Monday, June 21, 2010

Ryan's 4th Birthday Party

We had Ryan's 4th birthday party at Monkey Bizness on Saturday night. He's been talking about his birthday for at least a month now - inviting and uninviting everyone daily. Ryan will officially be 4 on July 3rd but we'll be on vacation so we scheduled a little early and just told him that he is now 4. The party was a lot of fun, with the the exception of the thermostat that was stuck on 79 degrees. The kids were HOT and SWEATY by the time the play time was over.


You might notice a theme in several of these pictures - Ryan's mouth seems to be open A LOT!





That's our BIRTHDAY BOY!

Here are three friends lounging in the inflatable obstacle course. One of the party helpers was shaking the side wall and trying to knock them off. This is Caden (a friend of Reid's), Finley (Caden's sister), and Andrew. Finley and Andrew both live on the end of our cul-de-sac.

I missed this happening so I'm not sure what had went on but this is Alyssa, our summer nanny, carrying Ryan somewhere. Alyssa and her mother, Carol, and sister, Taylor, came to help Ryan celebrate his special day.

Andrew and Ryan are playing basketball as Ava (another neighbor friend) goes up the ladder to go down a slide.

Here is Caden climbing the rock wall. Reid wanted to climb it but couldn't because he had worn flip flops and brought socks and tennis shoes were required for the rock wall. He pouted and was upset about it. We suggested that he borrow Caden's shoes to try it but he wasn't having it. By this point the kids were very hot and getting pretty tired.

Ryan, playing solo, in the toddler area. When left alone, this kid can certainly entertain himself.

This was Ryan's cake. To the common kid this might appear to be a Spongebob Squarepants cake... but Ryan wanted a Squidword cake. It was a really cool cake and tasted quite yummy as well!
And here is Squidword...

Here is Ryan attempting to blow out his candles after his friends sang Happy Birthday too him. He was standing so far back he only got one blown out and Reid snuck in before we could stop him and blew out the rest.
This is Maddie - isn't she the cutest!! Her brother, Logan, and Ryan play really well together when Ryan goes to Grandma Cella's day care to play. Chris and Lindsey were so nice to drive down from Holton to allow Logan and Maddie to come to Ryan's party!!

Looks like the cake was good enough for Ryan :)

The party was from 5:00 - 6:30. We served dinosaur shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (you can see in the picture above) with cheetos and then had cake, capri sun, and water. The kids all ate pretty good - I think better than they would have done with pizza. We got home about ten after 7 but Ryan had already passed out in the car (below). Russ carried him up to his bed and he slept in his birthday clothes until 6:45 the next morning. We had put all of his presents out in the living room since he had barely got to see them the night before and he played almost all day with all of them. He LOVES his Mickey Mouse doctor kit (I have been the patient SEVERAL times - and he always wants to be the nurse). We also built and airplane and helicopter from a set that his Aunt Courtney got him from Ikea that only requires one tool - it is pretty neat. We read several good books, carried our tackle box EVERYWHERE all day, and had a huge water park for father's day that included a slip n slide, two water guns, a pool, and the lawn sprinklers. He had quite a weekend!!

Ross got pretty tuckered out at the birthday party too. Aunt Courtney did a lot of playing around with him and letting him crawl around. He eventually fell sound asleep on Alyssa and they were both soaked with his sweat when the party was over. Here's a picture of him playing:

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Swimming Lessons - Parent's Day!

Today was the final day of swimming lessons for the boys and "Parents Day." Typically the lessons are closed to parents and spectators so the kids will concentrate and focus but today we got to go and watch the skills they have been working on. Both of the boys did great!! When we walked into the pool area at the time for our lessons Ryan asked immediately if he could go sit by his group and teacher. I told him to take off his sandals and he did and away he went - such a dramatic change from last year!! He really enjoyed lessons this year.

Neither of the boys are ready to move on to the next level of classes but Reid is just about there - I think he'll be there by the end of summer. He just needs to get a bit more confident on his back and work some on the basic crawl stroke (his still looks a bit like a doggy paddle). Ryan just needs a bit more time and practice in the water but he's having fun.

Reid's comments from his teachers said "He loves swimming but isn't strong enough on his back or stroke to move on yet. He's almost there! I think you should reenroll him in Goldfish 2."

Ryan's comments from his teachers said "Ryan is always ready to try anything but he needs more practice to swim on his own and should take Guppies 2 one more time."

Here are some pictures from their lesson:

Reid had just pushed off from the wall and glided on his back.

Reid kicking and swimming towards the side of the pool.

Ryan coming out of the water after one of his turns.

Reid hanging on the side of the pool waiting his turn for a skill test.

Ryan - hanging out. His class had only one teacher and 4 kids (in the four foot) so they had to sit on the side of the pool waiting their turn often. It didn't bother Ryan - they had buckets to play with.

Ryan on his turn laying on a raft kicking his feet (the teacher is just to the right of him).

Reid cheesing at mom after one of his turns - this kid is photogenic, or at least likes to have his picture taken.


Ryan backfloating with the teacher - he's actually pretty comfortable on his back and stayed pretty good for quite a while.

Ryan, playing with the buckets - maybe one of the most fun parts for him.


Reid just getting back to the wall from swimming. He won't do any type of swimming without his goggles.

Reid going back to the wall from his underwater swimming.

Ryan - more buckets, so happy. He even noticed many times that I was taking his picture and didn't complain. Alyssa heard him say "more pictures" one time.

At the end of class both of the groups got to jump in several times to their teacher. Ryan loved this part. Here is where he was telling me that he was going to jump higher than me. Reid jumped in as well but I didn't get a good picture of him doing that as he always had his back to me or was blocked by the diving board.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Guess who hit 20 pounds...

So, I posted how Ross loves his food. We've been noticing that he's getting heavier and heavier lately so last night I decided that I would weigh him. Russ and I both weighed ourselves holding him and then weighed ourselves not holding him. I had to have Russ do it because I didn't believe my math.... 20.6 pounds!!! Our carseat is only good up to 22 pounds.

Ross loves bathtime so I took the opportunity after bathtime last night to get some shots of him. Check out the thighs :)


Ross is trying to pull up on stuff already! He loves to try and pull up in the bathtub and was here on my leg. This morning he tried to pull himself up on the dishwasher while I was emptying it and got a nice little bruise on his forehead.



Reid came in to play with Ross as I was taking some pictures so I got some of him too. He is so big and mature now - and just the greatest kid. He gets in trouble here and there but he is a pleaser so he self corrects very quickly. Yes, it's summer and he has on a winter housecoat. His cousin, Scottie, handed it down to him and he absolutely loves it! He wears it EVERY night after bath and every morning when he gets up.


I was sneaky and snuck a couple of pictures of Ryan. He had a very rough day yesterday so these pictures were actually after an early evening hour and a half nap. He was in a much better mood and still went to bed just fine. He has REALLY grown in the last couple of months - I'd guess at least an inch or two. He has thinned out and has a pretty decent tan already... such a cute little booger!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Ross is a foodie. And by foodie I mean that he likes his food... NOW! Once he gets in his high chair I have to work pretty hard to entertain him or feed him nonstop. When he is hungry he will take a bite and then scream immediately for his next bite. He'll finish off his first jar of babyfood in a few minutes flat. I've been trying to find things to keep him entertained a bit longer. We've tried the baby puffs and cheerios but he can't quite pick them up yet so I have to feed them all to him one by one - which really doesnt' buy me much time if I'm trying to make dinner.

So, I bought a new gadget this weekend. I'd seen them before but never tried it with the other two boys. My mom used it at her house for Tucker and thought it was pretty neat. It's a self feeder for babies. You can put fruit, veggies, meat etc into this mesh bag and then they can suck on it and eat it without choking.

We tried Ross' out on Sunday with nectarine. He liked it a lot!! He sucked on it for quite a while but then got mad about something. I changed out the nectarine with some new fresh nectarine and he didn't want it back. I took that out and put in some banana and he was still mad. He was using both hands to push it away from himself. I'm not sure what made him mad but I put it up and figured we'll try it again in a couple of days.

Ryan had never had nectarine before but he finished the rest of the nectarine off and really liked it. Reid tried a very small piece but said that he didn't like it.




A quick trip to Holton

I wanted to get these pics up Friday but just ran out of time. Thursday night Ross and I went to Holton for a real quick trip to help my sister out. My nephew, Brenner, had gone to the emergency room in Topeka in an ambulance (he's just fine now) after a car accident and my sister had rode in the ambulance with him. So, they were in Topeka with no car and needed a ride home. I picked up Ross from daycare and we went to get them and take them home. After we dropped Carrie and Brenner at their house I swung by my mom's to feed Ross and let him play a little. He was SOOO happy to see her and play. I'm pretty sure he missed his grandma!! He was open mouth kissing, bouncing and smiling all over the place.


Mom still had a kid at her daycare so we went inside to let Tucker and Ross play together. Tucker is almost one year old and HALF the size of Ross. He acted very afraid of Ross... I think he was afraid he might eat him.




After Tucker had left and Ross had eaten some dinner we went outside again and Ross rode on the teeter totter for a while.


Thursday, June 10, 2010

On the move

We got around a little earlier than usual this morning and I had Ross laying on the floor playing with a car and a fire truck. He would play with it and it would roll out in front of him and then he would pull his body forward to get to it (no small task for a body like that)! So, we are officially army crawling and on the move. He has been able to roll all over the living room for months now but I think he is getting much closer to actually being able to go in the direction that he wants to go. And how cute are these pictures??? He just makes me smile...