Random Catch Up

I just transferred a bunch of photos and realized that I am way behind on blogging!  We had fall like temperatures two weeks ago, which put our pool outings on hold.  Instead, we spent a lot of time outside playing outside!

I just love this action shot of Tyler.

Tyler figured out how to climb up the rock wall on his own.

I couldn't help but post the photo below.  This really captures Tyler... standing on a table, screaming at the top of his lungs... yep, we hear you buddy.  The volume in our house is LOUD!

The boys have been playing pretty nicely together.

There was supposed to be a brood of cicadas hatching this year.  Although I haven't seen too many living cicadas, we've had quite a few of the shells hanging out on the play set.  Brennan and Tyler have been collecting them. 

They've been storing them in the critter shack, along with a few dead bugs... oh the joy of having boys! 

Brennan has been goofing around with Tyler.  They slide down the slide together and Brennan pretends that Tyler "gets him" when they reach the bottom.  I think Tyler is just enjoying getting a hug from his big brother.  Brennan also likes to pretend that Tyler bumps into him (and knocks him down) when he is swinging.

This pose just cracked me up!  It also makes for a good "before" picture for his hair.

Brennan finally got his hair cut.  It didn't turn out how I had hoped, but it is fine and with a little product, I think he'll look quite stylish for Pete and Meg's wedding.  In the photo below, the boys were helping Brian make blueberry pancakes using the recipe from Tyler Florence's children's book, Tyler Makes Pancakes.  They were delicious!

We've spent a lot of time this summer with Brennan's friend, Carter and his brother, Zach.  The boys really enjoying playing together at Algonkian Park.

We met Carter's family at their community pool last week.  I couldn't believe how empty it was!  When we arrived, it was only us and one other family - someone who we happened to know from preschool!  The boys had a blast playing and swimming together.

Backpack

Tyler has been putting Brennan's backpack and saying "good bye" to me quite a bit lately.  When I ask him where he is going, he says, "work."  It's really funny.  He loves wearing the backpack though and will put it on anytime he sees it laying around.

Brennan took the backpack away from him, and Tyler was ready to wrestle him to get it back.

Tyler is actually going to preschool one day a week starting in September, so I got him his own backpack.  Since the backpack arrived, he often has it on and says, "backpack" quite clearly.  He was showing it off to Brian, as Brian was getting ready to leave for work.  He put on his Spiderman slippers, which he calls boots and was ready to go!

He was definitely trying to see what he could get away with as he left the house!

I think he really thought he was going to work with Brian!

Rescreening the Deck

Last week, we had a much needed project completed - we got the deck rescreened! Thanks Gary and Caryl! The old screening had many holes in it and the exterior wood had seen better days!  The project took three days and seemed like more work that I had originally imagined. Here is a before shot of the deck before:

And after:

The old door and stairway was one of the worst parts of the deck.  The nails in the stair boards were poking up, the boards were warping and the door was in serious disrepair.  The wood railing was full of splinters.  Here is the before:

Now we have a door with an actual handle and spring loaded hinges.  The stairs and railing are clean and splinter free!  Here is the after shot:

Once we figure out how/where we are going to store our firewood, which is currently sitting under the deck, we are going to hang 3/4 inch lattice around the bottom of the deck to hide whatever we are storing there.  We figure we should clear it before enclosing it.  What a nice change though!  Between the fence, playground and deck, our backyard is shaping up quite nicely this summer!

Summer Fun

I wasn't really planning on potty training Tyler until he was closer to 3, but he has been giving me indications that he may be ready sooner. He knows when he has to go and will sometimes tell me beforehand. After a week in the nursery at VBS, where they encouraged him to sit on the potty, he's been sitting on the potty almost everyday.  He hasn't done anything on it yet though. I am sending him to preschool one day a week this coming school year and the woman that ran the nursery during VBS will actually be his teacher. It's just one day a week, but I hope being in a classroom where the kids are encouraged to try the potty will be good to help advance our cause!  At that point, I may start to make more of an effort.

We've been having a lot of fun with friends over the last week.  We've had a playdate, or pool date, almost every day.  Last week, we headed into Arlington to meet my girlfriend, Regina, and her son, Frankie, at the pool.  This pool is located at one of the Northern Virginia Regional Parks, which is part of the system to which we have a summer pass.  We had never been to this location, but it was great!  They have two big slides, but unlike our usual pool, which dumps you out into 4 feet of water, these slides end in their own shallow slide paths.  That allowed Brennan to go on them!

Brennan was so excited to give them a try.  He was a little nervous the first couple of times, but then got comfortable and spent the majority of the time going up and down the slide.  For the first two hours we were there, the place was almost empty, so he didn't have to wait in line or anything.  It was great and he was loving it!  We have plans to go back tomorrow.

We met up with a few of Brennan's preschool friends for lunch at the mall yesterday to celebrate Kelsey's birthday.  Kelsey is having an all girl party at the end of August, but then had second thoughts and begged her mom to plan something for her boy friends.  We were supposed to meet up a sprayground for water play, pizza and cupcakes, but had to go for plan B - meet at the mall, due to rainy weather.  The kids still had fun and enjoyed seeing each other!

Yesterday was an errand day as well.  We ran up to the allergist twice (to drop off school forms, then to pick them up.)  We made returns at the mall, had lunch with Brennan's friends and got Tyler's haircut!  I have an appointment at Bubbles for Brennan on Saturday, but for Tyler, we headed to Cartoon Cuts.  I was so happy that he did so well again!  Hopefully this means he is officially over his fear of haircuts.

Our little guy is all cleaned up and ready for Uncle Pete's wedding in a couple of weeks!  Check out the potty picture above for the "before" shot!  What a difference!

Brennan's 5 Year and Tyler's 2 Year Stats

Tuesday, August 6, was a day of appointments.  The boys had dentist appointments at 9 and then were scheduled to see the pediatrician at 1:30.  Brennan always does well at the dentist and this appointment was no exception.  I was happy to hear that they felt he was doing a good enough job brushing that he can continue to do that on his own.  He still has space between his molars, so no x-rays yet.  I wasn't sure what to expect for Tyler.  At 2, Brennan wouldn't even sit in the chair, much less for a cleaning, so we ended up having the appointment in their nursery room, where the dentist briefly looked into Brennan's mouth and painted a fluoride treatment on his teeth.  My expectations were very low for Tyler's first dental visit, but he ended up doing pretty good!  After watching Brennan in the chair, he was willing to climb in, but did not want Brennan to stay with him!  He was sort of watching the Diego video that Brennan picked and was pretty intrigued by the water squirter.  He could be coaxed into laying back in the chair with the promise of a drink from the water squirter.  He ended up allowing the hygienist to do a full cleaning with the electric toothbrush.  I couldn't get a picture though - every time I pulled out my phone, he tried to jump out of the chair.

Onto the pediatrician that afternoon, both boys did well.  Brennan weighed 51 pounds (93%) and was 46 inches tall (3 feet 10 inches, also 93%.)  Brennan's blood pressure and hearing checked out, but the doctor suggested seeing an eye doctor to assess if Brennan needs glasses, since the pediatrician's screening showed his vision was 50/20.  Tyler weighed 28.5 lb (55%) and was 38 inches tall (97%.)  He is right on track with his milestones and is looking good!  He just had one shot, the Hep A booster.  Tyler handled the booster shot better than Brennan handled his little hemoglobin pin prick test.  I left the office with both boys in tears, but they survived!  At two years old, the speech milestone is to put two words together.  Tyler is definitely meeting that milestone.  He says quite a few sentences, mostly starting with, "I want..."  Such as, "I want a movie, Cars, vrooom!"  In general, Tyler talks a lot, far more than Brennan did at this age.  His baby jargon is starting to turn more into real words though.  Before I lose all of that unintelligible chatter, I thought I'd better get some on video.  Enjoy!

Vacation Bible School

We just wrapped up a week of Vacation Bible School (VBS) at the Methodist Church in Sterling, where Brennan went to preschool.  I volunteered there and was the crew leader for one of the preschool classes.  They had a nursery for young children of volunteers, so that is where Tyler spent his week.  One hundred and sixty kids participated in this VBS and the theme was "Kingdom Rock."  My crew was the Castle Crew and I was asked to decorate my room in this theme.  I made castle name tags for the door.

 

The preschool crews did the Bible story and craft in their own classrooms.  I ordered some castle themed backdrops on Amazon to use in the room.  We did our Bible story beside the castle door each day.

In the main lobby, parents, kids or volunteers could stop by the royal information booth to get questions answered or buy a CD/DVD of the songs from Kingdom Rock.

Each morning, kids entered through the castle doors to meet their crew leaders in the sanctuary.

 

The set was beautifully built in Kingdom theme.  You may not be able to tell, but this set was fully navigable.  The actors were able to go in and out of the set, behind pillars and the stone wall.

We were entertained each day by the antics of Sir Righteous and Sir Clutzalot.  Princess Debbie helped them overcome their challenges by pointing them to the day's Bible lesson.

Each day, we were introduced to a new Bible Buddy that would help us remember a Bible point and memory verse.  Truman the Dog taught the kids that God's love helps us stand strong.  Duke the horse taught that family and friends help us stand strong.  Swift the falcon taught that prayer helps us stand strong.  Sir valiant the lion taught that trusting God helps us stand strong.  Victoria the fox taught us that the Bible helps us stand strong.  The man who played "Sir Righteous" made life-sized Bible Buddies out of plywood and painted them.  Swift the falcon is pictured below.

Brennan had a great time and so did I!  We'll be singing the songs we learned in the months to come and we look forward to next year's program!