Swim Lessons

Seventy-five percent of our planet is water - can you swim?  ~Author Unknown

Well, at least for Ryan he found a good start today.  Although he has been in the water several times, we haven't exposed him nearly as frequently as he needs to be to not be scared of the water.  

Today, we signed up for lessons with Ryan's best friend.  The parents are supposed to get in the water with the kids.  

Now, I loved swimming as a kid.  I was on the swim team for several years.  But, since growing up, have found that frequently, especially in the winter, the water is just not appealing.   So Josh did me a HUGE favor and got in the water with Ryan today.  

When he first got in the water, he clung to Josh and cried.

But, the instructors were great.  It was not long before they had him....

Splashing!

Using the noodles to float....

on his own.

Kicking....

and jumping. 

Ryan even became brave enough to blow a few bubbles.  

By the end of the lesson, he had a giant, huge smile on his face.

When we got in the car an hour later, he said, "Mommy, I had a good day swimming."  I hope someday he loves swimming as much as I did.

Cheerio

Picking up cheerios is an art one must dedicate time and attention to--just ask Dylan.

There are so many.....

Sooooo close....just...a.....little....further....

Ah-HAH. 

That's more like it!

These cheerios sure are tricksey.

A boy and His Ipad

A boy and his Ipad....through thick and thin.  It's kindof ridiculous really.

How big is Dylan?

How big is Dylan?

SO BIG!

My little guy is growing by leaps and bounds!  He crawls so fast now.  His favorite game is to swipe all the DVD's off the entertainment center and clap.  After I pick it all up, he repeats the fun.

One of my favorite things that he does now is to light up like a  candle every time he sees me and then he crawls as fast as he can to me babbling "dadadada..." (We're working on that...)

Happy 8 months Dylan!

Winter Finally Found us.

I have been incredibly happy this winter because we have literally had no snow or bitterly cold temperatures.  But this morning, winter finally found us.  So, we went out and played in it. 

Well, everyone but me, because I am a snow-grinch.  I am also smart enough to know that going outside to play with two boys a husband and a boy is asking to be smothered in snow-balls.   So I kept my distance and took a few pictures, then went inside and took pictures from the warm safety of the indoors.

Dylan's sense of Humor

Dylan is now eight months old and he has a fantastic sense of humor.  He thinks it's funny when we play peek-a-boo and rewards us with big smiles.   He thinks it's even funnier to watch Elliott. Something about her neurotic, furry little face just gets him giggling.   But he thinks it's SUPER SUPER funny when either Ryan get's yelled at by us, or disciplined by us, or conversely, if Ryan rough-houses with us and makes us say OW.

Mountain Climbing

 One morning, I sent Ryan and Josh out with my Uncle one morning to climb Squaw Peak so I could get some scanning done.  A little bit later, I received this picture with the following message:

"Hungry? Maybe. Scared? Maybe. Tired? Maybe.  Grumpy? Absolutely."

I had a good chuckle over it.  Two days later, I was happy with the scanning I had done and was not about to miss out on mountain climbing and we decided to go again.  We decided on a smaller peak that would be more  Ryan's "speed," called North Mountain. 

 

When we broke the news to him that we were mountain climbing again, he was thrilled a giant grouch.

Unfortunately, by the time we got to our destination, in addition to bringing sourpuss Ryan, my body had registered the fact that it had not had any coffee that morning.  The peak looked kinda daunting.   I strapped a really fat heavy Dylan into the baby carrier and it was not long before I realized this was a really bad idea.  By not long, I literally mean I walked a few feet on rocky flat terrain at the foot of the mountain and realized the last six years since I've been climbing last, have not been kind to me.

My poor husband was the only adult there.  He took Dylan from me and encouraged us as we climbed.  Ryan cried. I whined.   Josh came up with an annoying positive chant.  Somehow we kept going.

We didn't quite reach the top.  We did get about halfway up. 

 Someone was just really not having fun. Climbing a mountain can be really hard. 

 He perked up on the way down.

 By  the time we got to the parking lot, he had found a stick and was having fun poking at some rocks and making dust clouds.  Maybe when he's older we'll try this again...and I'll be sure to have drank some coffee before we go!

The Zoo

As I mentioned previously, we went to the phoenix zoo one day to get Dylan a little fresh air.  But we had a fantastic time, even though he was not feeling top notch. 

When I was a little girl, my grandparents took me to this zoo frequently.  Once, we spent a whole summer visiting them and we were regulars at the zoo.  In the summer, we would always go incredibly early before it got too hot.  But since it was January, it was lovely all day. 

Ryan helped us navigate.

We thought we'd do something a little bit special while we were there.  The Phoenix zoo has a stingray petting and feeding tank. 

The stingrays felt very soft and smooth, unlike the breed at the Pittsburgh zoo.  Josh found out the hard way how to properly feed them after holding the fish too close to his hand, he had his hand mashed in the stingrays jaws.  He said it felt a lot like a catfish bite.

Ryan enjoyed feeding them though!

 He also enjoyed pretending he was a turtle...

and a spider....

and 'wrasslin a crocodile. 

We saw some neat animals too, including a fox...

some giraffes...

and a golden eagle!

Dylan's eyes were still watery and red.  He kept sneezing and he was still pale, but he did look much better from the morning.   All in all, a beautiful day at the zoo!

The Reaction

My grandparents have five cats.  Josh is horribly allergic to cats.  So before we left, we got him an expensive prescription and some sleep inducing drugs.   But we forgot to think about Dylan. 

Ryan has never shown any problems with cats, so I just didn't think about it.  But, one night, one of the cats found a comfy spot in Dylan's crib. 

His eyes started to look red, puffy, and irritated.

Then they got goopy and swelled shut.
He also sounded congested.  He was sneezing and had a runny nose.
I kept an eye on him.  But I thought by morning he'd be fine.

But by morning he looked like death.  His color was pale and green.  His eyes were dull with bright red rims. He was breathing through his mouth because his nose was completely stuffed up.   He looked awful.
We thought maybe if we got him out of the house for a bit that would help.

We decided to go to the zoo.  The air did seem to help him.  But his eyes were still watery and a little gunky.

Dylan's grandma Kangas called while we were there after seeing a picture of what he looked like that morning.  She was concerned and recommended we go to urgent care.  So, we did.  We got some steroids and eye drops for him.   Later that evening, he finally looked all better!