Summer 2014 - Day 10, 11, & 12

Friday, June 27th - Day 10

Today, we woke up and built trains and towers.  Whenever Ryan builds anything, he narrates almost every move - "this piece goes right here", "oh, this is perfect", "I need a single.  Where is a single?".  It's very cute :)

Examining the carts to make sure they are in good shape

"And this one goes right here"

We made chocolate chip cookies.

Carefully measuring and adding ingredients

Sampling the chocolate chips to make sure they aren't poisonous

Sipping on milk!  Nothing beats milk and cookies!

Then, Ryan took a field trip to Oma and Opa's house so I could clean out a closet and take loads of stuff to Goodwill :)



Saturday, June 28th - Day 11

Pretty lazy day at home today.

We woke up and built towers (shocking!).  We hung out at home most of the day today, organizing stuff, cleaning out closets (very difficult to do with a 2 1/2 year old).

After dinner, we all went to the airport to watch planes.  Ryan really likes going to the observation deck and watching the planes, but now that we know that the sprinklers come in at 8pm, we try to time it so he can run by the sprinklers too :)

Sunday, June 29th - Day 12

Today, we built some more towers :)

Joe and I are having a truckload of mulch delivered later on this week, so we needed to clean up our yard to prep for the mulch.  This, of course, led to use deciding to do some outdoor projects, so hopefully we'll have a decent yard with some defined areas sometime soon.  In order to get the yard ready, we sent Ryan over to Oma and Opa's house for lots of playtime while we trimmed bushes, clipped branches, and weeded the yard.  This is how we spent most of our day - while Ryan was playing with water and having fun outside at Oma and Opa's house.  He didn't end up taking a nap today, so he ended up falling asleep at 8:00 in the car on the way home.  We'll see how long he sleeps!

Summer 2014 - Day 8 & 9

Wednesday, June 25th - Day 8

Happy Birthday to Oma!

Today, Ryan wore me out!  I don't know how today was any different than any other day but I am beat!  We woke up this morning, and Ryan wanted to play trains and build towers immediately.  Then we made porridge for breakfast and played with towers and trains a little bit more:

Mmmmm, porridge!

Look at my big tower!

Such a cutie!

We took another trip to Marbles and Ryan immediately wanted to go upstairs and play basketball some more.  He also played in the other areas up there, but spent most of his time with the basketball and hoops.

balancing, balancing, balancing

This kid loves to bounce.

Money shot!

Learning how to use tools, just like Daddy!

We were at Marbles for two hours, and we went to the bathroom twice and had NO ACCIDENTS!  WOO HOO!  During the last Marbles trip we had one accident, so this is progress, friends!  After Marbles, we came home, at lunch, and then spent some time in the bounce house (I told you - my boy LOVES to bounce).  Then we took our afternoon naps :)  Ryan went to the pool after his afternoon nap, but was only in the water for about 5 minutes when they closed the pool for thunder - a much-too-common event this summer!  Here's Ryan after his not-so-long pool trip:

My watermelon monster!

Since he didn't get much pool time in, we decided to give him a nice long bath in the "big tub" before bed and tried to make it extra fun by adding bubbles....I definitely added waaaayyyy too many bubbles.

About 30 seconds after adding the bubbles....

About 3 minutes after adding the bubbles.  WHOOPS!

He LOVED taking his bath in the big tub (my and Joe's bathtub)!

Thursday, June 26th - Day 9

I didn't really have anything planned for today - but sometimes the best days are completely unplanned and we end up doing whatever we want.  After Ryan woke up, we went downstairs and built some towers (surprise surprise!) and then put together the alphabet train:

Walking along the alphabet train!

Making sure everything is lined up perfectly!

Ryan does really well with the alphabet train - he knows which letters go in which order, but sometimes struggles with getting the pieces to fit together.  We compromise and he will find the piece and hand it to me and I'll attach it to the back of the train during the times of frustration :)

After more playtime at home, we went to the pool for a bit:

Munching on a granola bar during the break

Ryan didn't want to venture to the big pool today, but finally went down the twisty slide on the playground at the pool!  He's been scared to do it, but I suppose watching a few girls go down it immediately before him gave him the confidence to do it and he of course loved it and then went down the slide again about 10 more times before we left.

After the pool, we came home for our afternoon nap.  After naptime, we went over to Levi and Julien's house to celebrate Oma's birthday (yesterday).  I love watching Ryan interact with his cousins - you can tell he loves them and loves to be around him.  Just the other day, Ryan said "Julien is my best.  Levi is my best, too."  I'm assuming he's referring to a "best friend" - which I'm not quite sure how he's picked up on that concept - and that just tugs at my heart!  

All in all, today was a pretty low-key kind of day.  We'll see what's in store for tomorrow!

Summer 2014 - Day 6 & 7

Monday, June 23rd - Day 6
What a busy day!  I decided to treat Ryan to a morning at Defy Gravity (a trampoline park in Durham).  He was very excited to jump:

Waiting for the fun to begin!

We started our jump hour by jumping into the pit:

Ryan liked the pit but got frustrated with it after awhile - it's hard work to get out of it over and over again!  We spent the rest of the hour bouncing around the different areas of the building and having fun.  Ryan LOVES to bounce (he's logged many many hours in his bounce house and still wants to bounce it in regularly) and had so much fun - lots of smiles and laughs :)  And yes, I think I had juuuust as much fun as he did :)

Ryan was on the move for the entire hour - hardly stopped, just kept bouncing or running around.  So cute!

After our hour at Defy Gravity, we went to the pool, where Ryan showed off his "swimming" in the little pool.  His "swimming" consists of dragging himself around the pool using his hands, never putting his head under water.

He did venture out to the big pool though and we went into deeper waters (only because the basketball goal was in the deeper area).  I love that he's gotten pretty comfortable in the water with us only going to the pool for the past month!

After his nap, we went back to the pool for a little bit so Joe could enjoy some pool time, too.  After dinner, we all enjoyed some ice cream - some of us more than others!

Tuesday, June 24th - Day 7
One whole week!  I can't believe I've finished one full week of summer so far!  Ryan woke up this morning and wanted to build towers and trains immediately (one of his favorite tasks these days):

After we got ready for the day and ate breakfast, we went over to my parents' house to celebrate my mom's birthday (which is really on the 25th).  We played nerf basketball over there for a bit and watched part of the England vs. Costa Rica World Cup game.  We then took a quick trip to Target, came home, ate lunch, built some more towers, raced some cars, and then Ryan took his afternoon nap (almost 2 and a half hours - remember when he used to not nap at all when he was an infant?? Yeah, he's a champ napper now!).  We read some books and built more towers until Joe finished work.  All in all, not a super eventful day today, but still loads and loads of fun!  I could get used to this!

Summer 2014 - Day 4 & 5

This weekend was a little bit nuts for us!

Saturday, June 20th
We had lots of events to attend this past weekend, which kind of makes for a long and draining weekend.  A birthday party and a baby shower all in one day makes for a long long Saturday.  Ryan was a trooper and even though he didn't end up taking his afternoon nap until almost 6pm (which meant bedtime was a lot later for him!), he still did a great job and wasn't *too* grumpy when he woke up :)

Sunday, June 21st
Everyone was a little tired from the busy Saturday and the weather was kind of overcast and dreary, so we nixed the idea of going to the pool again.  We took a walk around the neighborhood to get out of the house instead.  I had another baby shower to attend that afternoon, so Joe got to spend some one-on-one time with Ryan.  Since Ryan is going through an "I love basketball" phase, Joe's been helping him sharpen his shooting skills (nevermind that Ryan's shooting a football!):

Summer 2014 - Day 2 & Day 3

Thursday, June 19th

Another great day with my sweet boy!  Ryan spent some time with his Oma and Opa since I had a dentist appointment in the morning.  Afterwards, we met Meaghan for lunch (need to do this again soon, Meaghan!).  We both took naps that afternoon.  We went to the pool in the afternoon, but the pool was shut down due to thunder, but Ryan still played on the playset and on the swings for a little bit.  Nothing extremely eventful, but nonetheless, still an awesome day!

Friday, June 20th

I decided to take Ryan to Marbles since I hadn't been there myself in months and months.  Ryan loves loves loves Marbles (what's not to love?!) and I love watching him have so much fun there!  For the longest time, we wouldn't go to the upstairs play area since that's where most of the "big kids" play.  I figured Ryan can hold his own now and is pretty big for his age so we eventually ventured upstairs.  I'm SO GLAD we did!  They have redone it (not surprising since they change up the play areas pretty often) and they had a sports section.  Since Ryan is BIG into basketball right now, he was in heaven!

After our afternoon naps, we had an incredibly tasty dinner with some great friends - need to do that again, as well!

Summer 2014 - Day 1

So, to honor my first real summer since 2007, I figured I would stop neglecting this blog and actually keep a record of how I spent my days with Ryan.

Day 1 - Wednesday, June 18th

WOO HOO, SUMMER IS HERE!  After Ryan woke up, we played with some blocks and built several towers (one of his favorite activities right now).

Then we spent a big portion of the day at the pool.  Ryan LOVES the pool - what's not to love?  He loves the little pool much more than the big pool (understandably) but is warming up to the idea of using his puddle jumper to float around in the deeper waters.

His water squirter is by far his favorite toy.  We typically bring two to the pool so he can give one to another toddler so they can "play" together.  This was pretty much how we spent our day - building towers and playing at the pool.  All in all, it was a FANTASTIC start to our summer!