Sunday, September 20, 2009

Grant's Turn

Grant got to enjoy a few more weeks of summer with his preschool starting after labor day.  He was so ready to get back to school (or maybe just away from crabby mom and his frenemy, Lilly).  I love his first day of school pose, with his hands on his back pack straps and I love that he still lets me pick out his clothes.  Kyle is so far beyond that, it is nothing but t-shirts and athletic type shorts and pants.  He made one exception for picture day, when he wore his Easter shirt and tie with shorts and tennis shoes.  He looks so good when he wears nicer clothes, but I want him to feel good at school so I don’t press the issue (at least I try not to).  He is not super into school this year, he doesn’t hate it, but he doesn’t love it and I think he really misses seeing grandma.  He has spent a few Saturday’s with her, so that helps, but it is just not the same.  I am already having to play the “no school, no sports” card which is effective because he LOVES his sports.  Soccer is going well, they are playing on a bigger field with a goalie this year.  The first few game were rough, but the week before he scored 3 goals and an assist and this week he scored on and played goalie one half, stopping all but one rocket.  No wonder Lilly and Ryan seem to worship him.  Ryan does not consistently say mama or dada or anything really, but more often then not, he will joyfully sound our “Eye-el” when he sees his big brother.  I think I am going to have to break down and record that as his first official word. 

 

I did not stand in the grocery store checkout line reading some gossip magazine about the stars of the Twilight movie while Kyle placed all of the groceries on the conveyor.  I would never set such a bad example and get so sucked into an article of that nature.  I also didn’t in the very same store take Grant and Ryan for lunch and allow Ryan to spill an entire bottle of milk because I was reading another magazine, I mean, enough is enough, isn’t it?

Monday, September 14, 2009

Birthday Party Blues

I think I have put of blogging Grant’s birthday because there really weren’t many blog worthy moments.  Notice in the picture the kid wearing a jacket…in August.  The sub-70 degree weather kind of ruined our plans for a waterslide party.  We had so much fun at our back to school water slide party that I was pretty disappointed.  We tried setting up some outside games, but nothing really took off.  We did have a nice dinner and all Grant really cared about was having his friends around while he blew out the candles on his spiderman cupcakes and opened presents.  He also got to end any disagreement with Kyle by stating “I’m the birthday boy”.  His actual birthday went a little smoother with a trip to Paradise Park with Grandma and lunch at McDonald’s with me.  He kept saying “I’ll be 4 later”.  That night, Kyle offered to buy ice cream at Sonic with his own money.  I was pretty surprised, he normally holds onto his cash for dear life, but he knows how much Grant likes his ice cream.  Maybe next year will work out for the waterslides.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Keeping Ryan Out of Trouble

I think I alluded in my previous post to my now constant struggle to keep Ryan out of mortal danger.  This picture illustrates this fact to some extent.  He is never content to stand beside something, in his eyes, things are meant to be crawled on top of.  The older boys would stand for hours by the train table playing.  Ryan instead prefers to find his way to the top, sit down in the middle and play.  I really don’t even fight that anymore, if he falls during his dismount, it is only a few inches.  Tonight marked the first night that I ordered a baby proofing product on-line and paid extra for speedy shipping.  This event was brought about by dinner.  His new found obsession is opening the door to the over, so I consciously decided to cook the chicken in the counter top toaster over, knowing I could slip for a second and he would open the hot over door.  Up until now, he had merely opened the door, but tonight, in the time it took me to wash my hands after cutting up chicken, he opened the door and climbed on top of it so that he was eye level with the burners.  I yelled no and grabbed him and sat him down in the hall way.  For about a minute, I think he was actually trying not to cry, a one year old, trying to act tough.  But eventually he lost it and I lost it and now we are just saying prayers that the aftermarket oven door lock work and he can move on to his next disaster.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Impomtu Animal Encounters

I think it was not last weekend, but the week before the unseasonably cool weather inspired us to take trips to both the farmstead (on Friday) and the zoo (on Sunday).  The pics from the farmstead include my friend Janet’s kids (actually just her youngest 3!,Alex, Garrett and Erica).  They were able to meet us and a good time was had by all.  It was a strange to be there without Kyle since he was in school all day.  Even though the farmstead has lost some of it’s magic for the big 7 year old, we missed him and he is getting to where he is pretty helpful keeping Ryan out of trouble (a one and a half person job at least).  On Sunday, we felt somewhat caught up and decided to venture as a family of 5 to the zoo.  It feels we so seldom do that (travel in a pack) and it was nice for a change.  I love how close you can get to the kangaroos at our zoo and Ryan was busy pointing at everything.