Scraped Knee

We spent the majority of the day outside again today because it was around 80F again! Today was Rylan's first time wearing shorts since he started walking. He tends to trip a lot and this is what our driveway did to his poor knee ...


He's okay though ...

Centennial Park

Rylan and I met Charlie and Kelly today for a playdate. We first went to the downtown library for storytime. Rylan was mesmerized by the puppets, juggling, and singing and Charlie paid attention some. He's not big for sitting still that long so we left after about 20 minutes. It was still fun!

We then headed over to Centennial Park, which is across from Vanderbilt. Today was the first time I've been to this park. It was really nice and the boys had a blast on the playground. I'm so glad that Rylan has a friend his own age!

This Weekend

We had wonderful weather all weekend so we spent a lot of time outside. We got out early on Saturday morning and worked on installing landscape and walkway lighting at the front of our house. It was a job that probably would of taken about 30 minutes had we waited until the boys were napping but ended up taking us about 2 1/2 hours!



One major time consumer was fishing out the toy rake that Rylan dropped in the sewer ...



We're still working on getting everything placed perfectly and adding some additional lights (and then we have to bury the cable under the pinestraw) but it's coming along!



Last night I picked up my few things that didn't sell at the second consignment sale I did. I sold a total of $132 worth of things and after the 30% commission and $12 fee, I made $80.40. I'm happy with what I made overall and will definitely be doing another sale in the fall.

Today we spent more time outside (including having a picnic on the screened porch). Over the last couple weeks, a few hundred trees have been planted in our neighborhood. They are planting them between the sidewalks and street as well in common areas. The drainage area across from our house that borders the road our neighbor is off of probably got 100 of those trees.


After watching this, Carter wanted to dig holes all weekend ...


Carter is great at riding his Radio Flyer tricycle. He constantly asks to go outside and ride his bike (he's slightly obsessed). I'm working on teaching Rylan to ride the smaller tricycle. He doesn't quite have it yet, but he's trying ...


I worked on getting the boys ready for the time change all last week and they are already adjusted. We put them to bed about 10 minutes earlier each night and I also moved up their afternoon naps. Unfortunately that meant they also woke up earlier last week but it was really nice having them in bed at 7:15 pm at the end of the week!

I finally ran today. I did 6 miles on the treadmill. I was hoping to do more but my back started hurting a lot and I didn't want to push it too much and not be able to walk later!

And, really, did NC State have to get announced LAST for the tournament teams?!?!?!

Discovery Center

While Carter was in school today, Rylan and I met Kelly and Charlie at the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro. I love that we have a friend that is almost the exact same age as Rylan!

We were there about 2 1/2 hours and the boys had a blast!



Rylan spent most of the last hour playing with this. I think he would have played with it all day.

It rained all day but we've spent most of the week outside doing stuff like this (when we weren't at the zoo!) ...


When I picked up Carter today, he was excited to show me the painting that he and Sophie did together (everyone else did their own). He painted the orange and she did the yellow. Sophie was nice enough to let Carter bring it home.


They did lots of art today (probably because it was too wet to go outside) ...



Carter had fun at his second speech session on Monday. They worked on final d sounds (and how they are different than final t). We got lots of stuff to take home so that Carter could practice!


When looking at a picture, he says the words that end in d or t correctly. But then when I ask him if that word ended with the d or t sound, he ALWAYS says the wrong one. I'm working on figuring out a different approach.

The special education teacher has been visiting Carter's class on Thursdays. She always leaves a note in Carter's bag. It sounds like it's going well because she wrote, "Great Effort! Hard Worker! Wow!".

Zoo x3

We went to the zoo with Brian on Sunday. Then Rylan and I went yesterday with our new friends Kelly and Charlie (who is only one month younger than Rylan). And then we went again today with Missy, Heather, and Jen and their boys. We've had awesome weather the last 2 days and can't help but be outside as much as possible.

When we first got to the zoo, Carter kept standing on all the large rocks and asking me to take his picture ...


After playing on the Jungle Gym for awhile, the boys took a banana break.


Carter decided that his alligator was hungry ...


And Rylan had to copy him ...


Baby Luke (as Carter calls him) is getting so big! He's crawling everywhere and pulling up on things.


Carter wanted me to take his picture some more and got Will to join him ...



These guys really are great friends.

So my back is starting to feel better. It's spasming some now because I'm tired, but I'm finally able to lift the boys without feeling like I'm going to drop them because it hurts so much. It's still going to be a few days until I can go running, but at least it's improving!

Dangerous Stairs

When we built our house, we upgraded to hardwood steps. We've always had carpet before but had always wanted hardwood. When Carter is wearing his socks or footed pajamas, I always remind him to go slow and hold on when he's going downstairs so he doesn't slip. Too bad I didn't take the same advice!

Yesterday afternoon I was carrying Carter downstairs after his nap. I had him on my left hip (the same side as the railing). I was wearing socks and somehow, on the last step, my heal slipped off. I fell on my back hitting the front edges of the bottom two steps. Because I was holding Carter, I wasn't able to catch myself at all. I really thought I broke my back for a few minutes. It's gotten better but I'm still in a lot of pain and have a lot of trouble picking up the boys to put them in their carseats or in bed. Sleeping was extremely uncomfortable but I managed to sleep some last night. Unfortunately this is going to make training for the marathon pretty hard! Hopefully things will improve soon!

Zoo

It was a little cold today but we wanted to get out so we took the boys to the zoo.

Carter was very adamant about where we went. When we were leaving, he looked at his map and told us that we missed some animals (which we had - we didn't stay too long).


On the path to the giraffes ...


We usually skip the carousel when we are on playdates so the boys hadn't been on it in awhile. They both thoroughly enjoyed it. Rylan's been on them before but this was the first time he seemed to really get what was going on.





Hopefully the weather will warm up and we can go again this week with some friends!

Consignment Sale

I did my first children's consignment sale this week. I just got rid of some of the stuff we never used for the boys and some things we had duplicates of. I got rid of some of my maternity clothes I never really liked. I also tried to sell Carter's original crib bedding and some nursery decorations. The one big thing I sold was our travel system since car seats are only good for 5 to 6 years and ours was manufactured almost 4 years ago.

I sold a total of 56 items for $377. The sale organizers take 30% and a $12 participation fee which left me with $251.90.

Since some of the big stuff that I just don't want to store anymore didn't sell, I signed up to do another consignment sale next week. I priced things a little lower this time so hopefully they sell!

Playdates are Hard Work

We had a few friends over for a playdate yesterday. Rylan usually gets a morning nap in the car on the way to somewhere or in the stroller while running errands in the morning. But when we stay home, he usually skips it.

After everyone left, I went upstairs for a few minutes to pick up and left the boys downstairs. When I came back down, I found Rylan passed out on the family room rug.



On Wednesday we met Missy and her kids at Monkey Joe's. Right before we left, Rylan tripped and fell right into the bottom step (which is wood). He smacked the edge right above his nose. Then at Monkey Joe's, Rylan and Carter collided and Rylan got another big bump on his forehead. I didn't get a good picture, but you an see how swollen Rylan's face was in this photo ...

Girlfriend

If you share a pillow with a girl during naptime, is she then your girlfriend?

When I picked Carter up from school on Tuesday, he was still asleep and sleeping on a Pillow Pet. Apparently he and Sophie shared it during naptime. She had already gone home but left her pillow there for Carter. One of the teachers even took a few pictures and showed them to me. She said that Carter was giving Sophie hugs all day. Whenever I mention Sophie, Carter brings up that she has the same color hair as him. He seems to recognize that they are unique.

So this morning when we were watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, the song "Shake Your Peanuts" came on. I've seen this episode a couple times and it makes me laugh because I saw a blog post before about a woman whose son was dancing and singing this in the post office but the word "peanuts" sounded like a different body part. They got a lot of stares. Anyway, I was putting a diaper on Carter when this song came on this morning. He proceeded to grab his boy part and say "Here's my peanut".

On to a completely different subject ... Carter told me yesterday that he wants to be a fireman when he grows up.