memorial day weekend

The summer season is finally upon us. After a winter filled with pregnancy and a spring of having a newborn we've been feeling some cabin fever.

The first big weekend of the summer gives us three days to rest and recreate. Well, at least recreate. We filled up our time pretty well.

On Saturday we did an exercise in finding out how much activity we can jam into one day before our entire family melts down. The day started with Mom & Dad trading off exercise sessions. Here's a shot from Daddy's bike ride:

Flawless weather and Lynn Woods, it doesn't get any better!















The next activity on the schedule was swim lessons for Riley. Since he started preschool this week Monday mornings are out for swimming, so we're finishing out the term on Saturday. Riley did very well with a different teacher and class structure.

Waiting in line...for the first time















After swimming we went home to get the rest of the family and we all headed off to Boston for a trip to the Museum of Science. Shelby has taken Riley there several times in the past and he always enjoys the place.

Magnet Boy















The high point of the trip for Riley was riding the escalator with Daddy. We went up and down over and over... I had taken some very funny video of this, but unfortunately no longer have my camera. Last seen in the nursing room where we met up with Mama and Kendall just before leaving it was already gone five minutes later when I came back for it. I can only hope someone returns it.

Oddly, the place closed down at 5 PM on Saturday (!) something we did not know. We left without getting our fill of the place.

Next was a visit to see our friends the Reinbolds who live not far from the museum. We had a good (if short) visit, but at this point the kids were showing signs of cracking. Riley appears very comfy in this shot though:

He loves sitting in boxes. This is a toy box.















After stopping for gas on the way home things fell apart. Kendall started crying because she was hungry and Riley (our easy going, do anything boy) went into a total, over the top meltdown. He finally calmed with a promise of some food and a liberal quantity of Winnie-the Pooh. Everyone got in bed earlier than usual.

The next day found us still exhausted. When just getting ready for church seemed like too much of a trial we decided to scale back plans for the day and just come home after church, as much as it pained us to miss our friend Sam's wedding ceremony. It seemed better than having two screaming kids in the sanctuary as they said vows though...

So we had a rest day and prepared for our Memorial Day trip to Newcastle, NH to meet up with Shelby's cousins.

Great Island Common, Newcastle NH - Great place!















Feeling much more rested the day was a treat. The weather was cool and sunny, and the park was well appointed (especially for kids) and a pretty place. A perfect day and place for a picnic.

We've talked before about how much Riley enjoys his cousin Erica. The feeling is quite mutual and despite the fact that Riley is three and Erica twelve they have the greatest time playing together. Some pictures:

Heavy equipment















Sand, action shot















Jumping, action shot















Burying Erica's legs















Burying another kid (the kid asked him to.)
















Erica pushes Riley on the swing, Riley pretends to sleep















Riley LOVES Erica















Kendall enjoyed the picnic too















Here's a nice shot of Kendall wide awake!















Erica, Riley and Shelby on the jetty















Riley just had to climb (well, be placed in) this tree















It was a fun day. And since it was at a point equidistant between the cousins and us, we'll definitely be back. It was also a day that ended much earlier than Saturday...I think we've probably learned that lesson. This summer will likely be a bit less active than the last two have been. Babies change that quite a bit. Kendall does pretty well with the active lifestyle though.

I think it will still be a very full summer.


Jonathan

preschool...and the bus

With Riley's third birthday came a switch from daycare to preschool. His full schedule of preschool won't start until Shelby heads back to work in June but morning preschool in the town school system, where he'll be getting speech lessons now, began Monday.

We're excited that Riley will be getting more therapy than he was getting before. And it's great that he is going to have a lot more interaction with other kids. (That's already paying off in other ways...but that's a topic for another blog.) The most challenging part of the whole thing is that he goes to preschool on a BUS! Well, it was challenging for us as parents, but not for our boy.

Waiting for the bus















Riley has for some reason always loved buses and especially school buses. (Here's an example.) So it's no big surprise that he had absolutely no problem with getting on a school bus all alone to go off to school. What a big adventure! Here are pictures and the video of him getting on the bus:

Here comes the bus!















Getting on the bus

On the bus















Funny, at first he kind of looks at us as if saying, "Aren't you coming too?" Then he's perfectly fine and ready to go by himself. Our big boy! He was quite happy. Mom and Dad were all weepy.

The house was way too quiet with him gone. It just seemed wrong. I mean, he's THREE.

So I got ready for work and did a basement bike ride. Shelby went out for a run. She cut it a little close to when Riley was getting back though, and had to kick it into high gear to get home in time. She cut a minute a mile off her previous best since her return to running after Kendall's arrival. Runners will know what a big deal that is, but for those who don't it is a huge difference. The motivation of a loving mom is an amazing thing.

So Riley got back home. I think that he missed the bus more than us after it left. Hah! Here's a picture and the video of his triumphant return:

I'm home!















Getting off the bus

Over the first week of preschool Riley has brought home various art projects, has had to do his first show and tell and has had his first speech lessons. He looks forward to school (and the bus) each day. He looks like such a big boy with his backpack on. We're very proud of how he's handled himself. He's such a good boy.

There are a lot of milestones in parenthood. Going off to school rates up there amongst the biggest. It's tough enough when your kid is five, but at three it's nerve racking. We've been blessed with a boy who not only took it in stride, but loved it. That certainly makes sending him off each morning much easier.

But not easy.

Way to go Riley Boy!


Jonathan

three

When you get a chance to sit down and look at where you suddenly are in life it can be absolutely stunning. That's the feeling I get when I stop and look at the fact that I've now got a three year old son. After years of being single I look at how things are now and think, "How did that happen?"

Such is the way time flows when you are busy and as a whole, quite happy.

Riley turned three on Sunday, but we actually celebrated his birthday in stages for three days (appropriate...) with the biggest celebration happening on Saturday with his party.

Stage one started things off on Friday. We needed cupcakes for the party on Saturday, and Riley had a big part in making them:

Putting the cups in the pan















Chef Riley does the mixing















Stage two was on Saturday. This was really the big celebration day, since we were having his party in the afternoon.

The day started with Riley and Mama having a cupcake breakfast. (This also led to Riley wanting cupcakes f0r every meal for the next two days.)

Cupcakes for breakfast...















After breakfast it was time for Riley to play with his first gift, the Fisher-Price Playhouse. This is a vintage toy that Shelby remembers playing with (and loving) as a child. With Riley's all encompassing love of houses it was bound to be a hit. All the work it took for Shelby to put the thing together (via eBay) was worth it. He LOVES it:


Riley's Playhouse















He loves it!















After some play time Daddy got up and it was time for a regular breakfast. Banana strawberry pancakes:

He had two















After breakfast there was time for some activities:

Reading Mother Goose with Mama















A little birthday Blue's Clues















Next it was party time! We had his party at the Burlington Mall Playground, a place that the kids love that is in the food court. So we could put some tables together and get some pizzas from Pizzeria Regina for the celebration (Riley, after at first being unsure if he wanted it, LOVED the pizza.)

Riley was really funny, once we got the table set up with balloons and the cupcakes and presents were out he didn't want to leave to play in the playground. He just sat at the table...as though he was going to miss something if he left. I suppose he didn't entirely understand that the whole thing was for him. Here's a video of the party:

Riley's Third Birthday Party

The celebration continued with stage three on Sunday, although a lot lower key. The day did start off with another gift, the Fisher-Price Barn. Another of Shelby's faves as a kid, and it was a big hit with our boy. After breakfast we took it out to the living room where for at least five minutes I heard him say, "Barn...barn...barn...barn..." He finally stopped when he saw me bring out the camera to video him.

Riley loves the Barn (...barn...barn...barn..)














After church we went to the playground nearby to spend some time with friends who had their baby girl baptized. Riley, of course, has never met a playground he hasn't liked:

In the window















He loves ANY slide















Comfy spot















In case you didn't know, he's three...















Kendall napped















After starting home we realized we were far to exhausted from the weekend to head out to our community group, so we went home for good. The rest of the day was LOWER key:

We tested out the Bubble Blasting Plane















Bubble Blasting Plane video

Riley got his introduction to Winnie The Pooh















The final cupcakes were eaten...upside down















It was a great weekend and a wonderful way to celebrate our boy. Being three is going to bring all kinds of changes. More on that in future blogs though. For now we just want to say how much we love this boy that God has blessed us with. He has been and continues to be a great joy to us, even with the challenges that being three brings. He is on a whole a sweet, loving boy who makes us proud to be his parents. Happy Birthday Riley-Boy!


Jonathan

miss irma

For the last year and a half Riley has been getting speech therapy from Early Intervention. For the entire time he's been working with a woman named Irma.

Speech therapy it has been, but it's been playtime for our boy and he has always looked forward to it. It's been easy to tell that Irma has enjoyed working with Riley as well.

Irma hard at work














Riley and Miss Irma














Riley has made great strides in the past year and a half. He has gone from having only a handful of mostly single syllable words that he would use to saying multi-syllable words and combinations of words. It's actually starting to feel like we are having two way conversations with our son rather than just talking to him.

Much of this progress is due to the work that he has done with, "Miss Irma." Irma has been absolutely wonderful with Riley, doing her job with patience as well as competence. She's also developed a bond with our son, so it's sad to see this phase of his therapy coming to an end.

With his third birthday comes a switch over to services provided by the town which he'll get while attending a morning preschool. Monday brings that big change, but for now I just want to express gratitude for what we've had. Thanks Irma for teaching our boy, and for loving him. You have a gift for what you do that we really appreciate. You'll be missed!

Jonathan

randomness

Now that life is full of the stuff of newborns, I find pics that I meant to put up here that are weeks old. Better late than never, right? Here goes...

I first put Kendall in the Bumbo seat when she was around 6 weeks old. She looked so cute in it and did a pretty good job of not collapsing sideways with that jelly spine of hers:












After a couple of minutes she was done, so Riley (who is now interested in all of her things) sat himself in it. Man, did he look big!












Around that same time, I got serious about getting back into my old clothes as I'm currently in-between wardrobes. I'm totally into salads now, at least if they have the avocados, hard-boiled eggs, almonds, feta & fruit on top. Here Kendall supervises the building of the salad-to-salivate for:











As Riley will start with the SpEd preschool next Monday, we've been talking up going to school. He was pretty excited about getting a backpack and struts around in it, proud as a peacock. Since there is bus service, we've signed up for it and he seems to look forward to riding it. I hope that when he realizes that he's riding without us that he will still enjoy it.

I still haven't processed the fact that my baby boy is now jumping on a bus and going to school. This "letting go" seems harder than leaving him with a daycare provider. How someone parents a child without the knowledge that a sovereign, loving God is caring for them is beyond me. It's scary enough knowing that God loves my son more than I do and nothing will happen that He hasn't ordained. Nothing has shown me how little control I actually have than having a child. Downright terrifying at times, until I beat the truth back into my brain.

My nearly 3 yr old preschooler...Doesn't he look like a big boy?!

















Well, we have lots happening in the next few days, so you may just get a few timely blogs as Riley finishes up with E.I., celebrates his 3rd birthday and starts preschool. Stay tuned!

Shelby

unbreakable sippy cups

Due to Riley's oral hyposentivity (he requires extra stimulation), we have gone through 6-10 sippy cups, trying to find the one with a straw that he can't bite through. Since he drinks a lot of water throughout the day, he needed something spillproof that he could carry around. I finally resorted to buying a little juicebox size tupperware container with a hard-plastic straw. He eventually bit through that one as the plastic wasn't that thick.

Well, lo and behold I was at Babies R Us, shopping for a couple of things for Kendall and found that they were stocking two new sippy cups that looked like they could withstand the oral abuse that my son would give them:

The first is the Thermos Foogo Phases Sippy Cup:



















The other is the Tommee Tippee Explora Drinking Cup, which we use for his yogurt milk:


















After more than two months of use, both cups are still in great shape. So if you or someone you know has a kid who bites through straws, we highly recommend these sippy cups.

Shelby

kendall is two months old!

Our baby girl is two months old today. It's hard to believe she's been with us for that long already -- the time is going by so fast. She is now 10 lbs, 3 oz and continues to nurse approximately every 3 hours during the day. At night, she goes to bed around 7:30p and wakes up around 5:30a with a dream feed from daddy at 11p.

She's still not a voracious eater, but since she seems content, continues to gain weight and have regular eliminations, we're not concerned at the point. We'll see what the doc has to say when both kids get their checkups next week.














We're grateful that she's a good night sleeper, though it should be said that most times we lay her down she fusses for 5-15 min before settling down to sleep. We continue to swaddle her and offer her the binky if she's interested in sucking. I'm hoping that she continues to wake between 5:30 and 6a each morning, as that's when I will be feeding her prior to going back to work on June 21st.

She naps very well in the mornings, so well in fact that it's like a continuation of her night sleep. Once I feed her in the morning, she pretty much goes back down and doesn't wake up for at least a couple of hours. Her afternoon naps are more like catnaps, though if I'm not running errands, she does sleep a bit better.

Check out the red eyebrows...she's got light reddish-brown hair, we think from her G'pa Berg:














She prefers motion when in her car seat. She cries when we put her in it, but once we rock it or pick it up to carry her out to the car, she is quiet. It's funny also that when the car's in motion she's quiet, but woe to us if we come to a stop for any reason and she's still not asleep -- she starts hollering until the car's in motion again. Fortunately, once we get on the highway, she usually falls asleep so we don't have that kind of "alarm" going off the entire car ride.

She's started enjoying her swing more:














Some of the developmental things we're beginning to see:

1) She smiles. This is most often seen just after a feeding, but I've also seen them when she's just gotten up from a nap and I have her on the changing table.














2) She's now tracking me across the room as I'm walking around, which makes me feel special.

3) She will put her fist in her mouth and suck on it. It appears deliberate rather than just a random act of driving it into her mouth. This usually happens just after I've fed her and she's having her 15-30 min of contentedness before she becomes tired.














4) We also see her trying to grasp at her toys. She still pretty much bats at them, but can hold a toy for a minute or so when it's placed in her hand.

5) Like Riley, she doesn't like tummy time, but her neck strength seems good as she loves to be held looking over my shoulder. She straightens her legs out and stands straight up to get a good look around. This has made using the Ergo baby carrier more challenging as she doesn't want to keep her legs in a froggy position -- she tries to stand up and her feet appear under the waist band. I've started putting her in the bumbo seat for a few minutes at a time and she does very well as keeping her back straight and not falling over to the side.














I love how it looks like they're chattering away, in their own little world:














We'll close with some misc snaps of our girl hanging with the family:

Riley loves to join her on the activity mat:














Daddy's girl:














Riley loves his baby sister:














Not surprisingly, Kendall is more vocal than her brother was, but it's nice to see her enjoy her playtime more and get interested in the world around her. So far, she's not the malcontent that we feared we may get, after having such a easygoing baby in Riley. We look forward to seeing her personality emerge and see the ways in which she is different from her brother.

Two months have gone by pretty fast. Having two little ones around the house definitely is more of a challenge. Even so we love having our baby girl. Happy two months Kendall!














Shelby