Trip to Bullwinkle's

We told Ryan that when he finished his reading book we would take him someplace special, so today we made good on that promise. We took him to a local place called Bullwinkle's Family Fun Center. We couldn't convince him to ride on the bumper boats or the race cars, but they have a huge play structure that parents are allowed to climb on with the kids (can you say claustrophobia?!), so of course he and Abby had a blast climbing on that!

Ryan also played miniature golf for the first time. He LOVED it, and he was surprisingly good at holding the club. He especially liked the holes where the ball disappears and comes out through a tunnel on another fairway! A nice bonus was that we had free coupons he earned from the library's summer reading program, and the weather was perfect. We had a wonderful family day.

Finished!

I can hardly believe it, but yesterday Ryan finished his reading lesson book, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons! Now he's reading early readers and doing a great job! He especially likes one we got from the library called Joshua James Likes Trucks by Catherine Petrie. He's read it to me four times already today!

More Friends

This is the face I get when I ask him to smile!

We met our new friends Dawn and Anneka at OMSI this morning. We met them at the top of Multnomah Falls earlier this month. Anneka and Ryan seemed to take an instant liking to each other, and I thought it would be fun to get together with them again. The kids seemed to have a great time, and I got to make a new friend too! An added bonus was that Ryan left with a fabulous attitude, a major victory these last few days!

Friends

Ryan got to spend some time with his friend Jake today. Last summer I watched Jake when his Mommy went back to work, and they got to play together a lot. During this visit, they played cars, vacuummed, vied for the favorite toy (really cool Tonka garbage truck), and generally made a mess of Jake's room. We all took a quick trip to the Farmer's Market afterward. Ever since, Ryan has been saying, "Maybe Jakey can come to our house today." I think they really miss each other, and we need to get them together more often.

No Surgery Date Yet

Ryan had another visit with his opthalmologist this morning. We were expecting to get a date for his surgery, but she ended up putting it off again. On examination today his eyes were crossing significantly less at distance than they were last visit (though crossing at close up was unchanged and is fairly dramatic). She wants us to come back in two weeks to make sure it wasn't a fluke. If his crossing at distance is still improved then she wants to try bifocals on him. Oh joy! If it was a fluke, then she will schedule surgery at that time.

The doctor said that perhaps as his vision has improved (it's almost 20/20 now) he has learned how to compensate somewhat, so maybe bifocals will correct his distance crossing. I am happy that there's the potential to avoid surgery, but it is still highly probable he will end up needing surgery anyway, so the waiting continues.

Hiding

The kids were sitting on the couch watching a DVD yesterday. I left the room for less than two minutes, and when I came back they were sitting on the couch with the pillows in front of them (sunglasses and all). When I inquired what they were doing, they said they were hiding, of course! It looked so cute, I had to snap a picture.

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Joy to My Heart!

We like to listen to music while we're driving, and both Ryan and Abby LOVE this Fisher Price CD we have that has a song for every letter of the alphabet sung by the "Little People." Mommy gets quite tired of it though, and a month or so ago I insisted we listen to something that I wanted to listen to. I put on a Keith Green CD. When we got to the song "Create in Me a Clean Heart," I told them to listen to this "great" song. It's the words to Psalm 51, and it's a favorite of mine.

A couple weeks ago Ryan began asking me to put the Keith Green CD in saying he wanted to listen to that "great" song. I thought that was cute, and I complied. Then yesterday we were at the library, and I heard him sweetly singing something. I leaned over to remind him to be quiet in the library when I realized he was singing that song and he knew all the words! It gave my "Mommy heart" so much joy to hear my little boy singing scripture and really enjoying it!

Making Progress

Ryan has managed to stay dry for two full weeks! We put away the pullups after his first week of staying dry at night, and he stayed dry for another full week wearing his undies. Unfortunately, Monday night he had another accident (of course I just changed the sheets Monday!), and he was feeling discouraged. I told him to just keep trying, and he was dry again this morning. Hopefully his little body will adjust completely soon. He has a tendency to give up on things like this pretty easily, so I'm tyring to keep his discouragement at bay.

Shall We Dance?

Ryan made a new friend immediately upon our arrival at the top of Multnomah Falls. Her name is Anneka, and she is only one month younger than Ryan. They hit it off, and even began dancing. It was adorable to watch!

Hiking the Falls

Today we wanted to get out of the house and try to keep cool, so we decided to go to the Columbia Gorge and try hiking to the top of Multnomah Falls. We didn't know how far the kids would be able to go since the hike is one mile long and climbs over 600 feet in that distance. It was a pretty steep climb, and it took us over an hour, but the kids did great! They hiked the entire distance themselves without being carried, and when we got to the top they even had energy to jump and run around some more. Ryan even made a new friend named Anneka. Everyone on the trail (including us) was very impressed with our little hikers!

We worked on teaching the kids some basic hiking safety and etiquette (something we saw was sorely lacking in many of the kids on the trail today), and we saw some gorgeous scenery and breathtaking views of the Columbia Gorge. We love living in this beautiful place God created!

Tractor Ride

We went to the zoo again today, which isn't one of Ryan's most favorite activities. He tolerates it, but he's no zoo lover, that's for sure. This big John Deere tractor is one of his three favorite things at the zoo (the other two being the jungle jeep and the train). Because it was 100 degrees today there were very few people around, so he had the tractor all to himself. Unprecedented!

Dry at Last!

Although Ryan has been potty trained since October of last year, he hasn't been able to stay dry at night. This last month we bought a Little People Garage at a yard sale and told him if he could stay dry for seven nights in a row, he could have it. I took it outside on the lawn and he helped me wash it up, which really whet his desire for it!

I thought the incentive would help, but he still really struggled to make it a whole week. Once he even made it six days, but he slept so hard the seventh night, he didn't make it. It was a heartbreaker for all of us! He was so disappointed.

Well, last night he finally did it! He got his garage this morning, and he is so proud of himself. Mommy and Daddy are so proud too! Tonight we switch from pullups to undies and say a little prayer.

Rough Day at the Fair

Our local county fair was this weekend, so despite being kind of tired from the races on Saturday, we went ahead and took the kids to the fair today (hey, it was free this year!). Ryan had no interest in the animals, with the possible exception of a newborn calf. In fact, he said he was afraid of them. He all but went berserk when we went into the poultry exhibit! When we saw the llamas and asked him if he knew what it was he said, "It's a cow." That's our city boy!

He really wanted to ride the kiddie roller coaster called the Tiger Ride, but after one lap he was screaming and clawing Mommy. So I had them stop the ride on the next lap, and we got off and watched Abby and Daddy enjoy it. They gave us a voucher to use on any other ride, so he chose the giant slide. I'm still not sure if he really enjoyed it. First he said he did but then he said he didn't want to do it again.

The things he seemed to think were pretty neat were the Monster Trucks and the tractors they had on display. All in all, I don't think Ryan enjoyed the fair very much (though he cried all the way to the car because he said he didn't want to leave!).

Me and Daddy

Ryan is definitely a Daddy's boy. He adores his Daddy. If Daddy is home, that's where Ryan wants to be, that's who's hand he wants to hold, and that's who he wants to tuck him in!

Portland Grand Prix

Daddy is always winning something from our local radio stations, and this week he won weekend passes to the Portland Raceway to see the Le Mans Grand Prix! Ryan was very excited to see the races. It was incredibly hot (track temp of 112 degrees!), and pretty loud too. He especially enjoyed the paddock area (Ed won passes to that too) because he got to get up close to the cars and even touch them and sit in some. The racing staff were really great to the kids and several offered to let the kids sit in the race cars. Ryan wasn't quite brave enough the first time he was offered, but after seeing his little sister sit in it and survive and enjoy it, he sat in the next one!

Strangely enough, when asked what his favorite thing of the day was he said it was the military vechicles. There was a National Guard unit there with several Humvees and trucks on display, and Ryan was enamored with the medic truck especially.

"Ryan's Day"

Every year we celebrate the day we finalized Ryan's adoption and he legally became a Garner. July 12th is the official date, and we call it "Ryan's Day." We try to make it a special day just for him alone with Mommy and Daddy. This year we took Ryan to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) to celebrate. Ryan had a blast! There is so much to see and do that there is no possible way to do it in one visit. His favorite activity was the crane. It's a full scale model of a crane that you can work to pick up cargo and move it to a barge or a ship. We also watched a magic show, and Mommy got recruited to go up on stage. Ryan thought that was pretty funny to see Mommy up in front of everyone with the magician (so did Daddy!).

Ryan doesn't know it yet, but Gramie sent Ryan a gift so we can add it to the admission price we paid and get the annual membership for OMSI. Now we can go back and see and do everything at a slower pace and really get to enjoy all the museum has to do. Maybe we'll go this week as a matter of fact!

Mt. St. Helens

We went to Mt. St. Helens on Friday after Ryan's eye doctor visit, and Ryan had a fun time. In addition to learning about volcanoes, we had a fun drive in the van, got to watch a movie about the volcano, and he got to play in a really cool playground at one of the exhibit centers there. In addition to a fantastic play structure, it had a replica of Mt. St. Helens with slides coming out of it and a really neat gravel pit with backhoes to play with.

More Patching

Ryan had another appointment with the ophthalmol- ogist Friday. His eyesight (with his glasses on) is almost 20/20! We are to modify his patching to just one hour per day of close-up work and two hours just doing whatever he wants. So he actually has to wear it longer, but he doesn't have to sit still for so long. This makes Mommy and Ryan happy! We go back again in four weeks, and if he's seeing the same or better, then we will schedule surgery. So in all likelihood, he will have the surgery in September sometime.

The doctor told me something that surprised me. I commented that he seems to be crossing quite frequently with his right eye now and not just his left. She said, "That's good!" Huh? She said it means that he's seeing equally well out of both eyes and his brain isn't showing a preference for just one eye. She was very happy to hear that and said it makes his prognosis good and less complicated.

I Can Read

One of the neatest outcomes of Ryan's patching time is that he's learned to read. We have had to spend two hours a day doing close-up work, which for a three-year-old means I need to sit with him quite a bit of the time. I decided to put the time to good use, so I checked out a book from the library and started teaching him to read. He's known his alphabet since he was 20 months old, and he's known the phonetic sounds of the alphabet since before he turned two. But I haven't really worked with him beyond that.

He's been asking about words lately and wanting to put the sounds together, but nothing I was doing was clicking with him. We began "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" at the beginning of June, and he is already on lesson 70 and actually reading! I am amazed at how quickly he picked it up, and it's been such a joy to teach him to read. The experience has really renewed my resolve to homeschool our children, which had started to waver as the time to begin has gotten closer.