Ross

Our "baby" turns 2.5 in a couple of weeks! I haven't updated the blog for a LONG time so I thought I'd put some effort into it. So, starting with Ross, here are some updated pics of the guy that keeps us on our toes all the time!

This was St Patrick's day... the Sesame Street sign on his shirt was green so he wanted to wear it... but I couldn't get him to stand still for a decent picture.

Playing basketball in the garage. He kept saying "Ready... Set" and then shooting. Typically the ball went straight up and then hit him on the head.

Heading out the house one day he knocked his head and got an ouchie (very small) but he needs an ice pack immediately when he gets hurt. I got him a blue ice pack out of the freezer and he was a happy guy. Minutes later I hear a sucking noise in the back seat. He ended up biting a hole in the corner of the ice pack and sucking the ice out of it. I called Russ and told him to put poison control on speed dial :) The ice pack said 'do not ingest' on it... but luckily it also said non-toxic. He was pretty mad at me when I took it away from him.

Baby Kameron is done borrowing our car seat and Aunt Cheri returned it to us last weekend. Ross wanted to see if he still fit... I think he's grown a little :)

This was last night after bath time. He was cooperating and taking good pictures because I had pez candy :)

A few more updates:

* Ross is talking up a storm. Full sentences, knows what he wants, when he wants and can finally communicate those desires to us. His screaming and fits have decreased tremendously... although not completely.

* He's still scratching and biting at daycare :( They are moving him up to the 2.5 - 3 year old classroom and he bit in his new class yesterday... ugh! I can't WAIT until he grows out of the darn biting stage.

* LOVES to read books. His favorites this week are Llama llama and Diego seek & find book. The last couple of nights he has laid in Ryan's bed with Ryan and I reading books and then gets a couple more in his room as well... Little sneaker has figured out how to prolong book reading time for sure!

Ryan's Special Day (and a pretty good one for mom)

6:00.. I'm ready for bed. Ha ha. The alarm went off at 4:30 for workout. I did my measurements for the end of my 30 days of no sweets. I was down 6 pounds and 1% body fat.

When I got home all three boys were still in bed. I woke Reid up and he ate breakfast and got ready for school and left before the other two boys got up (NEVER happens). He commented how nice it was to be just him and I awake (I agreed).

Then I woke Ross up, got him dressed and started his breakfast. He was actually calm, ate well... and ate a ton. He had a pop-tart and two half bowls of cereal (with milk). He's the only one of the boys that eats their cereal with milk on it and he makes quite a mess but he does sit up at the table eating pretty well.

Eventually Ryan rolled out of bed and ate breakfast and got dressed so we could take Ross to daycare. After we dropped Ross off we began Ryan's special day with mom!!

It started with kindergarten roundup! Ryan entered the classroom acting very shy. He wouldn't talk to the teachers or wear a name tag. He did separate and go to play while I went to fill out paperwork though. He did several stations - toys, draw a picture, play do, and finally make a cookie with Mr O. (the principal of the school). Our school is the Regency Place Lions so they made lion cookies.

(I didn't do a great job capturing Ryan here but I didn't want to be "that" mom that kept asking Ryan to pose while the principal smiled in the background)

After Kindergarten roundup we went home and played "kitchen" for quite a while and then did some mazes and dot-to-dots in some books. We then went to the beauty shop where I got a hair cut.

After my hair cut we went to Johnny's for lunch. I wanted to hit up Orange Leaf today but I was full from lunch so we went home to play for a while first. We drew pictures and cards, moved Ryan's easel to his bedroom, did a couple loads of laundry, dishes, and made rice krispy treats. I let Ryan do almost all of the measuring for them as well as buttering the dish and flattening them in the pan. Mostly all I did was melt and stir the ingredients on the stove. He LOVED making them.

(Paula Deen and Ree Drummond would be proud of the butter usage by this kid!)

Around 3:00 we ended up going to Orange Leaf for a treat... yummy! Some funny stories from OL:

* The owner of the yogurt shop knows me pretty well and by my first name. NO, not because I have an insane addiction. Honestly, I did a fundraiser for the hockey team there once and she handled it all and just knows me... honestly! Anyway, she brought over a tax form and asked me a question about a field. I told her I wasn't sure. Ryan says, "Call my dad, he's smarter."

* Right before we went to OL we got a letter from Ryan's teachers (Laurie and Demmi) about some inappropriate touching that's been going on in the classroom. A lot of the kids have picked up the habit of spanking each other and even adults. I was talking to Ryan about it and how we do and don't touch people. He claims he NEVER spanks adults. I reminded him that he had JUST spanked Kendra (my hairdresser) that day at the salon. He looks at me and says "Are you going to tell Demmi?" LOL, I guess we know who he's afraid of :)

* Also while pulling in to get our OL, Ryan is telling me a story about a store that he's going to open that will make lots and lots of money. He's going to get a big store and put all kinds of signs on the outside that says everything is free. Then everyone will come and get lots of stuff and then he'll tell them it's not really free and make lots of money.

* As a follow up he asks me, "What do rich people do anyway?"

YES - he talked ALL day. I'm glad that I jotted some of these down though (I got a new app for that - thanks Suzanne!!) Normally I remember that the kids said funny things but can't remember what they were.

After Orange Leaf I took Ryan to Archivers to get some stickers and paper. He LOVES my scrapbook stuff and I had an old gift card from the Christmas before last with $6.00 left on it. He really liked picking stuff out. At first he asked the price of everything and was being really careful, then eventually he wanted everything he saw :)

After Archivers we picked Ross up from daycare and came home for dinner (leftover lunch). Russ and Reid were heading out the door for hockey practice as we came home. Ryan, Ross and I have just hung out playing toys. Ryan played with his new paper and stickers immediately after dinner and is now putting together a 24 piece puzzle by himself and watching cartoons. Ross is playing with Ryan's Alphie (without cards) and pretty much being his usual terrorish self.

The Final Product

Paul finished our cabinet yesterday afternoon...

We let it set to make sure all the "tacky" feel was off the shelves and doors and then today I brought all the books back in. This was my first attempt but I didn't like the paperbacks laying down on the top shelf.

So, this is what we've got for now. I wish it was about 15 - 20 books less so we could add a decorative piece or two. Russ has a flag raising statue that would look great as a book end... but we've FILLED this space to the max. And he's still got a bookshelf full in his office. I do give him credit though... this winter he was able to part with about 30 books - that's HUGE for him! I did find about 6 books on here that I own - a Children's bible, a Dr Seuss book I got for the boys, and my college yearbooks. A pack rat I am not. :) Honestly, I also have a shelf of books in my closet that I thought I might read some day - discount finds at library sales, but none of them have interested me enough to read them yet... so they might be getting recycled out soon. (I usually just pass my books on to friends or family as I never reread anything)

The bottom of the cabinet is going to be used for some board games and puzzles that we have overflow of. I just put some puzzles in there for now. These were on the kitchen counter as Ryan has been pretty into doing them as of late.

I'll probably find something around the house to put on top but haven't decided what just yet.

Quite an improvement, huh? I really like it. We ALWAYS trust Paul's workmanship!! I guess if my home is going to be overflowing with something, I'm glad that it's books. Both Russ and I are avid readers and have read to the boys since they were very little. All of the boys love to listen to books, have large collections of their own and Reid has quite the reading skills himself.

The Makeover Continues...

Remember this...

The books were OVERLOADED on it, it wasn't using the space wisely, I need MORE storage (hidden) for the boys' games and puzzles, etc. At SOME age we'll be able to get rid of some of this stuff, right?

So, we're having a custom cabinet/shelves put into the space today. Here's the cabinet start...

And getting the start of the shelves added...

(Will finish updating as progress is made...)

Obsession Confession

One of the blogs that I read just started a new series on obsession confession. Anything you love that you then become obsessed with. HA HA... this is so me. I don't do much half way. Here's my list of obsessions lately:

* blogs - seriously, won't even admit how many I follow

* running - e-mailing back and forth with a friend yesterday about my spring schedule and writing it all down made me realize I might be a bit insane ;) (schedule below)

* FroYo - well, except for February. I gave up sweets for the month of February and this is probably the only one thing I truly miss.

* Subway - First it was because it was $5 footlong February but now it's just because I love it, it's close to the house, and I don't feel guilty after eating it. Yes, I had a 6 inch for lunch today.

* My weight - Yeah... I go through spells of not caring and then obsessing... I'm currently obsessing (maybe I should lay off the Subway and FroYo, huh)

* Balego socks - seriously, don't wear anything else now

I'm sure I could go on and on... but I won't admit any more publicly.

Spring Race Schedule

4/14 - Rock the Parkway Half Marathon

4/21 - Garmin/Olathe Half Marathon (2:30 pacer)

4/22 - Kansas Half Marathon (2:25 pacer)

5/5 - Smithville 8 hour adventure race

5/13 - Mother's Day 5K

6/2 - Hospital Hill Half Marathon

Speaking of obsessed, Ross has now decided that he has to have a million things to sleep with. He has THREE blankets (four on weekends when his school one is home) and about 6 stuffed animals, etc. This morning when I went in to get him he was still SOUND asleep - unusual. I should have known then how the morning was going to go. He was GROUCHY! I got him dressed and off to daycare with pop-tarts in hand in record time... lol! Here's a picture of him all snuggled in with all of his "stuff"

A room mini-makeover

A couple of weeks ago I went crazy and started re-arranging furniture. I moved our dark leather couch and chair to our front, unused living room (the loveseat went to our master bedroom). The beige over-sized furniture from the front living room got moved to the family room. The plan was then to take the beige to the basement and bring our sectional up but I've put that plan on hold. I LOVE the beige in our family room. For one, it's our most comfortable furniture and secondly, it just looks so much better where it's at now. That beige furniture set was our first furniture purchase when we bought our house in Olathe in 2001. We paid like $499 for a couch, loveseat, coffee table and two end tables... and they have held up better than most of our furniture!!

I also moved Ryan's easel and the train table to the front living room and surprisingly we've started using that room a lot more. Ross uses that room the most because that's where time out is... but that's beside the point.

Anyway, today I got my gallery prints of the boys and have taken down the picture collages I had up that were of Ryan at age 2 and Reid at age 5.

They look high in this picture but they don't look that high in real life. Here they are:

Ryan wanted to get a picture with his leap pad too...

This bookshelf is going away soon! Our friend, Paul, is going to come sometime in February to do a built in cabinet the entire width of the cut out. I'm thinking cabinet at the bottom and then shelves all the way to the molding!!

Our train table is also in the corner of this room. If you follow me on facebook, you know that I broke down and superglued the pieces together because Ross ALWAYS takes them apart. Well the little stinker... he has spent the last two weeks taking the pieces apart again. Now that they are glued it's like an extra challenge. He has to work super hard and then celebrates when he gets them apart. I put the track back together today and the boys did play with it for about 15 minutes as I laid on the couch recovering from my 10 mile morning run. LOL. I think I'm going to give up and just get rid of it... we'll see.

Playing with numbers

I have a huge deadline at work tomorrow... so of course I'm spending today doing anything but work on what I need to be working on. This post is for Suzanne, my weekend running partner.

I went back to this time last year (on my Garmin tracking - I LOVE technology) to see how my running was. Here were 5 runs in a row around this time:

Date Distance Time Pace

1/29/11 9.92 miles 1:45:04 10:35

2/5/11 9.74 miles 1:49:57 11:17

2/12/11 12 miles 2:08:36 10:43

2/13/11 4.31 miles 51:57 12:03

2/16/11 3.55 miles 37:29 10:34

*I'm assuming the weather was bad and I was doing some treadmill runs mid-week because there seem to be some huge gaps here.

And here are my last five runs this year:

Date Distance Time Pace

2/2 6.0 miles 58:34 9:44

1/31 5.54 miles 57:03 10:17

1/30 3.01 miles 29:04 9:40

1/29 9.85 miles 1:41:16 10:17

1/26 4.0 miles 37:52 9:27

1/22 10 miles 1:41 10:05

Last year I ran the Rock the Parkway half in 2:06:17 (my current PR). This year the race is two weeks later on the calendar. I had originally said that I didn't have any time ambitions. Now I'm starting to challenge myself... could I do a 2:05???

Ok, enough playing around... back to work