Cleveland Zoo

Today my parents and I took Kaitlyn to the Zoo. Kaitlyn loves zoos, because she is enjoying learning the names of all the animals and their sounds. We were nervous when we got there and saw the hundred or so school buses and felt the sticky heat, but we had the best day!



Unfortunatly for you, animals are fun to take pictures of, especially when you have a long range zoom lens. So you guys get subjected to those pictures.



At home, her hair is mildly curly. Here in humidity land, her hair is VERY curly. Awesome. Oh, and did you know that at this zoo, you can pay to ride a camel? How cool/odd is that? We didn't, but this kid did.



It is rather fun to be with Grandpa and Grandma and my kids, if only because I remember how cute they are. Sometimes I get bogged down with the day to day dealings, but they think taking care of her is a special treat.



It was very kind of this cheetah to take a nap near us. Kaitlyn liked pointing out every body part and talking about him a lot.



Anyway, it is a great zoo. It was much bigger than the Hogle Zoo, and so we didn't really mind the crowds. And despite the huge hill we had to climb, it was okay because there was an air-conditioned building at the top, and an air-conditioned place for lunch. Not to mention that the walkway you come down on is fun.



These painted dinosaurs were everywhere. I don't know why, exactly, but they were cool.



The grass is truly greener on the other side of the fence . . .



Yeah, this is how I spent my day. Not being able to photoshop before I post pictures feels odd, but I figured it would be more important to keep up with things. And today was a good day.

Just me and my girl

I ditched the boys for the week and flew to Ohio yesterday. I have to say, it is a rather odd feeling. Being without my other half is odd enough, but having one kid and not the other is even weirder. But plane tickets costing what they do, it wasn't really worth buying 4 tickets to see my high school friend get married. It will be very worth the 2 tickets though! Kaitlyn and I are having a lot of fun.

Kaitlyn liked seeing the airplanes at the airport. And she wasn't too bad on the flights- we watched Caillou for three hours, then cried for the last ten minutes when they had us turn off the netbook. Then we RAN through the Memphis airport, got a pizza, made our connection, screamed loudly for the first ten minutes of the flight when she was overtired, and slept the rest of the way to Cleveland.



When we got to Grandma's house, my parents had a panic moment when she got excited and said "train!", expecting to see the one that went around the Christmas tree. I was just impressed she remembered it from five months ago.

Not to worry. Grandma had lots of things to spoil a little girl with. Next door neighbor was done with this kitchen and a cozy coupe car, for starters. That was a big hit.





And, since my brother is currently living at home, his cats are too. Socks is honestly the best cat I have ever met. He is smart- comes when Dan calls him, etc- and very patient with my kids.



And this was my mom's big "suprise" for us. And let me tell you, she is in love. These things are a mess and a half, but my kids both love spending hours moving sand around.




As our suprise for Granmda, we brought her doughnuts from Daylight because she loves them and gets them whenever she comes to visit us. But they got a little smooshed on the way. Grandma enjoyed all the big pieces, but we had our little girl help us out with the crumbs. Yum.



Yup, life is good at Grandma's house.

Jump on it

Tonight we went to Jump on it with Christopher's company. My kids LOVE that place! Seriously, they were jumping and grinning from ear to ear for two hours solid. Oh, and hubby was rather happy too.



Basically, this place is wall to wall trampolines, with a grown up section and a kiddie section.



Daddy liked to show off his flips. The kids thought that was hilarious to watch.



So, this shot might be technically terrible, and Christopher doesn't like it- but I thought it was fun! It's like he's a ghost . . .



Anyway, back to the cuter people. They loved the blow up slides and such when their little legs got tired of jumping.



And pretending to be stuck in the bounce house.



Man, I love our life! It is busy, and often very stressful, but little days like today make it all worth it.

Next up, on Tuesday I fly home to Ohio for a friend's wedding next weekend. The scary part is that I am only taking Kaitlyn. That means that not only does hubby have to feed and take care of himself, but Tyler as well! My poor man can't cook very well, and informed me happily that he will just eat at Carl's Jr for every meal. I posted a list on the fridge of meals that he DOES know how to cook so they haven't gained 10 pounds by the time I get back. We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I plan to have a blast with my parents, who are really looking forward to at least one grandkid to spoil. I'll miss my boys though!

Preschool Graduation

These things crack me up. Everybody acts like they are a huge deal, breaking out cameras and inviting grandmothers. But since Tyler has another year in preschool, he's not actually graduating from anything. It is just a chance to sing some songs for the parents and be adorable. Which Tyler is good at. (Being adorable, that is. He doesn't much go for the songs.)



I loved the little hats! Hilarious.



I had an interesting camera day. I would get my lenses changed up just when things changed, etc. And here, we have Tyler and Daddy looking good and Kaitlyn doing . . . something.



And now, Tyler and Kaitlyn are being cute, and Daddy is doing . . . something.



This is "Miss Jennifer", the preschool teacher who Tyler likes to talk about a lot.



After the presentation, it was time to play! The sixth grade puts on a carnival for the Kindergarden and Preschool classes, and the kids had fun fishing for otter pops . . .




. . . throwing the beanbag through the hole (Tyler made two in!)



. . . ignoring the fun games because otter pops are more important . . .



. . . hitting a pinata . . .




and running an obstacle course. It was a great day!

Kaitlyn isms

* The other day, Kaitlyn was doing something adorable and my husband told her "you are just priceless!" She nodded very solomnly and added "and LOUD!"

* We have had a johnny jump up hanging in a seldomn-used doorway ever since Tyler was an infant. Tyler loved to jump in our laps, but not in the seat. Kaitlyn never figured it out either. But then, a month ago, Kaitlyn discovered it. She got to be a pro at using the changing table to climb into and out of the infant jumper, and then would bounce and swing and spin herself silly. And on Sunday morning, after I had gotten them dressed for church, she apparently had such a good time that the spun and bounced herself until she puked.

* Today, Tyler was sad about something, so I rocked him in my chair for a minute. I don't even know how Kaitlyn knew that's what I was doing, but she came in with a blankie for Tyler- because when Kaitlyn goes down for a nap, I rock her in that chair with a blankie. So she handed us the blankie, watched to make sure I spread it on Tyler, and then closed the door behind her telling us "sweet dreams!" in a whisper.

BYU Baseball

One of the things we love to do with the kids is go to BYU Baseball games. They aren't as exciting as Basketball or Football games, but that means they are nice and low key for the kids. We can wander over and get great seats, run around when the toddlers need to blow off steam, and (most importantly) eat hot dogs.




Today was the last home game of the season, and they had a tailgate party beforehand. We loved it! For $12, we all got to play Plinko (we won two beach towels and a pom-pom) . . .



. . . eat J-Dawgs (the best dogs in the valley, yum). . .




. . . get face or hands painted (Tyler wasn't so sure about this one) . . .



And see Cosmo the Cougar. What's that? You don't see Cosmo in this picture? Kaitlyn loves to keep track of Cosmo's every movements and point them out to us every five minutes. But when we found him to go give him a high five and get our picture taken, she bolted. So we picked her up and encouraged her . . . and she cried.



I don't think the picture does justice to how terrified she was at this moment, but trust me - Daddy is laughing for a reason.

A good week

I had a really good week last week! I figured I better post about it so that when I had a bad week, I have something to remember.

First of all, my master bedroom has been a disaster lately. Every time I clean, I start with the first floor of the house, because that is what everybody sees. And the last room I ever clean is my bedroom, because no one ever sees it. But with the kids how they are, most of the time I never get to the second floor- by the time I have finished three rooms, they have messed up the first one. Ugh.

So my cute husband sat me down one morning and asked as gently as he could if I could maybe clean our bedroom first next time. And so I did. I had no idea how much sleeping in a cluttered tornado zone was weighing on me until it was vaccumed and gone! I haven't cleaned off my dressers in years, to be honest, but seeing the tops did wonders for my soul. And packing up a large bag for DI was fantastic.

And to top it off, Christopher remembered a discussion a week or two ago where I made fun of him for owing me flowers, and he brought home roses!

The next day, I got the rest of the house under control, and even managed to make a craft that I have been looking forward to for a while. I love making bows for Kaitlyn, but never had anywhere to keep them. So I finally got my bow holder made.



I know a lot of people like to make really decorative and colorful ones, but I liked the bows being the color on here. I would hang it on the wall, but I think Kaitlyn would have a blast ripping them all off. So it gets to be the one object on my clean dresser. :)

All week I was gearing up for the meeting with Tyler's teacher on Thursday morning. I try not to vent about it too much on this blog, but things have not been going well with Tyler lately. He enjoys school, and his teacher is really nice. But she doesn't give me anything to reinforce at home. I have tried reading books and looking at things online, but I just don't know how to be what Tyler needs. When we had Kids on the Move or speech therapy, I was there with him and saw what he was working on. That gave me managable goals- one week, I would work on "ing" verbs, the next week the therapist would have me emphasize "under" and "over". I can do that.

But I just don't have the ideas or the patience to do this on my own. It would be like if someone told me I needed to teach others how to pole vault, having never been to a track meet in my life. There are honestly days where I get so frustrated that I avoid my own child because I don't know what to do. He is perfectly content playing on his own, and too many days I just let him do that.

Well, back to school. I could try and blame the teacher for not communicating with me, but the truth was that she doesn't have time to teach me how to be a parent. So we discussed options, and I think we came up with some good ones. There is another school within the district that may be a better fit for him.

For the last six months, I have been looking at a private school for him, but they are rather expensive and 20 minutes away - so 40 minutes in the morning to drop him off, 40 in the afternoon to pick him up. I went and looked at them, and loved it- it would be two students per teacher, and they base their goals on what I see him needing help with at home.

Well, they called on Friday to tell me there were openings for their summer school. And when I opened the brochure they emailed me, I nearly cried. One of the programs was a parent class, where parents and students come together and the teachers show parents what to do. Exactly what I have been praying for. I ran down and signed him up the same day. I haven't heard back yet, but she said things weren't full yet, so I can't wait!

And to top that off, I got to have Thursday night off! The company my husband works for is nearly all male (they do computers, so this isn't a coincidence). And all of the wives have gotten to be good friends. So they had a Girl's Night Out last week, and it was a blast.

Like I said, it was a really good week. And those are rare enough that I figured I better document it for posterity!