School...seriously???

The best response I heard from the boys was when I told them that we were in the last week of summer.  Dresden responded, "what a rip off". I have to agree with him.  Who wants to start school in August, especially when it doesn't let out until June?  Actually, the boys were both more than ready to go back to school.  They may not admit that, but when they are each wishing the other one would go on a month long vacation, well that just tells me they have had enough of each other and need a routine again.  They both seem to like school.  I hope that doesn't change once homework starts coming home.  I think having a good teacher does make a big difference and I'm glad that they both like their teachers.

Logan 2nd grade ~ Dresden 4th grade

While the boys were at school Strider and I weren't really sure what to do.  So, we did a little of everything.  We played, took naps, cleaned, painted my toe nails, and tried some new foods. This is of Strider sucking on a frozen banana.  If he could talk he would say, "Yummy!"

Strider also tried some new baby food.  I can say that he is much different than my other boys.  Dresden and Logan never liked getting their hands dirty but this kid has no problem with it.

He has this funny routine when I feed him baby food.  I put the spoon in his mouth, then he puts his four fingers in his mouth, sucks a couple times then puts his thumb in his mouth.  He repeats this after every spoonful of food.  I can only imagine what the mess will look like once he starts to feed himself.  I guess I will be moving his highchair FAR away from the white curtains.

The rest of the week wasn't as eventful as I had hoped for.  I ended up with a pretty good migraine that decided to stick around a few days.  After the first night of being sicker than I have been in a long time, I decided it was silly that I didn't go see the doctor to get a new prescription for my medication.  I saw the doctor and filled the medication just as another migraine was coming on. Not only is it great that I have a medication that will kill my migraines, but I was pleasantly surprised when the cost of it dropped $40!

Thursday night we went to the wedding of Larry's niece, Katie Winn.
It was a really nice ceremony and reception and Katie made a lovely bride.
We couldn't help but use the beautiful backdrop to take some pictures of our own.

I sure love these handsome boys.

Who you calling bald?

That's right.  You can no longer say that Strider is bald.  He finally has a little lock of hair.

 Okay, so he still looks mostly bald, but I loved the little curl that formed while he was taking a bath. We definitely won't be needing a haircut anytime soon.

A day at the water park

For the past few years we have bought season passes to Lagoon.  We loved having passes because we never felt rushed to ride every ride while we were there.  We could take things at our own pace.  This year, being that we had a new little guy join our family, we decided to go with something a little more local and baby friendly.  We bought the Pass of all Passes that got us Blaze football games, Real soccer games, Salt Lake Grizzlies hockey games, and races at the Miller Sports Park.  We took advantage of the Real and Blaze games but the real reason for buying the passes was for Raging Waters (Seven Peaks).  The boys have really enjoyed spending time at the water park, especially when Collin and Sydney, along with Natalie and Jay, would join us.  We would arrive by 10am and stay until it started to get busy around 1pm.  A few short hours were always good enough for us.  The lines were short, the pools were empty, there was plenty of grass space to spread out on, and the best part was street parking so we didn't have to pay to park.

Today, Larry and I decided to take the boys to Raging Waters one last time before school starts.  When I told Dresden and Logan our plans, Dresden asked if Collin and Sydney were going.  I explained to him that we thought it would be nice to spend time together as a family.  Dresden was not happy with the decision on not inviting the cousins and he stormed off yelling, "Thanks for making my life miserable!".  Friends have quickly become more important to him than Mom and Dad...how hurtful.  Despite not having the cousins with us today we all managed to have a good time.

Fun on the rope.

Me doing a little diving

Dresden and I going down the drop off slide

The boys in the wave pool

I couldn't leave my little guy out of the picture fest.  When we got home he was dead tired but so happy to see us.  I have recently taken the swing out of the living room and replaced it with the saucer, which Strider loves.

He also tried a new food today, peas.  Let's just say he isn't a fan of peas.

So, that is our day.  Oh, there was one more event...The Salt Lake County Mayor speaks to our Community Council annually and tonight was the night he was scheduled to attend our meeting. There's nothing like arriving late with three kids in tow and then having to take a seat up with the rest of the Council. It's a good thing my position is a volunteer position and I can't get fired from it.  After the meeting I shook Mayor Corroon's hand and apologized for being late.    

 

Week 24

 It has been a very busy week for my little guy.

Strider discovered his feet awhile ago but he has now discovered he can bring his foot right to his mouth.  Yes, he enjoys sucking on his toes...you would too, if you could.

He can now sit by himself.  I can't tell you how much happier he is now that he can sit. 

Today was the first of many messes...

I was doing the dishes and he wanted to be closer so I moved him to the counter.  I knew the bag of Cheerios was sitting close to Strider but I just didn't think he would be able to reach it.  He maneuvered himself enough in his chair to reach the bag and proceeded to dumb every last Cheerio out.  He thought it was a pretty fun activity.  Okay, he just loved the sound the bag made, but it did make him very happy.  Dresden was in the kitchen with me and we were both having a good laugh at Strider's antics.  Logan heard us so he came running up from downstairs.  He hadn't had a bowl of cereal yet and was planning on eating Cheerios.  You should have seen Logan's face when he saw all the Cheerios dumped out on the counter.  Let's just say he wasn't very amused.  Poor kid had to scoop the Cheerios off the counter so he could have his morning cereal.

I sure love this little boy and the joy he brings to our family.

Little Fish

I grew up swimming, all summer long.  I don't think I ever took formal swimming lessons, swimming just came naturally to me.  So, I just assumed that my boys would take to the water just like I did.  Well, I was terribly wrong.  The first problem, I didn't have them at the pool everyday.  How could they learn to swim when they only occasionally went swimming?  Still, as they got older I just thought they would catch on.  They could do a really sad doggy paddle but it just wasn't going to cut it.  I finally got them into swim lessons.  I had no idea where to start them so they started in the level 2 class.  Once they were in the water they were instantly moved up to a level 3.  So, there they were on day one, listening to Coach Chris teach them the basics of a free-style swim.   After a short lesson they were instantly better and more confident swimming.  Both boys did an awesome job of listening and practicing what they had learned.

At the end of the first lesson Chris told them that they would be going off the diving boards the next day.  By the time we got out to the car Dresden was in a panic.  He was genuinely terrified.  He told me over and over, "I'm going to drown and die, and it's going to be all your fault!"  I couldn't understand his fear until he told me, with tears in his eyes, "Coach hasn't even taught us how to come back up out of the water."  I tried explaining to Dresden that he will come back up out of the water but he just couldn't understand.  All he could think of was that he would sink to the bottom of the pool.  I explained that his coach would be right there and if it made him feel better I would wear my swimming suit and sit right next to the pool to jump in if he started sinking.  That wasn't good enough.  The poor kid worried and stressed about this the entire day and all night.  When I was putting him to bed he said the same things, that he was going to die.  My heart was breaking.  As we talked he finally calmed down enough to understood that his Coach would be in the water, under the diving board, and that he would be right there to catch him.  This finally put peace to Dresden's mind and he stopped worrying so much about jumping off the diving board.  The next day, Chris taught the boys some basics about jumping into the pool,holding your breath, and swimming back to the top of the water.  I was so glad that he taught the boys this before they went to the diving boards.  I'm sure Dresden was full of anxiety when he jumped off the diving board but he jumped, resurfaced, and swam to the side of the pool.  He didn't sink and die!  Thank goodness.  Both boys jumped and jumped until Chris finally told them to get their towels.

Swim lessons ended today and I am so glad to see how much the boys have improved.  All they want to do now is go swimming, which we have done a number of times.  Can you guess where we will be tomorrow???  Yep, my little fish will be at the pool!

The boys heading to the diving boards

Dresden jumping in

We're still working on not plugging the nose

Logan jumping off the high dive

Nice form!

Champs

There aren't many activities that Larry and I do together.  We enjoy going out with friends but the only thing that he and I have ever really done together, consistently, is play softball.  One of the first times I met Larry he was playing in a softball game.  Soon after, I would occasionally play with him, not sure if it was a singles ward team or what.  I was very aware of the girls that didn't like me playing on the team but I still had fun playing and going to Pizza Hut afterwords.  For the past 11 years Larry and I have played at least Spring or Fall softball, if not both, with the Deseret News.  I think there may have been a one year gap but we have always looked forward to playing ball. This year was no different.  We had many canceled games due to rain but we finally got the season going and we came away the Champions. 

Taking Note

I was terrible about keeping records of Dresden and Logan.  I didn't write down all the cute things my boys did, because how could I possibly forget all those cute things?  I've learned my lesson and now know that I can't possibly remember all the cute things my kids do.  So, this is my journal entry on things that I am taking note about Strider...

This baby really does not liking being in the car.  We would take Dresden and Logan on car rides when they just couldn't fall asleep.  This boy, nope, he just doesn't like being in the car and forget about him falling asleep.  That doesn't happen often.  I'm sure things might be different if he didn't have two older brothers in his face all the time.  The boys sometimes have a hard time leaving him alone.

Strider is the only person that will ALWAYS smile at me when I walk in the room, and I love it!  How can your heart not melt when you see your baby give you a big gummy smile when he sees you.

Strider is a wiggle worm, and when I say wiggle worm, I mean he NEVER stops moving.  You try to feed him his bottle and his arms and legs are going or he's trying to twist around so he can see what's behind him.  When he wakes up in the morning I give him his morning bottle sitting in one of our red leather chairs in the living room.  I always get a kick out him every morning because he slides his foot up and down the arm of the chair the entire time he drinks his bottle.  It wouldn't be so funny if it didn't make the noise skin makes on leather, you know that "was that a fart?" sound.  Unlike his two older brothers who were very calm, Strider is our little wiggle worm.  In fact, when he gets really wiggly while eating I sing to him, "Slow down, you move to fast"  The Simon & Garfunkel song. 

Strider has learned to roll so now he seldom stays on his back.  He isn't always happy when he has rolled onto his tummy but if you put him back on his back he rolls right back over.  This is far different than Dresden and Logan.  Neither of them cared for their tummy's, therefore causing them to be late crawlers.  I predict this little boy will be crawling by next month.  He is already pulling his knees under him trying to scoot forward to grab toys. 

Strider loves to be sung to.  When he gets fussy he quickly settles down if he is sung to.  It may have been a coincidence but the other night I was tired and forgot to sing to him while I was feeding him his bottle.  I was sitting on the chair in his bedroom feeding him.  He finished the bottle, I burped him, and put the pacifier in his mouth.  He kept blowing bubbles and spitting the pacifier out.  I realized I hadn't been singing so I started singing his songs to him and he started to suck on his pacifier.  When I thought he was close enough to being asleep I stopped singing but then he started blowing bubbles and spit the pacifier out again.  So, I sang some more and he sucked on his pacifier.  Anyway, this happened a few times, every time I stopped singing he would spit the pacifier out until I started singing again.  Little sweetheart just wanted to be sung to until he fell asleep.

When I sing to Strider he will reach his little hand up and touch my face.  I love when he does this.

The only time Strider giggles is when he is tired.  The more tired he is the more he laughs.  Tonight he was pretty tired so I brought him downstairs to put him to bed.  The big boys were on their way downstairs too and decided to jump a few stairs to the bottom.  Strider found this absolutely hilarious so the boys kept climbing the stairs and jumping down.  Strider's laughing had all of us laughing.  There isn't anything we won't do to get this little boy to laugh.

Strider is beginning to be spoiled...I guess he isn't beginning, he all ready is.  I've mentioned how he isn't satisfied unless he is right near someone.  Well, it has only gotten worse.  It's not good enough to be across the room, he needs to be within a couple feet of me.  So, I finally bought a Bumbo chair for him and he now sits on the kitchen counter while I fix dinner or do the dishes.  This seems to keep him happy.

The latest thing Strider has discovered is his tongue.  He looks pretty darn cute when he sticks it out and gently blows air out making a cute little noise.

Here are a few pictures.  The quality isn't great because they were taken with my phone...