The Fun has Begun!

I've been waiting for the day that my children are able to play together.  Now that Wyatt is crawling (crawling and getting his first hair cut in the same week aged him about 3 months!!), he and Rylee are really starting to play together well.  They wrestle, chase each other, play with toys together and purposely make each other laugh...it's so much fun!!  Rylee is so good to include her brother, even when he might be too little or not understand what she's doing.  I love when she talks to him as if he is going to talk back.  This morning I heard her ask him if he liked her new jammies :) 

Rylee has always been so good to her brother.  Whenever he isn't around (napping), she asks where he is.  When I try to have a mommy-daughter outing she always says, "Oh no!  We forgot Wyatt!" when we are riding in the van.  I'm glad to know that if I ever really did forget Wyatt she would remind me :)  She is always very concerned when he cries and tells me what she thinks he wants....usually she says he wants to cuddle.  She tells me his wants as if he actually informed her of them...."He says he wants his bottle"....maybe it's sibling telepathy.  There are times too that she tattles on him or gets frustrated with him getting into her things...I just can't help but laugh, because I know it's just the beginning of fighting with her brother :)

I have also started to notice Wyatt's "boyness" since he started crawling.  He is definitely getting into things that Rylee never did and playing with toys more aggressively than her.  Just this past week Wyatt has taken the vent covers off and thrown toys down the vent, pulled the bottom dishwasher rack out of the dishwasher, thrown his toys down the stairs and pulled all the DVDs out of the shelves multiple times.  While my life just got easier with his new freedom, it also got harder because I have to pay more attention to him!  I love that he can go wherever he wants now and get his own toys and explore his world.  It's nice to be able to walk out of a room and not have him cry anymore.  Most of the time he doesn't even follow me.....I couldn't even get him to follow me one day...he was finding enjoyment in going the opposite direction :) 

I love having a boy and a girl and feel very blessed to get to experience both genders. I love both of my children very much, but have very different connections with each of them.  Rylee is my little friend and one of my favorite persons to hang out with.  Wyatt is my little snuggler who I think will always want his Mommy close by.  It will be interesting to see how our relationships change with each stage of their lives.  Being a mommy is fun! 

Birthdays, Friends and Family

Another super fun weekend in the books for me!  It started Friday night with a birthday party for my dad at Incredible Pizza (his choice)...what a fun place!!  They have something for every age....it's Chuck E. Cheese on steroids!  We enjoyed the Go Karts, Mini Bowling, and tons of arcade games!  They also have mini golf, bumper cars, a ropes course, and so many other fun things to do!!  I tried out the hurricane simulator....winds blowing at 75mph....my hair was a mess to comb through when I got home!!!  My brother and I decided next time we go we won't bring the kids....all they wanted to do was ride the carousel (at least that's what Rylee wanted to do the whole time, though she enjoyed bowling and Go Karts too).  Their buffet wasn't bad either, and I loved the different themed dining areas too! 

On Saturday, we had some friends and my mom over all day.  The guys built the railing for our deck while the rest of us played outside all day -- what beautiful weather it was!!  The kids played on the swing set, ran through the sprinkler, played with bubbles, threw water balloons, rode the Power Wheels car and we got some Gator riding in.  Ended the evening with my favorite summer/grilling meal and stayed up talking with my friend I see about once a year....it was a great day!  The kids all got along so great too!  Rylee and her new little friend looked like mini me and my BFF :) 

This morning my husband made breakfast for us (my friend and her daughter stayed the night with us)....eggs, muffins and fruit...my favs!  Late morning we headed to WDM where we got Wyatt's hair cut for the first time....it was a fiasco!!...and I'm kinda sad his looks changed so much, but he really needed his hair cut as he couldn't see half the time.  My husband said, "I wasn't prepared for him to look like such a little boy"....me either :(  Then we took Rylee to pick out her fish...she got a fish tank for her birthday, but we wanted to let her pick out her own fish.  She picked out "orange ones" just like she said she was going to.  Let's hope they last awhile!  After that, we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream!!   It was so good -- is it ever not?!?!?  I hadn't had DQ in awhile, as we normally go to the frozen yogurt places for ice cream, but DQ just sounded good today...and it didn't disappoint...mint oreo blizzard!

It was a fabulous Mother's Day weekend...I'm so lucky to be Rylee and Wyatt's Mommy!!!  I was glad to be able to see my wonderful mother this weekend too -- she's the best....and an even more amazing Grandma!! 

I'm looking forward to more fun weekends this summer...our calendar is starting to fill up and I love it!!!  I think I need to live south where I can have fun outdoor weekends all year long!! 

White Balance, Dancing, Sleeping Babies...Oh My!

Sometimes I have too many topics I want to write about and I can't choose just one, or none of them seem long enough for a post of it's own....as is the case today...so I've put them all into one.

Photography
Saturday morning I attended a photography class at a community college.  It was rather strange to get up and get ready to go to class...and on a Saturday of all days.  The class was specifically on White Balance (for you photography gurus).  This was a topic that I was struggling with understanding as I have been learning about photography.  Luckily my camera has an "auto white balance" button and I would just let it do it's thing.  The class was taught by the superintendent of the photography division of the Iowa State Fair.....great guy!!  I learned so much in those 3 hours...and we didn't even get to everything he wanted us to learn, which I was kind of glad about...my brain was too full!!  Without going into too much boring detail about white balance....here are 2 pictures I took at home to practice what I learned:

The first picture is how the camera interprets the color of the doll on its own (with the "auto white balance" turned on).  The second picture was taken after I told the camera what colors to use.  I know you can't see the doll in person to compare, but trust me...the second picture is 95% accurate of the actual colors of the doll!!!!  I am just amazed at how the camera interprets colors so much differently than the human eye.  I am so glad I took this class!!  However, taking the class made me realize just how much there is to learn yet!!  Oy! 


Dancin' the Night Away
My daughter LOVES to dance...she dances to any music, and sometimes just to her own singing!  I'm so glad about this, because Momma loves to dance too!!  Our small rural town had a dinner and dance Saturday night to raise money for the fire department.  I just knew this would be something I had to take Rylee to.  What I didn't realize was that she would be so comfortable dancing alone in the middle of the dance floor with 50 people watching her. 

We got there, just she and I, as the band was getting ready to start.  She kept asking "is it starting yet?"....I told her she would know when it was starting because she would hear the music ;)  As soon as the band played the first note of their first song, Rylee was pulling me out to the dance floor.  O.M.G!!!  I love to dance, but I don't always like to be the first one out there -- EEEEK!!!  I wasn't sure how I felt about 50 strangers watching me dance.  But I told myself, "I brought Rylee here, past her bedtime, for a reason...just do it!"  So she and I held up the dance floor for a few songs before a little boy and his daddy came out and joined us.  After about the 5th song, she told me to go sit down.  I think I was embarrassing her :)  So for the next 45 minutes she danced like nobody was watching, though I could see people pointing and talking about her (in a good way).  When they played a slow song and all of the couples went out to the floor, Rylee came and grabbed me and let me hold her while we slow danced :) :) :)  Glad she wasn't too embarrassed for that!!!  I did get a couple of other dances in with her too.  I sure hope it was the "funnest night ever", as she said it would be on our way there! 

Sleep Like a Baby
There just can't be anything cuter than a baby sleeping with his butt in the air!  James and I love to go peek in on Wyatt after he's asleep and see how he is laying.  No matter his position, my heart just melts when I see him sleeping in his crib.  I don't remember ever watching Rylee sleep....but I now wish I would have, because it just takes you away from crazy life and brings a feeling of joy and peacefulness.  It makes me so proud to be his momma...not that I'm not any other time, but I take the time to think about that when I'm watching him sleep.  I really want to take his picture while he's sleeping so I can view it later in life and remember that feeling I had while watching him....but for some reason I just can't bring myself to do it.  It's like watching him sleep is something sacred that I just want to keep in my brain and heart. 

May 6th ~ Special Day
Tomorrow my little dancing princess will be 3 years old!!  3 years old!!  How is that even possible??  Everyone tells you "they grow up so fast", and while I haven't really found that to be true, I still can't believe she is 3.  I signed her up for preschool for this fall and just couldn't believe she is old enough for that!  I mean, it definitely feels like 3 years have gone by since she was born, but the thought of a 3 year old is just hard to wrap my brain around. 

I'm super excited for her day tomorrow!! We have been counting it down for weeks now!!  She will wake up to balloons and presents...we will go to the park for a play date and picnic, and then a family party at a pizza place (her request).  I'm afraid she is going to be so disappointed when her special day is over...it's been all she has talked about for weeks.  At least we have a zoo date the following day :)  And then it's Grandpa's birthday Thursday and she is also excited to go celebrate with him!  We should have a fun week!!