Boys Will Be Boys!

Dan just returned from the Hot Rod Power Tour which means the boys and I just returned from a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Ws!


In between Tyler's injuries, we had a nice time. Unfortunately the visit started out with a bang as Tyler smacked his forehead on the coffee table. He had a nice goose egg with all sorts of wonderful colors! Then he managed to bite his tongue before having a close encounter with the side walk resulting in a nice scrape on his nose. Those injuries plus his regular bruised legs made for a great look! Luckily the healing process is moving along nicely... just in time for another encounter with the side walk tonight! I'm going to buy stock in band-aid!

Even banged up Tyler is an endless source of entertainment.

One day last week we arrived back at the house and Tyler was picking at his pants as he walked in from the car. Grandma asked him what was wrong and Tyler informed her that "his pee pee sprayer was stuck to his leg!" Ha! Pee Pee Sprayer! Just thinking about it cracks me up. That night we had a little anatomy lesson. Unfortunately he's now testing out that new word. Goodness... I don't know what is worse.

Tyler's favorite number over the last few weeks is 89. I have no idea why that number in particular is fascinating, but everything is 89. He can even count to 89... "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eighty-nine!" Ha! His tricycle goes 89 mph... Things are 89 feet long... I can't wait to see how the number 89 can be used tomorrow...

Wednesday evening we spent on the boat. It was a perfect night for a cruise.

Tyler spent time looking out over the lake. Doesn't he look like a big boy in this picture! I swear he's grown in the last week.

His favorite part of the boat is the cabin. It's like his own fort.

Here's Ryan on the boat for the first time! He enjoyed playing with Tyler's life vest.

Isn't he adorable in his little life vest??

We came home on Thursday and spent time that afternoon at the bounce house with friends before heading to another friends house for pizza! Yummy! It was another beautiful night. I love Ryan's expression in this picture. His hair is really starting to fill in.

Ryan had another first... a ride in a wagon! His first girlfriend joined him! She's two months older, but Ryan's got her in size! They are both adorable.

Every kid has to have a baseball cap and I think this one is just perfect for our little guy. He seems to like it as well.

I can't believe how good Ryan still is. He's just a happy kid as long as he's fed and clean. Who could ask for more??

Ryan has turned into Mr. Grabby. You really have to be careful when setting things down because he's got quite a reach. I was putting groceries away Friday morning and the next thing I knew, Ryan had the eggs! Aaaahhh! Of all things...

One last shot of our happy boy...

Busy, Busy, Busy

The last few weeks has been a blur. We've done so much that it's hard to remember it all. Dan alone has done an incredible amount of work just in the last week or so. He has cut down two trees, hung a cabinet over the potty upstairs, moved the old TV upstairs, hung the curtains I made over a year ago, raised the cabinets in the kitchen to accommodate the new fridge, trimmed two windows on the garage... phew, I get tired just thinking about it.


Here are are the curtains. I'm pleased with how they turned out. Now I've got to figure out what color to paint the room. I'm thinking a soft moss color, similar to the pillows.

We did get a new fridge and while I love it, the freezer is actually smaller than the old one! Check this out...

I have one shelf on the door and one small area inside the freezer for actual food. The rest is frozen milk. But, there will be no more milk avalanches with head injury potential. Now any milk that falls can only land on feet! Only 5 more months to go!

The boys are doing well. Over the last couple of weeks Tyler has been getting up in the middle of the night to go potty. It is exciting to hope he's night training, but it is exhausting getting up with him in the wee hours. At 2am I find myself wondering how Dan "knew" to take the side of the bed away from the door when we picked sides well before children. Ryan has discovered his voice and has become very demanding at meal time. He's doing a lot more with his hands and shows interest in things. It's very cool to watch.

I realized that I haven't blogged about our trip to visit Sara a few weeks ago. Grandma and Grandpa W were also there. We had a great time.

I tried all week to get a picture of all 4 kids together. It gets harder and harder to get a decent picture as we add more children! Here's an example of the problems I was having. NORA!! This picture makes me smile.

This picture is decent, but it makes me wonder if my kids have cooties... could you get a little closer girls?

Here was another attempt. I thought that maybe if they were lying down and couldn't see each other I'd have better luck. I couldn't get them lined up right and check out the pouty face!

One more try... doesn't Tyler look thrilled?

While in Virginia, they guys took Tyler and Ava to the aerospace museum. The girls went shopping! I got my clearance fix. Here they are in the cockpit at the museum.

They also got to go to the Army Transportation Museum. This is one big tire!

I really wanted to go to the beach while we were there. It's been a while since I put my feet in the ocean so we picked the best day for weather and made the trip. It was a beautiful day, but it was WINDY! Sand can hurt when it pelts you in the legs.

Luckily there was a great playground at the beach and the kids had a fantastic time. Here's Tyler at the top of the twisty slide.

Here they are humoring me for a second.

Dan was having a great time on the alligator with Tyler.

And, Tyler with Ava. Aren't they sweet?

Back at Aunt Sara's, Ryan gave Grandma a good workout. He was having a blast... and I think Grandma was as well.

We're looking forward to the 4th of July when we can see the whole gang again... this time minus the 10 hour drive. (for us at least...)

Mama

We may have had to wait for Ryan to roll, but we don't have to wait for his first word!

Tonight he said "Mama." Of course I know that he was just babbling and happened to close his mouth twice, but my heart will always believe he said it. I called to Dan who was on the porch to see if he heard it. He hadn't, but when he came into the kitchen, Ryan said it again. Not even Dan could deny it. I have a witness!

Tyler's first word was "car" and he even said "John Deere" before he said "Mama." I wish I was kidding. In my opinion, I deserve Ryan's first word to be "Mama."

Here's a picture of my baby taken just moments ago. This kid has his priorities straight!

Splish splash I was taking a bath...

Before I get to the bath, I have some exciting news!!

Ryan rolled! Finally!

I didn't actually see it, but I left him on his back in the center hallway while I ran around getting things done. The next thing I knew he was on his belly! Woo Hoo! Go Ryan! Here he is right after his one and only roll...

And here he is with Tyler celebrating his accomplishment.

So now on to the bath...

Every other night there is a ritual in our house. I get the pleasure of giving Ryan a bath in the sink while Dan has Tyler in the tub. Tonight Ryan added a little fun to the experience. Here is is enjoying splashing! He was so excited at his new discovery.

Look at me!

I decided to capture the event, but I guess I should have held the camera straight. Oh well, just turn your head and enjoy!

I guess I should explain what Tyler is doing in the background. On bath night we have "bath races." Tyler is expecting me to get "upset" that he is already done with his bath and beat me. He might be a little too excited... welcome to the world of Tyler!

Six Months

I cannot believe that my baby is six months old! Last Monday we took him to the doctor for a check up. He's in the 75th percentile for length at 27 3/4 inches long and he's "off the chart" for weight at 22 pounds 11 ounces! He's one healthy boy!

He's getting better at sitting up, but he's still not rolling.

After the doctor appointment Dan and I dropped the boys off at school and spent the entire day together! This is the first time we have taken a whole day off without the boys... and we didn't do anything responsible!

The first thing we did was go out to a leisurely breakfast. It was so nice to eat a meal without telling someone to keep eating or to speak quietly or having to cut anything up or bounce someone on my knee or any of the other things that are so natural that I don't even realize I do them until it isn't necessary.

Then we took a ride in the Corvette together (only our second in 18 months of ownership) out to the Frank Lloyd Wright house on the lake. It was such a beautiful day to be out for a ride. I'm ready to schedule our next day together... seriously... right now...

But, then reality sinks in and it is time to be responsible again.

Here's another picture of the garage with siding. He only has one side left and hopefully he'll hold off a little longer before starting it. While I think this looks really nice, I'm not looking forward to my "alone time" with the boys.

I finally got some of Ryan's giggles on video. It gets better, but he knows when I get the camera out and tones it down.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

Today Dan was understanding enough to drive over an hour to get Ryan's 6 month pictures taken at my favorite place. Luckily both boys were cooperative and I am pleased with the results.

This is our first professional picture of the boys together. It was cropped before we had it printed so there isn't all this blue space in the actual picture. I think it turned out really nice.

I love this picture of Ryan, but I'm not sold on the background. Isn't he adorable?? I tried to tame his hair... I think I lost...

We didn't get this one printed, but now that I look at it again I wonder if that was a mistake. We bought rights to the pictures so I can remedy that error. He is such a cute kid!

I took this picture at lunch. I'm trying to capture every expression because he's changing so fast.

So happy!

I found this picture on the internal memory from last week. This is as close to rolling over as he's gotten. I call it the 3/4 roll. That darn belly keeps getting in the way!

After pictures today we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa C. Here's Grandma getting giggles from Ry.

And, Tyler hanging out...

I took this video during lunch so there is a lot of background noise, but you can hear Ryan "chirping." This is what we wake up to on the weekends. It's a great way to start the day.

Echo?

Is there an echo in here? Tyler picks up on everything and has a knack for picking the perfect moment to use your words against you.

This past Sunday I was upstairs getting ready for the day when Tyler came up to see what I was doing. He noticed the chap stick I had dropped on the floor and said "you had better pick that up before I trip on it." I continued to get ready and Tyler amused himself for a few minutes before deciding to go back downstairs. On his way out he said "when I come back up that chap stick had better be gone, Mama Donald!" I didn't know what to laugh at first... the fact that he got the inflection exactly right or that he used his middle name on me! "Mama Donald" I've been laughing about that all week.

I have been terrible about taking pictures since my last post. When I went to see what was on my memory card, all I had was this picture of my freezer before I organized it last weekend. Can you believe this? There are bags of frozen milk everywhere! At least I know I've got a maximum of 6 more months to pump. The countdown is on!