More Zoo

This morning we decided to go to the zoo again so Brian could see it. We've been once before with him but left soon after getting there because Brian's allergies were terrible.

We spent about an hour in the Jungle Gym. Rylan went down a slide by himself for the first time ...


We keep the stairs to the garage gated in the apartment so Rylan doesn't get to climb any ever. He got his fix today ...

Both boys like this matted area. Carter loves to wrestle Rylan down and say "See? No hurt!"



It was crowded today but we were still able to make our way up front at most of the exhibits ...



Most of the animals were awake and active so it was a good day to be at the zoo!

First Floor

We drove by the lot on our way home from lunch today and the first floor framing had been completed. In one morning!

House by Numbers

We've been going out to the lot every evening to check out the progress on our house. Wednesday the foundation walls were sealed and lumber was attached to the top of the walls.


Yesterday gravel was spread throughout the house foundation.



Today the garage floor was poured and tons of lumber got delivered.



There are already a lot of walls and other framing put together.


I think we have a "house by numbers."

Zoo with Asher

About a month ago I met a girl (Sidney) who lives in our apartment complex. She has a little boy named Asher who is 11 months old. We actually met them at one of Brian's soccer games. Her boyfriend was on the team Brian was playing against.

Sidney and I have met a few times at the apartment pool and today we took the kids to the zoo.


The stork kept flying around ...


Like the Knoxville Zoo, the Nashville Zoo has some red pandas ...


The flamingos were super vocal today ...


When we got home, Carter pulled out our arts and crafts box and got creative ...


One thing he did was glue beads of the same color next to one another ...


Carter is all about symmetry and matching. When he builds things with Legos, he makes random structures that are symmetrical. If he has enough Legos, even the colors are symmetrical.

Carter's art from school was pretty neat yesterday. Besides focusing on the letter A this week, the kids were also talking about their families.


So the kids looked through magazines with the teachers to find pictures of people that resembled their family. Here are the pictures Carter found ...



We got these stapled to the kids' bags ...


I hope I don't regret it someday, but I think I'm going to save $42 and take my own pictures of Carter.

I Love You, Man

Isn't Rylan cute in jeans?!? He couldn't wear them last year because he was too big. These are Carter's from the first half of last winter and they fit perfect!

Shark, School, & Other Stuff

We went to the playground at Crockett Park yesterday morning with Missy and her kids. There was another boy there named Gavin that played with Carter and Will. At one point he told us that he is going to be Superman for Halloween. Carter told him that he is going to be a shark (though it took me a minute to understand what he was saying). I was wondering where that came from when I remembered that when we were at Old Navy a few weeks back, Carter and I were looking at their Halloween costumes and one was a shark. Apparently that stuck with him.

So while Carter was at school today, Rylan and I went to Old Navy to pick up the costume (they are having their baby sale right now so it was on sale and I had a 30% off coupon). Here's a preview of the shark ...


Carter's class is focusing on the letter A this week ...



The comments on his report today were, "He was line leader today. He got a sticker for being a great sharer." One of the teachers said that another boy wanted the toy Carter had so they asked if he could let the other boy play with it. Carter gave it to the boy (but then kept on eye on him so that he could get the toy back when the boy was done with it).

Rylan is getting better with his walker. I no longer have to encourage him to use it. He just goes to it randomly and starts walking around the room. He's gotten good at lifting it up and changing directions when he runs out of room.

We think Rylan may be left handed. Last week I was noticing that Rylan used his left hand a lot to do things. I hadn't mentioned it to Brian yet and he told me this weekend that he thought Rylan was left handed. Carter is definitely right handed. This may be just another way these boys are opposites.

We drove out to the lot tonight to check on the progress on "Mama's House". When the boys and I were in Knoxville still, Carter started referring to our house as Mama's House. When we were packing to move to Nashville, Carter decided we were moving to Daddy's House. And now that we are building a new house, he's referring to it as Mama's House.

Anyway, they got the foundation walls up today ...


We met our next door neighbors. They have 2 girls that are 9 and 5 years old. Carter had fun playing with them on our lot and getting super dirty.

Zoo with Will

I took the boys to the zoo today with someone we met at storytime at the Brentwood Library. Missy has two boys - Will who is 2 and Luke who is 4 months. She left Luke at home with her husband and met us at the zoo with two of her other friends that both have boys.

We spent a long time at the Jungle Gym on the playground. Rylan got eaten by a snake ...


Then we rode the carousel ...



We walked around for a bit looking at some animals ...


Will and Carter petted a horse ...


And brushed the goats ...


When I told Carter on Friday that we were going to the zoo with Will, he told me Will was his best friend. The boys have played together a little at the library, but I was surprised to hear that. It was very sweet though!

House Progress

Since our house was scheduled to get started today we went out to the lot tonight to see if they had done anything. And they had! The footings got poured today.

This picture is from the front of the of the lot looking towards the back right corner ...


This picture is from the front of the of the lot looking towards the back left corner ...


And from the back of the lot ...


When we were there, a "gang" of kids came to investigate us. They wanted to know who we were and if we were building a house. They were actually really nice and played with Carter for awhile. Most were older but one boy was a little younger than Carter. We also met one of the moms and found out a little about the people in the neighborhood.

There will probably be lots of pictures of the house here in the next month while the framing and exterior are going up!

Monkey Joe's

Even though it was a nice day, I took the kids to Monkey Joe's today. I wanted Rylan to be able to play somewhere that he could crawl around.

Carter's gotten a lot better at climbing up the inflatables now that he's a little bit taller ...


Rylan actually hated the inflatables at first. I don't think he liked the unstable feeling below him. But after I kept taking him into different ones and forcing him to tough it out, he loved it!





I didn't have any change with me but the boys still spent a lot of time on the rides without them moving ...




Here's a short video of Rylan crawling around ...

3rd Day of School

Preschool is still going great. Carter walked right into his room today and didn't even say bye to me.

Here is one of the projects the kids did today ...


One of the teachers said she had already started writing "red" for hair color when she asked Carter what color his hair is. He answered "orange" so she had to add that.

The kids also got these cute cards with a picture from their first day of school ...


The teachers had also put some pictures of the kids on the board outside the room. Carter was pointing to himself in the photos and then also pointed to another boy and said "Cooper". Hopefully that means he's making friends!

The note on Carter's report for the day was "He is so sweet :) ! Great day!"

After Rylan's nap this afternoon, I took the boys outside to play with the toys in our garage. There is a pretty big area outside of the garage before you get to where cars actually drive by. The hard part is that Rylan wants to crawl all around on the asphalt so I'm constantly picking him up and moving him back to the blanket. I can't wait until he can walk!