Category: Activities

Baby Shower

My sister who is expecting her first baby in April, had her baby shower today.

We started the day off with taking Ryan and Cole to a friend’s 3 year old birthday party at a bouncy castle place. Ryan had fun bouncing with Dad, and Cole did surprisingly well playing with an exerciser, the facility had. We had a nice lunch and Thomas cake, and it was a great party!

I was playing it by ear, on whether to take Cole or not to the shower- we already decided Ryan was going to stay home with Joe, because we knew he really needed his nap. My sister lives about 50 miles away, so it is a bit of a trip. I didn’t really want to take Cole, because he doesn’t do that well with crowds, and noise, and he also needed to nap. But he is having major separation anxiety right now, and I wasn’t sure if he would be fussy today or not. To be totally honest, I thought it would be nice to have a few kid/baby free hours, to just enjoy the shower. But I was waiting it out to see how he would be.

BINGO! Both boys fell asleep on the way home from the birthday party, and I carried Cole upstairs, and laid him on the bed, and he stayed asleep, so I took off.

The shower was really nice, with lots of family, friends, and good food. Almost everyone asked where the boys were, so that was nice they were missed, but they completely understood why they weren’t there. 🙂

My sister and her husband, are having a girl, and they decided to name her Maelyn. It is a name her mother-in-law suggested, and I think it has Norwegian decent.

I knew all along for my main gift, I wanted to do something special with letters, once they decided on a name, but a few months ago my sister, just out of the blue, told me she was going to order the letters for Maelyn’s name off of a store on e-bay.

I HAD to tell her I wanted to do that for her gift, and she agreed, so my sister has known about the letters, but she didn’t know what I was planning to do with them. I was going to order the letters off a web-site, but then saw some at a local arts & crafts store, and my sister had seen the same ones, and liked them, so I got them. I bought them white, but added the design, and ribbons to them. I am very happy how they turned out. But more importantly, my sister said she really liked them. I asked her to take a picture of them, once they were hung up, because her nursery theme is coral and lime green, and the wall these will be hung on, is lime green and I think they will look better hung up on the wall then just laying on the tissue paper I put them on to take a picture of them….

I hope Maelyn likes them as she grows older, and they help her learn to spell her name. We have the letters for Ryan’s name, and he loves pointing out the letters, and spelling his name. We just got some for Cole’s name as well. I really had fun designing these, and I can’t wait to meet my sweet niece, Maelyn. We can’t wait for her to be born!

Activities Cole Family & Friends Ryan

Monster Trucks & Snuggly Sweet Dreams

Post author By A Mama's Blog
Post date February 3, 2007
1 Comment on Monster Trucks & Snuggly Sweet Dreams

These two things don’t necessarily go together, but tonight they did for us. Ryan’s Grandpa (my dad) called last night to tell us there was a monster truck show in a neighboring town tonight, and he thought Ryan would get a big kick out of it, since trucks are one of his favorite things. So Joe went to Home Depot today and got a deluxe earphone headset to protect Ryan’s ears, and he was ready to go see Bigfoot!

My dad came and got Ryan about 7 pm, and they got home at 10. Ryan had a blast and couldn’t stop talking about the trucks. He was especially interested in the one that turned over, and “had lots of men come out to turn it back over.” It was really nice Ryan and Grandpa had their first Saturday night out.

Meanwhile, we have been having some major sleep issues with Cole; he has been having a really hard time going to sleep and staying asleep. Right now, he doesn’t have his own room, so he has been sleeping in our room. With big brother out on the town, I decided to try to see if I could nurse Cole to sleep and then put him to sleep in the crib, which is in Ryan’s room. The first attempt failed, as Cole woke up the second I set him down in the crib. I nursed him again in the glider, and then put him back in the crib. He woke up and was fussy, but didn’t cry. I kept patting him on the back, and held his hand while he groaned and moaned a bit, but after about 5 minutes he went to sleep, and has been blissfully sleeping ever since. This is the longest stretch he has been sleeping in quite a while- 4 hours now and counting. WOO HOO!

After a quick shower for Ryan, (to wash away the truck exaust smell) we decided to let Ryan fall asleep in our bed, so he wouldn’t wake up Cole. I put him in his P.J’s, and snuggled with him for 10 minutes, until he drifted off to sleep. It has been a long time since I have been able to snuggle with Ryan before bed, because I am always trying to put Cole to sleep, and I had almost forgotten how sweet it is. He held my hand, and stroked my wrist, until he fell asleep. I realized how much I miss that. When you have more than one child, it is amazing how many things you take for granted that you used to be able to do with only one. I am hoping that as Cole gets older, he will start to sleep better, and I’ll have more time to snuggle with Ryan, and then with Cole.

There is nothing like holding your sweet child in your arms, as they drift off to sleep. They are so peaceful, and purely sweet. This is one of the best parts of being a mother- when you can just be, with your children and soak up their essence.

Activities Cole Family & Friends Music Ryan

Music Class

Since Ryan was about a year old, we have been going to music classes, specifically, Music Together, on Thursday mornings.

Music has always been a big part of my life and my family’s life. My grandmother can play the piano brilliantly from ear. She can’t read music, but she can sit down and play any ANY song. She has performed in public many times, in various states and venues. My parents always encouraged my siblings and I in music, and I studied the flute from the time I was in 5th grade all through high school. I still have one and pull it out play it on occasion. I played the flute in the youth symphony during high school, as well as in marching band, jazz band, and orchestra. I participated in a lot of competitions and always really enjoyed them. I can also play the piccolo, piano a bit, and percussion- the mallets and xylophone. I also was in choir in school, and enjoyed singing, but my real love was playing the flute. Our band in high school actually got to be in a Disneyland parade, so I got to play the flute while marching down Main Street in Disneyland.

My older brother played the violin during Jr. high, and high school, and was also in the youth symphony. One of my younger sisters inherited my grandmother’s talent for the piano, and she can play the piano by ear, and she can read music. She also plays the violin, and taught herself (yes self taught) herself the clarinet. She also was very active in music during school, and played in the youth symphony. My youngest sister played the french horn, my mother sings, and my father can play the bass and has an amazing “musical memory.” He can tell you which composer, which orchestra, etc. plays a certain piece of music.

So by now you have gotten the idea how big a part of music has been in my life, and we hope to pass that down to our children. The Music Together program emphasizes that all children can learn to sing in tune, and keep a beat, when taught early enough. Ryan sways to music already, and his teacher says that is how small children keep the beat. He can hear a song, and “drum” the correct beat. He seems to really like singing, dancing, and playing instruments already. He is really interested in the guitar; I think because our MT teacher lets the kids come up and play her guitar after class. Joe and I have been talking about starting Ryan with an instrument when he is four, all though I don’t know what instrument it will be yet.

During the course of the class, we have also gotten to play with drums, tambourines, triangle, rhythm sticks, individual bells, and mallets just to name a few.

Our teacher is wonderful, and she allows siblings up to a year old to come with the older sibling for free, so Cole has been introduced to music as well, since before he was born. He bounces along to a lot of the songs, “plays” the rhythm sticks, and claps. Sometimes at home if I am singing, he’ll just start bouncing along with the beat- it is really neat to see. So I hope by attending Music Together, it will intoduce and start Ryan and Cole down a road for a life-long love of music.

Here are a couple of pictures of Ryan and I at class when he was about 18 months old (they are the only pictures I have of us during class, and were taken by my sister when she visited a class with us. The program encourages parent participation, so I am usually too busy participating to take pictures. 🙂 )

Activities Ryan

Arts & Crafts

Post author By A Mama's Blog
Post date January 31, 2007

Today Cole’s wonderful grandma and grandpa watched him for us, so Ryan and I could have our special morning together.

We had our “Mommy & Ryan” time at our local museum. It offers a variety of arts & crafts every week, with a different theme. We love going there- Ryan gets to paint, make a craft, play in a play house, and there is a big table that the teacher fills up with different items every week like, cornmeal, painted rice, noodles, and dry beans. Today was Groundhog Day theme, so the table had potting soil in it, and there were lots of buried plastic worms.

Ryan made a groundhog puppet and painted a picture of a worm. He played in the dirt, and got to spread shaving cream around on a table. He also got his first taste of finger painting, but he didn’t like all the paint on his hands and wanted to go wash them off.

Ryan got to see a sea shell as well, on the science table. I held it up to his ear, and told him he could hear the ocean. Tonight he was walking around saying, “I hear the ocean.” I’ll have to get him a sea shell the next time I am at the craft store, so he can hear the ocean whenever he wants.