Helping With Yardwork

It's been a rough week for Ryan and Abigail. We have been working 10- and 12-hour days all week, and they have felt a bit neglected, I think. Whether it's feeling neglected or our usual routine being disprupted or all the quickie food we've been eating, I don't know, but they have been at each other's throats and acting up a bit. Ryan did have some fun sitting in the Bobcat and watching Daddy drive it around, and he also helped me a bit rolling out the sod. They both had fun washing all their outside toys on Thursday when it was pretty hot outside, but I think they're glad the majority of the yardwork is over!

Mother's Day Weekend

Ryan loves "special" days, and Mother's Day is no exception. We had a fun day celebrating early on Friday, and then we got to work in the yard the next two days. We put Ryan to work collecting rocks and fircones, and he did it for a while. But most of the time he spent playing, digging in the dirt, climbing and sliding on the play structure and pestering his sister. He was terrified of the weed burner that we had rented, but he calmed down a bit as the weekend progressed.

Why There's Been No New Posts Lately

I have been having a very hard time getting pictures uploaded and posts written on my blogs. I simply don't have the time available that I used to have since we began doing "Abby's school." However, today I have a "free" day, so I am going to publish quite a few posts. Some of these posts are pretty old, but since I use this as an online scrapbook of sorts for each of the kids, I am going to post them anyway. We have had an extraordinarily busy month, and we took lots of pictures!

Our New Play Structure

Ryan helping install the deck.

We have been dreaming of getting the kids a play structure for years, but our former house did not have room for even a swing set. So when we bought our new home, we knew this was one of the first major "improvements" that we wanted to make. Costco has a different play structure made for them each year by Rainbow Play Systems, and after much shopping and comparing, we concluded that it was truly the best value for the type and size structure we wanted.


About step 11 of 24 steps!

Each time we shopped at Costco, we would look at the structure, and one time Ryan wanted to know how the swings were going to fit in our van. He thought it came fully assembled! Wouldn't that be nice?


Being a good helper.

Last fall we laid down the weed block and spread the cedar chips so our play area was ready for the structure. My dad graciously agreed to fly up and help us assemble it, so Ryan and Abby were even more excited about the weekend than they normally would have been.



End of day one.

Ryan desperately wanted to help, so he was put to work putting washers on bolts and putting screws in holes, and even installing some of the screws himself. Even so, he was very impatient for it to be ready to play on. We spent about 12 hours putting it together on Saturday and less than two hours Sunday morning, and overall it was easier than we anticipated, thankfully. Best of all, it didn't rain all weekend!



We need to get another unit of cedar chips to expand the play area a bit, but other than that, it's done. We all love it, and I'm very pleased with how it looks in our backyard!

What's Up With Ryan?

I can't believe it's been three weeks since I posted on Ryan's blog. Poor boy, I'm sure he's feeling lost in the shuffle a bit lately. He's been doing pretty well, but I can tell the stress of everything with Abby and having so much attention focused on her daily (be it negative or positive) is affecting him a bit. He's acting out a little and even had a few wetting accidents. I've been trying to give him some extra attention and do some things he likes (like playing Blokus with him), and hopefully he will feel more secure again soon.


He had a great time in Modesto with Gramie. He got to spend four hours alone with her while we took Abby to her evaluation, and he had a blast. He was well behaved in the van during our LONG ride to and from, and he thoroughly enjoyed our new DVD players for the van! Our ride home took 14 hours, so we didn't get home until almost 11:30pm. Much to my surprise, Ryan didn't fall asleep until we reached Scappoose, which is about 10 minutes from home! He was one tired little boy the next day...we all were.


Having fun on a ride at the mall in Modesto.

Close Up

I thought this was a good close-up picture showing his new glasses, and I even managed to get it without a glare. I can't believe he's five...or a "whole hand" as he's been saying!

New Glasses

Ryan got his new glasses this week! After two years of wearing his old frames, he finally outgrew them. His new ones are fairly similar to his old ones, but a little more grown-up looking. Best of all the lenses are fresh and new, no scratches and dings.

Pirate!

Ryan got one of his favorite books, How I Became a Pirate, and a pirate costume for Christmas from out-of-state family. He was too preoccupied by all his building things to want to put his costume on the first couple of days, but today as Abby was dressing up, he put his costume on too. There's just something so cute seeing kids dressed up!

I suggested that while they were playing, Ryan the Pirate could rescue Princess Belle from some danger, but he said all pirates are bad so he couldn't do that. Ha!

Sharing

Ryan and Abby were coloring today for a while, and I heard them talking about Tonka trucks. I went over to investigate, and Abby was upset because she didn't have a Tonka coloring book, so Ryan offered to share his. So side by side they colored several pictures.

Feeding the Birds

Well, our bird friends apparently only feed off the ground and have been completely ignoring our wonderful pine cone feeders we made for them. So I took them off the tree, put one on a fence post and one on the ground in hopes that the birds would eat them there, and I was pleased to see them eating from them not long afterward. I hadn't told the kids I had done it, and when Ryan saw them on the ground, he came running to me all upset that someone had ruined our pine cone feeders! Fortunately, he was consoled when I explained that I was the culprit and why I had done it.

Santa Hat

I was snapping pictures of the kids in their Santa hats (although we don't do Santa around our house), and this was a cute one of Ryan, so I thought I'd share it. It's a rare picture of him without a glare on his glasses!

Gingerbread

To say that Ryan is a picky eater is an understatement. Though he has some grown-up tastes (salmon, steak, green olives, for example), he will fuss over eating the most simple of things sometimes (cookie dough, cheese, watermelon, raisins, etc.). So when I baked a batch of gingerbread this evening, I expected him to resist even taking a bite. But when he saw that it looked like chocolate cake, he tried it and to my utter shock...loved it! He even had two pieces. He never ceases to surprise me.


He was upset when I took the picture over some infraction of his sister's, so that's why the big tears on his cheeks.

Snow!

Since we live at less than 100 feet above sea level, I was very surprised to see snow falling yesterday. It was too warm for it to stick, but it was beautiful to watch falling. Ryan and Abby were very excited too, and while Abby was napping, I let Ryan go outside to enjoy it for a few minutes. He tried catching some in his mouth, but finally just licked it off his sleeve...yuck! When we woke up today there was some snow on the ground that had fallen in the night, and the foothills were gorgeous. I had to laugh when our neighbor called to invite us over for a playdate because her daughter's morning Kindergarten had been canceled due to snow and ice. I don't think people around here are used to this!

Cars watching Cars

I don't know what happened to Flo and Sally
...maybe they were out for a cruise together!

Daddy got the Cars DVD for his birthday, and I honestly can't remember the last time I saw Ryan so excited as when he saw what Daddy got! We sat down to watch it as a family, and Ryan lined up all his Cars McDonald Happy Meal toys in a row so they could watch too, which cracked me up. After they went to bed, I just had to snap a picture of his friends all lined up on the couch.

Cookie Dough Kid

We made cookies recently, and Ryan excitedly told me he wanted to lick the spatula! I knew once he tried it he'd love it. Poor Abby was very dismayed though...up till now she's been able to lick the beater and the spatula!