Tuesday, July 20, 2010

An Aquatic Victory!

Abby swam some last summer, but after a winter out of the water, she wanted nothing to do with it this year. We take her to the pool but she just clings to us - with both hands!! This morning I took both kids to the kiddie pool at sea world and fully expected to just walk around with her the whole time while I kept an eye on Stephen. And then she surprised me! She said "get down" and started splashing around. Before I knew it she was going down the slides and running under the fountains. Way to go, little girl!!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

A Noteworthy Saturday

Happy 85th birthday to my grandma! The kids love singing Happy Birthday, so they didn't argue with me when I asked them to sing for the camera. We didn't get to spend the day with her, though we did get to celebrate with her back in June while visiting in Illinois.



Overall, it was a quite enjoyable Saturday. Ryan was feeling much better after being out of commission for most of the week with strep throat. We got up for breakfast and Abby wasn't fond of having to stand while I got the eggs ready. So she turned the tables and told me what should happen from my perspective. She stood, arms outstretched, and said, "momma, YOU NEED ME!" Who could resist?

Later, while she and Stephen were roughhousing in his room, he tackled her and she got pinned up against his bed. As I rounded the corner to see what they were doing, I heard her say, "Oh no!! Stephen broke my head!" (I don't think there is even a bruise.)

We headed to Kohl's to spend our $10 off anything $10 or more card. Get those in the mail? They're great. We found a firm pillow that was marked down to $8.99, but we still needed $1.01 to get to our minimum. Godiva chocolate? Maybe, at $2.95. But then I found a candle for $1.99. Perfect. Ryan stood in line to "pay" for our purchase. The sales clerk asked him, "Are you just buying the candle so you can get the pillow for free?" "Yep!" he replied. See, we didn't have to even act sneaky about it!

Though I would prefer to swim in the mornings, most pools don't open until after noon. And since Lackland's pools aren't great for kids, and Seaworld is to be avoided on Saturdays, we drove over to the army post on the other side of town and tried out their aquatic center. The kids are gradually becoming more comfortable in the water, and we even ventured into the regular pool after playing in the kiddie pool for awhile.

That wore the kids out, and after a burger dinner and a skype date to wish "uncle" Peter a happy birthday, the kids needed a rinse. Stephen took his bath, and then went to bed. I didn't drain the water right away, and when Abby was standing outside the tub with me, she took a dive in - fully clothed! That sure scared her, and I'm sure didn't help with her fear of water.

(Side note - Pete turned 60, and after we sang to him, Stephen said "pretty soon you're going to be 70!" Silly kids' books start counting by 10 after they get to 20 ...)

I've been feeling the baby moving, and Ryan has even been able to feel some kicks from the outside a few times. Makes me wonder if this little guy/girl is going to be pretty active.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

A Slice of Life with Stephen


Yes, we have a 4-year-old.

And he picked out the glasses himself. With the 10 dollars he was given and told to spend at the Dollar Tree. He also got some number magnets for the fridge and some letter vinyl stickers for the sliding glass door.

Because of the distance from family, we celebrated with Ryan's family early in June, with my parents July 4th weekend, with Emily the day before his birthday, and for his actual birthday dinner had one of the kids' favorite people (Brian) over for a pizza dinner.

And because I thought it would be fun, I wanted to share a few of Stephen's more interesting moments from recent weeks ...

Thanks to Ryan, Stephen now knows a few knock-knock jokes, which he loves telling to Abby in particular. The other night, he started making up his own. They went like this:
Knock-knock
Who's there?
Banana
Banana who?
Banana rain.

Knock-knock
Who's there?
Pillow
Pillow who?
Pillow pretzel.
And he wonders why I call him "goofball" instead of "Stephen" sometimes.

He continues to love music and surprised me by knowing all the lyrics to How Deep the Father's Love for Us (which I sing to Abby before bed). I even recorded it--listen here for yourself. I really like this song--so much so that it was performed at our wedding.

He misses music class. It doesn't continue through the summer, but he will hopefully be in the 4-year-old class this fall. Last Monday he began a gym class. It's definitely not his forte, but I think it'll really help him with some of his confidence in trying new activities.


He continues to play fairly well with his little sister, Abby. Lucky for him, she's a tough girl who can handle his roughhousing. Last night he made up a new game. He would pretend that we left Abby at HEB and then we would go look for her. She loved pretending that our house was a grocery store, so she played along very well.

Though he just had a birthday, he is looking forward to his next one. He regularly tells me about his future birthday cakes. It goes like this: "And after I am 4, I think I will be 5. And on my cake I want it to say 'STEPHEN 5.' And after I am 5, I think I will be 6. And on my cake I want it to say 'STEPHEN 6.'" And on he goes ... I think we've gotten all the way to when he turns 30. But he's not the one turning 30 anytime soon. That honor belongs to his daddy.