it. just like his brother. so annoying. there are only a few things he will be guaranteed to eat regardless: bananas, pb&j, yogurt, cereal, minestrone soup, and any type of cake. 

he takes two two-ish hour naps and sleeps generally from 8-8. love love love that. 

he is a drawer opener. everything can and should be unloaded by him. it's hilarious and annoying at the same time. 

he's also a button pusher. anything with buttons he looooves. remotes, phones, remotes, phones, we frequently find them stashed places where only babies can put them.

he absolutely adores his brother. zak can make him follow him around the house or entertain him or feed him and he generally does whatever he says. it's very handy when greysen decides to try and be all up in my business when i'm cooking dinner. 

he finally has hair. it may be nothing like zak's so i have no idea what to do with it, but at least he's not totally bald. haha yeah for baby! 

for some reason, people think that my baby children are girls. we have blamed it on the blue eyes. i don't know how anyone can think greysen is a girl, but whatevs. it may make me secretly/openly proud that both of our kids have blonde hair and blue eyes. clason genes FTW! 

happy birthday my squishy boy. we love you so much! 

you have always been the smiliest baby, but we're so glad you got a little cuter too my love! kiss kiss! 

swim.

during our exciting month alone, zak had his swim lessons in fresno for two weeks, and he was looooving them. last year, he cried the entire time, except for maybe the last two lessons. so, we spent the whole year leading up to this talking about how awesome swimming is and how he shouldn't cry. and we succeeded! parenting win!

he did amazing. the swim lessons he gets are focused on rescue swimming- him being able to swim to the edge of the pool and get out if necessary. this time around, he learned to roll over to breathe when he needs to, so basically he can brave the ocean unsupervised now. ;) totally kidding fyi. 

he also had the same girl as last year to teach him, so he was loving it. plus, she's super cute, so that helps too ;) last year he brought her a pinecone to show his affection, this year he just kept telling her to come play with him in grandma's pool. 

at the end, he gets to be announced as a champion, and gets a medal and blue ribbon. basically the highlight of his life. any excuse for that kid to celebrate himself ;)

greysen and i deserve a reward for braving to 102+ temperatures every day to just sit and watch big brother swim in a nice cool pool everyday. 

i have a cool video of zak kicking trash his last lesson, but alas, blogger does not want me to show it to all my faithful followers. in any case, i'm so proud of my kiddie and how awesome he did this week! 

muir woods.

daddy's home! we survived 30 days of being spouseless & dadless. it's so nice. so so nice to have another hand wrangling the beasts. i think zak wins for being the most excited because he has been exclaiming "dada, i'm so glad you decided to come home!" about every half an hour. it's so cute. 

in any case, we took advantage of daddy not having to do school things yet and decided on a spontaneous trip up to see the redwoods. it was fun, way more crowded than i thought it would be, i was imagining a more peaceful and tranquil hike through the redwoods for our sunday activity, but then i realized this is san francisco, and people like to be tourists and do things like that on the weekends. 

however, the redwoods really are amazing. zak looooved going through there, he would love it if his parents got their act together and actually went on hikes such as this more frequently. and by hike, i mean flat walks through the trees. 

 we strapped zak on because we had to park so far away and figured that by the time we got there he would be tired and just want to go home. yeah for ergos. 

and yeah for dads who carry both children when mom's arms get tired from wrangling the wiggly wee one. 

i need to learn how to work my camera, because it either made it look like it was pitch black in the back with the flash on, or you couldn't see anything with the flash off. someday... 

haha. zak. always the star of the show. 

 it's crazy to me that a place like this exists so close to us, where sooo many people live. totally crazy. 

zak was getting very tired by this point. haha. 

they're just so totally handsome. 

greysen looks like a mullet man in this pic. that kid needs a trim badly. 

we had a great time! i would love to go explore ones that are less touristy, but being that these are so close, i don't think we will anytime soon. 

the fourth.

the fourth of july. is totally one of my favorite holidays. something about being able to dress up in cool colors, force my children to match, bbq, light fireworks, hang out with friends that makes it one of the best family holidays. unfortunately, ours did not pan out that way. i learned two things from this: 1. i will never light fireworks alone with two children again. ever. 2. celebrating holidays is way more fun with your significant other. 

to start off the day, i decided to surprise zak and ride the caltrain down to redwood city to watch their annual parade. not only am i the best mom ever for taking him on the train, i deserve an award for single handedly wrangling them on a train packed with other families, who, like us, had to close their dumb stroller before they got on the train. seriously?? how obnoxious is that? the reason we bring strollers is so we don't have to carry kids. yes, i did want to have to carry my jogging stroller and greysen, make sure zak got on the train and be smooshed with 900 other parents, thank you cal train. and no, i am not still a little bitter about it. obviously. 

in anycase, zak had died and gone to heaven on the train. he got to hold the ticket, sit with his friend, see the conductor, stop at a million stops.... he was loving it. the parade.... he lasted about 30 minutes before he was completely done and wanted to just sit and wait for the train to come back. i cannot wait for the day when this kid cares about something else besides trains. someday.... 

the parade was great though! i enjoyed it, it brought back a lot of marching band memories, we saw some great police cars, floats, swat units, firetrucks, miss california's and much more. 

 

i decided not to blog about the rest of our day, because it all went downhill after that, and i want to remember happy memories from the fourth of july. i'm so grateful to live where we have freedoms to live as we want, and that my children can grow up to be whoever they want. i love america.