Fun with friends!

We had our friends the Loeffler's and the Glasco's over for a BBQ on Saturday night.  It was a gorgeous night, and we enjoyed the beautiful weather outside.  It was fun seeing Riley trying to keep up with the girls! Griffin is working his way up there too (I'm sad that I didn't get any pictures of him, though!), and pretty soon they'll be running around in circles too! 

Hang on, Peyton! Wait up!

Running with the big kids!

Caroline and Peyton had a special "surprise"... Sparklers! They had the best time writing their names in the air with the sparklers!

Reese was such a good baby the whole time... she's exhausted after a night of fun.

Toddler Room Update

Although last week was an adjustment, Riley LOVES the toddler room now! The cheek bite has healed, and he's now officially "initiated" into the new room.  They spent their days last week going on nature walks, making mud pies, painting pictures, and playing the on the playground.  Needless to say, Riley is in heaven and doesn't even flinch when I leave him in the morning.  He's running around and keeping up with the big kids, and I am so relieved that he loves it so much!

One of Riley's favorite activities, going down the slide in the classroom!

...on his knees, silly boy!

Toddler Room, Day #1

I dropped him off in the morning, all is well, he is happy and playing with his new friends.
45 minutes later my work phone rings and his teacher says, "I just wanted to let you know that Riley was bit.... on the face".  I said "wow, already?!" (they did warn me that at some point he WILL get bitten in the toddler room, it's the nature of the beast(s)) I asked if he did anything to provoke the biting, but she assured me that he was just standing at the sensory table with another child when he decided to lean over and bite his face... absolutely bizarre behavior if you ask me!! Anyway, the rest of the day went really well despite the biting incident. They went on a bug hunt with magnifying glasses because they're learning about bugs this week, and he did a great job eating his lunch in a chair without straps and sleeping on a cot! He's still not a big fan of circle time, but we'll work on that one.

Here is the war wound from day #1... hoping we can get through day #2 without any injuries. :)

"Transition" Week

Riley's "transition" week certainly did NOT go as planned! This particular week is designed so that a child spends part of their time in their old room, and part of their time in their new room so that the move to a new room is gradual and seamless.  Well, Tuesday night Riley woke up throwing up... big time! This continued for several days, so he was only at school two days last week. Poor guy is finally feeling better (after my mom and I became casualties of handling sickly bodily fluids all week and were sick over the weekend too!), and started cold turkey in his new room yesterday (post to follow on that one).  Here are some of our "sick day" activities...

Finally keeping down fluids... yay!! Time to celebrate!!

When he started feeling better he couldn't keep his hands off the dog bowls! So, I created our own bowls of water in the front yard so that he could splash and tip till his hearts content.

He enjoys dragging two big toys around with him... not just one! Cracks me up!

Moving up in the world

We got word from the daycare that it's time for Riley to transition to the toddler room! This meant that we had to spend the weekend preparing the Big Boy for his new classroom. 

First stop... Stride Ride for some snazzy new sneaks.  Toddlers must keep their shoes on at all times... not sure if they know our son, but that's much easier said than done. Shoes go on, 2.5 seconds later they are off and he's in the midst of throwing his socks across the room.  I wish them luck!!

Next stop, Sharkey's kids hair salon.  As much as we are going to miss his curls, I think we are looking a bit too shaggy these days! This was the coolest place (a recommendation from our friends the Glasco's!) with "Steve McQueen" cars as the chairs, and individual DVD's for each kid.   They even spiked his hair into a cool mohawk (sniff...sniff... we traded the mullet for a mohawk), so we couldn't pass up the $11 grape hair wax so that we could replicate the cool hairdo at home!

pre haircut fro

and away we go!

hold still...

 

iphone videos = miracle workers to keep a toddler still

final touches!

 

Tired man on his way home from a very big day with a new pair of shoes and stylish new haircut.  I think he's ready for his first day of school in the toddler room!

I love my Aunties