Philadelphia part 1

I've been procrastinating on this post, there is just so much to say and too many pictures to add. SO I will break in down in a couple posts.

Last week we went to Philadelphia with my in-laws and it was awesome. I wish we had more time. I was quite sad to come home, there was so much more I wanted to see but there wasn't enough time in the days. First stop was the Aquarium in NJ. It was fun, they had hippos! They were hard to see though and I got no good pictures. Rylan LOVED the sharks. Saige petted sharks, stingrays, and a jellyfish. The jellyfish were really cool. I had a hell of a time trying to get my camera to take any pictures you can see with all the glass.

We watched the Spongebob 4D movie. I really thought Rylan would love that, he does love Spongebob. He did alright but he was tired, it was loud and he did not care for the water squirting at him- at all. He spent the whole movie against my chest with me covering his ears refusing to wear the glasses. The rest of the kids thought it was pretty neat though. He was mesmerized by the giant fish mobile and loved watching the fish.

The kids all discovered a one eyed fish in one of the giant tanks, I think they all spent more time staring at that than anything else. No doubt it was their highlight of the aquarium. Boys are strange creatures, lol, and Saige would follow Kayden to the end of the earth in back. She loves her cousin. We probably could have taken them to the county dump for vacation and she would have been happy as long as he was there.

Summer is quickly coming to an end. We go to Philadelphia Monday with lots planned including Sesame Place. When we get back soccer starts. I agreed to coach Saige's team. I know nothing about coaching, and very little about soccer should it should be interesting. It seems no one was willing to do it, and that left me. I had signed up for team parent, hand out teeshirts and organize snacks, that sort of thing. Something that I could do and still wrangle in Rylan. Now I am both. I have zero patience and have no idea where I am going to find some, it will be needed. It's a bit chaotic and unorganized, I have my players list but no schedule yet. I got a practice slot but the coach training isn't for 3 more weeks, in the mean time I just have to wing it. So far I have only gotten a hold of one kids parent. One of the girls was on her team in the Spring and her little sister is on the team too. We have 3 5yr olds and 2 4 yr olds but were told to be prepared they may add more. Gulp. I am scared, wish me luck.

We will miss the Kindergarten orientation because of vacation, but did get a chance to meet Saige's teacher this week. She was really great and I think it will be a great year for her. She is a bit disappointed that only two or three of her old classmates will be in her new class. But, there may be more. There are two classrooms that have a dividing wall between them and they do a lot together and the wall is usually open. Mostly disappointed that her "best" friend isn't in her class of on her soccer team. I am a bit relieved, they can be troublesome together. I am still going to miss her like crazy being gone all day but will be there as often as they will let me and can't wait for all the projects she brings home.

Saige is swimming like a pro, she has made so much progress since swimming lessons ended and I have been swimming with her. It's hard to believe she is the same girl who wouldn't touch the pool without her floaties 2 months ago. She hasn't used them since. She can swim across the pool, she jumps off the board, swims underwater and gets better everyday. We've been working on diving. Even Rylan is doing great. He wears his floatie suit but LOVES the water. He goes all on his own and doesn't want anyone touching him or getting in his way. He is quite determined, his little legs go a mile a minute and he goes back and forth. He likes the diving board too. I bet he is swimming on his own next summer. He has none of the hesitation Saige had, and there is no stopping him when he wants something.

On a funnier note (poor hubby, lol) Summer finally caught up to us and it has been HOT. Saige strips down first chance she gets and runs around the house in her underwear. The other day she wanted to go out but we told her she needed to get dressed first. She asked Rob why.
Saige- "Why do I have to wear a shirt?"
daddy- "Because you're a girl"
Saige "but why, you don't"
daddy- "Because girls have boobs"
Saige- "Then you better put one on too, yours are way bigger than mine"

Kids are so funny :)

Elmo here we come.

Adventures in mini golf

I really thought that once all the summer activities ended we would have a few days to just relax and take it easy. It hasn't worked that way. Robby has picked up working on the house again, and while I am glad, it means everything is in a constant state of disarray. Before kids, I was a total neat freak. More accurately until Rylan came, and I realized I was defeated. I clean all day behind them but when the kids go to bed I am just too darn lazy to do much of anything other than enjoy the quiet. I have come to terms with the fact that my house is clean but cluttered. This is total chaos though and it drives me nuts. There are cabinets on the floor, things in rooms they do not belong in, things buried so far under other things in piles. It is awful. Today he put in a new door, one more to go. Then back to the kitchen. There is a ray of sunshine though, he has finished his first cabinet for the kitchen. I am very impressed and I can't wait for the rest to be done. Here it is.

Today I took the kids to play mini golf. It was hot. I have been promising Saige and had intended for her and I to play while Rylan "helped" But we had to pay for him anyway, everyone that walks on the course has to pay whether they play or not, so we armed him with a golf club and gave him a blue ball and he thought it was Christmas. We didn't keep score but Saige did get a hole in one. I got hit with Rylan's club about 20 times. He was doing okay for the first three holes and then decided it was easier to just walk over and drop it in the hole by hand. That left more free time to swing his club into my leg. We didn't stop him, there were people behind us and we would have been there all day just letting them pass by. He liked fetching the balls back out of the holes. I didn't get there quick enough to take it at one point and he threw it in a bush for me. That was another 10 minutes trying to find it, finally the guy and his daughter behind us managed to get it out of there.

It's a pretty elaborate set-up, not the course itself, that is pretty easy but the things around it. There are waterfalls, statues of indians, boats, ships, giant turtles, dinosaurs, buffaloes, you name it, it's there. He was loving it, pointing and naming things having a good old time until we went around a corner and he saw the big dinosaur. It scared him to death. Bad mom that I am, I laughed at him, he isn't afraid of seemingly anything until today. I'm thinking of getting one for here at home to scare him into submission when necessary :) He went by the scary meat eating dinosaur with no problem but when he came face to face with the other one.... I wish I had my camera. I had to pick him up and take him to the next hole. He kept an eye on it for the rest of the time to be sure it wasn't getting him. Saige was no help telling him over and over to be good or the dinosaur will eat you. EVERY time he jumped and shrieked and check to be sure it was where it should be.

downtime?

Swimming lessons have ended, so have the library sessions. I was looking forward to a few days of relaxing and sleeping in, I have not done either yet. Instead I decided to tear the house apart and paint it.

I started with the bathroom with a pretty peach color. Or I thought it was a pretty peach color. It looks pretty in the morning sun, light and cheerful. But, as soon as the sun moves away or you turn on the light it looks like someone rubbed pepto bismol on the walls. It's ugly, really ugly. I left it in hopes it would grow on me but it's still just as ugly today as it was 3 days ago. I am pretty sure the guy mixed me the wrong color, it looks nothing at all like the sample.

Next I did the livingroom, that actually went well, and much faster than the really small bathroom. We ended up getting new paint because Rob hated the color I bought. It's a coffee color and we all like it. Robby insists he is going to make all new trim, so it wont be finished, finished for a while :(

On to the dining room, the kids went to camp with my inlaws and I thought, great this will be easy. I had Kyra here to help and it did go fast. No sooner did we finish the first coat, I ruined it. I opened the pantry in the kitchen (which all of 3 inches from the dining room) and out dropped a jar of mayo. It landed standing up but the top popped off and it exploded all over my walls and me, that stuff flies. But we did get it done, it looks nice and will be even better when he gets the trim up.

Next up the kitchen. I had really good intention of starting pats of it. Robby is currently building me new kitchen cabinets (and they look awesome) and drawers. No sooner did I get it all ripped apart than we noticed the ceiling was leaking, my upstairs bathtub has a leak. It has been dripping down onto the top of the cabinets and finally seeped through and started spilling over. Taking a knocked open big jar of red food coloring with it. It looked like blood pouring down the walls. SO I put everything back so Rob could remove the old cupboards and cut a hole in the ceiling to fix what he thought it was. Now I have a big hole in the ceiling and turns out he didn't need to cut it in the first place. Ugh. But on the plus side, we have decided what to do with the kitchen, it involves some serious work and renovating, moving walls, doors, and windows. So we should be busy for a while.

The little man is not so little anymore

Rylan had his 2 year well child visit yesterday. Other than when they drew his blood for the annual lead test , and he was over that by the time we got to the car, he was such a good boy. I always expect the worse when we take him to the doctor but it is so nice to be pleasantly surprised by a sweet well mannered little boy. That sweet boy has been popping out more and more often lately, I hope it continues.

He is 28 lbs and 32 inches tall and all boy.

His Ped told us his ears didn't look so good, not bad but not great, whatever that means. She said one tube had fallen out and the other was still in his ear but not where it should be. He had a follow-up from them with his ENT this morning. He has lollipops, Rylan likes him, lol. The ENT said his ears looked great and that both tubes were still in, right where they should be. He showed me them, very strange, but kind of neat at the same time. They look like tiny little straws sticking in there. He said they can last anywhere from 6-18 months, we are almost at 8 now so I guess that is good. Hopefully this will be the one and only set, for the time being he is stuck with the earplugs for all things water related. He hates them, I hate them, it will be a relief when we pass that stage.

Somewhere this morning he lost his Spongebob hat. He is quite upset. He loves that hat. I think it's my fault. Rob gave it to me while we were at the ENT and I think I left it on the chair there. Rylan was to excited by the FIVE lollipops in his hand the dr gave him and I wasn't paying attention. I am not driving an hour one way to go retrieve it though, we will just have to find a new one.

Saige has been moved up a level in swimming lessons, she is really doing great now. Rob and Rylan came along Monday to lessons to see the progress she had made last weekend and she shocked us all and went off the diving board at the pool for the first time. This one is much larger and higher than the one at my moms and there are not floaties. I thought for sure she would look down when she got up there and turn right around but she jumped and she loved it. We went back to my moms to swim Tuesday night and she was jumping off the board there and swimming in the deep end without her floatie suit. It is such a change from just a couple weeks ago.

She is all ready for school, we have all her supplies and clothes. She can't wait to go see her old friends again and make new ones. She is impatiently counting down the days until we go to Philadelphia and Sesame Place next month. This is her and her cousin Kayden, whom she absolutely adores, from his birthday last week. It was Rob's birthday too, we made him a hammer cake. I know I took pictures but I can't find them on here :(

progress

I was suppose to have a garage sale with my mom today. We did it last weekend and actually made quite a bit of money. Yesterday was yucky so we skipped it. Mom started at 9:30 this morning and had 1 person before I got there at 11:30. Still no one by noon, and it was hot, so we called it quits and went swimming instead. The kids and I were slathered in sunblock but we got burned. Saige on her cheeks and my whole face. It hurts :(

Anyway... Saige learned to swim today. She has been taking lessons all summer, and did last summer too. While she got better she was not swimming on her own as of Friday. Part of the problem is really large classes, 15 kids, 3 girls doing them, and 30 mins doesn't really give them much of a chance. But she enjoys being with the other kids and jumping in for the last 5 minutes. It's cheap so we keep signing up.

She has one of those suits with the floaties built in at my moms house and she will swim all over with that on but until today refused to leave the steps without it. I finally convinced her that if she can touch in the shallow end with the floatie suit, she can touch without it. So she tried it. Within minutes I had her doing a back float on her own (the biggie they keep trying to get her to work on at lessons, she refuses to put her head back). Once she did it, she did it over and over and over. Then after a few tries she was doing the doggy paddle on her own and then she even started swimming with her head under water. I am totally impressed at how long she can hold her breath for. I am really proud of her, it was quite a lot for a single day. I even had her jumping of the diving board with her floatie suit on, another thing she has absolutely refused to try, although she will jump off the side of the deep end, lol.

Rylan also loves the pool, he likes to put his face in the water and jump in. It's hard with his ears. The plugs never seem to stay in no matter how hard I push them in there and I am always nervous about him getting water in his ears. But he doesn't seem to care, hopefully that is a good sign, Saige was 5 before she was willing to get her head wet. I hope he proves me wrong but I don't see him being ready for lessons next year. They have to able to sit, wait their turn, listen and behave.