Last weekend-Ryan update

Fairyland:
This weekend we were very busy with many different activities, one of them being a trip to a place called Fairy Land. First off, Fairyland is in Oakland and everyone knows or at least assumes that Oakland is where the crime is. But surprisingly enough when we got there it was in a really nice area, or so we thought (I’ll come back to that later). We parked and were happy to use our free tickets from a raffle through Reggie’s school last year. Once we were in, we started to look around at what there was and the first thing that popped into my mind was ghetto amusement park! There were all of these random attractions/scenes from really old childhood books and stories that we really didn’t recognize like Willy the Whale? As Trina and I we’re walking around scratching our heads, the kids were running around jumping and playing on everything.. They absolutely loved it! That had tunnels, slides, a ferris wheel, merry-go-round, and a trolley train you could ride on. Not to mention they had a couple of different pirate ships that you could climb on. You would think that with all of these things and with a puppet theatre, we would spend all day there. Wrong, we blazed through the entire park in roughly an hour and a half, so it was good the tickets were free. One of the highlights was when Ainsley hopped on the ferris-wheel all by herself because Reggie didn’t want to have anything to do with it… She’s a brave little girl sometimes. After playing at the park we went down to a lake that was really close and had a picnic. There were people jogging, kayaking, and enjoying the sunshine. As we were eating our sandwiches, we watched a lady get pooped on by one of the 100 seagulls that we’re swarming us for our food. The kids couldn’t get enough of that entertainment as they were looking for all of the poop spots on her. Then, we were being stalked by one seagull in particular as he was scaring off any other bird within a 10 feet radius from us. If we we’re going to drop any food, he was going to be the one to grab it. And you could tell as he was twice as fat as any of the other birds. Trina was starting to get irritated with the bird so she started feeding the other birds when the mean bird wasn’t watching. But this created a different problem and now we had all of the seagulls in the park at our feet. They finally went away and we headed back to the car so that we could get back home for Ainsley’s nap. Remember how I was telling you that this seemed to be in a nice area. Well I asked one of my employees about the niceness of it because he lives in Oakland and he began to tell me that he really doesn’t hang out down there as there we’re 14 muggings/robberies just not too long ago by a guy that was carrying a knife. Glad we got out of there alive!
Same day (bounce house adventure)
After recovering from the Fairyland adventure, we headed northeast to Brentwood (20 miles from us) to pick up a new Thomas the Train bounce house. You see when Riley starting getting really sick he decided to use our bounce house as his litter box! No poopies but he urinated all over that thing. We even thought at first that we had a leak in the roof as it was everywhere. But the smell was not adding up to that theory and finally Trina caught him with his pants down as she saw him relieving himself. Needless to say that bounce house is in the landfill somewhere and that is the reason for the new one. Anyhow, one big bonus for going out to Brentwood to pick up the bounce house was that there was a Taco del Mar there. We have withdrawals for Taco del Mar because there aren’t any located near us. So any chance we get to hit one we’re all over it. And this was no exception because Trina has been craving it for weeks…. Bless her heart, she has cut out all sweets for lent this season so any chance she has to treat herself with something other than sugar is a blessing. So we picked up the bounce house (it was like brand new & the kids tested it out in their front lawn just to make sure). We then headed to Taco Del Mar and as we were pulling up Trina says “it looks pretty dark in there, do you think it’s closed?” Of course I’m Mr. Optimistic, stating that no it can’t be closed. And whamo bamo, CLOSED ON SUNDAYS!! She was crushed!! She had been saving herself all day, only to be let down… We did however see a Red Robin just down the street so we ate dinner there and everyone was happy.. We got home late (7PM) and the kids had to test it out again so we set it up in the house.. Check out these two crazy kids enjoying the jumper. Oh how I love to hear them laugh.

They go in this several times a day!

Dentist

The kids had dentist appointments on Friday and we learned a lot. Reggie got a little brushing lesson, although his teeth are in great shape…hardly any plaque for them to scrape. He was not very relaxed, but did o.k. The dentist also told me that he has a crossbite (I think) on both sides? Anyway, what it means is his lower teeth are outside of his upper teeth on the sides and his front teeth hit each other. This could be from his large tonsils, but they aren’t sure. So, next year, he’ll go see the orthodontist and they are probably going to recommend widening his upper bite with some kind of retainer.
Ainsley didn’t fare so well. She did awesome, but we think she has Ryan’s teeth. She has some plaque build up and even had a small cavity. Thankfully, we took her in and they could easily fill it (she thought she was just getting polished). She also has a tendon in between her 2 front teeth that extends too far and has created a large gap. She’s likely to have that when her permanent teeth come in and there are a couple uncomfortable ways they can fix that. But, the biggy for her was that her teeth have moved due to her binky, so we got rid of that cold turkey. Ainsley was far more attached to her binkey than Reggie ever was, wanting it every time she got upset, went down for a nap or went for a drive/bike ride. We knew this day would come, but we were somehow dreaming she’d be ready. The first attempt at a nap was tragic. She cried and cried for her binky, saying things like she didn’t care if her teeth were messed up or she wanted to have her teeth stick out. She also said she never wanted to go to the dentist again :o(. After at least a ½ hour, I asked her if she wanted to get up and have quiet time and that is what she did. So, we’ve had 1 nap in 4 days. The good thing is she goes to bed quickly (before it was taking about an hour) and sleeps pretty well. She seems a little out of sorts and I don’t blame her. We took away her one comfort and there’s nothing that we can really replace it with :o(.

Life comes in flurries

I had nothing much to blog about for 2-3 weeks and all of the sudden, there’s lots to write about this last week.
First off, we have been having terrible weather here, cold, really rainy and some days I feel like I’m back in Washington! Anyway, we had to take a couple pictures of the bike trail, which is completely underwater and blocked by debris. The kids have fun throwing rocks in the water and playing Pooh sticks (dropping sticks and having them race to the other side to see which comes out first). We have been riding bikes a lot lately since Ainsley got her new bike, a bike built for two (she asked if she could go in the mud!):

Reggie is continuing to do really well in t-ball and I feel like I am watching someone else’s kid. He actually wants to learn to catch and the first thing he said tonight was, “I only dropped one fly ball!” It is fun to see his hand/eye coordination starting to click. He is definitely the coaches pet (although he has no idea). He got to be the first one to pick his jersey number, play pitcher in the first game and be the home run hitter twice. The coach gave him the gameball, which has been a prized possession that he has taken everywhere. Here he is in his Yankee uniform (which we couldn’t get him out of for 3 straight days!).

Ainsley has been hanging out with me during all this baseball time and we do all kinds of fun things like make spaghetti at the playground out of bark and various other things, play tag and grocery shop (I forgot the camera again!). She gets a free cookie and is very excited about that. We stopped by the deli to get some turkey and they gave her a slice of cheese, so snack time was taken care of :o). It is like a switch has gone on and she wants to help me do everything…I caught her and Reggie folding clothes and it was too funny not to share:

They have been playing really good together lately and it gives Ryan and me a little time to talk about the day or just hang out. This parenting thing is starting to get a bit easier!
Pump It Up:
The kids didn’t have school on Monday, so we headed to Pump It Up and had a blast. It had only been open for about 2 months, so all the jumpers were new and you could really tell. The slide was lightning fast and thank goodness for the bumper at the bottom or we would have been in real trouble. They also had a new jousting area that was super bouncy like a trampoline. My back was feeling great and I was bouncing all over the place with the kids :o). It was a really fun day and reminded me of the freedom of having no school. I took lots of pictures, but most of them are blurry. I did get one of Ainsley eating a fruit roll on the way. Libby brought them in the car and she had never eaten one and didn’t quite get the concept of taking it off the plastic. She was a mess when we got there and had managed to eat some plastic, yum, yum!!!
Curly hair from a French braid:

Tuesdays:
We are taking a little break from one of our playgroup on Tues., so that Reggie and I can have a little one on one time and we’ve done some fun things so far. We partially built a robot puzzle one week, last week we went bowling and rescued his stray baseball that he hit across the street by the bike trail and this week we rode his bike to Pleasanton and did a little of the dirt track that had thankfully dried out. I was surprised he went over so many of the hills because I did and was getting a little nervous, although it didn’t help that my pedals kept getting caught on dirt peaks. Anyway, it should be a fun, adventure filled spring :o).

Ainsley at gymnastics:
Orange tree (we finally have oranges and they are soooo good!!):

Adventures with Dad

Last weekend was supposed to be a relaxing non-eventful weekend until I decided to take a bike ride with the kids from Livermore to Pleasanton (Trina went shopping)! That ride is right around 6 miles (3 each way). At first Reggie was hesitant as we made it very clear that it was a long way, but the word adventure was brought up along having a happy meal at McDonald’s and he was in. Ainsley didn’t know what was going on and before she knew it she was on the back seat of my bike we were peddling West. We decided to hit the BMX bike track in Pleasanton prior to going to McDonald’s, since it was on the way. When they got there the track looked dry, even though it had rained all week, so we took off into the wooptie doo’s. Before we knew it we were stuck in sinking clay mud that was swallowing us by the minute. There was a lot of laughing as both Reggie and I were trying to get out of the track by pushing the bikes out on foot. Problem was that the tires of the bikes were picking up large clumps of the mud/clay along with our feet which was making it almost impossible for the bikes to move and for us to get our footing. Finally, we escaped and then it was time to clean off our shoes and tires. But there wasn’t a hose or any water, only mud puddles… We hit McDonalds, tracking mud all over.. While at McDonalds a little girl decided to start eating the cheese off of Ainsley’s cheese burger and then proceeded to stick her finger right through the middle of the burger while we went back to exchange our toys at the counter. Needless to say, I returned the cheeseburger for a new one. As we were eating we noticed a thick rain cloud heading our way, so we hopped on the bikes and made the long 3 mile journey home. We got about 1 mile into the ride and the rain started to fall and then it fell harder and then harder until Reggie was riding his bike with one eye closed hitting every mud puddle in sight. All he could say is, “Daddy I love getting soaked and driving through mud puddles.” His sweatshirt and pants we’re drenched and he could care less… Ainsley on the other hand wanted nothing to do with it and said she never wanted to do that again. Once we arrived home there wasn’t a dry piece of clothing on their body. Then it was time to wash the bikes, along with our shoes and change into some dry clothes. When asked if it was adventure, Reggie replied, “Oh yeah mommy it was awesome.”

Sorry, for all of you that like pictures...Ryan didn't bring the camera or take a picture when they got back.

This and that...

We seem to be through the worst of Reggie’s night terrors. He was having them 3-4 times a week and it was a little worrisome at first. He is completely unresponsive and can’t communicate, but we can clearly tell something is wrong. We usually take him to the bathroom and he snaps out of it, but a few times, it has lasted for several minutes. The other night, he was able to wake himself up to get to what he thought was the bathroom and we found him peeing in Ryan’s gym bag in the closet! We’ll get there one of these days :o). I think he may have been going through a growth spurt because he’s gotten noticeably taller and was eating like crazy (he is still eating like crazy…what will the teen years be like?).
Every night after dinner, we have some take-out time or keep away football. The kids love it and it is fun for us to. The other night, I felt like I was watching the circus:

Ainsley has been quite the helper these days. She wants to help me do everything, clean toilets, put away dishes, fold clothes, shop…I think I might have died and gone to heaven. She is quite the helper at the grocery store. She has her own cart (I’ll try to take a picture soon), fills it with groceries, organizing them a couple of times and then she unloads them at the checkout. But, it doesn’t stop there. When we get home, she carries in the bags and unloads and tries to put things away. It is very sweet and she’s is getting a lot of gold stars, but doesn’t seem to be interested in the gold star prize. Reggie is completely the opposite and will do almost nothing unless he gets a gold star! This weekend they had fun weeding!!! I think I have to take advantage of this period in time :o).
Here’s a picture of Ainsley wanting to be a baby. We were supposed to have fun putting these clothes on her dolls, but ended up being frustration that quickly turned into hysteria :o(. We’ve had a couple teacher conferences these past couple weeks. I was really curious to see what they had to say about Ainsley. Because I still have Reggie in the morning, I don’t get to volunteer in her class much. Her teachers were all smiles when talking about her and how sweet she is and how well she follows directions, plays with peers, etc. And, she has started raising her hand and participating in circle time. She really wants to be a big kid like Reggie, so I think that helps. She actually wants to work on her letters and write her name. So far, all her free hand letters are upside down, but I’m sure one of these days, they flip! This morning, Ryan and I had Reggie’s 2nd kindergarten conference. It was great. He is right where he should be in academics and social skills :o). Things are started to really click for him and it is really fun to watch. We had baseball practice tonight and I watched him do his warm up run and he was sprinting the entire way and finished far ahead of the other kids (most are younger). It is absolutely amazing to me how children can change in one short year. Last year he walked in a less than enthusiastic way and was by far the last kid to finish.
One last thing…Reggie wakes up earlier than everyone in our house and he can’t wait until Ainsley gets up, so he has someone to play with. A few days ago, I heard him say to her that he made her a scavenger hunt. He hid messages around the house and gave her clues to find them. He made 4, one said, “I liv you Ainsley”, one was a picture of them playing ball, another one said “I like you Ainsley” and the last one was a picture of the bounce house that they love to play in. Are they the greatest kids or what???!!!

By the way....we've been having terrible weather and this was our street a couple weeks ago:

Riley

Today was a sad day….we said goodbye to part of our family :o(. Riley had quite the personality, he loved a lap to sit on and fingers to scratch him, but when he had enough, he’d whip around and bite! He was so strong and such a fighter...we only gave him one bath because Ryan lost the battle with him and had blood running down his arms. He got better as he got older, but for some reason he was very gentle with the kids. He loved sleeping with them, but they would always wake up in the middle of the night and ask us to take him out, so he slept with us, most recently on our pillows. I always felt a little safer when Ryan was gone, just knowing the cat would warn me. Someone was at the door a few years ago and he was on the counter in the kitchen and I heard him growl, only to find the mailman dropping a package. I’ve never heard of a cat attacking a mailman, but he was ready. He also saved us from a raccoon that came in his cat door…that made for an interesting night! He had a great 10 years with us, lots of adventure (you can see by the scars on his head) and lots of love :o).
Ah, what a bummer that part of life is death. Reggie wanted to have something to remember him by, so we took their picture together and are going to frame it. Riley looks pretty good, given the fact that he hasn’t eaten much in weeks :o(.

Life was sure different here:

Beat-up Reggie

The sun finally came out today!!!! We took advantage by going to the park and then riding bikes on the bike trail. I went for a run and met up with kids and Ryan along the trail. They were throwing rocks in the river and having a great time :o). We decided to race home and of course they passed me, but I made a come back when they were crossing the street. The race was on and I didn't get too far before I heard some serious screaming....Reggie had wrecked, going as fast as he's ever gone :o(. Ryan had Ainsley on the back of his bike, so he couldn't do much to help. She started freaking out, so it was good I turned around and ran back as fast as I could. Thankfully, a neighbor helped us out. Unfortunately, his face took the brunt of it. Ryan said he flew over the handle bars and skidded like a rock on his face....poor guy. His hands and chest got a little scraped up too, but he is just fine. To make matters worse, he was eating a bagel this morning and his loose tooth really started hurting. It was crooked in his mouth and ready to fall out, but we couldn't get a good handle on it and he wasn't feeling so good about it. So, tonight we pulled it out and it looks like we beat the you know what out of him! Good thing kids heal quickly.

Happy Birthday Liha....the big 35!

Weekend in the mountains

Our good friends the Penner’s (Libby, Scott, Caleb and Naomi) invited us to their cabin in Arnold last weekend. We made the 2 hour trek northeast to enjoy a weekend away. Many of you know that the weather here has been terrible, tons of rain and wind. Well, the cabin got hit with a bunch of snow, well over a foot!!! We got a little lost finding their cabin, thanks to the GPS, but we finally made it. When we pulled up, we were a little curious about the candles in the window and had a feeling that the power might be out and sure enough, that was right. My stomach was in a panic because it was dinner time and we were all hungry and I was wondering how we were going to make dinner. The kids were so excited to be in a new place and wanted to explore for a bit and since we needed to unload anyway, we didn’t worry about food right away. Libby wanted to take us to their favorite burger place, so we headed out, along with every other cabin out of power. The wait was about a ½ hour, so I was glad I gave the kids a granola bar on the way (I should have had one too!). Thankfully, there was a small arcade to keep the kids busy. I ordered the kids food right away and it came pretty quick, so Reggie and Ainsley were taken care of. The lights kept going out, but coming back on and I was so anxious that after waiting so long, we weren’t going to get our burgers! Our dinner finally arrived at 7:40 (we usually eat at 5!) and we all inhaled it :o). We put the kids to bed right when we got home and relaxed for a bit before we turned in.
Libby was optimistic that the power would come back on on Sat., since they’d never been there when it had been out for more than 1 day. We woke up to peace and quiet, no power! Snow was lightly falling and it was just beautiful. We decided to head out for a sledding adventure. Scott took us to a hill that they had been to before, but because there was so much snow, the snow plow blocked the way. We decided to go to the sled run at Bear Valley, so we headed to the local store to get tickets, only the store was closed due to the power outage. Tickets at the mountain were going to cost $100. Hmmm, now what? Things were not exactly going smoothly, so we decided to head back to the cabin to try to find a hill there. On the way, Scott thought of another place to try, so we went there and parked at the local elementary school. The kids had a blast playing on the play structure that was covered in snow, who knew that would be so fun! We built a snowman, while Scott scouted out a good hill. It ended up being a perfect hill and the boys had a blast! The girls went down a few times and ended up in the car watching Tinkerbell, while Ryan took a snooze!

Not sure Ainsley is having fun...

That afternoon, the kids had some quiet time and we hung out, while the guys went to get some soup to cook for dinner. We managed to cook everything on top of the wood stove, including garlic bread and warmed apple pie for dessert. After dinner, we had a good time playing charades in the dark with the kids :o).

Playing a little take-out in the dark!

The power finally came on Sunday morning, so we took showers and had a nice breakfast before we packed up and headed home. It will definitely be a weekend that we will never forget!!!

Two fun-filled weeks!!!

We had a wonderful trip home for the holidays. We were on the go a lot, but that allowed us to see many of our family and friends.

The best traveler's ever!!! They were so excited about the plane, train and escalator...what could be better :o)The afternoon we arrived, we headed to Grandma Pam’s for some down time before going to Cadia’s 3rd birthday party. Ainsley was wired, so after about 45 minutes of Ryan sleeping and her chatting away, they came downstairs and we visited the chicken coop and the kids just ran around. They had so much fun climbing on bricks and running up and down the grassy hills! It was nice to have a little outside time and the weather cooperated. The kids had fun at the birthday party and we had a nice time visiting. It was a long day, but Reggie and Ainsley were so excited to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s and even more excited to ride with them in the car. I guess Ainsley didn’t stop talking the entire time :o). The next day, Ryan and I were off to meet with friends for lunch and I had a physical therapy appointment. Turns out some of my hip/lower back pain is due to a fallen kidney. I visited her a couple more times, but my kidney just won’t stay put. She showed Ryan how to put it back in place, but I’m not so sure we can figure it out! I’m going to try to find someone here who can help me. Later that day, we visited Santa….or tried to. Alderwood Mall was CRAZY!!! We decided to go to the Spaghetti Factory instead! Our family misses eating there, so it was a nice treat. After that, we went to the Everett Mall to see Santa and only had to wait about 5 minutes. We stayed at Liha and Wade’s that night and the cousins got to play all morning :o). In the afternoon, I took Reggie to meet up with Kellen and Abby and they enjoyed playing together for a few hours. It was nice for us moms to catch up too!

We headed up to the lake after that and were very happy to be there for a couple days. Grandma did crafts with Reggie and they played up in the loft and we baked my favorite Christmas cookies! I missed cookie day this year and butter cookies were always my responsibility (they are pretty labor intensive and not so fun to make), so they just skipped it, but the dough was ready. It was so much faster having the kids do the cut-outs and having mom juggle the oven. Even my dad was helping, although he needs a bit more practice :o). I think we’ll have to do it again next year since everyone had so much fun and even more fun eating them. Reggie said they were the best cookies ever! Christmas Eve was spent at Uncle Anthony’s house, having a nice ham dinner and visiting. Unfortunately, Reggie wasn’t feeling well, so he was pretty quiet. I think it was all the sledding!!! My parents got a few inches of snow and it was super cold, so it lasted several days and Reggie was a maniac sledder, sometimes for several hours at a time. Even Ainsley enjoyed it this year. Oh, and Ryan and I went sledding too. We decided to go for a healthy walk up the logging roads and bring our sleds, so we could have a little fun on the way down. We didn’t really think through things, however. Sledding without gloves and snow pants didn’t work all that well. It was the fastest snow I can remember and we were flying down the hill, pretty out of control, with no hands for steering! I had to bail a few times to stop and because the snow wasn’t that deep, the gravel underneath gave me a few souvenirs. Ryan’s sled was a bit slower, so he faired a little better. When we got back, Ryan said it was good to feel like a kid again :o). Back to Christmas Eve….the kids opened presents and then we headed back to the lake. Poor Reggie fell asleep in the car. Christmas morning was lots of fun, although we didn’t get much excitement from the kids. Ainsley opened up her baby from Santa and said, “Hey, I didn’t want that one.” NICE!!! They were happy to have chocolate chip pancakes and later Reggie figured out how cool his Leapster was from Santa. The Rinehardt’s showed up not too much later and they opened another round of presents. Later that day, the extended family came and we had a nice time visiting and eating and exchanging our white elephant gifts. We were very happy to see Kristin and the girls….she barely made it, taking the Oso road (partially paved and snowy!).

Christmas morning....misfits???? My mom, sister and I went shopping the next day and out to lunch. I can’t remember the last time we did that! No kids, no worries…if only we were at a spa…maybe next year :o). That night, Ryan and I left the kids again and headed to Kim and Shane’s to spend some time with Ryan’s extended family. They pulled the karaoke out and it was fun to watch everyone sing, but I’m not thinking we’ll see anyone on American Idol and Ryan surely won’t get any awards for singing Beat It!
The rest of our trip consisted of another play date with Kellen and Abby, a dentist appointment for Ryan (we still haven’t found a good one here), another sleepover at Liha and Wade’s, Jump Planet with Maggie, fireworks on New Year’s Eve, Jungle Playland with Grandma Peggy and Maggie’s birthday party. Whew…I’m tired just thinking about it. Oh, and I can’t forget the massive amounts of rain. Thankfully, we had some active indoor activities that let the kids burn off some steam. They had a great time with Grandma Peggy at Jungle Playland and I think she may have gotten a good work-out too!

To see video, go to www.arrtwade.blogspot.com

There was also a bit of wind at my parents house, followed by a power outage! Reggie thought it was the coolest thing ever to use lanterns and flashlights. He was placing them all around the house as we were trying to explain that you keep the light with you. Of course, the power went out right before dinner, so we cooked on the BBQ and it turned out to be a really fun evening :o). We got a good laugh just watching Reggie enjoy himself!

A walk in the woods with Grandpa, just before the power went out!

Maggie's birthday party:

Fashion Queen

I think we’re going to be in trouble with Ainsley!!! She changes her clothes a few times a day and won’t wear anything I suggest. It took weeks to finally get her to wear socks and I had to hide her Capri pants because she wouldn’t wear any warm clothes. She still wears her swimsuits and gym suits around the house like it is summer! Her room is ALWAYS cluttered with clothes she’s tried on and taken off….I guess that is payback since my room was like that in high school! Her latest is shopping around the house. She fills my reusable shopping bags/Reggie’s snack bags/empty shoes boxes/her purse with all kinds of things and puts them in her shopping cart and wheels them all around the house. It is quite funny, especially when she starts explaining everything to me. Here’s a clip: