Checklists

The Bryant's cooked some chili and hot dogs last Friday. 

 

The boys enjoyed snacking on the dips.

Rhodes and Emerson just along for the ride.

Todd and Levi.  Funny how things like this just attract little boys.

My ANGELS!
Oh. My. Gosh. I love these faces.

Sunday we had lunch to celebrate my dad's (Papa) 60th birthday!  Of course he had Ryder some preschool workbooks and the kindergarten teacher in Kayla came out, so they worked on those before we ate.

He's obsessed with school work, I'm serious.

 

Gotta get a family shot where you can... good or bad, I'll take it.

Haaaaaappy birthday Papa!

He loves those grandsons.

And those daughters, too.

Papa, Becky, Ryder and Rhodes

On another note, Rhodes started daycare on Monday.  He was much happier than I was...

 

I was talking to him on the way to school and literally apologizing to him for taking him to school, haha.  I felt so terrible, I was crying like a baby.  It was so hard.  BUT... I'm somewhat part-time now, working 8:30-3 on Mon-Thurs, and 8:30-12 on Friday.  So, that helps.  So far I have very much appreciated my afternoons with both my babies.

 

It's taking some adjusting as far as getting ready in the mornings and trying to have dinner put together in the evenings, but we are figuring it all out.

 

We are going to see how this goes, and re-evaluate after the end of the year.  :)

 

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Moving on.

 

Ryder is learning sign language at school.  WHAT?????

He came home doing the sign language for A, B and X, along with a little song to go with it.

 

He's also distraught that we don't still live at "the old house."  Everytime he's looking for something he gets a pouty face and says, "Ya'll probably just left it at the old house."

 

One more for Ryder.  He now only operates on checklists.  When he wakes up he makes a checklist that usually goes a little something like this:  "First we wake up, then tee tee, then get dressed, then milk, then cartoons, then school." 

 

Sometimes I accidently get off track if you will, and I'll hand him his milk before he's dressed.  Then things go a little something like this:  "But mommy, milk wasn't next on my list."  Or sometimes, I'll ask him if he wants to come and help me change Rhodes diaper.  God forbid.  "MOMMY THAT'S NOT ON MY LIST!!!"

 

Rhodes' sleeping news:  Umm... I think I can officially say he's sleeping through the night.  It's usually 8:30pm - 5:30am.  I think daycare has helped with this because it has been happening consistently this entire week. And when he does wake up in the morning to eat, all I hear is little whimpers.  He's so quiet.  I'm surprised I hear him most of the time.  He's such a sweetie!

 

Normally I would dread that 5:30am wakeup call, but now that I'm trying to get rid of this belly bulge, 5:30 works just beautifully for me.  If I wasn't already awake, there is no way I would set my alarm to try and get up to run.  Absolutely, positively no way.  So after I feed him for 15 minutes or so he'll fall right back to sleep and I'll go to the gym.  I only went 3 mornings this week, but I'm telling you, this is huge. And believe it or not, it's getting easier each time.  As I mentioned before, I was running a 15 minute mile the first few times and now I've gotten it down to a 12 minute mile.  Granted it's on the treadmill, which I realize is much easier than outside where there are hills and heat, but it's baby steps.

 

Until next time... toodles.

My 10 Year High School Reunion

Friday night we did some tailgating at a home game.

 

 

Ryder's first Sprite, he said it burned.

Courtney, Maghen and Lindsey and I.

The guys thought this was just a BLAST.  Not.

Can you match which wife goes with which husband?

These two boys sweat more than any child I've ever seen.

Saturday night was at Hal and Mal's.  Several of us got together to hang out for a bit before the actual reunion at Ashlea and Kyle's.

 

Kristen and Meg

Devin, Courtney, Lindsey and Ashlea

Clair and Maghen

High school BFF's still BFF's, and probably closer than we were 10 years ago!

Girls and a few of the hubs.  I do spy one hub who is a Clinton alum, just not our year.

My two precious pregnant BFF's!

And my other precious pregnant BFF.

All these future babies make me so happy!!!

Meg, Holly, Devin and Clair

Brian, this one's for you since you read my blog!

Loved your sweet girlfriend, Tessa!

Meg and Clair

Some of our class.  We graduated with 335, I think about 100 came.

The spouses weren't really into the whole reunion situation, so they walked into another room for peace and quiet...

I'm sure you remember just a few posts back I posted pictures from  Meg's wedding.  Can't believe only a few months later I'm posting she's going to be a mommy!!!

Stop, Drop and Roll

Rhodes is two months old - September 19, 2012.

• He has been sleeping about 6 hours at night for about a week now (starting around 8 weeks.)  I usually give him his last feeding between 9-10 p.m. and he'll sleep until 5-6 a.m.  I think the best thing I did to make this happen was to make sure he got all his feedings during the day.  If he sleeps more than 3 hours in the day I wake him up to eat. 
• This child still sleeps a ton during the day.  Not sure if this is normal or what. 
• Has starting chewing on his hands.
• Is finally smiling at us... on purpose!
• Sticks his tongue out, it's cute.
• Squeals and babbles.
• Nurses for about 15 minutes.
• Still taking 4 oz bottle.
• Wearing 3-6, or 6 month clothes.
• Paci's calm him down immediately.  Until he falls asleep and they fall out and get stuck under his cheek, then we are back to square one.
• He started sleeping in his crib during the night at about 6 weeks (meaning we retired the bassinet).

Ryder was too cute the other night.  JM was gone and it was time to put Ryder down so I had to bring Rhodes in there too because he was wide awake.  Ryder reached out and said "Come here Rhodesy."  So I laid Rhodes down on him and Ryder was grinning soooo big and kept repeating how cute he was.  Then he said, "Rhodes you can go back to mama now."  And then he looked at me and said, "OK, I'm going to tell Rhodes he needs to go back to you and then I'm going to say come here Rhodesy!"  So we repeated this little game over and over.

Random situation:

Our apartment complex has a workout room.  This is the absolute most random thing I've done in a long time, but I was strolling Rhodes around and I decided to stop in and check it out.  He was sleeping when I got there so I got on the treadmill.  Please understand I don't think I have ever run for more than 3 minutes.  I hate running, I get so tired.  I literally got on this treadmill and started running, it wasn't too bad.  I told myself I would run for 10 minutes.  When I got to 10 I decided to go to 15.  Once I got there I slowed it down to walk so I could google how many miles a 5k is (I'm telling you, I'm clueless when it comes to the running world).  I saw that it was 3.1 miles and I had already made it about 1.5 miles so I told myself I was going to go for it.  And would you believe it, I did it!!!  It took me 45 minutes (haha, I know...) but I probably walked 7 or 8 minutes of that.

 

That was yesterday, and I went again today for 3.1 miles and my time was the same.  I don't see how I can get any faster, I was dying!!!

Little Rhodes is just along for the ride.  I'm telling you, this is the most laid back little baby.  He slept right through that 45 minutes both times.

Post "treadmill 5k" - tomato face

I've talked to my two running friends, Lindsey and Devin, and they have persuaded me to keep going. I'm going to try to keep it up and run a 5K soon. I just have to get quicker than 45 minutes because I would die if I was the last person running through that finish line!!!

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Wednesday night my friend Jill and her two boys were in town visiting so we met at Chick-fil-A to let the two big boys, Ryder and Ford, play.  They are big buds.

And they are just alike.

They live several hours away, but on the way home Ryder said, "I wish Ford was in my class, I love Ford."

The little brothers just hung out, John Brantley and Rhodes - they are 5 weeks apart.

Ryder's class took a field trip to the fire station yesterday. 

 

Here are some things he told me when I picked him up:

• Never play with matches
• Stop, drop and roll
• We aren't 'pose to breathe in that fire air
• I saw a fire extinguisher that could talk
• That fireman put on his suit
  
  Sounds like his trip was a sucess.
 

Now that Rhodes has learned to smile, he really goes to town.

Forgot to post this last week at 8 weeks old.  See Ryder's 8 week picture below in the same outfit.

Rhodes

 

Ryder

 

Raise your hand if you have ever been trying to rush out the door and your child spits up on your freshly washed hair and you have to rewash and straighten that section.

Shutterfly Yearbook

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I use Shutterfly for all my printing needs, they are super easy to work with and what I especially love about Shutterfly is they are not stingy with the coupons!  They are always offering great deals on their products and I have always been very pleased with my orders. 

I hope you will take a moment to check out their yearbook promotion!

This is a sponsored blog post.

And We're Out

Wasn't real sure this was going to happen...

There were a few issues with the buyer and we didn't get to close when we were supposed to.  So we just kind of figured things weren't going to work out and we were going to be back at square one.  Well, clearly things did work out and we closed 2 weeks after all that went down.  

Of course I was a little sad moving, mainly because this is where we brought both of our babies home.  But we are looking forward to creating new memories!

Taking an intense bike ride

You know my little helper wasn't far away when he heard Rhodes' bath water turn on.

A few days before we moved our neighborhood had it's Neighborhood Night Out.  Glad we were able to enjoy one last little shin dig.

What we miss most about living there!

What Ryder misses most.

Ryder mentioned he needed to use the bathroom while we were there.  We told him we were about to leave and asked if he could wait until we got home.  We found that he took matters into his own hands.

This one is growing like a weed.  No more 0-3 month clothes, some 3-6 still work, but mostly 6 month (pj's, not nice stuff).

Doing a little work.

I had lunch with my wonderful Sunday School class from high school.  Franziska, the girl in the middle, was an exchange student from Germany and was a part of our sunday school class when we were in high school and she came back for our 10 year high school reunion.  She now lives in Sweden.  It was great to catch up with her and everyone else!

Night one in the new digs, pallet style. (Bed wasn't here yet).

After an busy busy day, everybody needed a break from moving.

Rhodes wasn't interested in the movie.

Poor little brother, already getting picked on by big brother.

Sunday morning JM had to be at church early and I had to be there at 9:30.  This really wouldn't be a big deal but the hardest part was getting them both out the door and into the car.  Since we don't have a garage and now have to park in a large parking lot, I can't load up one kid and run back inside to get the other one like we did at the house.  So since I have lots of belongings I have to carry everywhere we go, along with what feels like 50 pounds on my arm (the carrier), things can be a little iffy.  I asked my helper if he would carry my purse and Rhodes bag.

He was complaining that it was too heavy but I just told him to keep coming.

Halfway to the car I turned around to make sure he was still behind me and I saw that he was short a purse.  He dropped it in the middle of the street.

Rhodes got to help me do check-in at church.

Lyndsey got some squeezes from Rhodes.

Ryder had his 3 year old check up yesterday.  He weighs 32 lb and is in the 75th percentile in weight, can't remember his height, I think she said 37.5", but he's in the 50th percentile there.  After she took his blood pressure (I didn't know they did that this young), she said he had to go pee in a cup.  I wasn't sure how that was going go work.  He just thought it was funny, and he did it right away.  I was afraid we'd be in that bathroom for an hour.

If your child isn't 3 yet, just so you know, they asked these 3 questions at the appointment, which I thought were super random:   

• Do you know your letters?
• Can you jump?
• Can you jump on one foot? Now that one got him.  Wish I had a video of him attempting to hop on one foot around the office.  We've never practiced that...

The nurse brought him a sticker but he told her that wasn't enough stickers.

Since I've been on maternity leave, I've kept Ryder home a lot.  If he does go to school, I usually pick him up around 3 (after he wakes up from nap and gets his snack).  On the days I keep him home I try to do at least one learning activity.  My dad got him these preschool workbooks that have been great and that was our activity for today.  This particular page had him tracing words, he's a little shaky on it, but getting better each time!