Busy as a Bee

The past month has just flown by in our house! Ryan has been working a ton (about 70-80 hours a week!) so I have been getting some quality time with my boys. Originally we thought Ryan would have a four day weekend over the 4th of July holiday, but things changed with the current job they are working on. Instead he worked twelve hour days, with the exception of only eight hours on Sunday and had Monday off (Monday was his second day off of work since Memorial Day). Unfortunately that seems to be the trend lately with his type of work. Either they are laid off with no work for months or they are working twelve hour days, seven days a week. Because he only worked eight hours on the 4th of July, we were able to spend some time at the lake at our Aunt and Uncle's house, which was nice and relaxing. Matthew loves boats and was asking for a ride from the moment he woke up that day.

Speaking of Matthew, he is testing my every ounce of patience right now, especially when I am feeding or giving Andrew any kind of attention. He is going through some hard times right now and doesn't know how to express himself yet. In addition of being jealous of Andrew, he really misses Ryan while he is at work. The days get hard when Ryan is gone when Matthew wakes up for the day and Ryan is not home yet when Matthew goes to bed. We are planning on taking Matthew to Great Wolf Lodge in August, just the three of us, for some "Matthew time". Swimming lessons (same place and class as last year) also start in a few weeks, which he is very excited for! The weather has been great for us this summer (with the exception of this recent heat wave) and we have been spending a lot of time outside playing in the backyard. Matthew is fascinated with sports in general. He likes watching World Cup soccer, baseball, basketball and football on ESPN. He has quite the arm when throwing a ball, loves kicking the soccer ball in the net and shooting hoops on his basketball hoop. Soccer for his age is only indoors at this point, so he will start it in November.

Andrew is doing great and will start eating solid foods in a few weeks. It has FLOWN by! He goes to the pediatrician in two weeks for his 6 month check up and then we will start solids. I am eager to get to the farmers market to buy fresh fruits and veggies to make his homemade baby food (which is SUPER easy and much, much cheaper than buying it at the grocery store). When Matthew started eating solids it was winter so we missed out on the freshness at first with him. Andrew also continues to grow like a week and is much longer than Matthew was at this age (about 2 inches). His six month clothes have fit since he was four months old where Matthew didn't wear six months until he was about nine months old! He may have gotten the Chenery gene and be tall like the rest of the Chenery guys.