August Activities and Well Checks

August seems so long ago now, but it was fun to review some of the activities we did. Basically we played as much as we could because that is what kids do best. :) Also, Ethan and Lydia had their respective well-checks so I'll give that report as well.

Ethan   4 years
Weight: 43 lbs     90 %tile
Height: 41 1/4 in   75%tile

Ethan is really maturing in many ways. He asks more and more questions and does a lot  more explaining and coming up with his own reasoning for why things happen. He really likes books, he still likes his cars and trucks. He enjoys playing in the sand and on the playground and likes to jump on big trampolines. He doesn't quickly adapt to change, so this whole preschool thing has been a little hard on him. I think when he feels like things are changing he tries to hold on to being little and insists I help him with little things that he can totally do on his own. It's hard to know how to respond when is having a hard time growing up, but it is also fun to see him be able to do new things and grow and mature.

Lydia 18 Months
Weight: 22 lbs   45%tile
Height: 31 in    25%tile
Head: 18 1/4 in    50%tile

At 18 months Lydia is very playful! She catches on to the games Ethan and Jason play and joins right in, whether that is tackling, chasing, tickling, growling, or wrestling. She loves to climb and is a much faster and adept climber than Ethan was at that age. She likes to be silly and gives you funny faces just to make you laugh. She says "hi" and waves, blows a kiss, claps her hands, says "uh-oh", and many other adorable little things. She likes the water and is pretty fearless is wading through deep waters. She has been surprised more than once when her daring adventures take a turn for the worse, but she also quickly recovers and wants to get back to playing some more. She interacts and plays more and more with Ethan....and sometimes to his dismay when she runs away with something he wants just so he will chase her. She also started nursery. Sometimes she could care less if you're there or not, but other days she is more clingy and wants you to hang around a bit more. Lydia is still allergic to eggs and is sensitive to dairy so she continues to drink almond milk and we avoid the milk products. She also wants to feed herself a lot more, so everything is a mess after she eats her oatmeal and applesauce! She sleeps so much better than she did her first year and for that I'm very grateful. She loves to be outside, she likes to try putting on her shoes and everyone else's shoes and she's interested in dogs, airplanes, animals, and books. 

This is one of her "looks." If you do it back to her she just smiles and laughs and does it again.

We visited the Florence Aquatic Center and Lydia loved wading out in the water and half floating in the puddle jumper.

Ethan loved going down the slides

This slide is surrounds by a HUGE area of water that is only 2 ft deep to it's great for Lydia to walk around in.

I love seeing these too have fun together!

We went to a Tough-a-Truck event at a local park with some friends Gavin and Calvin and had a great time--minus the loud horn honking from the kids.:)

We also visited this wet playground in Ohio with some friends and really enjoyed it too! We definitely want to come back!

I love Ethan's facial expressions going down this slide!

One Tuesday night at basketball Jason had a run in with another player and got an elbow to the mouth. He got a big gash between his lip and his nose and almost went to the emergency room that night as it looked like it needed stitches. It was really an inconvenient time for it to happen since Jason didn't have a car there and therefore didn't take his wallet and his phone was about to die. Fortunately his friend Kent Huxel was there and helped him out quite a bit. Ultimately we decided to wait until the morning and go to the instacare. I put a butterfly bandage to keep it closed over night and in the morning the doctor decided that it was healing well enough on it's own that he didn't want to stitch it closed. After three weeks and a great beard, he finally shaved again and we were grateful to find very minimal scaring.

This was taken an hour or so after he got the gash above his lip.

Ethan earned a toy helicopter by getting himself ready for the day and for bed all by himself for several nights in a row.

A fun perspective of Lydia playing on the slide.

Yay for bubbles! This was a day of no cars in the garage since Jason's was in the shop and he took mine to work that day.

We had Jordan visit us for a day so his parents could pack and clean their house. He is just two weeks younger than Lydia.

And of course Ethan wanted a picture if Lydia was having one.

Lydia playing in the plane at the Florence Mall

A fun activity this month was putting cars down this really long cardboard pipe.

It's fun to see these two become friends

Peanut Butter mess!

Lydia was napping, but Ethan and I went outside and watched the Solar Eclipse. That was a pretty cool experience and hopefully next time I can see a total solar eclipse which I heard was really amazing.

Here is a picture of Ethan walking the trails near our house. We tried to be brave, especially after we walked through some big spider webs and I just wanted to turn around and go home. :)

Another Lego creation. He spends about an hour a day building different things. Recently he built a whole family of robots that was fun.

Two cute kids, lying on the couch. :) You can be sure this lasted only a matter of seconds.

Lydia 18 months

Picture of the beard coming along

Our little climber doing whatever she sees Ethan do, even though we tell him not to

Ethan's 4th Birthday and the rest of July

I have to start with Ethan's 4th Birthday. We had a birthday party for him the day after his birthday and it went pretty well. It was his and our first friend party and so it was a little stressful, but everything worked out...as it always does. We had a construction themed party. We built vehicles with Legos, had an obstacle course race with a power wheel dump truck, ate chocolate cupcakes, made fruit loop necklaces, opened presents, and played with toys. It was pretty low key for the most part. Lydia slept through the whole thing and our guests were very well behaved. :) Home Depot also donated aprons and toolbox kits to send home with the kids. We had Andrew, GV, Haven, Saylor, and Claire...a great group of children.

Happy Birthday to Ethan!

Party Invite

 On Ethan's actual birthday we went to the Children's Museum and played for several hours. Ethan hadn't been for a long time and really loved it!

Playing in the water area. Both kids loved it!

 After playing at the museum we stopped by and said hi to Dad at work.

Dad's cubicle space at Burke

 After dinner we had cupcakes and opened family presents.

Ethan looked forward to opening presents all day!

 He got a new bike with helmet and training wheels from Mom and Dad. It will probably take awhile to learn how to balance though.

Ethan's new bike and of course he wanted to ride it around the basement a few times

 Now jumping back to the rest of July. It took us several weeks to recover from our incredibly fun yet exhausting trip to Utah. The kids weren't quite themselves and went through some separation anxiety. A month later, we've finally got most of those kinks worked out. One toy that Ethan has had a renewed love for since vacation is building with Legos. He has gotten really creative and spends time every day building new creations. When's he's done, we always put them on the mantel so that Lydia doesn't break them before Daddy gets home to see them.

Just one of his many creations

Ice cream and a show....a perfect combination

 On a rare great weather day in July, we all took Dad to the Zoo with us. We loved watching the bird show and we even got a couple of ice cream cones as an extra treat.

The next picture also shows flowers Jason gave me for our 9th anniversary. We went out on a date that weekend to a games place for a Burke family night. We had a taco dinner and played laser tag, rode go-karts, played mini-golf, and a few other arcade type games. It was a fun night!

Ethan also got into a puzzle kick when we bought several of them at a community yard sale. He actually did all the puzzles on the box that day.

Another yard sale find was this dump truck power wheel. It didn't cost much, but apparently we paid for way too many spiders that came with it. Ewwww!

Just wanted to capture this cute Sunday outfit handed down to us by our neighbors.

Ethan and Lydia love being outside and love eating lunch outside when I let them.

We had a fun day playing in the sand at South Fork park. It was also the first time I put Lydia's hair in pigtails.

Swimming kiddie pool part of our community pool. Ethan loves to be in the big pool now too with his Puddle Jumper.

Livin' the life sunbathing and sipping her applesauce! :)

A proud Ethan with more Lego creations

Ethan at a friend's swimming birthday party

They are super cute riding together

This picture also reminded me that we just got new neighbors next door. They seem like a really nice couple and they have a 5 year old daughter named Karli. Karli is very friendly and gets along well with Ethan and Lydia.

Picture of Lydia in our front yard

Ethan 4 years old at the Children's Garden

Exploring the daisies

These two are so cute together and playing together more and more.