Recent Rundown

I'm not sure where the time has gone, but school wraps up for Jake next week.  *GULP*  He's going to be a 2nd grader next year, you guys!!  Craziness. 

We've been playing, of course, both inside and outside:

 

 

 

 

"Is it naptime yet??"

We all got fresh haircuts recently....I was trying to snap a shot to send to my BFF and got photobombed by some freshly bathed boys:

We've been trying to eat things that resemble real meals, though between baseball and various other commitments, some nights we end up eating Mickey pancakes and sometimes some of us eat in our bathrobes:

 

Jake's school was closed last Tuesday for Election Day, so we took advantage of the nice weather and headed to the zoo with some neighbors:

 

 

 

 

Post-zoo crash.

 Last Saturday, our BFFs were in town and we were able to meet them for dinner (ADULTS ONLY, WOOHOO!  Thank you for babysitting, GG!)  Always a good time!!

 

That's a wrap for now!!!

Liam's 4 year check up & other updates

First up, some stats:

Height: 41 inches (67th percentile)
Weight: 36 lbs (52nd percentile)

At his 3 year check up, he was 38.5 inches and 33 lbs so he's grown 2.5 inches taller and weighs 3 pounds more than he did a year ago.  And for another comparison, at Jake's 4 year check up, he was 38.75 inches tall and 33 lbs.  So basically, Liam was the same size at age 3 that Jake was at age 4 :)  Which explains why Liam is almost always a size ahead in clothing over where Jake was!  (in fact, I'm pretty sure that they will be able to share clothes sooner rather than later....) 

Everything else at the check up looked good for this happy kid; at his last visit, he still had 1 stubborn tube in his left ear, but that has since fallen out so we don't have to worry about getting it removed.  We are grateful that the tubes made such a huge difference for him while they were in and we are very happy that he never had to have them replaced.  Hopefully we're past most of his ear issues. 

He got his shots like a champ (last set until he's 10 or so), and was super cooperative, even though our pediatrician took for-e-ver to make it into the room (and he was actually examined twice, a physicians assistant in training did a "practice" exam on him first, then our actual pediatrician did one) 

My only concern going into the appointment was Liam's speech; he still says a lot of his letters incorrectly (most notably his Ls, so when he says his name it comes out as Yiam, and sometimes he says his Ls as Ws...he struggles with Rs, too, those tend to come out as Ws)  Thankfully, the doctor wasn't concerned yet and said there's a good chance he will outgrow it by kindergarten, and if not, they will evaluate him in school at that time if they feel it's necessary and we can go from there.  So at least we don't have to worry about it right now (and to be honest, I kind of like the way he says those things!!)

He's starting to wean himself off of naps (at home at least, he always naps at preschool); I knew the day would come, and even though I adore those afternoon naps when we're home, sometimes they do get in the way of trying to plan things in the afternoon.  So it's nice that if necessary, he can now power through the afternoon...although it's still a toss up, sometimes he's totally fine and just goes to bed early...other days, he falls apart in the late afternoon/early evening and it's miserable.  So, if we have something going on in that late afternoon/early evening time, I really push to try to get him to nap so that he's not a mess wherever we are.  Most of the time he will comply...if I let him sleep on his floor in his sleeping bag.  Fair enough.

And he is FINALLY getting to the point where, if we let him stay up late, he will actually make up for it by sleeping in the next day.  Hallelujah!!!  I really didn't think we were ever going to get to this point; for so long he would wake up at his usual time (a disturbingly early 5:30am) no matter what time he had gone to bed the night before.  So this new development is so exciting to us!! 

So that's what's going on in Liam's world right now...happy, healthy, and ready to take on year 2 of preschool next year! 

First Trip to Kennywood!!

Shortly after posting our summer bucket list, we were able to check one of the items off of it...we made our first trip as a family to Kennywood this past weekend! 

Thanks to a pretty short line, the very first thing we did was hop in line for the Sky Rocket; Brian and I both love roller coasters so we were hoping to be able to ride at least one while GG watched the boys.  This was a great way to start off the day....but Jake did not agree.  Apparently, he was quite concerned with our well-being the entire time.  No pics of us on it, but here is the coaster:

Ok, that's out of the way....time to get these kiddos on some rides!! 

Garfield's Nightmare (I think they meant to call it Garfield's Big Yawn)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting ready to take off on the Jackrabbit!!

We arrived at the park around 10:30am and made it through the gates shortly after 11am; we left for the night right around 8! There was a midday meltdown for Liam (we insisted that we take a break for lunch around 1:15pm....he swore up and down he wasn't hungry at all and wanted to keep riding rides....then he proceeded to then down a basket of chicken fingers and fries.  Nope, not hungry at all!)  :-)  But other than that, the kids did really, really well considering the heat and how long we were there. 

Ride-wise, there was really a lot they were able to go on.  As you can probably tell from the pictures, we did go to Kiddieland for a bit but the majority of our time was spent in the regular part of the park.  Their absolute favorite ride of the day was the Pirate ship...I lost count, but I think we went on it at least 4 or 5 times.

To the surprise of no one, Liam was begging to ride all of the big rides that he was too little to go on, poor thing.  And to the surprise of everyone that day, Jake went on the Jackrabbit!! (Liam did, too, but we knew he would)  I was so proud of him, I really wasn't sure if he was going to do it!!  He said he liked it, but didn't want to go on it again that day (which was fine, I didn't feel like standing in line again anyway, despite Liam yanking on my arm trying to get me back in line)

We had such a great time, I can't wait to go back!!

Wordless Wednesday: Summer Nights

Baseball Boys

We are moving right along in baseball season!  Jake's team is really coming along, they looked great at last night's game....nearly everyone getting hits and making it onto bases and some great plays in the field!  Jake caught a ball and got a kid out for the 3rd out of that inning, then later in the game (while playing shortstop) he threw the ball to first, resulting in 2 more outs....needless to say, he was on top of the world last night! :-) 

Playing shortstop

I didn't get any video last night, but here is one from a game last week (they got him out at first, but it was a good hit anyway!)

Liam's team is progressing as well as you can expect a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds to do :)  To be honest, he doesn't love it.  By doesn't love it, I mean he begs every week to not go.  Once we're there, he's fine and seems to enjoy it, but it's a battle to get out of the house every week.  I don't know if it's that he really dislikes it or if he's just that much of a homebody that he doesn't want to leave.  A few weeks ago, he tried to bribe me into letting him skip the game by saying we could go to Target together instead.  He really knows how to work the system with me!! 

 

 

"This medal is great and all, but I'd really like to be at Target right now."

Video of Liam:

With the longer days, the boys sometimes head outside with Brian after dinner for some batting practice (why yes, that is an old door that they use as a ball stop):

 

Coach Daddy with some batting demonstrations

 

 

 

Liam's turn!

 

Have a great weekend!