The next karate kid?

After our visit to the karate school this morning, Ryan was hooked - he wanted to be in karate class, and he wanted to be in it right now! The visit was really interesting with the instructor (or master, not sure what to call him) taking Ryan through a typical class while Lauren, Robbie, and I sat and watched. The instructor (that is what I'll call him for now) started with the basics . . . how to enter the building (yes, they have a special way to do that) - walk in, take a bow and say "hello sir, hello ma'am." After the entrance into the building Ryan was given a quick tour of the place - the bathroom, the drinking fountain, where to place his shoes, etc., and then it was onto the mats. Before stepping onto the mats, the instructor taught Ryan how to bow again and say whatever the "saying" was for that day - today it was "integrity" - so Ryan had to bow and say, "integrity sir." After that they moved onto some real basic "karate stuff" - the correct stance, how to punch, kick, and scream when doing the moves. It was really fun to see how into it Ryan was. He followed every instruction given to him, kept his eyes on the instructor, and looked pretty darn cute doing it (although I couldn't tell him that because he would get upset). After watching how the instructor interacted with Ryan and learning about how the program helps encourage confidence, discipline, hard work, and too many other things to remember, I was sold! We (or should I say I) signed Ryan up right away and had to remind myself to tell Trav later in the day. After we went through all the paperwork, Ryan got one last thing before we left . . . his uniform! Excitement might not even describe how pumped his was about this thing. Once the instructor put it on him, a huge smile appeared on his face and was permanent for a long, long time. With that behind us, we went on with our normal day - a visit to the park with his school friends (lots and lots of people to tell about his karate adventure), and then back home for lunch and naps. After naps, Ryan was basically counting down the minutes until Trav got home so he could tell him all about karate class and show off his uniform. Listening to Ryan tell Trav about his time at the school reinforced how much he was really into the class. I swear he told Trav just about everything the instructor had said to him in the morning - I wish he would listen to me that well! Here are a couple pictures of the "karate kid" - can't wait to start classes next week and see how it goes. Doesn't Trav look super excited in the background? He had just gotten home from a long day at work so I guess we can't hold it against him.

Cowboys and something else . . .

The kids were ready to play dress-up today so we pulled out the big blue box and started digging through it. Ryan came away with his cowboy outfit which left Lauren with Spider-Man, a pirate, and a few other things - none of which she liked. The minute Ryan had his cowboy outfit on, she wanted to be just like him. So, we made do with what we had and this is how she looked in the end . . .She ended up looking like a cross between a gangster and a cowgirl, but with only one cowboy hat, I did the best I could. It might not be pretty, but she loved it and wore the thing around for about an hour. Here are a couple of other shots from the day.Today also happened to be our second time with a babysitter. I had a lunch planned with some old colleagues so another one of our neighbor girls came over and watched the kids for a couple of hours. When I got home, both kids were fed and down for their naps and the house was all picked up (there was literally not one toy on the ground) - I could really get used to this babysitter stuff if this is how it would always work. When the kids got up from their naps, Ryan had lots of stories to tell about all the fun stuff they did while I was away. He also asked who was going to watch him tomorrow when I left. I had to disappoint him by telling him that I wasn't leaving tomorrow, or probably anytime soon for that matter so he was stuck with me - what a bummer.

That is all for now. We have an exciting day tomorrow as we'll be visiting a karate school to see if karate might be something Ryan would be interested in - should be fun.

Things "my dad taught me"

Over the past couple of days Ryan and I have had some interesting conversations - the one common thing (or should I say, person) involved in the conversations . . . "my dad" (in this case, Ryan's dad, Trav, not my dad). So the other day Trav and Ryan were playing light sabers while Lauren and I sat in the living room and took in the action. There was lots of slicing and dicing with Ryan eventually knocking Trav to the ground too many times to count (the kid is dangerous with his light saber). After this, things wrap up and eventually we all head to bed. Then, the next morning Ryan and I were recounting the light saber fight between him and Trav. Ryan is telling me all the "rules" to fighting with light sabers . . . "Mom, it isn't real. I don't really hurt Daddy when I knock him down. You have to be careful and make sure you are just pretending and for sure you never hit Daddy in the nuts." Well there you have it . . . you can "slice" off Daddy's arm, or take out his knees, but you never, never get those nuts!

Our next conversation takes place over lunch where I am convincing Ryan he needs to finish his turkey sandwich if he wants to get big muscles like his Dad. He buys into the notion that the turkey will give him big muscles, but then he adds, "Mom, boy nipples are called pecs." Then he proceeds to lift up his shirt and show me his nipples while saying, "my nipples are still little because I'm a boy, but when I get stronger, they'll be pecs just like my Dad." I didn't even need to ask who told him that, but I did anyway and got the usual response, "my Dad taught me." When I told Trav about our conversation later that day he confirmed that he told Ryan, but he didn't stop there. While telling me, he was lifting up his shirt and moving his "pecs" and saying, "doosh, doosh" (I'm not sure how to spell the exact word he was saying, but you get the idea). Here is Trav working his muscles while giving the kids a "horse" ride - isn't he impressive. . .

Other than the conversations, we have had another busy week. As I mentioned earlier, Trav and I went out on Monday for our anniversary. The meal was great (way too expensive, but we only do it once a year so that is okay), the kids were both sleeping when we got home, and the babysitter said she would watch the them again - a success by all accounts. Tuesday was spent just hanging around the house. Ryan got a haircut which is always an event considering he hates it. Luckily some of the older kids in the neighborhood were there while I cut his hair - they are always a good distraction to keep his mind off of the "terrible" pain I am inflicting on him. Wednesday was Ryan's school play date at the park followed by lots of playing outside. Thursday was a great day . . . Auntie took both kids for an overnight visit to give Trav and I a "free" night to ourselves. We used our time to go to the horse races and actually watch the races - what an odd concept. Usually we are constantly moving getting food and drinks, or taking the kids down to see the horses. but last night, we just sat there and enjoyed doing nothing. We came out $8 ahead with our bets, but $20 down all together - not a bad night if you ask me. And now it is Friday and I am sitting (actually lounging in bed) at 8:30 in the morning with nothing to do, and no one to worry about but me - how relaxing. Thanks Auntie - hope you and the kids are having fun.

I'll wrap up with a few pictures from the week. The first is a typical breakfast for Ryan. He usually doesn't eat until well after Lauren and I have finished up, but regardless of the fact that she has already eaten, Lauren can always be found standing next to Ryan with her mouth open patiently waiting for him to drop in whatever he has.
And here is Ryan "babysitting" baby Robbie while watching some morning cartoons - he is such a good helper (at least for 5 or 10 minutes until his arms get tired and he tells me it is my turn).

Everyone loves a parade

On Saturday we ventured south to hang out with some old friends and their kids. To make the trip even better, there was a parade that day and Ryan couldn't wait to see it (he missed the 4th of July parade this year so he was very excited when we told him about this one). When we got to the parade, we were just getting settled in when all of a sudden Ryan's preschool teacher walks bye and says "hi." Ryan was a little shocked and said, "how did you get here?" I guess he assumes that his teachers should only be in his classroom, not around town, and for sure not in a different town. Turns out she lives there - only a block from where we were sitting - what a small world. Anyway, back to the parade. The kids had a blast watching all the floats go by, but none of them were too thrilled with the constant string of fire trucks who kept blasting their horns - seriously, once or twice should be good, but these guys did it constantly. All the kids came away with a bag full of candy (most of which we tossed in the garbage because the popsicles that were thrown during the parade leaked and got all over everything). Oh well, now I don't have it sitting around the house tempting me to eat it all. I'm pretty sure Lauren enjoyed the parade more than anyone. She would point and scream at just about everything, and every time a band came by, she broke out the dance moves - here is one of those moments.
After the parade we went back to our friend's place, ate, and let the kids play. Turns out they all got along great so before we knew it, it was almost bedtime and we had to pack up and leave. The kids were exhausted from the long day with no naps so they were both sleeping within about five minutes of getting in the car. It was a very fun way to spend a cool Saturday afternoon! Here are a couple of pictures of the kids.Lauren, Evelyn, and Ryan waiting for the parade to start. Saul is in the background staying close to his mom.Evelyn and Ryan taking off down the street after the parade - apparently when you are four you don't need to wait for your parents anymore.And here is Saul teaching Lauren the basics of vacuuming - apparently the kid is obsessed with it - the fact that he even let her touch the vacuum was pretty amazing. I'm hoping she liked her lesson and will vacuum for me in the future!

With the weekend almost gone, we still have one thing to look forward to . . . our 7 year anniversary!!! Our anniversary is tomorrow (Monday, the 20th) so Trav and I are going out for a special dinner while the kids stay home with their first ever non-related babysitter - should be interesting! I can't believe it has already been 7 years (sometimes blissful, sometimes stressful), but always worth it. Oh, and tomorrow is also Grandma Connie's birthday too. I can't remember how old she is exactly, but I know it is somewhere around 35 or 36 so happy birthday to her too! Hopefully Grandpa Doug will do something nice for her.

The week in review . . .

Lots of fun things happening this week . . . hence, no time to write about them. Well, it is Thursday afternoon and all the kiddies are sleeping so I'm taking advantage of the time I have to do a little blog catch-up. Where to begin . . . well, I guess I'll start with our first activity of the week - our weekly zoo visit. When we first purchased our zoo pass, I was a little hesitant because I wasn't sure how often we would actually go. Well, no need to worry there. The zoo visits have fit nicely into our weekly outings and I know for a fact that the zoo stopped making money on us long ago. Anyway, this week's visit was dedicated to the new play area that just opened up over the weekend and the splash/water area. But, as usual, we had to make our customary visit to check on the dolphins and sharks first. After a good half hour with all the underwater creatures, we made our way to the play area. I was kind of worried that the place would be packed, but to my surprise (and delight), there weren't nearly as many people there as I had anticipated. Once inside, Ryan took off running, jumping, and touching everything possible. Lauren stayed back with me and checked things out at her own pace. The place is very neat, kind of small, but it is in a zoo after all, and most people probably don't go there to play (except people like us who have nothing better to do). Within ten minutes of being there, Ryan found some boys to play with so Lauren and I made our way to the "toddler area" where she was able to climb, run, and play without being trampled by the big kids. After an hour and a half I finally convinced Ryan that we should leave. It wasn't easy considering he was perched up above me on a suspension bridge with three other little boys who were eager to play. I kept saying, "Ryan, it's time to go." He kept saying, "just five more seconds Mom." If only he had a better sense of time, then he could at least shoot for five more minutes versus five more seconds. After a good ten minutes of trying to get him to stop running and listen, he did finally come down and off we went to find our place by the splash area and have some snacks. There was one, and only one rule I gave Ryan when he was ready to get wet - NO RUNNING! As usual, he nodded and took off before anything could set in. Within minutes, he was walking back to me crying. When I asked what happened, he said he was running and slipped and fell back on his head - wow, what a surprise considering I had seen three or four other kids go down while they were running. After a brief (brief considering it was Ryan) crying fit, he regrouped and went back out with Lauren to cool off again. The kids played and splashed around for a half hour then it was time to pack up and head home. After that it was lunch and naps - what a lovely afternoon it was. Here are some pictures from the day.

So that takes care of Monday. Robbie joined us on Tuesday and I just have to throw in this picture of him and the kids. They can't get close enough to him, or touch him enough - they absolutely love having him around. I don't know that I can say that he always feels the same, but he is a trooper none-the- less.

On Wednesday we met up with some of Ryan's old classmates for a play date in the park. The park adventure was perfect for about two minutes, then Lauren went head first into a metal pole. She did her usual two seconds of crying before she was ready to play again. I did a quick check of her head before I let her go, and was startled to see a huge black and blue goose egg on her forehead. My first thought was, oh that's not too bad, but the thing just kept getting bigger and bigger. Before I know it, I'm kind of scared and don't know what to do. Luckily they had a YMCA camp going on at the school next to the playground so I took Lauren inside and asked if anyone had an ice pack. They did so I took it and went back outside with Lauren and iced her head for a couple of minutes. Immediately the swelling went down and the discoloration wasn't as bad (at least I thought). Pretty soon a bunch of the other moms are standing around me and saying things like, "I might take my kid in to the doctor", or "wow, that looks bad" - you get the idea here, not things that I wanted to hear. After hearing that stuff, I check with the head teacher of Ryan's school (who has been working with young kids for the past twenty or so years) to see what she thought. She was reassuring and said it looked much better and Lauren didn't seem phased so I should be okay. Anyway, after all that, the kids play for another half hour or so and then we headed home. Just to reassure myself that nothing as wrong with Lauren, I called the nurses line and checked with them. They told me to not give her any medicine, but to just watch her over the next 24 hours to make sure she wasn't acting any different than usual. So that is what I did and as things usually go with Lauren, she was just fine - what a tough little girl. Maybe too tough and fearless. Maybe if she was actually scared of something, her never ending injuries would start to go away. I tried to get a picture of her goose egg, but it didn't show up real good on camera. She did however like the idea of getting her picture taken with her baby and Ryan's shoes on - such a dork!

And here is a quick picture of what happens if you leave your empty hot chocolate mug sitting on the table at our house . . .That's right, Lauren will work at that empty mug until she has every last bit gone (or on her face) and then she'll walk around with a drunk and satisfied look on her face - isn't that sweet.

And finally, today (or should I say this morning) the kids and I headed out to another park for another play date. This time we met up with an old colleague of mine. She has a five year old daughter named Ryann. The kids played together a few times in the past, but when I mentioned that we would be getting together this week, my Ryan had lots of questions, most of them were centered around how a girl could be named Ryan(n) too? It was, "why is she a girl named Ryann?", or she can't be "Ryann" because I'm Ryan and I'm a boy. After numerous conversations, Ryan (mine) concluded that there could in fact be girls named Ryann too and that he would just call her, "my girl friend Ryann." He was happy with that, I was happy that he stopped asking so many questions, so that is where we left it. Well, at the park today, every time he talked to, or referred to the girl Ryann, he had to say either, "girl friend Ryann come here", or "where is my girl friend Ryann?" As it turns out, the mother of the girl Ryann also had had many talks with her daughter and she referred to my Ryan as "boy Ryan" - needless to say, their conversations about each other were pretty funny.

So there it is. Everything but Friday which looks like it is going to be a relaxing day with nothing planned. The kids might be ready to go again, but mama needs a break for a day!

Time for a wedding

We spent this past weekend staying busy with Aunt Traci's wedding. The festivities started on Friday with the rehearsal and grooms supper. With all of us - Trav, both kids, and myself - in the wedding, we had lots to do. Ryan was super excited that his big day was finally here. He has been wanting to put on his suit and be a ring bearer for about the last two months so when we finally packed the suit up on Friday, he couldn't have been happier. I was a little worried about how the kids would do, but after a couple of practice runs on Friday, I was feeling pretty confident that they wouldn't ruin Traci's big day. Here are a couple of pictures from the rehearsal.After the rehearsal and supper, the kids were pretty tired so off to bed they went. Saturday came bright and early with lots to do. We managed to get both kids down for naps before the actual wedding so they were in good shape for most of the day. They did great with pictures - minus a couple minor meltdowns, and were ready for their big moment. With Trav and I standing up in front, we had a great view of the kids. Ryan did super, he held his pillow, walked at a nice pace, and took his seat next to Grandma Connie. Lauren was close behind him with her fellow flower girl, Amelia. While Amelia did a good job of throwing out her flower petals, Lauren was hard at work right behind her trying to pick them all up - it was pretty cute. She also took some time to look around and smile at everyone - she loved the attention. After the wedding, we headed over to the dance party. This is usually the part Ryan really looks forward to, but with all the running he had been doing the past couple of days, he was almost too tired to move. He did manage to get in a few dances though before he headed home for the night. Lauren was tired too. She actually got in a cat nap between the meal and the beginning of the dance, but still wasn't her normal dancing machine. She took a while to warm-up, but once she got going, she pulled out her two signature moves and made the most of her dance floor time. By 9:30 both kids were packed up and headed home with Grandma and Grandpa Loken - thanks again for picking them up. Trav and I got in a few too many drinks after the kids left and danced the night away. Before I knew it, it was Sunday morning (or early afternoon) and we were on the road to get the kids and head home - another fun weekend in the books. Here are a few pictures from the day/night. I didn't get many with all that was going on so I'm banking on the fact that others did and they'll send them my way . . .hint, hint. A little note about this picture . . . yes, we're super dancers and we were in full swing here, but that isn't what I want you to notice. What you should notice is that the back of my dress is NOT ripped. Well, it was earlier. When we were in church taking pictures, my father-in-law, Doug suddenly says to me, "Ang, something is going on with your dress." I'm not sure what he is talking about until I stand up and pretty much my whole ass is hanging out (okay, not my whole ass, but it felt like it to me). Apparently I had ripped the seam at some point and now here I was with my butt hanging out and the wedding starting in less than an hour - super. We were able to do a quick fix with some safety pins which was fine until I sat down and felt the cold pins up my butt - yeah, that's fun. So, with pictures done, and about 40 minutes until the wedding, I asked my wonderful mother-in-law (also the mother of the bride) if she could take a look at my dress and see what could be done. Well, she did more than that, she actually sewed the thing back together for me. We jumped in the car and drove to her house where she already had black string in her sewing machine. It took her literally five minutes to fix it and I couldn't have been happier. She assured me that my butt would not be hanging out anymore because not only did she sew the seam, she actually double sewed it! With that behind me (no pun intended) we got back to the church with time to spare and the rest of the day went off with no skin exposed - yeah!

A relaxing 4th of July

Does relaxing and 4th of July even go together? Usually it is run, run, run on the 4th, but this year, we changed things up a bit. The thing about not really doing anything is that it works great for me (the less to do, the better), but not so great for Trav (he needs constant action and late nights). So, we decided to each go our separate ways in search of peace and quiet (me) and craziness (Trav). We also decided to split up the kids as well - Lauren with me, Ryan with Trav. So the boys took off to the lake and the girls headed south to St. Pete each to have our own version of fun. The girls' fun first . . . nothing too exciting on Thursday, just a quick dinner and to bed. Friday was was spent shopping and relaxing - I got an hour long full body massage (loved it!). After I was good and relaxed, I met up with some old high school friends and spent the night catching up. Saturday (the 4th) started with rain and pretty much stayed that way the entire day (at least the part I was awake for - I'll get to that later). Grandma and Grandpa Loken and Lauren and I watched the parade (in the rain), went home, ordered pizza and rented some movies all while Lauren slept. At some point during the first movie, I drifted off to sleep and by the time I woke up (a good five hours later), mom had already put Lauren to bed for the night - talk about an easy day for me. Being well-rested, I was ready to try the other movie we had rented - this one I actually stayed awake for. And then there was Sunday - it started with run and a walk (had to burn off all of those calories we took in) and then a lazy day spent by the pool. Lauren managed to trip and take a pretty good fall, but other than that, nothing too exciting. So that was our weekend. Now onto the boys' weekend. I can only tell what Trav told me, which is not very much other than Ryan got stung by a wasp and cried forever, then he tripped on some wood and cried forever again - glad I took Lauren this weekend! All in all, everyone had fun and now we are all ready for Aunt Traci's wedding this weekend. Ryan can hardly wait to put on his suit and dancing shoes - should be good times. By the way, I did not take a single picture this 4th of July - that has got to be a first (and hopefully last) time that will ever happen.