Morning B-ball, park days, and play dates

This morning was a little quieter because Jeff took Ryan with him to basketball. Ryan and Max were up early and I was tired from being up with Max often in the night (he's sick so not sleeping well). Jeff helped the kids and when I came out to the front room earlier Ryan was gone. It was so nice of Jeff and he said Ryan did great. He watched basketball for a bit then watched PBS kids. Afterward he played catch with Jeff and rolled the ball around and had a wonderful time. Many of the dads told Jeff this is the best age and it's fun how they get so happy with a little ball rolling around. Jeff also was so wonderful last night when he asked the kids if they wanted to surprise mommy and clean the downstairs. They happily did that and were so thrilled to help out. I came down a little later so we could go through all of Lily's art (she has A LOT). She told us which art was special to her and we hung it up or saved it and if it wasn't special we put it in another pile. It feels so much less cluttered down there and I was just grateful Jeff initiated it since it would have taken me forever to go through all of that, or to even get the desire to go through all of that. He also helped organize Lily's room with her the other night. I told Jeff he has a gift for cleaning and organizing, I'm a lucky girl!

Max had his 9-month old check up last month and he looked great, he's 20 pounds. The only concern is maybe his gross motor skills are not quite up to his month, but we will just keep an eye on it. He doesn't love to stand and is not cruising at all and doesn't love to have his feet flat, but Ryan also had some low muscle tone so it's not new for us. He is moving around so much though. He does an army crawl and can get anywhere he wants to. He is constantly on his knees rocking back and forth and sometimes will move a hand forward to. So at least he is able to be mobile. I was so impressed we made it to our 7:50 appointment early! Jeff helped us get ready and get in the car and I prepped things the night before, but I was kind of shocked. 

Some highlights for the week are that we have discovered how wonderful and helpful Lily is to Ryan at the McDonald's play area which makes it much more enjoyable for Jeff to go to. He used to have to always go in the tunnels to hep Ryan out. And while it is a lot of work for Lily she was very kind to help him so much. 

It was great weather for a few days the past week so we had a lot of park time, which the kids have been craving for and loved. Ryan loved it so much he never wanted to leave. Even when I went out to the car hoping to encourage him to come, he was completely fine if we were to have left  him. He yelled out to me to just go on without him, he would stay all by himself. Apparently he's ready to be given some more independence. He calls his favorite park, "ship little park." We also went to the library a few times and they have so much fun there. Ryan loves the puzzles and any car toys they have and Lily loves playing in the castle/kitchen and making new friends. She pretends to play house and is so easy to introduce and start playing right away. Even Max enjoyed the activity centers they have. Though Ryan and Max did get sick this week so I'm wondering if the library had anything to do with that. 

Speaking of puzzles, Ryan has been obsessed with them lately. We got him a 12-piece puzzle with trucks, cars, and airplanes and he had Jeff do it 12 times with him the other day. After the 3rd time he could do it all by himself, so he just wanted moral support from Jeff after that. We are very impressed with him and all that he is learning and how he loves to master things. 

Lily still loves listening to Yankee Doodle and the other day she was sitting at the table drawing. All of a sudden when the words said, "Captain Washington" she jumped up, lifted her hands in the air, and marched around the table. After she sat back down she said, "I almost missed it!" Lily had a very special play date with her friend Aubrey Brown in the ward. They painted, baked, played barbies, and played outside. Amy, Aubrey's mom, did me a great service. She had Lily for 3 1/2 hours! She just kept saying she could stay longer. Lily was in heaven. I took Ryan to Costco so we could have a Costco date and he loved it. He felt really special that we could have special time together. Especially because we had gone to music class in the morning. He loves his class and sings along and participates, which is really cute. I'm happy we put him in.

We went to open gymnastics and while the kids were a bit more reserved than in the past since we haven't gone for awhile, they found things they loved. Ryan and Lily had a fun time runnimg along the long tramp and jumping in the foam pit. We also had a play date with Blake Smith and then when Tara came to pick him up we talked for about an hour which was nice. 

Jeff took the kids to get haircuts and said they were perfect. Lily got a little A-line bob and it looks darling, everyone loves it. Ryan commented to the person cutting Jeff's hair that her toe nails are Lily's favorite color and there are hearts on them. He would then go back and forth between people giving them messages and was very still when his hair was being cut. 

We got our car serviced so I had a loaner. Ryan saw it in the garage (an old Saturn) and was so excited about our new car. Later, when their babysitter Kendra came over for a few minutes so I could return the car, he looked in the garage and saw our van there. He sobbed for a long time because he missed our new car. Throughout the day he would sometimes remember the missing new car and get sad again. He never even rode in it, but he was very attached. 

We had the missionaries over for dinner and they challenged us to pray about a family or person to teach by a certain date. Our date is March 1. I'm always nervous doing things like this since I have been rejected quite a lot by people when I invite them to church things, so I get to practice exercising a lot of faith. Plus, Michael had issued us the same challenge for when he gets back from his mission so this was good to be reminded. 

Amber Hopkins in the ward called me last minute and asked if I wanted to attend a mom's night out/training that a lot of the LDS home school moms attend. I had only a couple hours to find a babysitter for 4 hours, but the girl I visit teach, Hailey Mayle, happily offered! I was so grateful (especially becasuse we had visited her the day before and the kids were a bit wild) that I got to go and had a wonderful time. We had dinner, then Laren and Kyle Bateman from the ward did the training. They are professional trainers and did a great job. They taught about energy healing and tapping methods (which is something I have been learning and am interested in) and then did an exercise on self-awareness, mirrors, looking into others eyes, communicating with our eyes, and seeing ourselves for how our Father in Heaven sees us. When Amber called I wasn't sure it would work out since Jeff was gone, but she said she felt prompted to ask me so I didn't want to ignore that. Then she said she'd set the intention for it to work. And it did and I'm so grateful because it was just what I needed!

And now for some pics:

The kids love Max's snacks. Ryan spilled them on the floor, but had to eat some before cleaning up.

Our dishwasher only worked when it was secured in a very specifc way. We have to get a new washer, but we tried to get one more day of dishes washed before we switched over to hand washing. Jeff did this to make it work (I'm still not sure how he managed it) and the washer quit after it did one rinse cycle. That was good enough for us (there were so many dishes because we had the missionaries over for dinner!). We've been washing all week, which will make me so grateful for a dishwasher when it comes in. 

Ryan was supposed to be in bed, but we heard him call out, "my crib is empty!"

Ryan playing the harmonica with Max. 

New haircut!

The kids wanted to dress up so this is Ryan's football shirt and soccer pants (shh, don't tell him he's mixing brands). 

And Izzy the Pirate

Lily sat down like a little photographer and kept trying to get Max to smile. She asked me to come help make him smile. She captured a cute face. 

Lily wanted a picture of holding herself up. She felt very strong. 

Lily discovered iTunes radio and has been walking around with my phone listening to music. Jeff tried to get the kids to smile, but sometimes they just can't.