Lily's Walking Status

Lily's walking is improving by leaps and bounds. Each day she gets better and better. She is walking most of the places she wants to go now. If she falls she usually gets right up and keeps going. That is unless she is in a hurry and the fall is usually forward and she lands on her hands and continues in her bear walk style because it's speedier than walking right now. Boy is she quick when she wants to get somewhere. Keeping her out of trouble keeps getting harder and harder to do. Christmas was interesting since one of her favorite things to do is eat paper. She has some kind of paper radar that allows her to hone in on any tiny scrap that might be good eating before anyone else knows it's there.

The Christmas One Where My Son is Not a Heathen...

...unlike the one where he throws the Magi to their doom in the lava.

I was signing Christmas cards and Jay was busy with Zach doing homework. Ryan seemed to want to be in the middle of something, so I gave him a stack of white paper and crayons and set him up at the table where I was signing cards. He drew a picture of a "Christmas tree with ornaments" and said it was for friend Ben. It was actually a pretty good drawing. I told him we could mail it with the Christmas card I send to Ben's mommy and daddy. [I need to ask Erin if I can borrow it to scan it for his scrapbook. Stupid me I should have thought of that before I put it in the envelope.] I went back to signing cards and Ryan went to work on his next drawing. He handed it to me and said, "This Christmas tree with ornaments is for Mom-mom and Pop-pop." He went to work on his next drawing of a Christmas tree while I labeled the previous one. Then I signed another card. He handed me his next drawing and said "This Christmas tree with ornaments is for Jason."
The cycle repeated...
"This Christmas tree with ornaments is for cousin Ben."
"This Christmas tree with ornaments is for Emily."
Then the best one...
"This Christmas tree with ornaments is for the Lord Jesus." [All together now, awwww.]
and then
"This Christmas tree with ornaments is for Mary."
"This Christmas tree with ornaments is for Joseph."
"This Christmas tree with ornaments is for the angels."

So we decided Jesus could give Mary, Joseph and the angels their drawings and we put them in Jesus's stocking. Jesus has a stocking in our house where we write things that we are going to give Jesus. Things we are going to try to do to be better followers. Zach put his first real one in this year. Up until this year he would say "I'm going to give Him my heart." As in the poem, "What can I give Him poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I'd give Him a lamb, If I were a wise man I'd do my part, What can I give Him? Give Him my heart!" In all fairness it was only one time because I didn't start this tradition until last year. I got the idea from a friend the year before when I asked about the stocking in her house with Jesus written on it.

3 3 3 3

Ryan is 3 years 3 months 3 weeks and 3 days today. Seemed like a day to note. Happy Christmas Eve!

Walking?

In my Christmas letter I said we wouldn't call the steps Lily is taking walking until she can take more than 6 steps without falling. 6 steps had been her record until today. This morning she took 9 steps and stopped. She didn't fall. She just stopped. So I think I am going to officially call that walking.
It's a little harder for me to judge her starting to walk than it was for Ryan. She took her first steps sooner, but they were sporadic and she mostly crawled. Ryan waited until he was fully 9 months to take his first steps, but he took off walking pretty quickly and didn't look back. Since Lily still does most of her getting around by bear walking and a little bit by old fashioned crawling now. So it's hard for me to judge if she is a full fledged walker. Either way she is growing up fast. Maybe a little too fast!

Newspaper

Ryan was watching a Blue's Clues episode where they make a newspaper of all the happenings in Steve's house. He ran in the kitchen to get his crayons and some white paper. He couldn't find his crayons, so he comes to ask me. Then he says, "I need them to write my newspaper." How great is that?! I love Blue's Clues. It was better with Steve though. I can heard him in there talking about Port Discovery now.

My Thoughts in Bullets

*I really have a hard time believing Christmas is less than a week away. I'm totally not ready.

*I really wish my kids would sleep through the night. Lily still wakes up at least 2 or 3 times a night and Ryan has been waking up crying lately too. This is not an invitation for everyone to tell me what book they read to help them get their kids to sleep. I can't do most of those because Lily shares a room with Ryan and they go to bed around the same time. Besides I don't have time to read a book and I'm too tired!

*Kwaanza- What's that about? I could write a whole post about my distaste for it being taught in every cartoon show with Christmas and Hanukkah. But, ACLU God forbid they even mention Christmas and exclude Kwanza even though the holiday itself is exclusionary. It kind of reminds me of how people bash other people with opinions as being closed minded because they don't agree with their opinion that no one should have an opinion.
**edited to add- I decided to educate myself instead of just going on what I've heard. After reading the Wikipedia article on Kwan*zaa or Kwaanza I think it's even more BS than I did before. No wonder only 1.6% of Americans celebrate it and NO OTHER COUNTRY does.**

* I find it curious that both Ryan and Lily got sick and terribly cranky right after they got the flu shot and no one else in the family is sick at all. Lily is still sick. Go ahead and roll your eyes all you flu shot advocates...I'm thinking of not getting them the second shot.

*I was supposed to get my very hard to find special sized envelopes for my Christmas cards yesterday. Of course since I am already running late they didn't come. Note to self- Next time you design your own card check out envelope sizes first to be sure you can get them. Envelopes seem to come in all kinds of sizes for companies that make cards, but try to find boxes of odd size envelopes- HA!

*I saw a commercial for salsa yesterday. They advertised salsa AND con queso. In case you didn't take Spanish salsa CON queso means salsa WITH cheese. You would think there would be some kind of check that a national commercial didn't sound stupid.

*I've e-mailed and called(twice) the preschool I want to look at for Ryan starting two weeks ago and still have not heard anything. It's the school I've found most recommended by parents who had kids there. I'm thinking of not sending him to preschool. Maybe this is a sign. The only reason I really want him to go is so he doesn't have to go from no school at all to full day kindergarten.

*I didn't realize how annoyed and confrontational I was feeling until I got a few bullet points in to this post. Hmm...perhaps not a good day to be getting ready for Christmas.

*I wrapped most of the kids gifts this weekend and finally made a list on paper of each one for each kid. Here is what I discovered...Trying to be fair is much easier when you only have two kids to keep tabs on. Ryan is SUPER easy to shop for. He has opinions and loves certain things. I love that about him. I had to restrain myself from buying more for him and he still ended up with the most stuff(though it worked out with Zach's stuff because his is more expensive). Lily was left in the dust. Poor girl. I guess because I got lots of the stuff for Ryan that I would want for her too and it's still in good shape. Now I have to go out and get a few more presents for her.

*IPods really are cool.

edited to note:
*Blogger spell check sucks! It doesn't even include Blogger or blog! It also keep poping up
behind my current window so I have to go find it.

*I called the preschool again and said that I have called 3 times and would like a call back.

Oh, Boy

I bought the Little People Nativity for the kids and I finally remembered to get it out today. As I took each piece out I explained the part it has in the nativity and told parts of the story to Ryan. After we got all the pieces out he played with it for a little while moving pieces around and having little conversations with the toys. It was sweet.
Later I was in the kitchen making lunch and I hear "Ahhhhhh...PKkkkkk" I went around the corner to see what he was doing and I see him making the figurines fall off the edge of the table cliff. Then I heard something I never thought I'd hear, "Watch out baby Jesus!" There were more people falling off the cliff, more explosions and more shouts of "fire" and "watch out." Baby Jesus did remain safe in the manger as did Mary and Joseph, but I think they had quite a scare. The boy has quite an imagination. I can't really see a girl putting Jesus in such peril while playing, but I guess that's what they mean when they say 'boys will be boys'.

Breakfast with Clifford

We had breakfast with Clifford this morning. Ryan loved it. He was a little shy at first, but he ended up giving Clifford a hug. After story time he went to get a picture with Clifford. He came to me and whispered "I want to kiss his nose." I told Clifford he would like to kiss his nose and Clifford got down on his knees. Ryan come up slowly then in a sudden burst of speed he kissed Clifford's nose and turned around and walked away. He listened to story time quite nicely and really enjoyed spending time with Clifford. I would totally do another breakfast with a character Ryan really likes, even if it means I have to get up early on a Saturday.
sTORY TIME
PICTURE TIME (RYAN WAS A BIT DISTRACTED AT THE TIME, BUT HE REALLY DID LOVE CLIFFORD.)
THE KISS

Cool!

This is quite possibly the coolest construction set ever!

Love Those Baby Humans...

hmmm, that just doesn't sound right. Oh well.

We met Erin and Ben at the cool playground this morning. We were the only ones there. The weather report said 60s and sunny. A great day to spend at the playground, no? No. It was foggy, but I thought the fog would burn off in the sun. No such luck. After both boys slid down the slide we realized the slides were all wet as were their pants. It was not as warm as I thought it would be either. It was 47 when we got out of the car. After about 45 minutes of playing I noticed Ryan was practically shivering and fussing a bit. He held his hands out for me to look at and gave me a pained look. I asked if he was ready to go home and he said, "Y-yes." Given this came from the boy who has never ever suggested or even hinted at leaving the playground of his own accord I knew he was miserable. We invited Erin and Ben back to our house and offered dry pants for Ben. I was actually surprised they accepted(no offense Erin). I was happy that we wouldn't be cutting our play date short. I actually had not thought about the state of my house when I asked them to come. Luckily the play room was not in as bad a shape as the rest of the house and we spent our time together there. The boys had lots of fun playing with just about every toy we have down there. Dr. Ryan examined a somewhat dubious, but fairly willing Ben. I have to teach him not to cut off people's tonsils with the scalpel. I guess that was the closest thing he could find to a tongue depressor. Ben seemed to really like Ryan's Hess trucks. Lily did her little baby thing and offered lots of big smiles. When it was time for our friends to go Ben wanted to stay and he made that pretty evident. It actually made me feel good that he had a good time. Ryan didn't want Ben to leave either. He told me after they left, but it was pretty evident by his body language and the big sad face he was wearing. I said they could come back and play another time and he suggested tomorrow. It's nice to see them wanting to be with each other. They started having play dates when they were just little bits that were on the floor in proximity to each other when a "play date" was more of an excuse for their mommies to have adult contact during the day. Gradually they started doing more things and even noticing each other. Now I think they really are the best friends Erin and I preordained them to be when we started all this baby stuff.
Soon we will get to start the Lily/ baby human too friendship:-) I can't wait! I know I should play favorites, but I hope it's a girl and they are best friends through their whole lives. That would be so cool. I didn't really get the opportunity to have a friendship that lasted my whole life being an Air Force brat. I always thought those kinds of friendships were so cool. At least I found Erin in my early adult life:-)


needed more words

*****Note to add that blogger is stupid and ruined all the hard work I did linking to tons of playdate pictures from my blog and Erin's. It combined linked words and erased the old links. I am far too tired and annoyed to fix it now, but I might check what links survived and try to make sure the highlights were hit.****

busy, busy, busy

Is it just me or is December the busiest month of the year? This past weekend we spent the day at my grandma and grandpa's(aka mom-mom and pop-pop) house for Cookie Day. It was a really good cookie day. The best in recent years I think. Ryan and Zach had fun decorating the cookies. When they were done they played with the other kids. My cousins' children are old enough to play now. Lily was so good. She managed to use the rocking chair to climb up on the couch by herself. You should have seen the look on her face when she made it. She was so proud of herself. Climbing the stairs is old hat now. She needed a new challenge. I'm thinking she will be a dare devil like her big brother. She managed to charm everyone with her huge grin and cheery disposition. Ryan impressed a few people by figuring out the first letters of words. I don't think too many people were around while he was doing it though. I got more than a few comments on how good they were. After Zach was done decorating cookies he spent most of the rest of the time playing video games and some time playing with the 10 year old daughter of my uncle's girlfriend. Jay and I managed to have adult conversations and even spent some time together! Since we were there from 11-8:30ish it was a pretty long day. I think it wore down Ryan's immune system because he started the day with a slight cough and a runny nose and ended it with a fever and hacking up a lung. We medicated him before bed and tried to come up with a plan if he was too sick for church.

Lily needs me...to be continued.

Zach is 8!

Zach turned 8 today. He seemed really happy to get his Nintendo DS. He brought cookies to school to share with his class and said he had a really great day. Though the highlight of his day seemed to be pictures of the Galapagos Islands that his computer teacher brought back from his vacation.

Now if you will excuse me I am going to bed. Lily is finally asleep and I have a huge headache and I'm nauseous. Don't go there... Ryan is sick too. 'night.

Lily 9 Months

Lily has done so much in her short 9 months. She has now been in the world for as long as she was in my "tummy." She did a lot in there too, you know changing from a zygote into a baby that was ready to come out and see the world. Amazing. No less amazing is all she has accomplished since she joined us out here. She has learned to smile, giggle, make lots of different sounds, recognize faces, voices and names. She has learned to roll over, bear walk, pull herself up, cruise around the furniture, stand up by herself and she even took her very first fawn like steps toward becoming a walker! All this from the little, tiny baby that didn't do much besides cry, kick her feet and swing her arms without much control. Baby humans are so fascinating. Other babies are also fascinating, even plants fascinate me. Like the Narcissus(paper whites) Ryan and my mom planted about 2 weeks ago as bulbs that are now over 9 inches tall! Sometimes I just sit and marvel at God's creations.

The Coolest Gift

I just got Ryan the coolest gift EVER! It's really too bad that he is the only one in our family the right age for it, but you can bet Lily will get one too when she is older. The best part is it cost less than $3!!! So do you want to know what it is...yes? Well okay. Mickey Mouse is going to call Ryan on Christmas day to wish him a Merry Christmas! Check out this site to get one of the Disney Characters to call your little one. They have different occasions for calling. I would recommend this as a congratulations on using the potty thing. Having your favorite character give you praise is probably something a kid would remember and think was totally cool. I know I would have.

PS I just updated the wishlists on our website. Zach added a bunch of stuff to his list.

She Took Steps!!!

Lily just took her first steps. It wasn't really walking, but it was a start. She has been standing up and lowering herself down for a few days now. Today she moved her foot when she was standing and I thought maybe she was just trying to keep her balance. Since she was still standing I went over in front of her and put my arms out and she stepped toward me and grabbed my arm. A little while later we were in the kitchen and she stood up and took four teeny tiny little steps all with the same foot(the left one). If there was any doubt in my mind that put it to rest. She was being very intentional and although her four tiny steps equaled the distance of one, she was trying. When she tried to move the right foot she plopped down on her bottom, but she still looked very pleased with herself. It might have had a little bit to do with her mommy gleefully exclaiming, "Wow, wow! What a big girl!" To top it all off she happily replied, "Ma ma ma" to my encouraging words.

Ryan 3 years 3 months

It amazing to me how much kids learn when they are young. Ryan's little sense of humor is developing, his ability to interact with and initiate play with other kids is developing and he is getting smarter every day. He is interested in new things too. My little boy who wouldn't sit and color for 2 minutes 6 months ago is crafting up a storm, asking to color and even asking me to show him how to make letters. He does pretty well too. Drawing circles and triangles. He can write a few letters pretty well. Some capital and some lowercase. Since he has shown so much interest in writing letters and numbers I printed out some great tracing sheets from Jan Brett's website. Which I would highly recommend to mothers with young kids. She has such beautiful drawings and great learning activities. Best of all it's all free! We printed out 0-5 and Ryan did some of each before he got bored and started basically scribbling, but he had fun. There is so much Ryan is doing I think I'll do some bulleted lists to keep this short and sweet. This part is mostly for me and the proud grandparents who care to read the whole list;-)

Ryan can-
-count to 100 with only a little help
-say the sounds of most letters
-figure out what letter lots of words start with
-sound out some small words with help
-make people laugh
-do a forward roll
-do a backward roll off of the little hill
-hang from a bar and pull his feet up to touch it
-almost do a pull up
-walk the balance beam with no help
-say the Lord's Prayer and Psalm 23
-sing the words to all sorts of songs
-hop on one foot
-jump over small (very small) obstacles
-hike about a mile
-swing on and let go of the trapeze bar in gymnastics

Ryan loves to-
-make people laugh
-hug and kiss family, especially Lily and Mommy
-climb anything vertical
-jump on anything horizontal (including beds, floors and anyone who dares take a rest in our living room)
-running (even if it's just in circles- okay, especially if it's just in circles)
-play with cars, Thomas trains and tools
-play pretend (like making his cars talk to each other and making food in his play kitchen)
-help- with laundry, cooking, getting diapers for Lily, just about anything

Bye-bye Sweet Toothless Grin

It's time to say goodbye to Lily's sweet toothless grin. Thanksgiving day we noticed her first little white tooth trying to pop through her bottom gum. Yesterday I felt her bottom right tooth when she was chewing my finger. Soon both bottom teeth will be evident when she smiles and the toothless grin will be gone forever. These milestones are bittersweet.

Oooo

Lily's newest sound and my favorite so far...oooo, like she is really amazed by something. It's so sweet. She also did two other big things yesterday. She stood up by herself without pulling up and she took off with her push toy/ walker thingy. It's been out for a few days now, but she really started using it yesterday. I expected that when she started using the push toy it would get away from her sometimes because she was leaning on it, but she seemed to use it effortlessly. Well, until she got stuck on furniture or at a wall. Sometimes she would just walk around and use it backwards, but mostly she fussed at it until someone came and got her unstuck. She has really been enjoying the walking. I don't think she got off her feet for more than 5 minutes after she discovered the joy of walking(with the push toy of course) last night.
*video coming soon

Baby Sounds and Preschooler Structures

I've grown accustomed to hearing lots of noises from Lily. She is particularly fond of da-da-da-da, she also likes to say baba, ah-ba, na-na-na , ah-ee and the occasional ma-ma. None of these have associations for her yet, but she loves making noises. She gurgles, she giggles, she out and out laughs. These are all familiar and wonderful, but last night this crazy thing happened. Last night Jay handed her an Arrowroot biscuit and said, "This is a cookie." Then this little tiny voice said, "Cookie" and she put it in her mouth. Wide-eyed I looked at Jay as if to confirm that I had just heard what I just heard only to find the same expression on his face. "She just said 'cookie'!" I exclaimed. I was in such shock I'm not sure how he responded, but I know he confirmed my statement somehow. Of course she doesn't really know what she said, she was just imitating, but wow- just wow. We tried to get her to say it again, but she just grinned at us, ate her cookie and made her usual sounds.
Not to be outdone by his little sister Ryan had his own accomplishment yesterday. He built this...

(not the greatest picture of him, but look at that structure!)

If you do not have a toddler preschooler (I just can't get used to calling him that!) or your kid is just some kids of super genius who has built mega towers out of blocks already maybe you do not understand the significance of this particular structure. You see how he built a base and then two pillars to hold up the roof? Yea, that's pretty dag-on amazing to me. I really couldn't believe that he didn't have any help, but he didn't. I mean piling block on top of block that's cool and everything, but this is...well, wow- just wow.
I am amazed at my kids many days, but some days are just extraordinary.

Congratulations

Congratulations to my friend Philo and his brand spankin' new fiance, Madeli! Be on the lookout for bumming California bound tourists, Philo!!! I've always wanted to visit the west coast;-)

Happy Birthday Mom!

In the words of Frosty the Snowman, "Happy Birthday!"
I hope your day is special and fun! Ryan and I made cookies today and he is very excited to send some to you in the mail. He just can't figure out how we are going to get them in an envelope. Don't worry I explained that we will use a box, but it was funny when he asked.

It was Inevitable

This post is a while in coming. Lily now wants to be fully involved with her spoon feeding. Oh yea. Doesn't she look pleased with herself?
Check out the mess highlighted below. Notice the hair, the freshly cleaned high chair and that tray. Our general routine at this point is to start with two spoons. I get food on one and head toward her mouth she grabs on as soon as the spoon is within range and I help her guide it into her mouth. She will hold that spoon for dear life until I load and position the next one. At that point she drops the first one or she is distracted enough by the new spoon full of yumminess that I am able to coax it out of her kung foo grip. This is then repeated until all the food is gone. In order to get the spoon from the last bite I call in reinforcement finger foods. I strategically drop cheerios or puffs in the least messy place while I wipe her face hands and tray. She gets annoyed, but is then distracted by the second barrage of cheerios/puffs. I still usually end up with a shirt that should be changed(if I'm not going somewhere I usually just wear the food all day-sad, I know). After all that I try to eat some of my own food. Maybe I should come up with a better system.

Pretty Cool

Bet you didn't see this when you were trick or treating last night!

We went to our church's "Trunk or Treat" event last night. It was well done as usual. There were some really good trunks. One was all decked out like a 70s prom, there was a very well done Wizard of Oz trunk, the barn one, an elaborate Cinderella's Castle complete with Cinderella and Prince Charming and those a just a few of the great ones. Jay's favorite was a lifted truck with HUGE wheels where the people sat in the bed and sent the candy down through PVC tubes. We didn't even get to all the trunks, but the kids did get a turn in the moon bounce. TJ even came up to trunk or treat with us. That was special. The kids were excited to have him with us. I feel a little bad for him though because he mostly just totted Ryan's tools around. We were so glad to see him though:-)

Zach's costume was a BIG hit. It seemed like every person we passed said, "Look! It's Sponge Bob." One woman giving out candy even asked who his mom was then told me his costume was very clever. There was an older kid who was like, "Sponge Bob! Cool! I wish I could be Sponge Bob." There were some Green Bay fans who called him a cheese head, but that is a complement in their language. Ryan got recognized by all the kids his age and their moms. One of the kids thought his tools were great and spent several minutes going through them asking their names.

Happy Halloween from the Periwinkle Family

I put the kids in their costumes this morning for a test run to see if I needed to make any last minute changes. They were so cute I couldn't resist taking a few pictures and sharing. So, without further ado...I give you Sweet Pea and Handy Manny.

She will be wearing green "Sleep Pea" jammies underneath.

Thanks to Grandpa and grandma for making the tools!

I'll post a picture of Zach when he tries on his costume for the final fitting. He is at school now.

Zach wasn't still long enough for me to get a picture of him alone. As soon as I was done the ones with Ryan he had his costume off and he was organizing his loot.

Yep, He's Three

This is how Ryan dressed himself to go out yesterday. Granted we were going to a costume party at gymnastics, but the boots, the backpack, my hat and the flashlight might have been a bit of overkill. We got a couple giggles at Michaels and Target where we went before gymnastics. Eh, why not. He had fun:-)

Beautiful

Recently I've been doing some thinking about make-up. This is something I contemplate every now and then. In high school I wore make-up every day and curled my hair. In college I decided that people should like me for who I really am and decided that make-up was a mask to hid behind(plus I like to just roll out of bed and head to class). Then I was in Erin's wedding and she found this great make up person that made me realize that make-up can be used to just enhance your 'natural beauty'. I also found that buying better make-up made for a better look. So I bought some good make-up and started wearing it. Then I got married and had kids. This leaves little time for make-up and I only wear make-up when I have extra time(ha!) or when I get dressed up. Every now and then something will make me realize that I look better with make-up and I decide that I should wear it more. This time my thoughts were sparked by a couple things. I was putting together a portrait collage and I thought about the pictures I was picking of me were all ones where I had make-up on. Now I don't wear any form of make-up at least 99% of the time. I don't like to have my picture taken when I don't have make-up on, so there are not that many of me in my normal state of being. So I started thinking about how I should wear make-up more. The next day I read this post and I thought 'Well, Erin looks fine without makeup.' Then I think of the pictures of me with make up and looking in the mirror every day and again make-up seems like a good idea. After all I do want to be attractive to my husband and look like I have it a little bit together to the rest of the world. Then today I saw one of these videos posted in Jackaroo World. This prompted me to look on YouTube for myself. I found some more videos that made me realize there is a way bigger picture. They made me think of Lily and how she will think of herself when she grows up. Then they made me think of Ryan and what he will think of himself and how he will look at girls. They made me realize I need to be making sure every day that my kids know they are beautiful and wonderful and to learn to embrace things that make other people different than them. This message from Dove hits me so hard that I joined YouTube just so I could post these videos in hopes that more people will post them and more people will see them and they might make more kids out there(and grown ups too) realize that they are beautiful. Thanks to Dove for their Campaign for Real Beauty. So for me, maybe I will wear make-up more often because I feel prettier with it on, but I will also know that my husband loves me for way more than how I look with make-up on.

dove 'little girls'

This is an important message. Kudos to Dove for starting the campaign for real beauty!

dove film

These girls make me sad. Unfortunately I think they are not in the minority.

dove evolution

This is incredible.

Ryan at 3

Ryan is three now and doing so much. Since he turned 3 he has started watching football with daddy. Now whenever he sees anything remotely resembling a football game on TV he asks if we can watch the Ravens. I've never really cared much about the Ravens. I guess any sports loyalties I had were established when I was young and the Ravens didn't exist then. There is something about your little boy rooting for a team that makes your heart a little soft for them. I guess the Ravens are now officially my NFL team of choice (if I had to choose).

Here are the boys watching football and drinking rootbeer floats.

He hiked all the way to this waterfall and most of the way back. That's quite a bit of walking for little legs.
He has also shown quite an interest in reading. I think he may be on the verge of starting to read. He wants to know what all the signs we pass say. He wants to know what words are in his books and he is getting pretty good at knowing what letters start words. He likes to sit and "read" his books all by himself. He also likes to "read" Lily stories from the books he has had since he was a baby. Just today he started saying rhyming words. I'm not sure he knew what he was doing when he did it, but he knows there is something similar about the words.




He is also starting to recognize and make patterns. The other morning I was in the other room and Ryan came running in to get me. "Come see my pattern, Mommy! Backwards, frontwards,backwards, frontwards." I went in and there were about 75 of his cars arranged in a line alternating frontward and backward. There were a couple planes and motorcycles thrown in for variety.

He is so much fun these days (when he is not being obstinate) cracking jokes and generally just being amusing. He is in big boy gymnastics now where he goes all by himself, but he likes to look out the window or come to the door and say "Hi mommy! I love you." or "I did it!" Curious George is his new favorite show and he belly laughs when he is watching it. He just loves that curios little monkey:-) I know how he feels because I just love my curious little monkey too:-)

Too Much TV?

Does it mean that Ryan is watching too much TV when one of his favorite songs is "Cha-cha-cha, Charmin"?

Or when I give him a little box of raisins he says, "Grapes and sunshine, that's all we need."?

Mental note: Only play cartoons from 'non-commercial' stations when I take a shower.

ROFL

You Are Marcia Brady

Confident yet kind. Popular yet down to earth. You're a total dream girl. You've got the total package - no wonder everyone's a little jealous of you.

What Brady Are You?

Well, they can't all be right! I thought sure I'd be a Peter, MAYBE a Jan.

The Lord is my Shepherd

I was saying prayers with Ryan tonight and he wanted to do "The Lord is my Shepherd." So I started ..."The Lord is my Shepherd"...then Ryan joined in and I stopped, secretly relieved because I couldn't remember the order of the verses.
"I shall not want, He makes me lie down in my bed."
I couldn't help it. I laughed. He thought that was fun. I went and got my Bible to look up Psalm 23 so I could say it right. I showed Ryan that it was right there in the Bible and he thought it was pretty cool. So I read it and he asked for another Psalm. I read some from another psalm that I noticed had this month's Bible words from his Sunday School class. He recognized the verse and said it with me. He giggled with delight and I thought 'Wow, he is really getting this.' I finished that Psalm and he wanted more. So I found a short one to read. Then he asked me to do Handy Manny from the Bible. I told him there is no Handy Manny in the Bible. He said, "You know, the Handy Manny song." Oh, I get it now. "No, Honey, these are psaLMs, not sonGs." Okay, maybe he doesn't get it so much. So I tell Ryan it's time to go to sleep. [remember how he thought it was fun when I laughed at his version of the Lord is My Shepherd] His reply was "The Lord is my Shepherd he wants me to not lie down in my bed. He wants you to get me some water." He really knows how to make me laugh:-)

My Little Comedian

Lily has taken to blowing raspberries on my arm. It's very cute and quite amusing (for while at least). Last night she started blowing on my arm and the boys started laughing. Zach was literally rolling on the floor. Ryan said, "Lily, toot again!" through his laughter. She turned around, looked at him and cracked a huge smile. Then she turned back to my arm and did more raspberries. They broke into even more uproarious laughter. She looked at them and smiled again. Realizing they were laughing at her she started giggling too. Then she turned back and blew more raspberries resulting in louder laughter and more 'Lily, toot again's. You can see the pattern. This went on for at least 5 minutes before I had to put an end to it.

Family Filled Weekend

Wow, it has been a busy weekend. We saw everyone in our [1st degree] extended family this weekend(if you count Monday since it was a holiday weekend). My parents came up to visit this weekend. They happened to be here for their 30th anniversary Sunday. Happy Anniversary again mom and dad! Thanks for being a good example of marriage for me:-) Okay, back to the weekend... Saturday we dropped by Jay's sister's house and then his parents' house. Sunday my brother, TJ, came up and watched football with us. Then Monday Jay's brother came over (he had fall break this weekend) and we watched more football. I'm not sure what is up with the football lately, but Jay has watched 4 games in the past 2 weekends. Maybe because he an watch them in high def? He knows a lot about what's going on behind the scenes too. I think he has been studying up on the internet. If he is going to want to watch football again next weekend maybe I can talk Erin into bringing her family up here so Tom and Jay can watch the game in high def and she and I can hang out:-)

Leaf Soup

I think the best leaf soup is made in Autumn.


Leaf soup is something we got from my mother-in-law. I'm not sure if she invented it, but I know Jay made leaf soup as a kid. As I understand it you just take a bucket on a walk and collect leaves (and if Ryan has his way sticks)there may be some stirring involved. I have never made leaf soup before, but with the leaves starting to change it seemed like a good time to start. It's amazing how into it Ryan was! We got some leaves because they were pretty, some because they were unique and some (Ryan's) just because they were there. Ryan also added some grass, but we decided that we should only pick up things that had fallen on their own. In my opinion the coolest addition was the acorns that had fallen from our neighbor's tree. We spent about 45 minutes filling our bucket just on our street! During our adventure I saw a black and white striped feather. It was really cool looking. We carried our bucket to the back yard where I saw something come blazing down and bump into the birdfeeder next door. It was strange and I only saw it from the corner of my eye. I found it curious though so I tried to see past the bush. Then a hawk (or falcon I didn't get a very good look) that was probably the source of the feather we saw flew away. Those birds are so beautiful, almost majestic. Now if I can just get the picture out of my mind of what he must have been doing to slam into the bird feeder next door I might be able to get rid of the sick feeling in my stomach and enjoy having seen such a beautiful bird.

7 Months Old

As usual things conspired against me on Lily's monthday and since to prevent her monthday picture post. I bring it to you now. I couldn't choose just one pic, so you get several:-)

Here is my happy girl in her monthday chair.

See?! Look how happy!

This is how you are more likely to find her on her chair.

I couldn't resist a few face shots. Look at that mug!

I just love this shot. Such a sweet face:-)
Click on the picture for a better view. It makes a big difference.

Frustration...

and it's not even mine! Lily has been getting frustrated with her inability to make her body do what she wants it to recently. This usually means she is on the verge of a new feat. The first time I noticed the frustration cry she wanted to get places. The next thing I knew she was on the move. It was a bit awkward, but she could go. The crying stopped until just before she sat up. Before the pulling up there was a lot of grunting, but not much crying. Now the crying is back. Today she was holding on to a chair in the dining room when I heard "the cry", so I went over. As soon as I got there she stopped the crying and grabbed on to my pant leg. She lifted her little leg and started turning toward me and...boom, down on her bum. A little more frustration cry followed and I decided to distract her with some lunch. I sit here now wondering if she is on the verge of some new baby feat or if the frustration cry is going to be around for a while. Because really it's way to early to walk, but maybe walking holding on to furniture. Should I get the walkers out to sooth the frustration or is that just asking for trouble?

Ryan-isms

(Yes, I stole this idea from Erin)

Mommy: Ryan we're going out to dinner tonight. Where do you want to go?
Ryan: Old MacDonalds!

Mommy: Ryan, you're totally awesome!
Ryan: Yeah. I am totawy awesome! ::Big grin::
I think this is totally cute, but I recently started worrying about what other people will think if he responds to their compliments like that. Now we are working on saying 'Thank you' to compliments. Hopefully it won't be "Thank you. Do I get a smiley face? Did you rebind me?" You see Ryan gets smiley faces on his chart when he uses his manners without being reminded. This is a common refrain after uses manners. At least the chart is working...sort of.

**In case you were wondering 'rebind' was not a typo. That's how he says it.**

Standing Tall

Yep, that's Lily; Not yet 7 months old standing by herself. Of course she can only manage to stand for a second or two before landing on her bum with a big thump. She keeps doing it though, so she is showing signs of being fearless like her big brother, Ryan. You know, the one who climbed on top of his cozy coupe at 1 year of age and loved to perch atop this walker.

Ahhhh

I think this is the first time this has happened in 7 months...
It's 9PM and all the kids are asleep! Jay is at Bible study and the house is [mostly] clean. This means for the first time in as long as I can remember I get to totally choose what I want to do with no very little guilt. After all, there are dishes I could do and I need to get the rest of Lily's 9 month clothes out of the box, but those things can wait for a little while. So, what do I choose to do with all my free time? Well obviously I am blogging and I'm also watching Dancing with the Stars. Oh and I am also TiVoing NCIS and The Unit because I can't miss them, but Jay likes them too. Have I mentioned that I love my TiVo? This post is starting to sound like a cry for help...HELP! I can't stop multi-tasking! I guess When I get free time I don't want to waste it relaxing or anything;-)

Bath Story in Pictures

This is the first time Ryan let me do fun stuff with his hair, so I wanted to document the occasion.

He *thinks* soap got in his eyes. No amount of explaining it was just water and he'll be okay works, so I did what any good mother would do and took a picture. What? That's not what you would do?

This is the immediate result of seeing the previous picture.

He continued to talk about his crying face and laugh for a while.

Then I said, "Let me see your muscles" :-)

This has been the story of a bath. Brought to you by the letter 'B' and the number '3'. (Can you tell we watched Sesame Street this morning?)

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Important Things about Jesus (to a 3 year old)

Ryan bent down and picked up a plastic coin from the floor. Holding it up to me he said, "Is this mine?"
I replied, "Yes, it is." Then he told me he was going to hold it and bring it to Sunday school and put it in the bag. This coupled with the necklace he was wearing after Sunday school last week that said "I can worship God by giving" led me to think he wanted to give his money to the church. How sweet. I said, "Oh, you want to give your money at church for Jesus?"
He said "Yes."
I told him, "That is not a real coin, but I think it is wonderful that you want to give your money to the church for Jesus. Maybe we can get some money from your bank and give it to Jesus."
"Yes," he said as if his mind were already somewhere else. "Where is Jesus?" How do you answer that for a three year old?
I went with "Jesus is everywhere, but He lives in Heaven with God."
To which he replies, "Oh. Does Jesus have Humbers[Hummers] to go on the roads?"
Holding back my laughter, "I don't think Jesus has Hummers. He liked to walk."
Ryan, knowing how wise and cool Jesus was/is, disagrees, "I think Jesus does have Humbers."

So much to blog so little time!

I have some back-blogging to do, so be on the lookout for posts before this one until I catch up! I'll start with Ryan's birthday on Saturday and work my way up to the orchard yesterday.

Ryan's 3rd Birthday Party

We had so much fun at Ryan's party. Of course the theme was Cars because he is obsessed with anything with wheels and he especially loved the movie Cars. Half of the invited guests couldn't make it, but Friend Ben and Emily did come and Ryan enjoyed his buds. We played with cars and ate some english muffin pizzas and some snacks...

We enjoyed a little Rim Toss. Emily especially liked this game, but she didn't especially like standing behind the "line"
;-)

The kiddies made some graham cracker cars with yummy treats and pretzel wheels. Ben really liked the hershey bar windows. You might notice his car is windowless;-)

Ryan blew out the candles and we ate some cake.

Ryan opened his gifts and the kids played semi-nicely together with Ryan's loot. I guess you can't expect too much sharing from a toddler with his brand new toys.

It's Happening So Fast

My babies are growing up so fast! Lily is getting around better and faster now. She doesn't usually crawl though. She kind of ambles about in a bear walk. Every once in a while she will drop down to her knees and rock, but she usually gets back up on her feet when she wants to move. I've never seen another baby get around quite like her. She is making more sounds now. 'Ah-ba' and 'da-da' are her newest conversational pieces. Ryan is also increasing his repertoire. He speaks very well though he is still learning grammar. He has also has finally taken an interest in drawing. He is quite proud of his ability to draw circles and triangles. The biggest change of all and what is hardest for me to deal with is the big boy gymnastics. Next week he starts his new class. The class where he goes in alone- without me- all by himself. It makes me nervous. I wonder if he will behave, if he will listen and understand the directions and if he will be scared without me. He seems excited at the idea now, but we will see how it goes when it comes time for him to actually go in by himself. Hopefully I'll be able to hide my own apprehension! There has been something to love about every age and stage so far. I'm sure that won't end just because they need me less.

Here is a picture of my big kids at 6 months and 3 years old.

Oh My!

I turned my back to cut an apple for Ryan and look what I saw when I turned back! I think it is so adorable how visibly proud she is of herself :-)

My children amaze me every day! Like a few days ago when Zach's friend came to the door. Ryan answered it. He opened the door and said, "Hello Aaron. How are you today?" I didn't hear the other end of the conversation, but there was a pause and Ryan said, "No, Zach can't play he is visiting Grandmommy today." Now I've never thought to teach my 3 year old how to answer the door, but he seems to have picked up some very nice manners somewhere.

Ritardando!

Hmmm. I'm sitting here watching Little Einsteins and when they say 'ritardando' things slow down. Think that would work for me? I would just like a little break. A day with no errands to run, no cleaning to do, calm kids who are not sick and needy... Maybe if I say it louder? Yeah I didn't think so.

PS It does make me giggle a little bit inside every time they say it. Maybe because I didn't grow up thinking of it as a musical term ;-)

And So It Continues...

Yesterday I introduced Lily to Giraffe. They seem to get along famously:-) I guess Giraffe makes a great friend for babies. Ryan thinks it's great that Lily likes Giraffe just like he did.

Six Months Old

Yes I know Lily was 6 months old Saturday, but we were both sick and she had red puffy eyes. I took her picture yesterday in the monthday chair and you get your post today. So what is Lily up to this month. She is sitting herself up and she gets around in an inchworm like fashion. She gets her knees or feet up under her and kind of dives forward and repeats this until she gets to her destination with some rolling or squirming involved if she needs to change direction. She can pick up and hold a block. She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, especially her big toe. She is mostly a smiley, giggly girl. Who lights up when she sees people she loves. Ryan and daddy are eliciting especially big smiles these days.

Crushin'

Looks like they are ALL growing up fast. I found this on the back of one of Zach's school papers.
I asked who it was and he said, "That's Amanda. I like her very much."

Happy 3rd Birthday Monkey!

You are getting so big!

Sittin' Up

Lily just sat up all by herself!

2

Today is Ryan's last day as a two year old. It's so hard to believe tomorrow he will be 3! I'm so excited about his birthday. Probably because he 'gets it' more this year and he is very excited himself.

Now I Remember

I have not visited the local Wal*mart in quite a while. Now I remember why. Yesterday I went there for school supplies thinking I could save some money and remembering that I had a hard time finding composition books last year. OHMYGOODNESS was it awful. Starting with the terribly designed parking lots all the way to the 50 people mashed into 2 aisles while the stock girl had 3 carts lining the aisle. You'd think a company that has been around for so long would have a better idea of when and how to stock the busiest aisle. I thought I might be making a mistake when I followed a young red haired guy with saggy shorts, a baseball cap turned sideways and a fake limp into the store. [Um, dude, this is suburbia 2006...did the fashion train drop you off in 1998 and forget to pick you up?] While I'm on ridiculous fashion can I ask you a question internet...At what point do shorts become highwaters? When I see a young urban guy whose "shorts"(I can only assume this is what they were meant to be as the 'only' came to his ankles) are longer than her capri pants I get a bit confused as to where fashion is going these days. Not that I am a fashion queen, far from it. Give me a comfortable pair of khaki pants or jeans and a tee shirt or polo and I'm happy as a clam. But I do think when you dress in a very noticeable way that you might think about what you look like before you leave the house. Maybe it's just me.
Anyway, back to my shopping trip. It sucked and I don't think I will go back there for a long, long time. I did however find something really cool for Ryan's birthday party that I have not seen anywhere else...they keep throwing me a bone. Ugh. I wish I could just make a clean break without wondering what I'm missing out on!

Jumping on the bandwagon

You Are An ISFJ

The Nurturer You have a strong need to belong, and you very loyal. A good listener, you excel at helping others in practical ways. In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music. You find it easy to be devoted to one person, who you do special things for. You would make a good interior designer, chef, or child psychologist.

What's Your Personality Type?

I think that is pretty close.

Did anyone else notice that I am the exact opposite of my husband?! hmmmm.

Update--
for more profile fun check here

For more info on what I/E S/N F/T and P/J (aka Extraverted or Introverted, Sensing or iNtuitive, Thinking or Feeling and Judging or Perceiving) mean go here

Hmmm, not sure about this

Don't know if I fully agree with this. I always have the "NT" in the middle and have waffled between "P" and "J" (J = Judging, P = Perceiving) I have flipped from "I" to "E" occasionally, but generally it depends a lot on my mood. I have spent much of my life as an introvert, but draw energy from having an audience, especially in smaller settings. Have always been the clown in my family. More rational than emotional, but intuit emotions in others rather keenly. Much more so now than when younger. Then I was an I(S/N)TJ for sure, never got down the proper distinction between sensing and intuition, one moment I might be deliberate, the next spontaneous. Still have that.

You Are An ENTP

The Visionary You are charming, outgoing, friendly. You make a good first impression. You possess good negotiating skills and can convince anyone of anything. Happy to be the center of attention, you love to tell stories and show off. You're very clever, but not disciplined enough to do well in structured environments. You would make a great entrpreneur, marketing executive, or actor.

What's Your Personality Type?

Hide and Seek

This morning I went up o retrieve Ryan's "Humber" that somehow got stuck between the back of Zach's dresser and the wall. This toy car is one of Ryan's new favorite toys, so When I brought it to the living room, where I left Ryan, I thought some fanfare was in order. Coming down the stairs I announced in a somewhat sing-songy voice, "Ry-an, I have something for you." I expected him to come running from downstairs or the kitchen. Instead as I reached the bottom of the stairs(and coincidently the end of my sentence) Ryan popped up from inside the giant suitcase I had been working on unpacking. The suitcase was about 3 feet from where I was standing and he had been completely concealed inside, so it was certainly a surprise. I spent the next couple minutes laughing at myself and him. He told me he was playing hide and seek. I thought he had had a breakthrough because usually he tells you where he is going to hide. I explained to him that the most important part of hide and seek is that the people who you want to play with know you are playing. He said, "Okay. You count, I'm going to hide in here." ::sigh:: I guess I was wrong about that breakthrough.

Whirlwind

Do you ever feel like your whole world is a whirlwind? No time to slow down or you might get swept away by life? That's how I've been feeling lately. We just got back from vacation where I was able to slow down a little bit for a week. Before vacation I was spending every free moment getting our house ready to go on the market. No small task with 3 young children I've found. It went on the market the day we left for vacation. I'm hoping maintaining will be easier than getting it this way. The kids and summer activities have also been keeping me busy. I never thought I would be one of those moms that was happy for the school year to start, but we have 1 week and counting until the first day(woo hoo!). I'm hoping that the start of school will bring back some routine and give me plenty of time to not be a referee. Routine will be nice. It will also be nice to have my Bible study time back.

One Handed Picture Blogging

Isn't that sweet?! He wanted to hold Lily and gave her a kiss all on his own with no prompting.

Waiting for mommy to come get him after 10 minutes "rest time." He was having rest time because he insisted he did NOT need a nap.

My two little patriots.

Grandma and her girl.

Already acting like siblings.

I believe I can fly (with a little help from daddy)

Sittin' Up

Yep, that's my girl sittin' up. She's growing up so fast!

5 months old

What a big month for Lily. She is scooching, rolling back to front and front to back easily now, she is sitting(though sometimes she tips over), laughing, squealing with delight and having "conversations" with people. Some of her favorite things are her hanging jumper thing, her exersaucer, rolling around on the floor and the ever popular people looking at/talking to her.