Report Card

Carter got his report card for the third quarter last week.  Again, he's been doing great!  I'm so impressed with how much Carter has learned this year.  I'm most impressed with how well he's reading.  We weren't getting anywhere when working on it this summer and now Carter will sit down on the couch with books I've checked out from the library for him and just read to himself.  The books are short, but he'll read 5 or more at a time.

Here is a look at his report card:

Game Ball

Look who got a game ball tonight!!!

Carter's coach bought really awesome game balls this season for the players!

Jeff (the head coach) wasn't at the game though and one of the assistants picked Carter to receive the game ball.  He got it because he hit 2 doubles!  At this age, the boys can only get doubles if the ball reaches the outfield without being touched by any of the fielders.

I actually got videos of both of Carter's doubles ...

Carter loves his very cool game ball!  Here he is with Jeff's twin boys (Christopher and Jack Henry) ...

Carter - Baseball

Carter had his first two baseball games this weekend (the Sunday game was a make-up for his Thursday game that got rained out).  Carter is with the same kids and coaches as last season with the Brentwood Baseball Club.  This year they are the Angels.

Unfortunately I missed Carter's first game because it was at the same time as Rylan's and at a different ball park.  Brian said he did great though!  Good hits and 4 or 5 outs at first base.  Coach Jeff is generally playing Carter at first for the 1st and 3rd innings (if a 3rd is played) because he feels Carter is one of his few players that can catch.  Carter loves getting to play there too.

Sunday's game was much more uneventful.  Carter got to play first base again in the 1st and 3rd innings.  Unfortunately no one was throwing the ball to him quickly or anywhere near him.  He may have gotten just one out.

The rules are generally the same for Carter this year.  Each inning both teams bat through their entire lineup no matter how many outs there are.  A coach pitches each batter 5 balls and then the tee is used if the player hasn't gotten a hit.

Carter is doing great so far and loving it, of course.  Our coach is so great that he even did a practice with just Carter for 45 minutes one day when no one else showed up because it was sprinkling.  All the hard work has really been paying off and Carter is definitely improving.

Another Tooth

Over the weekend Grayson's other center lower tooth broke through his gum.  He now officially has 2 teeth coming in!

Grayson is still running the low grade fever but it seems to be jumping around a lot more now (occasionally it's closer to 99F).  So now I'm not sure if the fever is from the pre-existing illness or from teething.  I may take him back to the pediatrician tomorrow to have his ear checked but we'll see what his temperature is in the morning.

Grayson slept in his crib in his room for the first time last night.  It was only until 11:30 pm but it's a start.  Grayson started sleeping horrible when the fever and respiratory illness started about a month ago (before that he slept through the night more often than not).  We were keeping him in the bouncer to help his breathing but it's time to start getting him to sleep in his crib even if he's still somewhat sick.  So far it's not going so well tonight :)  I need to go back up and try to settle down a screaming baby :)

St. Patrick's Day

Every St. Patrick's Day, a leprechaun visits our house.  We always try to build a trap for him and he ends up doing something mischievous.

This year Carter decided to build a trap on his own.  He spent almost a week building it and it took up a lot of our open space between the family room and kitchen.

The box is the trap.  I didn't really get to look inside but there was supposedly a frog dressed like a leprechaun to attract him, a jail, and lots of tape for the leprechaun to get stuck to.  Carter also set up carnival type games outside the trap so the leprechaun could have some fun.

Carter also set up scenes with some toys for the leprechaun to enjoy.

Carter wrote out two sets of questions for the leprechaun to answer.

The "leprechaun" was very tired this year and ended up not doing much mischief.  Instead of leaving any of his gold, he left this telescope from this toy stash :)

He did answer all of Carter's questions.

And left green footprints all along Carter's trap.

He also made the dinosaurs attack each other, turned around all the Star Wars characters, and moved trees on top of the mountains.

Maybe next year the leprechaun won't be so tired and do some fun things like he has the last couple of years (2013 and 2014).

Babies and Books

I took Grayson to his very own storytime today (he's been to others with the big boys but this is the first time he went to one on his own).  We went to the Nashville Library for a program designed for ages 0 to 2 called Babies and Books.  We got there just as it was starting but ended up being a few minutes late as Grayson had blown out of his diaper, again.

Grayson LOVED the class.  It was nothing special - some songs, books, and music - but he was all smiles.  I'll probably try to take him to the Brentwood storytime next week since it's closer.

 

On a side note, Grayson is still running a fever - 100.2F when I got him ready for bed!

Fever

Grayson is still running a low grade fever (it was 100.6F when I took it this evening)!  I took him back to the pediatrician yesterday and Dr. Huss said Grayson still has an ear infection in his right ear (he mentioned things like bubbling which didn't sound good to me!).  Grayson had been on amoxicillan for a week so Dr. Huss decided to try another antibiotic to see if that would clear it up.  So now Grayson is taking an amoxicillin and clavulanate mix.  As Dr. Huss warned me, it tastes a lot worse and Grayson does not like it but he's getting it down.

We are really hoping this helps because Grayson has had a fever for 24 days now!  Plus, I can't handle Grayson being on medicine much longer - he his blowing out the top of his diapers several times a day!!!

First Tooth!

Grayson's first tooth is coming in!  It's his bottom right center tooth.  I checked back and he's almost the exact same age as Carter and Rylan when they got their first teeth (within a week).

It's been a big day for the little man - he also started using the jumperoo!

Zoo

Carter and Rylan had spring break last week.  We ended up staying in town but stayed busy.  On Monday we met friends at the zoo (something Carter doesn't get to do very often now that he's in school five days a week).  I think about half of Franklin and Brentwood was there with us (I have never seen the zoo so crowded) but it was still fun.  We saw tons of people we know and spent about four hours there.

I tried to get a couple of group shots of all the boys at the playground ...

Rylan - Baseball

We decided to sign Rylan up for baseball this season.  We are officially crazy with having both Carter and Rylan both play baseball and soccer.  But somehow the schedules worked out really well and we have a lot less overlap than we expected.

The boys are playing baseball through the Brentwood Baseball Club.  Rylan's team is the Colorado Rockies.  His coach is okay (he's definitely not Carter's awesome coach), but he's volunteering so we can't give him too much grief.  No matter what, Rylan is super happy to be on the team with one of his best buddies, Luke.

The boys got in 3 practices before their first game.  The weather was not cooperating the last few weeks but at least there were able to do something before their first game tonight.

Rylan really wanted to wear his uniform all day but I convinced him to wait until this afternoon to put it on.  He looks pretty good in a baseball uniform!

One of our main reservations about Rylan's coach is that he doesn't seem to ask for parent involvement.  The boys need more than just one coach and one assistant coach for practices and games to really learn anything.  I think I have officially stepped up to handle the dugout during games and Brian will be out in the field whenever he isn't coaching soccer or at one of Carter's baseball games.  Today I had Grayson in the Bjorn as I ran the dugout.  Luckily he did fine!

Rylan did GREAT today.  The coaches decided to skip pitching to the kids and just let them hit off the tee (which is great - not many of them can regularly hit a pitch yet).  Rylan made it to first both innings.  He did awesome just running to the bag and not looking around for the ball to see if he was going to get out.

Rylan played first base the first inning and center outfield the second inning.  He did AMAZING at first base.  He got four outs!  However, the runners don't leave the bag when getting out in the 4/5 YO division.  Rylan was very confused by this and starting getting a little upset about it.  Luckily Brian noticed and explained to him what was up since no one else had.  I'm proud of him for accepting it and getting over it (stuff like that is still hard for him).  Rylan got one out when he fielded the ball and ran it to first and three outs when the pitcher fielded the ball and threw it to Rylan.  The second inning was a lot more boring for Rylan as nothing came anywhere near him.

Here are some videos I took of Rylan ...

Once again I think the Lil Sluggers program has paid off.  Rylan is one of the few kids that gets it.  He knows where to run after hitting the ball and when someone else hits, he knows how to field the ball, and he generally knows where to go with it.  We are so proud of our newest baseball player!!!

Music City Half Marathon

I ran the Music City Half Marathon this morning.

This was my third time doing this race (though today was a new course) and eighth half marathon.  I always try to do a long race a few months after having a baby to try and stay motivated to workout.  After Carter I did a half and after Rylan I did a 10 mile race.  My time today wasn't amazing (2:11:11), but I beat the half marathon after Carter by over a minute :)

Today was perfect race weather - around 50F and generally overcast with a little sun later in the race.  I have not been running much at all.  I had been doing a lot of the Beachbody workouts (Insanity and T25), but haven't even done those the last 2 weeks because life just got too busy.  But after a few days of recovery, I plan on starting back up with those and running more now that it's warmer and Grayson won't be too cold in the jogging stroller.

I had very low expectations for myself today and did better than I expected.  I only walked through the water stations and kept a pretty steady pace.  I'm so glad it's over though!

Rylan - Soccer

Rylan had his first soccer game of the season today (Carter has a bye week).  Brian is coaching both teams again.  Rylan's team has 9 (of 11) players returning from the fall with 3 new players (including one of his buddies from preschool).  Both boys are also playing baseball, but we recently got all the schedules and there is a lot less overlap than we expected!

Rylan did amazing today!  He scored 4 goals!  But what I'm really proud of is that he never gave up or started crying!!!  There was even once that he took the ball almost all the way down the field, got around 2 defenders, and then had his own teammate kick the ball away from him at the goal (and miss the shot).  Rylan wanted to get upset, but he didn't!  I hope he keeps up this matured attitude!

This is Rylan scoring his first goal (Rocco, the kid in orange, was on Rylan's team when I coached him).

Rylan has decided he wants to wear one of my headbands (just like his buddy Gray who wears his mom's).

Rylan with his buddy Radnor waiting for the other team to kick off ...

There was a lot of clustering around the ball still but Rylan's team easily dominated the other team on his field (I think the other field had a much more even match up).

Rylan did a great job of dribbling to the goal today ...

So proud of his effort today!!!

Go Pack

Grayson and I are ready to cheer on our team!

RSV

Grayson has had a low grade fever (between 99.5 and 101F) for about 2 weeks now.  In addition, he's been congested.  You can mainly hear it in his breathing but he's also been coughing some to clear the mucus in his lungs.  Grayson hasn't really been much fussier than normal but he has only slept through the night once in the last couple of weeks (he was sleeping through the night a lot before that).

When I took Grayson in for his 4 month checkup, he'd had these symptoms for about 36 hours.  The pediatrician wasn't concerned so I wasn't worried.  But since they'd been lingering for awhile now, I finally took Grayson back in yesterday.

Dr. Huss determined Grayson has an ear infection.  Grayson is also wheezing and with the constant low grade fever, Dr. Huss thinks he's probably had RSV (and that has caused the ear infection).

We got a prescription for an antibiotic and hopefully that will kick all of this out of Grayson's system soon!  It is hard to give Grayson the medication but I think I'm getting him to swallow most of it.  He still had a fever of 100.3F tonight but maybe tomorrow it'll start going down!

Recent Pictures

A few recent pictures ...

With all our snow days that have been on Friday and the spring party yesterday, Carter had only had one Friday to do a spelling test so far.  He did perfect on his first one!

Last Saturday the boys' fort they built on Thursday was almost gone ...

It was so warm on Saturday that we took a long walk that afternoon to school and played on the playground for an hour.  Grayson went on a swing for the first time.

You can really see Grayson's mohawk in that last photo.  He has a thick and long strip of hair down the center of his head right now!

Carter had my phone for a few minutes and took pictures.  Carter enjoyed getting to play on the entire playground (the kindergarteners only get to go on 2 of the 3 play structures).

I tried putting Grayson in the exersaucer on Sunday.  This was his initial reaction ...

He warmed up to it though :)

He generally likes it now which is great since I still can't lay him down on his playmat right now - he still rolls over right away and gets mad.

Both boys had their first baseball practices of the season on Sunday.  The fields were still closed but each team found some grass to use off outside of the fields.

Rylan was SO EXCITED for his first baseball practice.  He's only done Lil Sluggers before so this is his first team.  He's on a team with his best buddy from last school year, Luke.  Luke switched schools so we don't see him much but Rylan still talks about him so I'm excited for them to get to see each other again.

Rylan is on the Colorado Rockies and he's been wearing his hat everywhere all week.

On Tuesday Rylan's class FINALLY had pajama (and pancakes and pizza) day.  They were supposed to have it three weeks earlier during "P week" but they were out of school three Thursdays in a row because of snow.  Rylan doesn't like to wear his pajamas to school but was super excited to wear workout clothes.

Book Character Parade

The kids at Carter's school got to dress up as book characters today.  They were supposed to dress up two weeks ago during the book fair but we got snow and school was cancelled.

So, today was finally the day.  Carter chose to dress up as Max, the dog in the book "Jack's House".  The book follows the general storyline of "This is the House that Jack Built", except the dog (Max) builds the house (not Jack) and ends up keeping it in the end.

I think Carter and I did a pretty good job of making him look like Max!

End of Basketball

Carter had his last basketball game on Saturday.  To end the season, there was a tournament.  Carter's age group (6 and under) had 10 teams so they decided to do an "A" and "B" bracket and then have both brackets be double elimination.

Carter's team did not win a game during the regular season so they were in the 4 team "B" bracket.  Unfortunately they didn't win either of their tournament games either.

Carter's team was the only team without returning players (and the shortest team in the league by far), and though they had a couple of relatively close games, they were never able to secure a win.  The kids did understand this, but they all maintained great attitudes throughout the season and seemed to always have fun.  They all improved tremendously.  Brian and I feel like it was ultimately better to have all these players on one team because they didn't get swallowed up on a team with much better players and then get no attention.

Brian did a great job coaching but he definitely didn't enjoy it as much as soccer (a sport he actually played growing up).  Practice was rough because our assistant coach could no longer help about midway through the season and we had one player that was pretty disruptive that required a lot of Brian's attention during practice.  Brian was still able to teach the kids a lot and they all came a long way since the beginning of the season.

Carter with Grayson during the last game (our assistant coach couldn't come so I helped on the bench) ...

Grayson wore his tiger onesie in support of the team :)  Our last game was rough and our team only scored 4 points, but Carter scored 2 of them!!!

To celebrate our season, I made cupcakes for after the last game.  I attempted to decorate them like basketballs ...

The boys also got participation trophies after the game.

Carter loved getting to add another trophy to his stash!

Carter ended up really liking basketball by the end of the season.  He finally found some confidence.  He improved SO MUCH and I hope he wants to continue playing in the future!