Mohawk Mania

Yes, it's true. Ryan has a mohawk. When Daddy first suggested it, I said NO WAY. Of course, he persisted and I finally gave in. Though, this is not my hair cut of choice for my sweet boy, I admit that it is funny. On Friday night, Matt was walking ahead of me in Target. As a couple passed Matt and the kids, the women said to her husband, "Did you see that little boy". Ha, ha, ha. I got a good laugh and was even bold enough to tell her that my husband gave my little boy a mohawk. We still have hope that Tim and Anna might give Ty a mohawk too. Come on Tim and Anna, they could be BFF's!!! And imagine the fun we will have in 20 years when we show their girlfriends and wives these pictures. :)

Ballerina Perfection

Here are a couple pictures of our sweet ballerina. When Madeline was born, I thought we would be perfect parents. I had read so many parenting books, and Matt and I had spent hours upon hours discussing how we would parent. Of course, parenting has turned out to be much more difficult and not so clear cut. Though Madeline loves ballet, she does not like her ballet class. After one session she told me that she did not want to go back. Of course I asked her why and she told me that she did not like it because she was not very good at it. At her age, none of the little girls are very good at it, as their bodies are still developing fine and gross motor skills. Anyway, Matt and I went to great lengths explaining how no one is good at something when they first begin, but as they practice, they get better and better. However, this little lesson is not sinking in, as she persists in saying the same thing after each ballet class. For me as a parent, it makes me nervous to see this trait in her, as I don't want her to feel like she has to be perfect at everything. I was and am that way and it did and does keep me from trying new things, and I don't want this for her. Though her personality may tend toward perfectionism, I hope we can steer her to have confidence and try new things regardless of how good or bad she is.

Sup Man

After Ryan entered Daddy's office a couple weeks ago wearing high heels and a shawl, Daddy was determined to get Ryan into super heros.  Well, it worked, though Ryan does still play dress-up with his sister.  Madeline and Ryan play a new game where Madeline is the damsel in the distress and tells Ryan to go fight the bad guys.  Ryan then runs around the house yelling, "Sup Man, fight bad guys" again and again and again and. . .

Slumber Party

Friday night is usually our fun, family night.  We eat pizza, watch a movie and play together.  This week we jazzed it up with talk of a slumber party in Ryan's room since he has bunk beds. Madeline was so excited and talked about it all Thursday and Friday.  Thursday night she even carried one of her pillows to Ryan's top bunk in preparation for the event.  Well, Friday night came and they were both excited to sleep in the same room.  We tucked them in and then left.  Usually, Madeline keeps her door open and Ryan's door is closed (for obvious reasons!!! :)). Since Madeline is scared with the door closed we left it open.  Their first 15 minutes together were precious.  They were gabbing away and giggling and having fun.  Then we heard the pitter patter. We tried to ignore it, but the pitter patter turned into a little boy walking down the stairs saying, hi mommy, hi daddy.  Daddy graciously brought him upstairs and returned him to bed. This time the door was closed.  However, this elicited screams from Madeline.  Hence, the slumber party ended with everyone in their own beds.  Maybe again in a few years. . . 

Tidbits

Daddy is off to Virginia Beach and we will miss him, but we will have fun.  Hopefully Daddy will get to visit Katie Carlin (oops, that's not her last name anymore) and her new husband. Yes, we are getting old.  The teenagers that were in the youth group when we were involved are now getting married and having babies!!!  I'm bummed not to make the visit, but Madeline has ballet lessons through January.  

Madeline has a new cute saying when she's bummed about something.  She tells me that she learned it from Jackson in our basement.  Is this true, Courtney?  She says, "Oh man, chickadees".  And now Ryan is saying it too.  Perhaps it will be in Webster's in a few years!

My hope in this blog is to print it out and keep the entries in a notebook for you both to read one day.  Thus, I thought it was only fair to include this picture.  Yes, Mommy confesses, while you watch your shows I often take naps.  When I awake I often find myself singing, "Hey Hey it's Jo Jo's Circus" or "Super Wwwwwwhy, Super Why", and a myriad of other "special" songs.  I don't know what moms did before Playhouse Disney.  I'm sure they were just really tired all the time. :)

Ryan and Tyler sit with a skeleton at the Life Science Museum.

My little climber girl climbed on the top of a tunnel just like she watched her friend Tyler do.

Why is it so hard to get four children to sit still for a picture? :)

Yes, this is the best picture I could get of Ryan and Jackson.  Why, do you ask?  Because they do not sit still when they are together!  They are a great match when it comes to levels of activity.  Unfortunately, I think they draw out the crazy, active sides of each other.  Only moms of boys can understand this.  To others this type of activity might be observed as out of control.  To those of us with little boys, we know that it is just our boys having some good old fun.  And we love it because it usually means a good nap is on the way!  Though I sometimes get overwhelmed by the volume of sound these boys produce, I love watching them play.  They just seem to understand each other, loving to wrestle and be physical.  At church a couple weeks ago,  I observed a sweet friendship moment between them.  They were at the train table, standing in front of each other, pumping their arms up and down in a mirrored fashion.  Ryan accidentally hit Jackson in the face.  Jackson said, "ouch" and Ryan said, "I sorry".  Jackson then said, "It's okay", and they continued to play (until the donuts came out, of course).  Cute, cute, cute.  And yes, that was the same Sunday we momentarily lost Ryan and Jackson only to find them playing in the back of a vacant room.  

Ballet, the Lake and the museum

We have had a fun few days.  Monday was Daddy's last day off before starting work again in the New Year.  It was a beautiful day so we went to Lake Crabtree.  We started at the playground and ended up spending most of our time near the water.  Madeline and Ryan loved running through the fields searching for sticks to throw into the water.  It was sweet to watch them run together and help each other find sticks, though there was the occasional argument over to whom the stick belonged.  We ended our afternoon together with a trip to 5 Guys Grill and a special treat from Kilwyn's, a nearby bakery/ice cream shop.

Tuesday was Madeline's first day of dance class.  I WISH I had my camera with me.  It was so sweet to see all these 3 and 4 year old girls in ballet attire trying their best to learn the basics. They were constantly running into each other and hitting each other with their arms, but they were having fun and trying their hardest.  One of my favorite memories of the day is Ryan in dance class.  We stood to the side the whole time, but he did his best to replicate the ballet moves that Madeline was learning.  Of course it was a very masculine form of ballet. . . :)

Today we spent the day with Ms. Tara, Riley and Tyler at the Life Science Museum in Durham. The favorites of the day were the owl, the alligators, petting the cotton snake and playing outside.  Actually, I think Madeline's and Ryan's favorite part of the day was riding in Ms. Tara's car and watching Curious George.  Ryan and Riley are really beginning to enjoy each other and Madeline has always has a soft spot for Tyler.  Poor Ms. Tara is due in just four weeks, but she did great with all our walking!

Hopefully tomorrow will be a quiet day at home.  Wait, what am I thinking.  Jackson is coming over for an afternoon visit.  There is supposed to be some napping going on, but we'll see. . . :)

Pictures

Our little tree hugger in a tree "house" at the museum.

This is Madeline attempting to put her arm around her brother, who kept refusing her attempts.

Petting the nasty smelling snake.

RyRy with the rat. The biologist told us they make great pets, better than hampsters or gerbils because they don't bite. Really, it makes no difference to me, because we will NEVER have a rat for a pet. Sorry Ry!

Madeline loves the furry, little rat, especially since it does not smell like the snake.

Can someone show this boy how to wear headphones???

Madeline LOVES her grandma.

This is what Matt calls forced family fun time. Mommy decides that we need to bond as a family even though it's only 30 outside. So we all pile on jackets, walk to the park, stay there 2 minutes because we are already frozen, and return home as icicles and grumpy because we are so cold. But we have bonded!!! :)

I just love this face.

When they are getting along, i.e., when Ryan is not hitting or kicking his sister, they are so cute together. In this picture Madeline is pointing everything in the exhibit out to Ryan and he's commenting with "oh yeah", "yes", "okay", "bird" and that's about it.