Grampy Stevens Birthday

Yesterday, we went to celebrate Grampy Stevens' Birthday. I'm not sure how old he is, nobody said. He is Betsy's (my Mother-in-law) dad. Both him and Granny were moved to a retirement community a month or so ago, right around the corner from us. So, we've been able to spend a lot more time with them. Nick's girlfriend, Kristy, made a cake for us and it was great. The boys have a great time running around the apartment, getting into the fridge and wrestling with Bobby. Gramps was very grateful and told us how blessed he felt to have us in his family.

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Ryan Swimming

The video is finally here. Ryan swimming. This has been a huge surprise for us. Ryan has been following James' footsteps in everything...talking, playing, etc. However, when it comes to swimming, he is a born natural. I'm not sure how or where he learned to do it, but it appears as though swimming is as natural to him as walking. I might be making a big deal of this, but I'm very impressed with him. With his fearless nature, he has figured out how to swim. In fact, he is making improvement without us giving him instruction.

He has figured out how to put his head down and kick. He knows how to jump off the edge, the first thing he did. He knows how to swim to the edge of the pool (we helped with this). He knows how to stop moving and wait when he needs to take a breath.

He does get so excited that he swallows a bunch of air and pool water, so diapers are a bit messy after swimming. He also gets a ton of gas, which is fun also :)

So, I am a proud mommy.

Ryan turned 2

Ryan turned 2 yesterday. However, it was Father's Day so we decided to have a party for him on the 20th and invite a few friends. We had about 20 attendees total. We filled a little baby pool with water and had a little slide and lots of matchbox cars. All of Ryan's peers at the moment are little men, so it makes it easy to decide what toys to have.

Alex made this beautiful cake, which Ashley decided to take a bite out of. Yes, Daddy was not happy. But he improvised and it turned out fine.

Ryan received a bunch of great gifts and he was thankful for them all. The balloon, however, seemed to get his attention first. He wouldn't put it down, even for cake. And he is still carrying it around the house today.

Thanks to all who celebrated it with us!!

Miss Cathy Doesn't Bite....

You never know when a stranger will be helpful or annoying. Yesterday, I was having a hard time getting the boys to the car from VBS. They've been having a great time at VBS, but the second that I pick them up, they are little devils. So, we're not going to the last day of VBS because I need a break from the attitudes. Plus, this weekend we're having a lot of parties with

Ryan's 2nd Birthday Party, Father's Day and Pop Pop Kalman's Birthday. Anyways, we couldn't find Grandma after VBS (She's the director of VBS) so someone else's grandma helped me cross the street and get the boys to the car. Yes, a stranger who saw the need to give some help.

Here's where a stranger isn't helpful: We went to Sam's last night to get food for the party. The boys were doing okay till the last half hour. Alex loves Sam's Club Pizza, so we were sitting down eating. Well, me and Alex were sitting down and the boys were wandering. Ryan has had the worst time post-VBS so he wasn't listening very well. So, this lady in one of those motorized carts decided to sit next to us. She turned around so she was facing our table. My back was to her because I was nursing the baby. She told us she had kids too, but they were 31 and 28. And she had 4 grandchildren and maybe 1 on the way. They were waiting for a positive test. Ryan was giving her the once over while clinging to my leg. Here's how the conversation went:

Miss Kathy (to Ryan): Do you want me to hold you? Do you want me to pat your back while your mommy feeds the baby? (Repeat 10 times).

Each time Ryan hid his face or covered his eyes or whined.

Miss Kathy: Miss Kathy don't bite. Miss Kathy don't bite....Much!

So, at which point do you think a child might not want to sit on your lap?? Instead of being helpful with cranky, wandering children, she probably made my kids terribly skeptical of ladies in motorized carts.

No picture of Miss Kathy here but it would have been nice. She had a rather large red birthmark on her face, which probably didn't help the boys feel comfortable around her, either.

Grape Juice

This whole thing of grape jelly and sugar cereal, makes me laugh. It also gets me thinking. I'd like to hear what you all have to say about it. I thought of another thing that I misinterpreted. I don't remember having grape juice in our house growing up. So, I guess I figured it was a luxury drink. I don't think it costs much more than other juices. So anyways, anytime I buy Grape juice I think I'm getting a luxury. Other times I walk right by it and think, Oh, it's not in our budget this week. Is it really more money? They use it for communion so it must be extra special, right??

Correction

My friend Hillary just informed me that she thought grape jelly was for trashy people, not poor people. She didn't want to make a socioeconomic judgement. I just thought it was appropriate to be as accurate as possible when telling someone else's story...

Friends or Foes?

As parents, I think we make a lot of decisions on how we perceived our lives growing up. As the youngest of 4 and with 2 working parents, some things were great and some things not. Not to criticize my parents, but I find myself, at times, being more firm or lax in a decision based on how I was raised. For example, we didn't get sugar cereal growing up. The sweetest sugar I remember having was honey nut cheerios, O's and Clusters. So, I find myself buying Apple Jacks and Cap'n Crunch every now and then with a feeling of luxury.

It's funny the things you think. For example, my friend Hillary thinks grape jelly is for poor people. When you ask her why, she says, I don't know...we never had it in our house growing up and for some reason she thought grape jelly was for poor people. So, I think it's really funny when things like that creep up in our lives.

Back to the main point, I have a fear that my boys won't like each other when they grow up, so I try to work hard to not make life a competition for them. Because they're so close in age, I think they see each other as peers more than siblings. There are times now when they do play together. I even let them get into "trouble" together because they're doing it together. James has realized that Ryan will do almost anything, so James has become a bit of an instigator. Ryan, touch this. And then there are times when tears are shed and someone gets hurt. But my favorite thing the boys do is to make each other laugh. This mostly happens when they are playing the fall down game. They run around and fall down and apparently this is pretty funny.

I can see that I'm rambling, so I'll end this post with, I'm very excited to see my boys play together. I'm also very excited to see how Olivia fits into the scope of things.

Where do I start?

Where do I start? I guess I'll just post some pictures and talk about that. Alex has been working at some condos out at Seabrook Island. It's about 30 minutes from our house and a nice drive. Alex made a deal with one of the condo owners to trade some free labor for

some time at their condo. So, this past week we were able to leave the Holdgate Island and spend a few nights at Seabrook.

We were right across from the ocean and a pool. It was great for Alex because he just had to walk outside to get to work. As for us moms, do we ever get to leave work? So, having 3 children in a 2 bedroom condo leaves a bit to be desired. The 2nd night we were there, our friend James and Hillary and Brooks (1 1/2 ) spent the night, so one more little one was added to the mix. It was a lot of fun.

However, me taking the kids to the beach left a bit to be desired. Ryan, the fearless swimmer, kept testing the limits of how far he could wade in the water. I let him have some distance from me until some other beachers yelled "Stingrays!". That stopped that. James was content to play in the sand with the few toys we had. Olivia was not happy to be in her carseat so the beach trip ended fairly early. We tried the pool and again, a baby crying in the car seat and 2 boys trying to grab every other toy they could find that was not theirs. Apparently, we don't have enough pool toys and James and Ryan think it's okay to go through other poolers beach bags. So, it was a short time at the pool also.

So this leaves me with a few questions: When do vacations really become vacations? And when do parents get to enjoy vacations? I think I know the answer to this, but I still have hope every time we plan a getaway that it will be different this time. But just to be sure that I don't sound ungrateful for the generosity of the condo owners, the time away was greatly appreciated and we did have some good times at the beach and pool. Ryan is a fearless swimmer and with his swimmies he will run and jump off the side of the pool and then "swim" to the ladder. James is not so fearless but will go swimming as long as dad is there to hold him.