Bicycle Days

This past weekend, we loaded the car and headed out for our annual trip to Bicycle Days. Our first stop was to buy some yummy "fair food" to eat while waiting for the parade. We decided we needed to get there a little early this year in order to find a little shade, so we ate our food and waited. Ivan had so much fun collecting candy and dancing to the music during the parade. He even made a new little friend that he danced and shared candy with-so sweet!

A Baby Boy and His Daddy

I couldn't resist pulling out the camera and taking a few photos when I saw Everett peeking over Daddy's shoulder tonight. I just love these photos!

Puddin Face

Hello grandma, we are on our way!
Everett sleeping while we were swimming

Ivan having a little pudding

On Monday, we finished our very busy weekend off with a visit to grandma and paw paw's house. On the way there Ivan was calling grandma on one of our old cell phones and quickly informed us that it was broken. Old cell phones are no longer doing the trick, this kid wants the real thing! Once we arrived, we enjoyed a day full of swimming, playing and eating. We are hoping for many more days like this!

Happy 4th of July!!

On the forth, we headed to Worthington with Uncle Marc, Aunt Kristen and Mallory to enjoy a little picnic, play time and fireworks. Josh, Stacy and Mason also joined us as we waited patiently through the heat until the fireworks started. The kids had lots of fun running around and burning all of their energy before the fireworks started. When the fireworks finally started we were joined by several other families and we all watched the kids to see how they would react. The kids all did surprisingly well! Ivan watched the first half of the fireworks and would say "That is a big one!" Then he decided he was bored and quickly looked for something else to do. Everett was awake the whole time and appeared to be staring right at the fireworks!

We have made this a family tradition to meet up with Uncle Marc, Aunt Kristen and Mallory every year for the fireworks and hope that we can continue for many years to come. We were also very happy that several other families joined us this year! We can't wait for next year!

Sweet Dreams?

We have had a bit of a challenging time getting Ivan to sleep in his big boy room. At first he would tell us that he was a baby and needed to sleep in the baby bed. Apparently, the crib was very comforting to him. We would have loved to keep him in there, but knew it was not the right thing to do. So, we decided we had to deal with what was to come. At first he would just cry and beg us to let him out of his room. Then he started standing at the gate to his room and yelling down to us "guys, I am up here. Come get me out" Then the real fun began. He started turning into a completely different child at bed time. He would run around the room, climb on the furniture and jump off, pull all of the clothes out of his closet, etc..... When we would try to calm him down, he would then turn on us and become a child we were not used to-a mean child. We started to hate bed time and would devote hours of taking turns dealing with the situation. We have removed all furniture other than his bed from his room, so that we do not have to worry about his safety. One nasty bruise on his leg that apparently came from him climbing on his shelves so that he could kick the planes hanging from his ceiling, convinced us to remove the furniture.

I think we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we are not quite there yet. When we head up to bed, we are never quite sure what we will find in Ivan's room. Lately, we tend to find him passed out on the floor next to his gate. We have learned that we have to carry him to his bed or he will kick his door in the middle of the night and will wake up requesting that we come lay with him. If he does actually fall asleep in his bed, he usually has numerous items surrounding him. This usually consists of any items that we have let him take to bed with him over the last several nights, such as cups of water, blankies, stuffed animals and books.

This has been the most challenging part of parenthood so far. So, if we can get through this-I think we can conquer anything!!!!

Zoo

Last Wednesday, we decided to enjoy the nice weather and headed to the zoo with Aunt Kristen and Mallory. Of course, we spent most of the time with the monkeys and gorillas! I think we all had a great time!

Content

That is the best way to describe Everett during the day-content. He will usually sleep 7-9 hours at night and then sleep several more hours through the morning and early afternoon. When he is awake though, he is usually happy laying on the floor or in his vibrating chair. He does prefer that I am in the same room though! He loves to lay on the floor or bed and just watch the ceiling fan-great distraction when I need to get ready! He also absolutely loves to be talked to, he will crack a smile as let out some precious baby noises as soon as I open my mouth. I love playing with him during the day!